Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah

Sayyiduna Utbah bin Abd Salma, may Allah be pleased with him, who was among the Companions of the Messenger, narrated to us that a man said to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him: O Messenger of Allah! How did the beginning of your Prophethood occur? The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: My wet nurse was from the tribe of Banu Sa’d bin Bakr. I and her son went out to graze sheep and goats, and we did not take any provisions with us. I said: My brother! Go and bring some food from your mother. So my brother went, and I stayed with the goats. (I saw that) two white birds, like vultures, approached. One said to the other: Is this the man? The other said: Yes. Then they both rushed towards me, seized me, and laid me down on my back. They split open my belly, took out my heart, and split it open, extracting two black clots of thick blood from it. Then one said to the other: Bring water with ice. So he washed my belly with that water, then said: Bring water with hail. With that, he washed my heart, and then said: Bring tranquility. He sprinkled it (calmness and peace) into my heart. Then one said to the other: Stitch him up. So he stitched me up and sealed it with the Seal of Prophethood. Then one said to the other: Place him (Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him) on one side of the scale and a thousand people from his Ummah on the other side. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: (When they lifted the scale to weigh,) I saw that those thousand people were raised so high (because they were lighter than me) that I feared they might fall upon me. Then he said: If he is weighed against his entire Ummah, he (Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him) will outweigh them. Then they left me and went away. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: At that time, I became very frightened, went to my wet nurse, and told her the whole incident. She feared that perhaps my mind had been affected. She said: I seek Allah’s protection for you. Then she put a saddle on the camel, made me sit on it, mounted behind me, and took me to my mother (Aminah). She said to my mother: I have fulfilled my trust and responsibility, and then narrated the whole incident that had happened to me. But (this incident) did not alarm my mother; rather, she said: When this child (was born from my womb), I saw a light by which the palaces of Syria were illuminated.

Sayyiduna Abu Dharr Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I asked, "O Messenger of Allah! When you were adorned with the crown of Prophethood, how did you come to know that you are a Prophet?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: "Abu Dharr! Two angels came to me while I was in a valley of Makkah at that time. One of them was on the earth and the other was between the earth and the sky. One said to the other: (The person to whom we have been sent) Is this the one? The other replied: Yes. He said: Weigh him against one man. I was weighed, but I was heavier. He said: Weigh him against ten men. I was weighed, but I was still heavier than them. He said: Weigh him against a hundred people. I was weighed, but my weight was still more. He said: Weigh him against a thousand people. I was weighed, but (even this time) I was heavier, and their side of the scale was lifted so high that I feared it might fall upon me due to the lightness of their side. (Finally) one said to the other: If you weigh him against his entire Ummah, he will still prove heavier than all of them."