Al-Matalib al-'Aliyah 1116 — Laylat al-Qadr

My father related: I narrated this hadith to Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), and he said: What is there in that to surprise you? It was the practice of Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) that when he called the senior elders among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he would invite me along with them, and he would say: Remain silent until these people speak. Then one day, or one night, he called us and said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said about the Night of Decree what you already know: "Seek it in the odd nights of the last ten." So which odd night is it? A man, giving his own opinion, said that it is the ninth, the seventh, the fifth or the third night. Then Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said to me: O Ibn Abbas, why do you not speak? I said: O Commander of the Believers, if you wish, I will speak. He said: I called you only so that you would speak. I said that I would present my own opinion. He said: It is your opinion that I want to know. I said: I have seen in the speech of Allah Almighty that He has mentioned the number seven frequently; thus He created seven heavens and seven earths, until in His speech He also said that the earth brought forth seven kinds of things. Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I have understood the rest of what you said, but what do you mean by saying that the earth brought forth seven things? I said that Allah Almighty says: "Then We split the earth, cleaving it well, and caused grain to grow therein, and grapes and fodder, and olives and date palms, and dense gardens, and fruit and pasture, as provision for you" [Surah Abasa: 26-32]. So 'hada'iq' means every garden whose trees are dense, and 'abb' is the vegetation that the earth brings forth which people do not eat. Hearing this, Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said (to the Companions): Are you unable even to say the like of what this youth has said, the hair of whose head has not yet even evened out? Then he said to me: I had forbidden you from speaking in front of these elders, but now, whenever I call you, do speak in front of them.
I (Ibn Hajar) say: Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated from it only the marfu' hadith of Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him).