Question:


Assalamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullah,
Sheikh Gibril,
I hope you and your family are in ‘aafiya.

I wanted to ask you Sheikh what the authenticity of the following hadith:

The Holy Prophet SallAllaho Alaihi wa Sallam once asked Hadrat Jibrael Alaihis Salam,

“O Jibrael! How old are you?”
Jibrael al-Ameen Alaihis Salam replied,
“O Rasoolullah SallAllaho Alaihi wa Sallam, I don’t know how old I am, but I do know that in the Fourth Covering (حجاب), I saw a star shine once every 70,000 years, and I saw this 72,000 times.”

The Holy Prophet SallAllaho Alaihi wa Sallam then said,

وعزة ربي انا ذلك الكوكب

“By the honour of Allah SubHanuhu wa Ta’ala! I was that star.” [Tafseer Rooh al-Bayaan, Vol. 1, Page 974]

Wassalaam

Answer:
Alaykum as-Salam,

This narration is found without chain or sourcing in Shaykh Isma`il Haqqi’s Sufi Tafsir Ruh al-Bayan for Surat al-Tawba verse 9:128, and in the Sira Halabiyya (1351H Azhariyya edition with Dahlan Sira in the margin 1:36) where the author says he saw it in a book whose author he does not recall, entitled al-Tashrifaat fil-Khasa’is wal-Mu`jizaat. The Moroccan hadith scholar Shaykh `Abd Allah al-Ghumari in his Murshid al-Haa’ir declares it a forgery.

However, the veracity of its meaning is supported by several Qur’anic verses and hadiths, such as:

The Verse of Light (24:35) where the two earliest Tafsirs — among others — concur that the “Shimmering Star” (kawkabun durriyyun) refers to the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) cf. Tafsirs of Muqatil and al-Tabari.

{and I am the first of those who surrender} (6:163). Ruzbahan Baqli (d. 606/1210) said of this verse in his Tafsir: “It is an indication of the primacy (taqaddum) of his spirit and his substance over everything else and everyone else in existence in the Divine Presence.”

Al-Qurtubi said in his Tafsir: “{and I am the first of those who surrender} because there is no one who is first other than Muhammad—upon him blessings and peace. If someone asks: Are not Ibrahim and the Prophets before him? We reply that he comes first before them because of his primacy in creation over them.”

“I was the first of the Prophets to be created and the last one to be sent.” Narrated from Abu Hurayra by Tammam al-Razi in his Fawa’id (4:207 §1399); al-Tabarani in Musnad al-Shamiyyin (4:34-35 §2662); and Abu Nu`aym in Dala’il al-Nubuwwa (p. 42 §3); also narrated mursal from Qatada by al-Tabari in his Tafsir (sub 33:7) and with the wording “the first of the people” by Ibn Sa`d in his Tabaqat (1:124).

{And when We exacted a covenant from the Prophets, and from you (O Muhammad) and from Nuh and Ibrahim and Musa and `Isa son of Maryam. We took from them a solemn covenant} (33:7). Al-Qurtubi said: “Qatada said that the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) said: ‘I was the first of the Prophets to be created and the last one to be sent;’ and this is the reason he was mentioned first in this verse before Nuh and others.”

The Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) himself gave the above explanation by pronouncing the above hadith after reciting verse 33:7. Then he added: “Thus the sequence began with me ahead of them” (Ibn Abi Hatim, Tafsir 10:3116, sub Q 33:7)

And Allah knows best.

Hajj Gibril Haddad