Abu Talib set out for Syria, and the Prophet ﷺ went with him among a group of elders from Quraysh. When they came within sight of the monk, they dismounted and unloaded their gear. The monk came out to them, although previously they had been passing by him and he would neither come out to them nor pay them any attention.While they were unloading their belongings, the monk began moving among them until he came and took the hand of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, "This is the master of the worlds. This is the Messenger of the Lord of the worlds. Allah will send him as a mercy to the worlds."The elders of Quraysh asked him, "How do you know this?"He replied, "When you appeared from the mountain pass, no tree or stone remained that did not fall down in prostration, and they do not prostrate except to a prophet. I also recognize him by the seal of prophethood below the cartilage of his shoulder, like an apple."Then he went back and prepared food for them. When he brought it to them, the Prophet ﷺ was tending the camels. The monk said, "Send for him."He came forward with a cloud shading him. When he drew near the group, he found that they had preceded him to the shade of the tree. When he sat down, the shade of the tree leaned over him. The monk said, "Look at the shade of the tree, it has leaned over him."While the monk was standing over them, urging them not to take him to the Romans, for if the Romans saw him they would recognize him by his description and kill him, he turned around and saw seven men coming from the Romans. He went to meet them and asked, "What has brought you?"They said, "We have come because this prophet is to appear this month, and there is no road to which men have not been sent. We were informed of his news, so we were sent to this road of yours."He asked, "Is there anyone behind you better than you?"They said, "We were only informed of his news for this road of yours."He said, "Tell me, if Allah has decreed a matter to come to pass, can anyone among men turn it back?"They said, "No."So they pledged allegiance to the monk and stayed with him.He then said, "I ask you by Allah, which of you is his guardian?"They said, "Abu Talib."He kept urging him until Abu Talib sent him back, and Abu Bakr sent Bilal with him, and the monk provided him with cakes and oil for the journey.
خرج أبو طالب إلى الشام وخرج معه النبي ﷺ في أشياخ من قريش، فلما أشرفوا على الراهب هبطوا فحلوا رحالهم، فخرج إليهم الراهب وكانوا قبل ذلك يمرون به فلا يخرج إليهم ولا يلتفت. قال: فهم يحلون رحالهم، فجعل يتخللهم الراهب حتى جاء فأخذ بيد رسول الله ﷺ فقال: هذا سيد العالمين، هذا رسول رب العالمين، يبعثه الله رحمة للعالمين، فقال له أشياخ من قريش: ما علمك، فقال: إنكم حين أشرفتم من العقبة لم يبق شجر ولا حجر إلا خر ساجدا ولا يسجدان إلا لنبي، وإني أعرفه بخاتم النبوة أسفل من غضروف كتفه مثل التفاحة، ثم رجع فصنع لهم طعاما، فلما أتاهم به وكان هو في رعية الإبل، فقال: أرسلوا إليه، فأقبل وعليه غمامة تظله، فلما دنا من القوم وجدهم قد سبقوه إلى فيء الشجرة، فلما جلس مال فيء الشجرة عليه، فقال: انظروا إلى فيء الشجرة مال عليه، قال: فبينما هو قائم عليهم وهو يناشدهم أن لا يذهبوا به إلى الروم، فإن الروم إن رأوه عرفوه بالصفة فيقتلونه، فالتفت فإذا بسبعة قد أقبلوا من الروم فاستقبلهم، فقال: ما جاء بكم؟ قالوا: جئنا، إن هذا النبي خارج في هذا الشهر، فلم يبق طريق إلا بعث إليه بأناس وإنا قد أخبرنا خبره فبعثنا إلى طريقك هذا، فقال: هل خلفكم أحد هو خير منكم؟ قالوا: إنما أخبره خبره بطريقك هذا. قال: أفرأيتم أمرا أراد الله أن يقضيه هل يستطيع أحد من الناس رده؟ قالوا: لا. قال: فبايعوه وأقاموا معه قال: أنشدكم بالله أيكم وليه؟ قالوا: أبو طالب، فلم يزل يناشده حتى رده أبو طالب وبعث معه أبو بكر بلالا وزوده الراهب من الكعك والزيت.
Tirmidhi (3620) narrated it from Fadl bin Sahl Abu Abbas Aaraj Baghdadi, who said, "Abdul-Rahman bin Ghazwan narrated to us, he said, Yunus bin Abu Ishaq informed us, from Abu Bakr bin Abu Musa Ashari, from his father," and he related it in full. Abdul-Rahman bin Ghazwan is Abu Nuh, known as Qarad, a trustworthy narrator among Bukhari's men.Through his route, Hakim narrated it (2/615-616), and from him Bayhaqi in his Dalail (2/42), and Khatib in Tarikh Baghdad (10/252) in the biography of Abdul-Rahman bin Ghazwan, and Ibn Asakir in Tarikh Dimashq (3/4). Abu Abbas Muhammad bin Yaqub Asamm said, Abbas bin Muhammad Duri said, "There is no creature in the world who narrates it besides Qarad Abu Nuh." Ahmad bin Hanbal and Yahya bin Main heard this hadith from Qarad, and they both said, "We only heard it from Qarad because it is among the rare and singular reports that we acknowledge in the transmission from Yunus bin Abu Ishaq, from Abu Bakr bin Abu Musa, from his father." End quote. Khatib and Ibn Asakir mentioned it.Tirmidhi said, "This hadith is hasan gharib, we do not know it except from this route." Hakim said, "It is sahih according to the criterion of the two sheikhs." Dhahabi then critiqued him, saying, "I think it is fabricated, for part of it is false." He said this. Perhaps this is because of the mention of Abu Bakr and Bilal in the hadith, and this portion of the hadith is rejected, without doubt. But the basic story, that he ﷺ traveled to Syria with his uncle, no one has denied, as far as I know.Hafiz bin Qayyim affirmed it, saying in his Zad (1/76-78), "When he reached the age of twelve, his uncle took him out to Syria. And it is said his age was nine years. On this journey, Bahira the monk saw him, and he ordered his uncle not to bring him further into Syria for fear of the Jews, so his uncle sent him back to Makkah with some of his servants." Then he said, "It occurs in the book of Tirmidhi and others that he sent Bilal with him, and this is a clear error, for Bilal at that time perhaps did not yet exist. And even if he did exist, he was not with his uncle, nor with Abu Bakr. Bazzar mentioned this hadith in his Musnad and did not say that he sent Bilal with his uncle, but rather said 'a man.'" End quote.Muhammad bin Ishaq mentioned this story in his biography, and it contains no mention of Abu Bakr or Bilal. Ibn Ishaq said, "Then Abu Talib went out with a caravan as a merchant to Syria. When he prepared to depart and resolved to travel, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ clung to him, as they claim, so Abu Talib felt compassion for him and said, 'By Allah, I will take him out with me. I will not part from him, nor will he ever part from me,' or words to that effect. So he took him out with him.When the caravan stopped at Busra in the land of Syria, there was a monk there called Bahira, in a hermitage of his. The knowledge of the Christian people rested with him, and there had never ceased to be a monk in that hermitage to whom their knowledge passed down from a book, as they claim, which they inherited generation after generation. When they stopped that year at Bahira's place, though they had often passed by him before without him speaking to them or paying attention to them, until that year came, when they stopped near his hermitage, he prepared a great deal of food for them. This, as they claim, was because of something he had seen while in his hermitage. They claim that he saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ among the caravan as they approached, with a cloud shading him apart from the rest of the people. Then they came forward and stopped in the shade of a tree near him. He looked at the cloud when it shaded the tree, and saw the branches of the tree bending down over the Messenger of Allah ﷺ until he was sheltered beneath it.When Bahira saw that, he came down from his hermitage. He had ordered food to be prepared, and then sent word to them, saying, 'I have prepared food for you, O Quraysh people. I would like all of you to attend, your young and your old, your slaves and your free.'A man among them said to him, 'By Allah, Bahira, you have some matter today. You never used to do this for us, and we have passed by you many times before. So what is your matter today?' Bahira said to him, 'You are right, what you say is true, but you are guests, and I wanted to honor you and prepare food for you, so that you might all eat from it.'So they gathered around him, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stayed behind among the people's baggage under the tree, because of his young age. When Bahira looked at the people, he did not see the description that he knew and had with him, so he said, 'O Quraysh people, none of you should stay away from my food.' They said, 'Bahira, no one who should come to you has stayed away except a boy, who is the youngest of us, and he stayed behind with our baggage.' He said, 'Do not do that, call him so that he may attend this food with you.'He said, a man of Quraysh among the people said, 'By Lat and Uzza, it would indeed be shameful of us for Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Abdul-Muttalib to stay away from a meal among us.' Then he got up to him, embraced him, and seated him with the people.When Bahira saw him, he began to watch him intently, looking at features of his body that he found matched the description he had with him, until when the people finished their meal and dispersed, Bahira got up and went to him, and said, 'O boy, I ask you by the right of Lat and Uzza, to tell me about what I ask you.' Bahira said this to him only because he had heard his people swearing by them.They claim that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him, 'Do not ask me by Lat and Uzza, for by Allah, I have never hated anything as I hate them.' Bahira said to him, 'Then by Allah, tell me about what I ask you.' He said to him, 'Ask me whatever occurs to you.'So he began asking him about matters of his condition, his sleep, his appearance, and his affairs, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ answered him, and this matched what Bahira had of his description. Then he looked at his back, and saw the seal of prophethood between his shoulders, in its place as described in what he had.When he finished, he turned to his uncle Abu Talib and said, 'What relation is this boy to you?' He said, 'My son.' Bahira said, 'He is not your son, and it is not fitting for this boy that his father be alive.' He said, 'He is my nephew.' He said, 'What happened to his father?' He said, 'He died while his mother was pregnant with him.'He said, 'You have spoken the truth. Take your nephew back to his own land, and be wary for him of the Jews, for by Allah, if they see him and recognize in him what I have recognized, they will surely seek to harm him. This nephew of yours will have a great matter ahead of him, so hasten with him back to his land.'So his uncle Abu Talib set out with him quickly, until he brought him to Makkah, once he had finished his trading in Syria." End quote. Sirat Ibn Ishaq (53 and following) and Sirat bin Hisham (1/180-183).Qarad Abu Nuh Abdul-Rahman bin Ghazwan is a trustworthy hafiz, I have not found anyone who criticized him. Abdullah bin Ahmad said, "I heard my father mention Abu Nuh, and he said, 'He was a sensible man.'" Khatib mentioned in his history the statements of Mujahid bin Musa, Yahya bin Main, and others affirming the reliability of Abdul-Rahman bin Ghazwan.So his being the sole narrator does not harm the hadith, and Ibn Hajar said in Isabah, "Its narrators are trustworthy," and the mention of Abu Bakr and Bilal is an error from one of the narrators, or from him, since even the great imams were not free from error and inattention. So no one can dismiss the basic story from the Prophet's biography.So this story should not be denied in its basic essence, out of fear that some orientalists have taken it as a pretext to attack the prophethood of the Prophet ﷺ, claiming that he took the laws of Islam from this monk, and some of them even said that he took the entire Quran from him. This is a statement that reveals the bankruptcy and ignorance of whoever says it.