Shaykh Salih al-Ja’fari writing about an exchange he had with a man after one of his Friday lessons from the book al-dhakira al-mu’ajjala:
In the year 1385 ah a man came to me and said, “I have to tell you something that if it wasn’t for the fact that I was commanded from ‘on high’ to convey it to you I would not have informed you. Know, o my brother, that I was sitting in your lesson at the noble Azhar University after the Friday prayer, and you were saying in your lesson that [Shaykh] Jalaluddin al-Suyuti would study the knowledge of hadith with the Prophet ﷺ and al-Suyuti would present the prophetic narrations to him ﷺ.” The man continued, “I then saw the Prophet ﷺ in a wakeful state sitting next to me and he said to me, “Tell my son to strive like al-Suyuti strove until he sees me like he did.” “Then a man came between us and I wanted to block him but he ﷺ said, “Leave him, because indeed I am light.”
When he told me this, I became overcome with astonishment and wonder. He then said to me, “By Allah, if I were not commanded to inform you of this, I would not have informed you.”