Mishkat al-Masabih 2116

Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.

Abu Said al-Khudri reported that Usayd ibn Hudayr said: One night, while I was reciting Surat al-Baqarah and my horse was tethered beside me, the horse began to move about, so I stopped reciting and it became still. I recited again and it moved, so I stopped and it became still. Then I recited again and it moved. I went away, for my son Yahya was nearby and I feared it might strike him. When I had moved him farther away, I raised my head toward the sky and saw something like a canopy containing what looked like lamps. In the morning I told the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he said: ‘Recite, Ibn Hudayr! Recite, Ibn Hudayr!’ I said: ‘Messenger of Allah, I feared it would trample Yahya, who was near it, so I went to him. Then I raised my head to the sky and saw something like a canopy containing what looked like lamps. It departed until I could no longer see it.’ He said: ‘Do you know what that was?’ I said: ‘No.’ He said: ‘Those were the angels who drew near in response to your voice. Had you continued reciting, people would have seen them in the morning, and they would not have hidden from them.’ It is agreed upon; the wording is al-Bukhari’s. In Muslim’s version, ‘It ascended into the air’ occurs instead of ‘It departed,’ in the first-person form.