Al-Nasa’i also narrated it in the “Book of Exegesis” of his al-Sunan al-Kubra, as cited in Ibn Kathir’s Exegesis (4/573), and al-Hafiz graded it good in al-Fath (8/206).

Benefit: The hadith indicates that it is permissible to point at the moon with one’s hand, contrary to what has been reported from some shaykhs regarding the dislikedness of doing so. The hadith refutes that view.

373 — “My foster mother was from Banu Sa‘d ibn Bakr. I went out with one of her sons to tend some young sheep of ours, and we had not taken any provisions with us. I said, ‘My brother, go and bring us some food from our mother.’ So my brother went off, while I remained with the sheep. Then two white birds, like two eagles, came toward me. One said to the other, ‘Is this him?’ The other replied, ‘Yes.’ They hastened toward me, seized me, laid me on my back, and split open my stomach. Then they took out my heart and split it open, extracting from it two black clots. One said to the other, ‘Bring me snow-water,’ and he washed my abdomen with it. Then he said, ‘Bring me hail-water,’ and he washed my heart with it. Then he said, ‘Bring me tranquillity,’ and he sprinkled it into my heart. Then one said to his companion, ‘Stitch it up,’ so he stitched it and sealed it with the Seal of Prophethood. Then one said to the other, ‘Place him in one pan of the scale, and place a thousand of his community in the other pan.’ Allah’s Messenger said: ‘Then I looked at the thousand above me, fearing that some of them might fall upon me.’ He said, ‘Were his entire community weighed against him, he would outweigh them.’ Then they departed and left me.” Allah’s Messenger said: “I was intensely frightened, so I went to my mother and told her what I had experienced. She feared that something had affected me, and said, ‘May Allah protect you,’ she said,