Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 459

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) relates: When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) returned from the Battle of Tabuk and set out for Umrah, and he came down from the mountain pass of "Usfan", he ordered his Companions to rest leaning against the pass until "I come back to you." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) went and stopped at the grave of his mother. He (peace and blessings be upon him) engaged in long intimate supplication with his Lord, then he began to weep and wept intensely, so much so that, because of his weeping, the other people also began to weep. The people said: "Why has the Prophet of Allah wept at this place? The reason must be that something has occurred concerning his Ummah that he cannot bear." When the people also began weeping, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up and came back to them, and asked: "Why are you weeping?" They said: "O Prophet of Allah, we are weeping because of your weeping. We said: Perhaps something new has occurred concerning your Ummah which you cannot bear (or seeing which you could not control yourself)." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No (that is, it is not so), though some of it has happened. But I came to this grave and supplicated to Allah Almighty to permit me to intercede for her on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah Almighty refused to permit me. So I felt mercy for this woman, because she is my mother, and I began to weep. Then Jibril came to me and said (that is, he recited these verses): 'And Ibrahim's seeking forgiveness for his father was only because of a promise he had made to him; but when it became clear to him (Ibrahim) that he was an enemy of Allah, he (Ibrahim) dissociated himself from him.'" (Sayyiduna Jibril (peace be upon him) said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):) "So you (peace and blessings be upon him) also dissociate yourself from your mother just as Sayyiduna Ibrahim (peace be upon him) dissociated himself from his father." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says: "So I felt mercy for her, because she is my mother." (He (peace and blessings be upon him) also said:) "I supplicated to my Lord to lift four things from my Ummah. He lifted two things from them and refused to lift two things from them. I supplicated to my Lord to lift from them being stoned from the sky and being drowned (that is, swallowed up) in the earth, (and I supplicated) that Allah Almighty not divide them into different factions and not make them taste destruction at one another's hands. Allah Almighty lifted from them being stoned from the sky and being swallowed up in the earth, and Allah Almighty refused to lift two things from them: killing and turmoil (harj)." (The narrator relates:) The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) turned aside from the common route to go to his mother's grave, because his mother was buried at such-and-such a place, and this was at the place of "Usfan".
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir. Its chain mentions that Abu al-Darda' and Abd al-Ghaffar bin al-Munib narrated it from Ishaq bin Abdullah, from his father, from Ikrimah; but apart from Ikrimah I do not know any of the other narrators, nor have I seen anyone who mentions them.