What is the authenticity of the hadith: “Blessed, blessed, and blessed is the one who believes in Me and has not seen Me”?
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The questioner : May Allah reward you with good. Is the hadith Sahih Ibn Hibban 64:137 authentic? We ask for clarification.
The Shaykh : It is authentic in the wording: As for “has not seen Me,” that is a distortion that is not permissible to attribute to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). It is an authentic hadith, without doubt. It points to what we mentioned earlier: blessed are those who saw him, but blessed are also those who came after him (peace be upon him) and did not see him, and this is repeated.
What is the secret here? There are two hadiths that we should mention, along with clarifying which one is authentic. The first is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, in a story that is also long, and I am compelled to shorten it and to narrate only what relates to this question. He said to his Companions one day: Then the Messenger entered his chamber. The point here is that the people, meaning his Companions, began to speculate about who these blessed ones were, the ones with white faces who enter Paradise without reckoning or punishment. Those who emigrated in the cause of Allah and left their homeland for the Messenger (peace be upon him). And here is the point: This is the first hadith.
The second hadith, and this is in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. The second hadith is among the hadiths mentioned in the books of terminology in the chapter on *wujadah*. In the science of terminology, there is a type of narration called *wujadah*, meaning that the narrator says, “I found in the book of so-and-so, he said: So-and-so narrated to me,” and so on. He did not hear the hadith from the author of the book, but rather read the hadith in that book. This is called narration by *wujadah*.
The scholars of hadith debated whether this type of narration is valid. The opinion that settled among them is that it is valid. Our current acceptance, and what we accept, of the narrations of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is by *wujadah*, because when I say, “Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated it,” what reached me from al-Bukhari and Muslim is that I read it in their books, and between me and them is more than a thousand years. I read it in their books, so this is *wujadah*. They argued for this based on sound reasoning, which is what I mentioned to you earlier. Some of them argued using a hadith, which is the point, but it contains weakness, and it is: This is *wujadah*. This *wujadah* means that these people believed in the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), so their faith was in the unseen, not by sight, as his Companions saw him and heard from him directly.
So the Messenger (peace be upon him) says in this hadith, if it is authentic, there is no wonder that you believe in Me, while you hear my words and see my miracles, and so on. But the wonder is in those who believe in what they find in paper and in manuscripts.
This does not mean that they, meaning those who believed after the Companions until the end of time, are better than the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). No, because you heard the hadith about the generations, and there is no need to repeat it. Rather, the intent of this hadith is to affirm that blessed are those who believed in him (peace be upon him) and did not see him. *Tuba* is a tree in Paradise, as came in the authentic hadith: a tree in Paradise. First, this word appeared in the Noble Qur’an: Its interpretation came in the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): So the Messenger (peace be upon him) says, “Blessed are these believers who believed in him (peace and blessings be upon him) and did not see him.” And He, Blessed and Exalted is He, said in the beginning of Surat al-Baqarah: [Al-Baqarah 2:2] Who are they? [Al-Baqarah 2:3] And the unseen in the language of the Arabs is everything that is hidden from your senses and your mind, so you must believe in it. Without doubt, the one who believes in the unseen, all of the unseen, and foremost among that is the one who brought the unseen from the Lord of the Worlds, and He is his noble Messenger, without doubt this faith is something that brings comfort to its owner, and it is said of him by his Prophet: Blessed is he, blessed is he.
Blessed, blessed, and blessed is the one who believes in Me and has not seen Me
طوبى ثم طوبى ثم طوبى لمن آمن بي ولم يرانيThe Shaykh : It is authentic in the wording:
and has not seen Me
ثم لم يرنيWhat is the secret here? There are two hadiths that we should mention, along with clarifying which one is authentic. The first is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, in a story that is also long, and I am compelled to shorten it and to narrate only what relates to this question. He said to his Companions one day:
Seventy thousand from my Ummah will enter Paradise without reckoning or punishment, their faces like the moon on the night of the full moon.
يدخل الجنة من أمتي سبعون ألفا بغير حساب ولا عذاب وجوههم كالقمر ليلة البدرSome of them said, “Who are these except us, the emigrants?”
منهم من قال من يكون هؤلاء إلا نحن المهاجرينSome of them said, “No, they are the Helpers who supported the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in the time of hardship. Some of them said,
منهم من قال لا إنما هم الأنصار الذين نصروا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم في ساعة العسرة منهم من قالIt is not you, and it is not you, but rather these are your children who will come after you and believe in your Prophet and have not seen him. Blessed are they, blessed are they.
لا أنتم ولا أنتم إنما هؤلاء أولادكم الذين يأتون من بعدكم ويؤمنون بنبيكم ولم يروه فطوبى لهم طوبى لهمThe second hadith, and this is in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. The second hadith is among the hadiths mentioned in the books of terminology in the chapter on *wujadah*. In the science of terminology, there is a type of narration called *wujadah*, meaning that the narrator says, “I found in the book of so-and-so, he said: So-and-so narrated to me,” and so on. He did not hear the hadith from the author of the book, but rather read the hadith in that book. This is called narration by *wujadah*.
The scholars of hadith debated whether this type of narration is valid. The opinion that settled among them is that it is valid. Our current acceptance, and what we accept, of the narrations of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is by *wujadah*, because when I say, “Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated it,” what reached me from al-Bukhari and Muslim is that I read it in their books, and between me and them is more than a thousand years. I read it in their books, so this is *wujadah*. They argued for this based on sound reasoning, which is what I mentioned to you earlier. Some of them argued using a hadith, which is the point, but it contains weakness, and it is:
Do you know who is strongest in faith, or whose faith is strongest? They said, “We.” He said, “No, you. You heard from your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but the most amazing in faith among you are those who will come after you and find in the paper the Qur’an or the hadith.
أتدرون أيكم أشد إيمانا أو أقوى إيمانا قالوا نحن قال لا أنتم سمعتم من نبيكم صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم ولكن الأعجب منكم إيمانا هم الذين يأتون من بعدكم يجدون في الورق القرآن أو الحديثSo the Messenger (peace be upon him) says in this hadith, if it is authentic, there is no wonder that you believe in Me, while you hear my words and see my miracles, and so on. But the wonder is in those who believe in what they find in paper and in manuscripts.
This does not mean that they, meaning those who believed after the Companions until the end of time, are better than the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). No, because you heard the hadith about the generations, and there is no need to repeat it. Rather, the intent of this hadith is to affirm that blessed are those who believed in him (peace be upon him) and did not see him. *Tuba* is a tree in Paradise, as came in the authentic hadith: a tree in Paradise. First, this word appeared in the Noble Qur’an: