Furthermore, books of both history and the Prophet’s (UWBP) biography testify that, next to the preservation of the Qur’an and its verses, the Companions worked with all their strength to preserve the deeds and words of God’s Most Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and especially those relating to the injunctions of the Shari‘a and to miracles, paying extreme attention to their accuracy. They never neglected even the tiniest aspect of his conduct, actions, and states. This and the fact that they recorded them is testified to by books of Hadith.
In addition, in the Era of Bliss, they wrote down and recorded very many of the Hadiths concerning the injunctions of the Law and his miracles. The Seven ‘Abdullah’s1 in particular recorded them in writing. Especially ‘Abdullah b. al-‘Abbas, known as the Interpreter of the Qur’an, and ‘Abdullah b. ‘Amr b. al-‘As some thirty to forty years later, and the thousands of exacting scholars of the generation that followed the Companions recorded the Hadiths and miracles in writing. Still later, chiefly the four great interpreters of the Law and thousands of exacting scholars of Hadith related them and preserved them in writing. Then two hundred years after the Hijra, foremost Bukhari and Muslim and the six accepted books of tradition, undertook the duty of their preservation. Many severe critics such as Ibn al-Jawzi emerged who identified false reports which had been produced by deniers, the unthinking, the ignorant, or those who had recalled them wrongly. Later, learned and exacting scholars like Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, who seventy times was honoured in a waking state by the presence and conversation of God’s Noble Messenger (UWBP), differentiated the diamonds of authentic traditions from other sayings and fabrications.
Thus, the incidents and miracles we shall speak of, have come down to us through numerous, perhaps uncountable, strong and trustworthy hands, and have reached us in sound condition. “All praise be to God, this is from the bounty of my Lord.” It is for this reason that one’s mind should be freed from the notion that these incidents have been distorted or confused in any way in being passed down all the way from that time to the present.
T h e F i r s t E x a m p l e of definite miracles concerning the Prophet’s (UWBP) increase of food through his blessing. The six accurate books of tradition, Bukhari and Muslim included, unanimously relate that during the feast on the occasion of the Noble Messenger’s (UWBP) marriage to Zaynab, Anas’s mother, Umm Sulaym,
The seven ‘Abdullah’s (al-‘Abadila al-Sab’a): ‘Abdullah b. ‘Abbas, ‘Abdullah b. ‘Umar, ‘Abdullah b. Mas’ud, ‘Abdullah b. Raw\ha, ‘Abdullah b. Salam, ‘Abdullah b. ‘Amr b. al-‘As, ‘Abdullah b. Abi Awfa (R. A.).