al-Bukhari (d. 256) · Sahih al-Bukhari (Sultaniyya) · Vol. 9, p. 29 · Transmitted report

"He went out many times to cast himself from the mountain tops"

Arabic text

حُزْنًا غَدَا مِنْهُ مِرَارًا كَيْ يَتَرَدَّى مِنْ رُؤُوسِ شَوَاهِقِ الْجِبَالِ

Full page

٦٩٨٢ - حدثنا يحيى بن بكير، حدثنا الليث، عن عقيل، عن ابن شهاب، وحدثني عبد الله بن محمد، حدثنا عبد الرزاق، حدثنا معمر، قال الزهري: فأخبرني عروة، عن عائشة ﵂ أنها قالت: «أول ما بدئ به رسول الله ﷺ من الوحي الرؤيا الصادقة في النوم، فكان لا يرى رؤيا إلا جاءت مثل فلق الصبح، فكان يأتي حراء فيتحنث فيه، وهو التعبد، الليالي ذوات العدد، ويتزود لذلك، ثم يرجع إلى خديجة فتزوده لمثلها، حتى فجئه الحق وهو في غار حراء، فجاءه الملك فيه، فقال: اقرأ، فقال له النبي ﷺ: فقلت: ما أنا بقارئ، فأخذني فغطني حتى بلغ مني الجهد، ثم أرسلني فقال: اقرأ، فقلت: ما أنا بقارئ، فأخذني فغطني الثانية حتى بلغ مني الجهد، ثم أرسلني فقال: اقرأ، فقلت: ما أنا بقارئ، فأخذني فغطني الثالثة حتى بلغ مني الجهد، ثم أرسلني فقال: ﴿اقرأ باسم ربك الذي خلق﴾ حتى بلغ ﴿ما لم يعلم﴾ فرجع بها ترجف بوادره، حتى دخل على خديجة، فقال: زملوني زملوني. فزملوه حتى ذهب عنه الروع، فقال: يا خديجة، ما لي. وأخبرها الخبر، وقال: قد خشيت على نفسي. فقالت له: كلا، أبشر، فوالله لا يخزيك الله أبدا، إنك لتصل الرحم، وتصدق الحديث، وتحمل الكل، وتقري الضيف، وتعين على نوائب الحق. ثم انطلقت به خديجة حتى أتت به ورقة بن نوفل بن أسد بن عبد العزى بن قصي، وهو ابن عم خديجة أخو أبيها، وكان امرأ تنصر في الجاهلية، وكان يكتب الكتاب العربي، فيكتب بالعربية من الإنجيل ما شاء الله أن يكتب، وكان شيخا كبيرا قد عمي، فقالت له خديجة: أي ابن عم، اسمع من ابن أخيك، فقال ورقة: ابن أخي ماذا ترى؟ فأخبره النبي ﷺ ما رأى، فقال ورقة: هذا الناموس الذي أنزل على موسى، يا ليتني فيها جذعا، أكون حيا حين يخرجك قومك. فقال رسول الله ﷺ: أومخرجي هم فقال ورقة: نعم، لم يأت رجل قط بما جئت به إلا عودي، وإن يدركني يومك أنصرك نصرا مؤزرا، ثم لم ينشب ورقة أن توفي، وفتر الوحي فترة حتى حزن النبي صلى الله ⦗٣٠⦘ عليه وسلم، فيما بلغنا، حزنا غدا منه مرارا كي يتردى من رؤوس شواهق الجبال، فكلما أوفى بذروة جبل لكي يلقي منه نفسه تبدى له جبريل، فقال: يا محمد، إنك رسول الله حقا. فيسكن لذلك جأشه، وتقر نفسه، فيرجع، فإذا طالت عليه فترة الوحي غدا لمثل ذلك، فإذا أوفى بذروة جبل تبدى له جبريل فقال له مثل ذلك» قال ابن عباس ﴿فالق الإصباح﴾ ضوء الشمس بالنهار، وضوء القمر بالليل.

Translation

...with a grief such that he went out many times to cast himself from the tops of the high mountains.

Word by word

Each Arabic word's literal counterpart; a hyphen marks an attached suffix/particle boundary. The fluent translation is above.

as has reached us فِيمَا بَلَغَنَا^* he went out many times because of it غَدَا مِنْهُ مِرَارًا^* in order to throw himself down كَيْ يَتَرَدَّى^* Gabriel appeared to him تَبَدَّى لَهُ جِبْرِيلُ^*

Interlinear view

فِيمَا بَلَغَنَاas has reached usغَدَا مِنْهُ مِرَارًاhe went out many times because of itكَيْ يَتَرَدَّىin order to throw himself downتَبَدَّى لَهُ جِبْرِيلُGabriel appeared to him

فِيمَا بَلَغَنَا: The four most critical words in the text. This is al-Zuhri's own note, saying that what follows comes not from Aisha but from a report that reached him without a named source — the type called balagh. This is where the chain breaks.
غَدَا مِنْهُ مِرَارًا: Miraran: it states repetition. The weight of the narrative comes not from a single moment but from the recurrence.
كَيْ يَتَرَدَّى: Form V of r-d-y, to fall or plunge from a height. The particle kay states the **intention** expressly — what is described is purpose, not outcome.
تَبَدَّى لَهُ جِبْرِيلُ: The narrative's resolution: each time an angel appears and says, 'You are truly the Messenger of God.' The text frames the attempt not as a collapse but as a recurrence closed by divine consolation.

Source

صحيح البخاري - ط السلطانية · Edition: المطبعة الكبرى الأميرية، بولاق - مصر السلطانية ١٣١١ هـ، بأمر السلطان عبد الحميد الثاني (ترقيم موافق للمطبوع)

Vol. 9 · p. 29 · Shamela live page (passage highlighted) · archive.org scan

Scan of the printed edition: el-Matbaatü'l-kübra'l-emîriyye, Bulak 1311 (Sultâniyye) · p. 30 · juz09.pdf (cüz 9), PDF sayfası 30

Scan of vol. 9, PDF page 30 = printed 30; no offset. Edition: al-Matbaʿa al-Kubra al-Amiriyya, Bulaq 1311 (the Sultaniyya).

Here too the Shamela page and the printed page do not coincide. Hadith no. 6982 begins on printed 29 and the quoted sentence lies on the far side of the page break: the text ends 29 with "until the Prophet grieved", and after the marker for 30 continues, "peace be upon him — as has reached us — with a grief that took him out many times...". Shamela's `page_num` is 29 while the quote stands on printed page 30; the `page` field gives Shamela's page and `scan.printed_page` the scan's.

The highlight box lies in the middle of the first line of the text block on printed 30 and was measured by hand (the Sultaniyya frame defeats the line profile); its edges were cropped back at the box's own percentages and confirmed by eye.

Two independent checks passed on 2026-09-10: (a) page identity — the printed page number 30 and the running head agree with Shamela's `part: 9` and with the embedded 30 marker; (b) textual fidelity — all nine words of the quote were read verbatim off the scan.

Yellow boxes mark the lines of the quote; the scan image itself is unmodified.

Context

The report stands in the Sahih's "Book of the Interpretation of Dreams", under the heading "the first of revelation with which the Messenger of God was begun was the true dream", as no. 6982. The text is a longer version of the Sahih's first hadith (the beginning of revelation): Hira, "Recite", Khadija, Waraqa b. Nawfal — all of it is here.

The narrative ends with Waraqa's death, and continues at exactly that point: "Then Waraqa was not long in dying, and revelation paused for a time, until the Prophet grieved — as has reached us — with a grief such that he went out many times to cast himself from the tops of the high mountains..."

The axis of this entry is those four words: fima balaghana, "as has reached us". They are not Aisha's words; they are al-Zuhri's own interjected note, announcing that the chain stops here. In the science of hadith this type is called a balagh: a report the transmitter relates without naming the one he took it from. The first part of the page therefore comes with a chain connected up to Aisha, and the second with a balagh that halts at al-Zuhri; the two stand side by side inside a single text, with no separating device.

The narrative itself says this: during the pause in revelation the Prophet grieved; in that grief he went out many times to the tops of high mountains to throw himself off; each time he reached a summit Gabriel appeared and said, "Muhammad, you are truly the Messenger of God"; at that his agitation subsided and his soul was set at rest and he returned; and when the pause lengthened he went out for the same purpose again, and the same thing happened again.

The page closes with a saying of Ibn Abbas on "the cleaver of daybreak", and the chapter "the dreams of the righteous" opens immediately after.

End of the previous page

﷽ باب التعبير وأول ما بدئ به رسول الله ﷺ من الوحي الرؤيا الصالحة

Start of the next page

باب رؤيا الصالحين وقوله تعالى ﴿لقد صدق الله رسوله الرؤيا بالحق لتدخلن المسجد الحرام إن شاء الله آمنين محلقين رؤوسكم ومقصرين لا تخافون فعلم ما لم تعلموا فجعل من دون ذلك فتحا قريبا﴾

How the tradition defends this

Unlike the other two Bukhari entries, the tradition's defence here rests on the report's own text, and it is strong.

(1) This portion is not the Sahih's connected text. It is al-Zuhri himself who inserts "as has reached us"; the page marks with its own hand where the chain breaks. Ibn Hajar classes it as a balagh. The same defence is repeated today by islamqa (152611) and islamweb (92386): these sentences do not count "as part of the Sahih", because Bukhari's criterion applies to chained text.

(2) Bukhari does not adduce this portion as proof. The chapter's subject is the beginning of revelation and the true dream; the balagh runs as a connecting sentence that completes the chronology. It is the practice of the hadith scholars to include such linking material within a chapter, and it is not treated as probative.

(3) The text can be read as a description of grief rather than an attempt at suicide. The phrase "in order to throw himself down" states an intention, but the close of the narrative is, each time, a divine consolation and a return. In the text's own construction what is related is not a collapse but a repeated scene of consolation; its emphasis falls not on the Prophet's weakness but on God's holding him each time.

(4) Human anguish is not foreign to the Quran. The Quran records the prophets' severe distress, even their approach to despair: Jonah in the belly of the fish (21:87), Jacob's eyes turning white (12:84), Moses's fear (20:67-68, 26:12-13), and the address to the Prophet, "you may well destroy yourself" (18:6, 26:3). Depth of grief is not by itself contrary to the Quran.

(5) The fact of the pause is itself in the Quran. Sura 93 presupposes an interruption and the consolation that follows it: "Your Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased." The report's frame — the halt of revelation, and consolation — sits with the text; the dispute is not over the frame but over the act placed inside it.

Still held today?

No contemporary fatwa link added yet.

What does the Quran say?

93:3 Text states it explicitly
"Your Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased." This is the Quran's own sentence about the pause, and it is a negation: you were not abandoned, you were not resented. The rest of the sura moves in the same direction — "the hereafter is better for you than this world", "your Lord will give to you and you will be satisfied", "did He not find you an orphan and shelter you?" The Quran treats the pause as an occasion for consolation, and the content of that consolation is a reminder of past protection. There is in the text neither a narrative of collapse nor an interposed angelic scene; the verse itself carries the consolation.
94:1-6 Implied by the text
"Did We not expand your breast for you... For with hardship comes ease." The sura that follows immediately on 93 asks the same addressee, "did We not expand your breast", and twice repeats that ease accompanies hardship. The picture the Quran draws for this period is not a constriction of the breast but its expansion.
4:29 Text states it explicitly
"And do not kill yourselves; indeed God is merciful to you." The ground of the prohibition is not a threat of punishment but an attribute: God's mercy toward you. This is not where the entry lodges a claim of contradiction — the verse is a prohibition, while the report speaks of an intention never carried out, and the pause preceded this address. The verse is set here to show how the Quran regards self-killing: the act is tied to a failure to know the divine mercy.
53:2-4 Implied by the text
"Your companion has not strayed, nor has he erred; nor does he speak from desire; it is only a revelation revealed." These verses sharpen the entry's real methodological question: about the source of revelation the Quran speaks decisively. The balagh in the report constructs a scene implying that the Prophet doubted his own messengership (Gabriel's saying each time, "you are truly the Messenger of God", answers a hesitation and nothing else). The Quran keeps no record of such a hesitation; sura 93 rests its consolation on wholly different ground — the favour already shown.
33:21 Implied by the text
"In the Messenger of God you have a good example." The Prophet's life is set up in the Quran as an exemplar. This is not a denial of anguish; it fixes the form the narrative takes in the Quran. Where the Quran records the Prophet's distress (18:6, 26:3, 15:97) it brings a direction immediately after — "do not grieve", "be patient", "glorify your Lord with praise". The anguish is recorded and closed with an act; no scene of letting go is constructed.

Commentary

This section is the site's editorial view. The record above stands independently of it and can be verified on its own.

This entry's subject is not what most take it to be. The issue is not "Bukhari says the Prophet attempted suicide"; the issue is that a report with no chain stands, without any separating device, inside the text of a book defined by the criterion of chains.

The page confesses as much itself. Fima balaghana — as has reached us. Those four words are al-Zuhri's, not Aisha's, and they say precisely this: from here on I am not naming my source. The science of hadith calls this a balagh and does not equate it with connected transmission. Ibn Hajar identifies it as such; today's defence (islamqa 152611) starts from the same point and says "this portion does not count as part of the Sahih". That defence is correct, and it is recorded as such in this entry.

But the defence, by its own admission, opens a problem. If these sentences do not meet the Sahih's criterion, what are they doing inside the Sahih? And by what mark is the reader to separate them? On the printed page there is no bracket, no change of type, no warning — the sentence emerges from within a narrative carried by Aisha's chain, in the same flow of prose. The consequence is this: for fourteen centuries anyone reading this text could learn which part fell under which criterion only from a commentary at the level of *Fath al-Bari*. How much of what the label "sahih" covers is this entry's real question.

As to content, honesty is required. The Quran does not conceal the prophets' severe distress: Jonah calls out from the darknesses, Jacob's eyes turn white, Moses is afraid, and the Prophet is twice told, "you may well destroy yourself" (18:6, 26:3). Deep grief is not foreign to the Quran, and rejecting this report because it "does not befit a prophet" draws not on the Quran but on a surplus of immunity built up later.

The distinction lies elsewhere. Everywhere the Quran records the Prophet's distress it closes it with a direction: "do not grieve", "be patient", "glorify your Lord with praise" (15:97-98). And in the one place it speaks of the pause itself — sura 93 — the content of the consolation is not an interposed angel but a reminder of past protection: did He not find you an orphan and shelter you, find you lost and guide you, find you poor and enrich you. The scene the balagh constructs says something else: the Prophet is unsure of his own messengership, and on every summit an angel has to tell him, "you are truly the Messenger of God." The Quran's own consolation rests not on answering such a hesitation but, without touching it at all, on the favour already given.

The verdict of this entry is therefore twofold, and both halves must be written plainly. (a) The content of the balagh does not sit with the Quran's own account of the pause; sura 93 builds a different consolation. (b) But this balagh is also not a connected report by Bukhari's own criterion — so rejecting it does not require standing against the Sahih; reading the Sahih's own note is enough. What enters the register is less the content of the sentence than the fact that this note stayed invisible inside the text for fourteen centuries.

Verified: 2026-09-10