he sat down and the tree’s shade bent toward him. The monk cried out, “Look— the shade of the tree has inclined toward him!”
While he was still standing over him, imploring them not to take him on to the Byzantines— for if the Byzantines saw him they would recognize him from the descriptions they possessed and would kill him— he suddenly turned and saw seven men from the Byzantines approaching. The monk went out to meet them and asked, “What has brought you here?”
They answered, “The prophet who is to emerge is expected this very month. Every route has had men posted along it; we were informed of this caravan and have been sent to your road.”
He said, “Tell me: if Allah intends to bring about a matter, can any person turn it back?” They replied, “No.” He said, “Then follow him,” so they followed him and remained with him.
The monk then came to the caravan and said, “I adjure you by Allah—who among you is his guardian?” Abū Ṭālib replied, “I am.” The monk kept pleading with him until Abū Ṭālib sent him homeward. Abū Bakr sent Bilāl to accompany him, and the monk provisioned him with some cakes and oil.
This report is related only by Qurād—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ghazwān—who is trustworthy; al-Bukhārī and an-Nasāʾī relied on him, and many scholars transmitted the narration from Qurād, while at-Tirmidhī judged it ḥasan. Yet the ḥadīth itself is extremely objectionable.
Where was Abū Bakr at that time? He would have been merely ten years old, for he was two and a half years younger than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And where was Bilāl, when Abū Bakr did not purchase him until after the commencement of the Prophet’s mission—indeed, Bilāl had not even been born yet!
Moreover, if a cloud was shading him, how could the tree’s shade have inclined toward him? The cloud’s shadow would have eliminated the shade of any tree beneath which he sat. We also never find the Prophet ﷺ mentioning Abū Ṭālib in connection with the monk’s words, nor did Quraysh discuss it, nor did those elders recount it, despite their strong inclination and manifold motives to preserve such a story. Had it actually happened, it would have become famous among them beyond all doubt, and the Prophet ﷺ would have retained some awareness of his coming prophethood: he would not have been alarmed by the first revelation in the Cave of Ḥirāʾ, nor rushed to Khadījah fearing for his sanity, nor climbed the mountain heights intending to cast himself down. Likewise, had this fear affected Abū Ṭālib and caused him to turn back,