Did the Prophet Meet Iblis?

14 September, 2016
Q Dear scholars, recently, a paper was circulated. One of my friends gave it to me and advised me to copy and distribute it so as to gain some reward. The paper includes a hadith speaking of a meeting between the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and Iblis. According to the hadith, the Prophet asked Iblis some questions and Iblis answered. What is the reality about this hadith? Is it fabricated or authentic? What is the responsibility of the person who disseminates this story among people?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Dear questioner, thank you for your question and for the confidence you place in our service. We pray to Allah to enable us to render this service purely for His Sake.

A Muslim needs to be wise enough not to believe any story or narration without referring to Islamic authentic references to make sure.

As for the story you referred to, it is a fabricated one and has no basis in the authentic books of Hadith or any other authentic references. Such a meeting never happened. The narration you referred to is a collection of statements from some other hadiths, some of which are authentic and some are not. The story in full is not authentic and is totally fabricated. Hence, it is not permissible to transmit it or propagate it among people.

In this regard, we cite what Imam Ibn Taymiyah stated in his Al-Fatawa Al-Kubra,

This is a totally fabricated hadith. There is no mention of such a hadith in any of the authentic books of Islam nor in the books of hadith. Whoever comes to know this should never transmit that story afterwards. If he insists on transmitting it, after knowing that it is fabricated, he is to be punished for this and he is sinful.

In fact, the person who fabricated that story collected some statements from some authentic hadiths and some other statements from other hadiths that were classified to be weak or fabricated. That is why some of the words in that fabricated narration look genuine. However, the whole story; that is, the meeting between the Prophet and Iblis, is fabricated.