Reports on the mission of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), its universality and the descent of revelation

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) says: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Sayyidah Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her): I saw a light and I heard a voice, and I fear that I may be afflicted with madness. Sayyidah Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: Allah Almighty would not do that to you, O son of Sayyiduna Abdullah! Then Sayyidah Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) went to Waraqah bin Nawfal and mentioned this to him. Waraqah said: If he is telling the truth, then this is the same Namus (that is, the angel), like the Namus who came to Sayyiduna Musa (peace be upon him). If he is sent (that is, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)) while I am alive at that time, I will strongly support him and help him, and I will believe in him.
Imam Ahmad recorded it both muttasil (connected) and mursal, and al-Tabarani recorded something similar, adding the words: "I will assist him." Imam Ahmad's narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him) says: We said: O Messenger of Allah, how did you come to know that you are a prophet? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: I did not know it until I was told of it: two angels came to me while I was somewhere in the valley of Makkah. One of them said: Is it him? Then he said: Weigh him against one man. When I was weighed against one man, my side was heavier. He said: Weigh him against ten men. He weighed me against ten men, and my weight was more than theirs. Then he said: Weigh him against a hundred men. When they weighed me against a hundred men, my weight was more than theirs. Then he said: Weigh him against a thousand men. He weighed me against a thousand men, and my side was heavier. One of them said to the other: Even if you weigh him against his whole Ummah, he will outweigh them. Then one of the two said: Split open his belly! So he split open my belly, removed from it the portion of Satan and took out a clot of flesh, and threw it aside. Then one of them said to the other: Wash his belly as a vessel is washed, and wash his heart as a sheet is washed. Then he called for the Sakinah (tranquility), which was like a shining white thing, and it was placed into my heart. Then one of them said to the other: Stitch up his belly! So he stitched up my belly, and they placed the Seal between my shoulders. Then they went away from me, and I was witnessing all of this myself. Here Muhammad bin Ma'mar added these words in his narration: "They were about to fall upon me from the pan of the scale." (Allamah al-Haythami says:) I say: Sayyiduna Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him) has a hadith in the Sahih in the chapter on the Isra' (Night Journey), and it is other than this one.
Al-Bazzar recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Ja'far bin Abdullah bin Uthman bin Kabir, whom Abu Hatim al-Razi and Ibn Hibban declared thiqah (trustworthy), while al-Uqayli criticised him; the remaining narrators of this report are thiqat (trustworthy) and are narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) says: Once, in the presence of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the owners of camels and the owners of goats boasted against one another. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When Sayyiduna Musa (peace be upon him) was sent, he used to herd the goats of his family, and when I was sent, I used to herd the goats of my family at a place called Jiyad."
Imam Ahmad and al-Bazzar recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, al-Hajjaj bin Artah, and he is a mudallis.

Sayyiduna Waraqah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I said: O Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the angel who came to you, how did he come to you? He meant Sayyiduna Jibril (peace be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "He came to me from the sky; his two wings were made of pearls, and the underside of his feet was green."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat from his teacher al-Miqdam bin Dawud, and he is da'if (weak).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) says: I asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); I said: O Messenger of Allah, do you feel the revelation? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: Yes! I hear a sound like the clanging of a chain, and then, when that sound comes, I fall silent; and whenever revelation comes down to me, it seems to me as though my soul is about to be taken.
Imam Ahmad and al-Tabarani recorded it, and its chain is hasan (good).

Sayyidah Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: I said: O Messenger of Allah, O son of my paternal uncle, are you able to tell me about the angel who comes to you when he comes to you? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: O Khadijah, very well. Sayyidah Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: One day, when Sayyiduna Jibril (peace be upon him) came to him, I was with him at that time. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: O Khadijah, this companion of mine has come to me. I said to him: Get up and come and sit on my right thigh. Then I asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Do you see him? He said: Yes! I said: Now move and sit on my left thigh. He sat, and I asked him: Do you see him? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Yes! I said to him: Move and sit in my lap. He sat, and I asked him: Do you see him? He said: Yes! Sayyidah Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: I uncovered my arms and took off my head-covering and asked: Do you see him now? He said: No! So I said: By Allah, this is an honourable angel; by Allah, this is not a devil. Sayyidah Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: I spoke to Waraqah bin Nawfal about what Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) had told me, and Waraqah said: O Khadijah, what you say is true.
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, and its chain is hasan (good).

Sayyiduna al-Harith bin Hisham (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): How does (the revelation) come to you? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Sometimes the revelation comes to me like the sound of a bell; sometimes the angel comes to me in the form of a man and speaks with me, and that form is easier for me. When this state ends, I have already retained what was said.
Al-Tabarani recorded it with two chains, and the narrators of one of them are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyidah Aishah Siddiqah (may Allah be pleased with her) says: Sometimes revelation would come down to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he (peace and blessings be upon him) was riding his mount, and the neck of that (mount) would be close to breaking.
Imam Ahmad recorded it, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I used to write down the revelation for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). When revelation came down upon him, a severe trembling would overtake him and he would sweat profusely, the sweat being like pearls. Then, when this state passed from him, I would take a piece of wood or a fragment and write the revelation on it while he dictated it. Once, during such a state (his thigh was on my leg), my leg was about to break from the weight of the Qur'an, until I thought that I would never be able to walk on this leg again. When this state ended, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Read it! I read it, and whatever mistake there was in it, he would have it corrected. Then I would take it out to the people.
Al-Tabarani recorded it with two chains; the narrators of one of them are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Qays bin Makhramah (may Allah be pleased with him) says: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was born in the Year of the Elephant, and between the War of Fijar and the Year of the Elephant there was a gap of twenty years. The narrator says: People called it the War of Fijar because they had transgressed and declared lawful things that they used to hold unlawful. Between the War of Fijar and the building of the Ka'bah there was an interval of fifteen years, and between the building of the Ka'bah and the commissioning of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) there was a gap of five years; so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was commissioned at the age of forty. (Allamah al-Haythami says:) I say: Imam al-Tirmidhi has recorded from it only the part about his (peace and blessings be upon him) birth.
Al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Ja'far bin Mihran al-Sabbak, who has been declared trustworthy and has also been criticised; the remaining narrators of this report are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I have been sent only as a mercy given as a gift."
Al-Bazzar recorded it, and al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Saghir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; al-Bazzar's narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) says: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say: Jibril comes to me in the form of Dihyah al-Kalbi. Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) says: Sayyiduna Dihyah (may Allah be pleased with him) was a handsome, fair-skinned man.
Al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Ufayr bin Ma'dan, and he is da'if (weak).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) says: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) requested Sayyiduna Jibril (peace be upon him) that he wished to see him in his true form. He said: Supplicate to your Lord. So he supplicated to his Lord, and a blackness began to appear from the direction of the east, and it began to rise and spread. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw him, he fell unconscious. Sayyiduna Jibril (peace be upon him) came to him, covered him (peace and blessings be upon him), and began wiping the saliva from the corners of his mouth.
Imam Ahmad and al-Tabarani recorded it, and the narrators of both are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyidah Aishah Siddiqah (may Allah be pleased with her) reports this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "I saw Jibril descending; he had filled the space between the sky and the earth, and upon him were garments of sundus (fine silk) from which pearls and rubies were hanging."
Imam Ahmad recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Ata' bin al-Sa'ib, who had become confused (ikhtilat) in his memory.