He replied...

He replied: O Lord, when You created me with Your divine hand and breathed Your soul into me, I raised my head and saw ‘lā ilāha illallāhu Muhammad-ur-rasūlullāh (there is no god but Allah, Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger)’ inscribed on each pillar of the Throne. I* discovered that with Your name, the name of only such a person can be associated who is Your most beloved of all the creatures. At this Allah said: O Adam, you have said it correctly. Of all the creatures I love him the most.

Now when you offered your prayer through his mediation, I forgave you. And if Muhammad were not there, I would not have created even you.[2] The tradition was transmitted through many chains and was related by Bayhaqī in Dalā’il-un-nubuwwah (5:489); Tabarānī in al-Mu‘jam-ul-awsat (7:259#6498) and al-Mu‘jam-us-saghīr (2:82-3) with another chain containing sub-narrators unknown to Haythamī as he stated it in Majma‘-uz-zawā’id (8:253); Ibn ‘Asākir in Tahdhīb tārīkh Dimashq al-kabīr generally known as Tārīkh/Tahdhīb Ibn ‘Asākir (2:359-60); Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wan-nihāyah (1:131; 2:291-2); and Ibn Hajar Haythamī in al-Jawhar-ul-muazzam (p.61);.

This tradition is declared sahīh (sound) by Imam Hākim, though he acknowledges ‘Abd-ur-Rahmān bin Zayd bin Aslam, one of its sub-narrators, as weak. However, when he mentions it he says, “Its chain is sound, and it is the first hadith of ‘Abd-ur-Rahmān bin Zayd bin Aslam which I mention in this book.” Imam Bulqīnī also declares this tradition sound in his Fatāwā.

Subkī confirms Hākim’s authentication in Shifā’-us-siqām fī ziyārat khayr-il-anam (pp.120-1) although Ibn Taymiyyah’s rejection and criticism was known to him and he rejects it. Similarly a large number of hadith-experts have related in their books the event of Adam’s prayer and his reliance on the Holy Prophet*(Peac Be Up Him and His Household)* as a form of intermediation.

It may be noted that there is no inconsistency or contradiction between the words cited earlier and the words contained in these books because these words are the incremental part of the same prayer. This proves the fact that prayer through the mediation of the Holy Prophet*(Peac Be Up Him and His Household)* is, first of all, the practice of Adam (عليه السلام), and this is undeniably the holiest means for the acceptance of prayer.