First Thing created : The Prophet ﷺ’s Nur ?

Here is a version of the report copy-pasted :

“Hadith of Jabir”

It is related that Jabir ibn `Abd Allah said to the Prophet : “O Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be sacrificed for you, tell me of the first thing Allah created before all things.” He said: “O Jabir, the first thing Allah created was the light of your Prophet from His light, and that light remained (lit. “turned”) in the midst of His Power for as long as He wished, and there was not, at that time, a Tablet or a Pen or a Paradise or a Fire or an angel or a heaven or an earth. And when Allah wished to create creation, he divided that Light into four parts and from the first made the Pen, from the second the Tablet, from the third the Throne, [and from the fourth everything else].”

There is absolutely no sign of this narration, in any book of hadith.
Someone mistakenly attributed it to Abd ar-Razzaq and all others followed, all relying on the first one, thinking that he must have seen it in there !

This is why one will find many senior Ulama of the last few centuries attributing it to Abd ar-Razzaq. Most of them took it from Sharh al-Mawahib, who incorrectly referenced it. None of these Ulama had copies of the Musannaf of Abd ar-Razzaq (they are all excused insha’Allah), to properly ascertain its existence, neither did any of them ever mention a sanad (chain) for it.

Seeing this widespread mis-attribution, a few later-day muhadithin – who went through the musannaf and confirmed its non-existence– had classified it as fabricated, as it quite clear when ones sees the wording of the hadith and adds this to the fact that there is no known sanad for it.

From the great Huffadh, Allamah Suyuti has mentioned that there is no sanad that could be relied upon for this narration.

Those whose most crucial and necessary aqidah is that Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam)  is present in every atom of this world, thus viewing all that is taking place, would of course never accept it as a fabrication. To these people is then the task to produce any chain for this narration. They also allege that an old part of the Musannaf of Abdul Razzaq has been found aka “the lost juz”, however it remains also a fabrication. They should bring proof to state so.

Do not forget the saying of your Prophet ﷺ who said : ‘Whoever tells lies about me deliberately, let him take his place in Hell.” (Bukhari), lest you would want to do “good” but in the end be doomed.

The first thing to be created, and Allah knows it best, was WATER :

Abdullah b. ‘Amr b. al-‘As (RA) reported: I heard Allah’s Messenger ﷺ as saying:“Allah ordained the measures (of quality) of the creation fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, as His Throne was upon water“ (Sahih Muslim).

Thus even before the Pen wrote all destinies of the Creation, Throne and Water already existed.

WALLAHU A’LAM.