Musnad Ahmad 16477

Translation

✧ When the Messenger of God ﷺ decided to strike the bell to gather people for prayer, though he disliked it because it resembled the Christians, a visitor came to me at night while I was sleeping: a man wearing two green garments, carrying a bell in his hand. I said to him: O servant of God, will you sell the bell? He said: What will you do with it? I said: We will call to prayer with it. He said: Shall I not guide you to something better than that? I said: Yes. He said: Say: God is greatest, God is greatest, God is greatest, God is greatest; I bear witness that there is no god but God, I bear witness that there is no god but God; I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God, I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God; come to prayer, come to prayer; come to success, come to success; God is greatest, God is greatest; there is no god but God. Then he stepped back a short distance and said: Then you say when you stand for prayer: God is greatest, God is greatest; I bear witness that there is no god but God; I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God; come to prayer; come to success; prayer has begun, prayer has begun; God is greatest, God is greatest; there is no god but God. When morning came, I went to the Messenger of God ﷺ and told him what I had seen. He said: This is a true vision, God willing. Then he ordered the call to prayer, and Bilal, the freedman of Abu Bakr, called the adhan with that, and called the Messenger of God ﷺ to prayer. One morning he came to call him for Fajr, and it was said to him: The Messenger of God ﷺ is sleeping. So Bilal cried out at the top of his voice: Prayer is better than sleep. Sa'id b. al-Musayyib said: This phrase was incorporated into the adhan for Fajr prayer.

Grades by grader

What scholars said about it

In their own words, as Hadith Unlocked records them. They are shown, not summarised into a grade.

• Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī

  هذا خبر موصول

  in مسند أحمد, p. 16671
• Ishbīlī

  هو خبر صحيح

  in مسند أحمد, p. 16671
• محفوظ بن عمر القطفتي

  هو خبر متواتر الطرق

  in مسند أحمد, p. 16671
• Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī

  هذه أمثل الروايات في قصة عبد الله بن زيد

  in مسند أحمد, p. 16671

Same hadith, other wordings

• Bulughul Maram 178{ طَافَ بِي -وَأَنَا نَائِمٌ- رَجُلٌ فَقَالَ: تَقُولُ: "اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرَ اَللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ, فَذَكَرَ اَلْآذَانَ - بِتَرْبِيع اَلتَّكْبِيرِ بِغَيْرِ تَرْجِيعٍ, وَالْإِقَامَةَ فُرَادَى, إِلَّا قَدْ قَامَتِ اَلصَّلَاةُ - قَالَ: فَلَمَّا أَصْب
• Bulughul Maram 178وَزَادَ أَحْمَدُ فِي آخِرِهِ قِصَّةَ قَوْلِ بِلَالٍ فِي آذَانِ اَلْفَجْرِ: { اَلصَّلَاةُ خَيْرٌ مِنَ اَلنَّوْمِ }.

Other narrations of this report

Sunan Ibn Majah 706

Narrators

1. 1
   ʿAbdullāh b. Zayd b. ʿAbd Rabbih al-ʿAqabī

   a well-known Companiond. 32 AH, al-Ḥākim said: the correct view is that he was killed at Uḥud, al-Bukhārī listed him in the section of those who died between 60 AH and 70 AH
   عَبْدُ اللهِ بْنُ زَيْدِ بْنِ عَبْدِ رَبِّهِ الْعَقَبِيُّصحابي مشهور
   عن
2. 2
   Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib

   One of the reliable (athbāt), eminent jurist scholarsd. 87 AH, or 93 AH, or 94 AH, or 95 AH, or 100 AH, Ibn Maʿīn and Ibn al-Madīnī said: 105 AH
   سَعِيدِ بْنِ الْمُسَيِّبِأحد العلماء الأثبات الفقهاء الكبار
   عن
3. 3
   al-Zuhrī

   The jurist and memorizer (ḥāfiẓ), whose eminence, precision and reliability are agreed upond. Ḍamrah b. Rabīʿah and others said: 123 AH. The nephew of al-Zuhrī and others said: 124 AH. Ibn Yūnus and others said: 125 AH
   مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ مُسْلِمٍ الزُّهْرِيُّالفقيه الحافظ ، متفق على جلالته وإتقانه وثبته
   ذكر
4. 4
   Muḥammad b. Isḥāq

   Truthful (ṣadūq), he practiced concealment (yudallis), and was accused of Shiʿism (tashayyuʿ) and of belief in free will (qadar)d. ʿAmr b. ʿAlī said, and Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. ʿArafah: 150 AH, Muḥammad b. Saʿd said elsewhere: al-Haytham b. ʿAdī said: 151 AH, he said: and his son said: 150 AH. Aḥmad b. Khālid al-Wahbī said: 151 AH, Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn said, and ʿAlī Ibn al-Madīnī, and Zakariyyā b. Yaḥyā al-Sājī: 152 AH, khalīfah b. Khayyāṭ said: 153 AH, 152 AH
   ابْنِ إِسْحَاقَصدوق يدلس ، ورمي بالتشيع والقدر
   عن
5. 5
   Ibrāhīm b. Saʿd Abū Isḥāq al-Zuhrī

   Trustworthy (thiqah) and an authority (ḥujjah); he was spoken about without any valid ground for criticism.d. 182 AH, or 183 AH, or 184 AH, or 185 AH
   أَبِيثقة حجة ، تُكُلِّم فيه بلا قادح
   أخبرنا
6. 6
   Yaʿqūb

   Trustworthy (thiqah), excellent (fāḍil).d. 208 AH
   يَعْقُوبُثقة فاضل .
   حدثنا
7. 7
   Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal

   Trustworthy (thiqah), a memorizer (ḥāfiẓ), a jurist (faqīh), an authority (ḥujjah).d. 241 AH, Abū Umayyah Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Ṭarsūsī said: 242 AH, and no one followed him in his view
   أحمد بن حنبلثقة حافظ فقيه حجة

Who each narrator was and how reliable, from hdith.com

Latin names and English verdicts with a dotted underline are machine translations, not reviewed.