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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Explanation of the weakness of the hadith, "I am the first of the prophets in creation and the last of them in resurrection, and I was sent in the last of times so that the nations would not look upon the virtues of my Ummah," in terms of its chain of narration

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The Shaykh : ... "I am the first of the prophets in creation and the last of them in resurrection, and I was sent in the last of times so that the nations would not look upon the virtues of my Ummah" or as he said?
The first line of the hadith,
I am the first of the prophets in creation and the last of them in resurrection أنا أول الأنبياء في الخلق وآخرهم في البعث
is a well-known hadith. It is from the hadiths in al-Jami' al-Saghir, and it is well known that it is a hadith with a weak chain of narration that cannot serve as proof. It is not permissible to attribute it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) because it is not established. This is from the perspective of its chain of narration. From the perspective of its text, it is inconceivable that the Messenger (peace be upon him) would say that he is the first of the prophets in creation. The first of the prophets, as we know, is Adam (peace be upon him), who is the absolute father of mankind. How can it be conceived that his great-grandson, after hundreds of ancestors, Muhammad ibn 'Abdullah, was created before his first ancestor, Adam (peace be upon them all)? Some people may interpret this hadith by saying that the intended meaning of "creation" is spiritual creation. We say that with this meaning, the hadith is freed from apparent absurdity. However, this also requires proof that the Messenger (peace be upon him) was created in the spiritual sense before all the prophets. This is a matter of the unseen that requires proof, and there is nothing to indicate this except his (peace be upon him) established saying,
I was a prophet, and Adam was between the spirit and the body كنت نبيا وآدم بين الروح والجسد
Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 37:19
and in a narration,
I was written as a prophetكتبت نبيا
This is a correct meaning, namely that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) wrote the prophethood of the Messenger (peace be upon him) before the completion of the creation of Adam (peace be upon him).
I was a prophet, and Adam was between the spirit and the body, this كنت نبيا وآدم بين الروح والجسد هذا
Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 37:19
This is the wording of the authentic hadith narrated in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad and other well-known books of the Sunnah. The hadith became famous among the Sufis with the wording, "I was a prophet, and Adam was not, nor water, nor clay". The hadith with this wording is among the fabricated hadiths, and its fabrication is well known to the scholars. If
I was a prophet كنت نبيا
and in the other wording, and in the other wording,
I was written as a prophet, and Adam was between the spirit and the body كتبت نبيا وآم بين الروح والجسد
then this is correct. As for the claim that he was the first of the prophets in creation and the last of them in resurrection, this is a weak hadith. As for the rest of the hadith, "and I was sent in the last of times so that the nations would not look upon the virtues of my Ummah", I do not know this as a hadith, and I think it is an explanation by some of the readers or commentators on the weak hadith.
Source alathar.net

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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