Jami' at-Tirmidhi
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2213
حَدَّثَنَا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ عُمَرَ بْنِ هَيَّاجٍ الأَسَدِيُّ الْكُوفِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ الأَرْحَبِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا عُبَيْدَةُ بْنُ الأَسْوَدِ، عَنْ مُجَالِدٍ، عَنْ قَيْسِ بْنِ أَبِي حَازِمٍ، عَنِ الْمُسْتَوْرِدِ بْنِ شَدَّادٍ الْفِهْرِيِّ، رَوَى عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ " بُعِثْتُ فِي نَفَسِ السَّاعَةِ فَسَبَقْتُهَا كَمَا سَبَقَتْ هَذِهِ هَذِهِ " . لإِصْبُعَيْهِ السَّبَّابَةِ وَالْوُسْطَى . قَالَ أَبُو عِيسَى هَذَا حَدِيثٌ غَرِيبٌ مِنْ حَدِيثِ الْمُسْتَوْرِدِ بْنِ شَدَّادٍ لاَ نَعْرِفُهُ إِلاَّ مِنْ هَذَا الْوَجْهِ .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Muḥammad ibn ‘Umar ibn Hayyāj al-Asadī al-Kūfī narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Arḥabī narrated to us; ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Aswad narrated to us, from Mujālid, from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, from al-Mustawrid ibn Shaddād al-Fihrī, who reported from the Prophet, that he said: “I was sent at the very approach of the Hour, and I preceded it just as this precedes this”—and he indicated his index and middle fingers.
Abū ‘Īsā said: This is a gharīb hadith from the reports of al-Mustawrid ibn Shaddād. We know it only through this chain.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
“At the very approach of the Hour” renders fī nafas al-sā‘ah, an idiomatic expression of the Hour’s nearness; the Arabic then compares the Prophet’s being sent shortly before it to the closeness of the index and middle fingers.
بُعِثْتُ فِي نَفَسِ السَّاعَةِ فَسَبَقْتُهَا كَمَا سَبَقَتْ هَذِهِ هَذِهِ
The idiom فِي نَفَسِ السَّاعَةِ expresses proximity to the Hour; English witnesses render it as being sent in advance of the Hour.
Would a specialist reviewer prefer “as the Hour was drawing near” to “at the very approach of the Hour”?