It is Narrated from Uqbah ibn Amir that the Prophet ﷺ said: “If there were to be a prophet after me, it would have been Umar ibn al-Khattab.”

Reported through the chain: Mishrah ibn Haanan → Bakr ibn Amr → Haywah ibn Shurayh → al-Muqriʾ → Salamah ibn Shabib.

Al-Tirmidhi graded it hasan gharib, saying it is only known through the narration of Mishrah ibn Haanan.

Criticism of Mishrah ibn Haanan

• Ibn Maʿin considered him reliable.
• Ibn Hibban, however, criticised him in two ways:
  • In al-Thiqat: he said he makes mistakes and contradicts.
  • In al-Duʿafaʾ: he said Mishrah narrates munkar reports from Uqbah with no corroboration, so his solitary narrations should be left.
• Ibn Hajar in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib pointed out that this hadith is exactly one of those solitary narrations, making it munkar according to Ibn Hibban, which matches Imam Ahmad’s rejection.

Supporting Narrations and Their Weakness

1. From Ismah ibn Malik (al-Tabarani in al-Kabir): in its chain is al-Fadl ibn al-Mukhtar.
   • Abu Hatim, al-Azdi, and Ibn Adi all said his hadith is munkar and unreliable.
2. From Abu Saʿid al-Khudri (al-Tabarani in al-Awsat): in its chain is Abd al-Munʿim ibn Bashir.
   • Ibn Hibban said his narrations are very munkar and not permissible as proof.
   • Ibn Maʿin and al-Khutali criticised him for narrating fabrications.
3. Other versions:
   • Ibn Adi narrated through Rashdin ibn Saʿd from Ibn Lahiʿah, altering the matn to: “If I had not been sent, Umar would have been sent.” Ibn Adi said Rashdin altered it.
   • Narrations from Bilal and others also exist but are not preserved and include weak or fabricated chains.

Grading Of The Hadith From The Scholars

Imam Ahmad explicitly called the hadith munkar and rejected it.

Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾut graded the main isnad hasan, noting all narrators are generally acceptable, though Mishrah is hasan at best.

Ibn Adi and others noted alterations in wording from weaker transmitters like Rashdin ibn Saʿd.

Ibn Hibban and Ahmad’s critiques show that Mishrah’s solitary reports are not to be accepted.

Explanation of Meaning (on assumption of authenticity)

Some Scholars said the hadith points to Umar’s closeness to the attributes of prophets, not actual prophethood.

Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi explained:

• It resembles Quranic examples where Allah informs of what would have happened if the impossible occurred (al-Anʿam 28, al-Muʾminun 107).
• Prophethood is not earned by traits but is pure selection by Allah.
• Umar possessed many prophetic traits: courage, strength in religion, asceticism, distinguishing truth from falsehood (al-Faruq).
• Abu Bakr remained superior overall, as the best of the ummah after the Prophet ﷺ.

Ibn Taymiyyah said:

• Reports also mention Umar as a muhaddath (inspired).
• However, Abu Bakr is greater because his faith was perfected by total submission to the Prophet ﷺ.
• Umar, being inspired, sometimes erred and corrected himself when proof was shown.

Conclusion

The hadith is narrated mainly through Mishrah ibn Haanan, whose reliability is disputed. Ibn Hibban and Ahmad rejected his solitary narrations, labelling them munkar.

Supporting chains exist, but they are all very weak, involving narrators accused of fabrications or munkar reports.

Imam Ahmad, Ibn Hibban, and Ibn Adi regarded it munkar.

Overall: the hadith has multiple routes but none strong. Its base is a solitary narration with defects, and its supporting paths are very weak. At best, it can be said to have some basis with weakness, but the stronger scholarly view places it in the category of munkar.

The meaning, if accepted, indicates Umar’s closeness to prophetic traits, not actual superiority over Abu Bakr or any claim to prophethood.

It is narrated through the path of Mishrah ibn Haanan, from Uqbah ibn Amir (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: If there were to be a prophet after me, it would have been Umar ibn al Khattab.

The scholars differed over this hadith. Al Hakim declared it authentic, al Tirmidhi considered it hasan, and likewise al Albani graded it hasan in Sahih al Tirmidhi.

Its defect is Mishrah ibn Haanan.

حَدَّثَنَا سَلَمَةُ بْنُ شَبِيبٍ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا الْمُقْرِئُ، عَنْ حَيْوَةَ بْنِ شُرَيْحٍ، عَنْ بَكْرِ بْنِ عَمْرٍو، عَنْ مِشْرَحِ بْنِ هَاعَانَ، عَنْ عُقْبَةَ بْنِ عَامِرٍ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ “‏ لَوْ كَانَ بَعْدِي نَبِيٌّ لَكَانَ عُمَرَ بْنَ الْخَطَّابِ ‏”‏ ‏.‏ قَالَ هَذَا حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ غَرِيبٌ لاَ نَعْرِفُهُ إِلاَّ مِنْ حَدِيثِ مِشْرَحِ بْنِ هَاعَانَ ‏.‏

Even though Ibn Maʿin declared him reliable.

Ibn Hibban said: in al-Thiqat: He makes mistakes and contradicts. Then he said in al-Duʿafaʾ: He narrates from Uqbah reports that are munkar (denounced hadiths) which no one follows up, so the correct view is to leave what he alone narrates.

Tahdeeb At Tahdeeb By Ibn Hajar Asqalani (4/81)

This hadith is from what he alone narrated from Uqbah, therefore it is munkar according to Ibn Hibban, which agrees with the statement of Imam Ahmad.

It has a supporting narration from the hadith of Ismah ibn Malik narrated by al Tabarani in al Kabir (475). In its isnad is al Fadl ibn al Mukhtar.

Abu Hatim said: His hadith is munkar, he narrates falsehoods.

6750 – Al Fadl ibn al Mukhtar, Abu Sahl al Basri, narrated from Abu Dhʿib and others. Abu Hatim said: His hadith is munkar, he narrates falsehoods.

Al Azdi said: His hadith is very munkar.

Ibn Adi said: His hadith is munkar, most of it not followed up.

Mizan al Iʿtidal By Ad Dhahabi (3/358)

It has another supporting narration from Abu Saʿid.

Ibn Hajar Al Haythami said: Al Tabarani narrated it in al Awsat, in it is Abd al Munʿim ibn Bashir, and he is weak (Majmaʿ al Zawaʾid 9/68).

5271 – Abd al Munʿim ibn Bashir, Abu al Khayr al Ansari al Misri, narrated from Abd Allah ibn Umar al Umari. Yaqub al Fatawi narrated from him.

Ibn Maʿin criticised him.

Ibn Hibban said: His hadith is very munkar, it is not permissible to use him as proof.

Al Khutali said: I heard Ibn Maʿin say: I came to Abd al Munʿim, and he brought out to me the hadiths of Abu Muwaddud, about two hundred fabricated hadith.

I said: O shaykh, did you hear these from Abu Muwaddud? He said: Yes. I said: Fear Allah, for these are lies. So I left, and I did not write anything from him.

Mizan al Iʿtidal By Ad Dhahabi (2/669)

On the view that the hadith is authentic, why did he say: If there were to be a prophet after me it would have been Umar, and not say: It would have been Abu Bakr, while Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) is better than Umar by agreement of Ahl al Sunnah?

The scholars mentioned several points:

One of them is that this is from the knowledge of the unseen which none knows but Allah. Such matters are not based on reasoning or estimation.

If it had been decreed that there would be a prophet after the Prophet ﷺ, it would have been Umar. In that case Allah would have prepared its means, made Umar worthy of it, and completed his attributes to be fit for prophethood.

Another point is that this is information that prophethood is not something deserved nor acquired by a reason in the servant that makes him entitled to prophethood or worthy of messengership. Rather it is pure choice and selection from Allah.

Abu Bakr al Kalabadhi (d. 380 AH) said: The Prophet ﷺ informed about what was not, that if it were, how it would have been, just as Allah informed about what will never be, that if it were, how it would have been, by His saying:

ولو ردوا لعادوا لما نهوا عنه وإنهم لكاذبون

“But if they were returned, they would certainly return to what they were forbidden, and indeed they are liars” (al Anʿam 28),

and their saying:

ربنا أخرجنا منها فإن عدنا فإنا ظالمون

“Our Lord, bring us out of it, and if we return, then indeed we would be wrongdoers” (al Muʾminun 107).

In the same way the Prophet ﷺ said: If there were to be a prophet after me it would have been Umar, showing the great virtue that Allah placed in Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), and the attributes that belong to prophets, and the descriptions that belong to messengers.

So he informed that in Umar are attributes of the prophets and traits of the messengers, making his state close to that of the prophets, peace be upon them all.

It can also mean that prophethood is not deserved or earned, rather it is Allah’s choice and selection. Allah said:

ولكن الله يجتبي من رسله من يشاء

“But Allah selects from His messengers whom He wills” (Al Imran 179).

Allah said: الله يصطفي من الملائكة رسلا ومن الناس “Allah chooses messengers from the angels and from mankind” (al Hajj 75).

And Allah said: لولا نزل هذا القرآن على رجل من القريتين عظيم أهم يقسمون رحمة ربك

“And they say, Why was this Quran not sent down upon a great man from one of the two towns? Do they distribute the mercy of your Lord?” (al Zukhruf 32).

So it is as though the Prophet ﷺ pointed to the traits of prophets and messengers, and that Umar possessed many of them. If traits themselves made one necessarily a messenger, then Umar after me would have been a messenger.

What indicates this is that the most special traits that were found in Umar, which set him apart, were his strength in religion and body, his modesty, his standing in showing the religion of Allah, his turning away from the dunya, his being a cause for the truth to appear and the religion to be honoured, and his distinguishing between truth and falsehood. By this he was called al Faruq.

The special traits that appear to the people from the attributes of the prophets are truthfulness with Allah, trust in Allah, turning away from what is besides Allah, along with truth in speech, courage of heart, and generosity of soul.

This is the meaning of the hadith. This shows that these traits are from the most special of the attributes of the prophets that appear to people, whereas what is between them and Allah none knows except Him, exalted is He.

Then these attributes were found even more in Abu Bakr than they were in Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both). Yet the Prophet ﷺ did not say: If there were to be a prophet after me it would have been Abu Bakr, but he said that regarding Umar, so that it may be known that prophethood is by Allah’s will and selection, not by causes.

His saying: If there were to be a prophet after me it would have been Umar, does not mean Umar is better than others, for he was not a prophet. If he were a prophet, he would be better than one who is not a prophet.

But since he was not a prophet, it is possible for someone else to be better than him, and that is Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). Allah knows best.

Baḥr al-Fawāʾid By al-Kalābādhī Page 283

Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH), after mentioning this hadith and other reports of the status of Umar, and that he was inspired and a muhaddath, said:’

“If I had not been sent among you, then Umar would have been sent among you. And if there were to be a prophet awaited after me, it would have been Umar.

And with this, Abu Bakr is more complete than him, for Abu Bakr (al siddiq) perfected his affirmation of the Prophet, so he would only receive from the Prophet, and the Prophet is protected from error.

As for the one who is muhaddath (inspired) like Umar, he sometimes takes from his heart what he is inspired with and speaks it, but his heart is not protected from error. Therefore he must present what is cast into his heart against what the Messenger brought. If it agrees with it, he accepts it, and if it contradicts it, he rejects it.

For this reason Umar retracted from some things, and the companions debated him and argued with him. When the proof from the Book and Sunnah was clarified to him, he returned to it and left what he had seen.

Abu Bakr Siddiq, however, only received from the Messenger, not from his own heart. So he was more complete than the muhaddath. After Abu Bakr there is no Siddiq better than him, and after Umar there is no muhaddath better than him.

al Radd ʿala al Mantiqiyyin Page 514

17405 – Abu Abd al-Rahman narrated to us, Haywah narrated to us, Bakr ibn Amr narrated to us, that Mishrah ibn Haanan informed him that he heard Uqbah ibn Amir say: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: If there were to be a prophet after me, it would have been Umar ibn al-Khattab.

Shuayb Al Arnau’t says: Its chain is hasan. Abu Abd al-Rahman is Abd Allah ibn Yazid al-Muqri (d. 213 AH). Haywah is ibn Shurayh al-Hadrami (d. 158 AH), and both of them are trustworthy. Bakr ibn Amr al-Maafari (d. 153 AH) and Mishrah ibn Haanan (d. 90 AH) are both hasan in hadith.

It was also narrated by Yaqub ibn Sufyan (d. 277 AH) in al-Maʿrifah wa al-Tarikh (1/462 and 2/500), and by al-Tirmidhi (3686), and Abu Bakr al-Qatiʿi (d. 368 AH) in his Ziyadat on Fadaʾil al-Sahabah of Ahmad (p. 519), and by al-Tabarani (d. 360 AH) in al-Kabir (17/822), and by al-Hakim (d. 405 AH) in al-Mustadrak (3/85), and by al-Lalakaʾi (d. 418 AH) in Sharh Usul al-Iʿtiqad (2491), and by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 463 AH) in Muwaddih Awhaam al-Jamʿ wa al-Tafriq (2/478), all through the chain of Abu Abd al-Rahman Abd Allah ibn Yazid al-Muqri with this isnad.

Al-Tirmidhi said: This hadith is hasan gharib.

Al-Hakim said: Its chain is sahih, and al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH) agreed with him.

It was also narrated by al-Qatiʿi (no. 694) through the path of Wahb Allah ibn Rashid, from Haywah ibn Shurayh with it.

It was also narrated by him (no. 498), and by al-Tabarani (17/857) through the path of Yahya ibn Kathir al-Naji, from Ibn Lahiʿah (d. 174 AH), from Mishrah ibn Haanan with it. In the narration of al-Tabarani it comes with Abu Ashanah instead of Mishrah.

It was also narrated by Ibn Adi (d. 365 AH) in al-Kamil (3/1014) through the path of Rashdin ibn Saʿd (d. 188 AH), from Ibn Lahiʿah, from Mishrah ibn Haanan with the wording: If I had not been sent among you as a prophet, then Umar ibn al-Khattab would have been sent.

Ibn Adi said: This hadith, Rashdin altered its matn, for the correct matn is: If there were to be a prophet after me, it would have been Umar ibn al-Khattab.

It has two shawahid (supporting narrations) which are not strong: the first from the hadith of ʿIsmah ibn Malik with al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (17/475), and the second from the hadith of Abu Saʿid al-Khudri with him in al-Awsat, as mentioned in Majmaʿ al-Bahrayn (3666). Both of them have in their isnad narrators accused of fabrication.

Al-Sindi (d. 1138 AH) said: His saying “it would have been Umar” means that he was given such success in correctness and inspiration that it is almost like that of a prophet, except that he is not a prophet because the line of prophethood has ended, and were it not for its end he would have been most deserving of it.

Musnad Ahmad (28/624-625)

106 – Ibrahim ibn al Harith said: Abu Abdullah Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 AH) was asked about the hadith of Uqbah ibn al Harith: “If there were to be a prophet after me, it would have been Umar.”

He replied: Cross it out, for in my view it is munkar (denounced).

(The wording “ibn al Harith” is as it appears, but it is a mistake, likely from the copyist. For the hadith has been transmitted repeatedly as being from Uqbah ibn Amir al Juhani, and it is narrated through Mishrah ibn Haa’an and Abu Ashanah from him, and both of them narrate from Uqbah ibn Amir al Juhani. As for ibn al Harith, he is Uqbah ibn al Harith ibn Amir al Qurashi al Naufali, and he is not known for this hadith, nor does either of the two mentioned narrators transmit from him. And Allah knows best.)

(The hadith was recorded by al Tirmidhi (3686), Ahmad (4/154), al Hakim (3/85), al Tabarani (17/298), and al Khateeb in al Muwaddih (2/414), and others, as mentioned in al Albani’s al Silsilah al Sahihah (327), through the chain: Abu Abd al Rahman al Muqri, from Haywah, from Bukayr ibn Amr, from Mishrah ibn Haa’an, from Uqbah ibn Amir. Al Tirmidhi said: This hadith is hasan gharib, we do not know it except through the narration of Mishrah ibn Haa’an. Al Hakim said: This hadith has a sahih chain of transmission though they did not record it. I say: Mishrah, although counted among the trustworthy, the scholars did critique his memory. Ibn Hibban mentioned him in al Thiqat (5/452), saying: He does not err nor contradict. And he said in al Majruhin (3/28): He narrates from Uqbah ibn Amir rejected hadiths which are not followed up, and the correct stance concerning him is to leave aside what he alone narrates, and to consider only that which agrees with the trustworthy narrators. I say: And he has been alone in narrating this hadith, as indicated by the words of al Tirmidhi, may Allah have mercy on him.

As for what was narrated by Yahya ibn Kathir al Naji, from Ibn Luhay’ah (d. 174 AH), from Abu Ashanah, from Uqbah ibn Amir, raised to the Prophet with this wording, it was recorded by al Tabarani (17/310).

This does not serve as evidence to establish corroboration for Mishrah or to remove his being alone in narrating this hadith, because Ibn Luhay’ah is weak and he had confusion in it, for he once narrated it from Mishrah, from Uqbah with this wording. This was narrated by Abu Bakr al Najaad in al Fawaid al Muntakhabah, as mentioned in al Silsilah al Sahihah (327).

This is what is correct, that the hadith is the narration of Mishrah. And Allah knows best.

Furthermore, Rashdin ibn Sa’d (d. 188 AH) narrated it, from Ibn Luhay’ah, from Mishrah, with the wording: “If I were not sent among you as a prophet, Umar ibn al Khattab would have been sent as a prophet.” This was recorded by Ibn Adi (3/155), who said: Rashdin has altered the wording of this hadith, for the actual wording is the first one.

And it was narrated by Zakariya ibn Yahya al Waqaar, from Bishr ibn Bakr, from Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam (d. 154 AH), from Damrah ibn Habib (d. 153 AH), from Ghudhayf ibn al Harith, from Bilal, raised to the Prophet, with this altered wording also. Ibn Adi recorded it (3/216), and Ibn al Jawzi mentioned it in al Mawduat (1/320). Ibn Adi said: This narration from Bilal with this chain is not preserved. Rather this hadith is narrated from Uqbah ibn Amir, from Bilal, and likewise from the Prophet, and with that it is clear that this is a reversal in the wording, for the actual narration is the first one.

And it was narrated from Malik al Khatmi, raised to the Prophet, with the first wording.

And it was narrated by al Fadl ibn al Mukhtar, from Abdullah ibn Muhibb, from Ismah ibn Malik al Khatmi, raised to the Prophet, with the first wording. It was recorded by al Tabarani (17/180). Al Fadl is weak. And Allah knows best.)

al-Mukhtarab min al-ʿIlal li-l-Khallāl Pages 190-192