I read this hadeeth (prophetic narration) and I would like to know whether it is saheeh (authentic) or not.
“When Adam committed his sin, he said, ‘O Lord, I ask You by virtue of Muhammad to forgive me.’ Allah said, ‘O Adam, how do you know of Muhammad when I have not yet created him?’ He said, ‘O Lord, when You created me with Your own hand, and breathed into me the soul that You created, I raised my head and saw written on the pillars of the Throne, La ilaha ill-Allah Muhammad Rasool Allah [There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah]. Then I knew that You would not mention in conjunction with Your name any but the most beloved of Your creation to You.’ Allah said, ‘You have spoken the truth, O Adam. He is indeed the most beloved of My creation to Me. Pray to me by virtue of Him, for I have forgiven you. Were it not for Muhammad, I would not have created you.”
Praise be to Allah
This
hadeeth is mawdoo’ (fabricated). It was narrated by al-Hakim via ‘Abd-Allah
ibn Muslim al-Fahri (who said), Isma’eel ibn Muslimah narrated to us, ‘Abd
al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam told us, from his father, from his grandfather,
from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), that he said: The
Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “When
Adam committed his sin…” Then he quoted the hadeeth as the questioner quoted
it.
Al-Hakim
said: The isnad (chain of narrators) of this hadeeth is saheeh.
This is
what al-Hakim said! But a number of scholars rebuked him and denounced him
for classing this hadeeth as saheeh. They ruled that this hadeeth is false
and fabricated, and they pointed out that al-Hakim contradicted himself when
commenting on this hadeeth.
There
follow some of their comments:
Al-Thahabi
said, criticizing the words of al-Hakim quoted above:
Rather it
is mawdoo’ (fabricated), and ‘Abd al-Rahman is not reliable, and I do not
know who ‘Abd-Allah ibn Muslim al-Fahri is.
Al-Thahabi
also said in Meezan al-I’tidal: It is a false report.
Al-Hafiz
Ibn Hajar agreed with him in Lisan al-Meezan.
Al-Bayhaqi
said:
‘Abd
al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam is the only one who narrated it with this
isnad, and he is da’eef (weak). Ibn Katheer agreed with him in al-Bidayah
wa’l-Nihayyah, 2/323.
Al-Albani
said in al-Silsilah al-Da’eefah, 25: (it is) mawdoo’.
Al-Hakim
himself (may Allah forgive him) accused ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayd of being a
fabricator of hadeeth, so how could his hadeeth be saheeh?
Shaykh
al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in al-Qa’idah al-Jaleelah fi’l-Tawassul
wa’l-Waseelah (p. 69):
Al-Hakim’s
narration of this hadeeth is something for which he was denounced, and he
himself said in his book al-Madkhil ila Ma’rifat al-Saheeh ‘an al-Saqeem:
‘Abd
al-Rahmaan ibn Zayd ibn Aslam narrated fabricated hadeeths from his father,
and it is obvious to any competent hadeeth scholar that he is the one to
blame for fabricating hadeeths. I say: ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam is
da’eef (weak) because he made a lot of mistakes.
See
Silsilat al-Ahadeeth al-Da’eefah by al-Albani, 1/38-47.
