All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of The Worlds, and may His peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Mohammad and upon all his family and companions.
Having reviewed the Sunnah books, we found that Bukhari related, in his Sahih, the above narration from Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, but in the following version, given in bold below : " Abu Bakr came riding his horse from his dwelling place in As-Sunh. He got down from it, entered the Mosque and did not speak with anybody till he came to me and went direct to the Prophet, who was covered with a marked blanket. Abu Bakr uncovered his face. He knelt down and kissed him and then started weeping and said, "My father and my mother be sacrificed for you, O Allah's Prophet! Allah will not combine two deaths on you. You have died the death which was written for you."
Narrated Abu Salama from Ibn Abbas : Abu Bakr came out and 'Umar , was addressing the people, and Abu Bakr told him to sit down but 'Umar refused. Abu Bakr again told him to sit down but 'Umar again refused. Then Abu Bakr recited the Tashah-hud (i.e. none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and Muhammad is Allah's Apostle) and the people attended to Abu Bakr and left 'Umar. Abu Bakr said, "Amma ba'du, whoever amongst you worshipped Muhammad, then Muhammad is dead, but whoever worshipped Allah, Allah is alive and will never die." This same version was also narrated by Ibn Majah, At-Tabarani, Ibn Hibban, Al-Baihaqi and Raahwiah after Aisha and Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, but it didn`t include: "Who is in Heaven."
However, Al-Bukhari did relate the version which included " Who is in Heaven in his book {Al-Tareekh Al-Kabeer}, after Ibn Omar, may Allah be pleased with them, and it read as follows, "……..whoever amongst you worshipped Muhammad, then Muhammad is dead, but whoever worshipped Allah Who is in Heaven, Allah is alive and will never die. Nevertheless, scholars of Hadith stated that Mohammad Bin Fadel Bin Ghazwan, who is within the chain of narrators of the latter version, made lots of mistakes, and some of them also said that his narration wasn`t acceptable. Therefore, his version, which included "Who is in Heaven" is also unacceptable; whereas, the version narrated after Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, without this addition is acceptable. Furthermore, there is consensus among scholars that verses and narrations, which literally mean that Allah is (in Heaven), shouldn`t be understood in the sense that heaven surrounds Him because the doctrine of the people of Sunnah and Jama`a rests on honoring and glorifying Him. Therefore, not attributing time and place to Allah, as they are creations of His, is actually honoring Him. Moreover, it is neither acceptable in terms of Sharia nor reason that the created(Time & place) may encompass their creator(Allah).
Considering the Matn of the narration which includes the addition: "Who is in Heaven", and supposing that it was authentic, the context of the narration itself indicates that what is intended is the figurative meaning of Heaven i.e. it indicates the Highness of Status. Taking context(Death of Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him)into consideration, Abu Baker, may Allah be pleased with him, wanted to uplift the morale of the people, unite them and absorb the shock of that sad event. Therefore, he reminded them of Mohammad`s mortality and Allah`s greatness. And Allah knows best.
