regarding the authenticity and meaning 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.”

The Shaykh :, or as he said, the first part of the hadith is . This is a well-known hadith, found in the hadiths of “Al-Jami’ al-Saghir”. It is well known that it is a hadith with a weak chain of narration; it does not serve as proof, and it is not permissible to attribute it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) because it is not established. This is regarding its chain of narration. As for its text, it is not conceivable that the Messenger (peace be upon him) would say that he is the first of the prophets in creation. As we know, the first of the prophets is Adam (peace be upon him), who is the father of all 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 have interpreted this hadith by saying that the intended meaning of “creation” is spiritual creation. We say that with this meaning, the hadith is free from obvious absurdity. However, this also requires proof that the Messenger (peace be upon him) was created in a 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 saying (peace be upon him), which is established from him: , and in another narration: . 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).
. 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: , “Not Adam, nor water, nor clay.” The hadith with this wording is one of the fabricated hadiths, and its fabrication is well known among the scholars. Therefore, , and in the other wording: , 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, which is: , I do not know this as a hadith, and I think it is an explanation by some of the commentators or annotators on the weak hadith.