How to interpret the hadith from Musnad Ahmad "Verily, Allah looked at the hearts of the servants ..."?

Question

عن عبد الله بن مسعود، قال: إن الله نظر في قلوب العباد، فوجد قلب محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم خير قلوب العباد، فاصطفاه لنفسه، فابتعثه برسالته، ثم نظر في قلوب العباد بعد قلب محمد، فوجد قلوب أصحابه خير قلوب العباد، فجعلهم وزراء نبيه، يقاتلون على دينه، فما رأى المسلمون حسنا، فهو عند الله حسن، وما رأوا سيئا فهو عند الله سيئ

Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “Verily, Allah looked at the hearts of the servants and He found that the heart of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was the best among them, so He choose him for Himself and He sent him with His message. Then, He looked at the hearts of His servants after Muhammad, and He found that the hearts of his companions were the best among them. Thus, He made them into the ministers of His Prophet, fighting for the sake of His religion. And whatever the Muslims view as good is good in the sight of Allah, and whatever they view as evil is evil in the sight of Allah.”

Source: Musnad Ahmad 3589

I'm confused, because when I read this hadith,it gives me an idea that ALLAH was looking for someone to give Prophethood.

This seems to go against my understanding of Al-Qur'an and Sunnah. I mean everything was planned by ALLAH and then executed. It was destined that Muhammad (PBUH) will be last prophet and messenger. I can prove this by multiple Aayats and hadiths.

Is this hadith even authentic? Because Musnad Ahmad isn't included in 6 most authentic books of hadiths.

Please share opinion of scholars?

Answer 1

The narrators of the chain are all reliable and the chain is Hasan according to Al-Arnaa’oot.

According to al-Sindi it is a metaphorical way of saying that Allah created Muhammad ﷺ with the best of hearts, not that He literally found out that it was the best after the fact.

المراد: أنه تعالى خلق قلبه صلى الله عليه وسلم خير قلب بطريق الكناية، وليس المراد أنه علم خيريته بالنظر، ولم يكن عالما بها بدون النظر

^{— حاشية مسند الإمام أحمد بن حنبل}

Answer 2

In the name of Allah, the most gracious and most merciful. May Allah's perfect blessings, prayers and peace, be upon the most noble of creation. The best of messengers and the leader of all man kind and Prophets. Our beloved master and intercessor, Sayiduna Mohammed (Peace be upon him).

There are many hadith out there that share the same type of tone and language. For example, the hadith where Allah asks the angels where they were when they were looking for circles of dhikr to join, and asking what were his servants asking for etc, even though Allah is aware and knows fully well where the angels were and what his slaves were asking for. These things have a rhetoric weighting to them and emphasizes the importance of the point the hadith is conveying. In this case how high the rank of the prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) is that Allah "looked" through the hearts of mankind and found the heart of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) to be the best of hearts.

Thus, the hadith is not to be understood literally in a chronological sense as you have done. Allah is all knowing and doesn't look for something the same way we look for something. In the context of this hadith, Allah "looks" to draw importance to how high the rank of the prophet was, whereas we look for something we don't know where it is. Completely different.

I hope that clears up the misconfusion. Salamulaikom.