Authored by: Hafiz Muhammad Anwar Zahid (ḥafiẓahullāh)
❖ The Reported Miracles
Hāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar in Fatḥ al-Bārī (Vol. 2, p. 344) references al-Wāqidī’s Sīrah, stating that:
“The Prophet ﷺ performed actions while still in the cradle.”
In Ibn Sabʿ’s Khaṣāʾiṣ, it is mentioned:
“Angels used to rock his cradle, and the first words that emerged from his blessed tongue were:
Al-ḥamdu lillāhi kabīran, wal-ḥamdu lillāhi kathīran.”
Furthermore, Ibn ʿĀʾid and others have reported in various Mawlid books that the Prophet ﷺ also said:
“Lā ilāha illā Allāh, yā jalāla rabbī al-rafīʿ.”
❖ Ḥadīth Authentication
◈ Regarding
✔ If the reference is to al-Wāqidī’s al-Maghāzī, then:
The printed edition from Calcutta (India), which is presently available for verification, contains no such report.
✔ Even if such a narration had been found:
Al-Wāqidī is a discredited narrator.
Many hadith scholars, including:
- Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal
- Imām al-Bukhārī
- Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn
- Ibn Ḥibbān
have declared al-Wāqidī to be a liar (kadhdhāb) or rejected (matrūk).
◈ Regarding
✔ These authors are from later generations (mutaʾakhkhirīn)
✔ They are known for lack of scrutiny in sourcing and carelessness in transmission
❌ None of these narrations are traceable to reliable classical sources from the early authorities of hadith or seerah.
✔ It is unknown where they obtained such statements from.
❖ Conclusion
❌ The narrations about:
- Angels rocking the cradle
- The Prophet ﷺ speaking phrases of praise or tawḥīd in infancy
- Any miraculous behavior in the cradle
are:
- Absent from early, reliable sources
- Untraceable to authentic chains
- Attributed through late and unreliable authors
- Based on fabricated or unverifiable content
Therefore, such reports cannot be accepted as authentic and hold no weight in Islamic scholarship based on hadith methodology.
