A man related: “I heard Abū Dharr say, ‘I never mention ʿUthmān except with praise because of something I once witnessed. I was in the habit of seeking the private moments of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. One day I found him alone and sat with him. Abū Bakr came, greeted him, and sat down; then ʿUmar arrived, followed by ʿUthmān. In front of the Prophet ﷺ lay seven small pebbles. He picked them up and placed them on the palm of his hand, and they glorified Allah so that I heard them humming like bees. He then set them down and they fell silent. He took them again and put them in Abū Bakr’s hand, and they glorified; he set them down and they fell silent. He placed them in ʿUmar’s hand, and they remained silent. Then he put them in ʿUthmān’s hand, and they glorified; he laid them down and they fell silent. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “This is the Caliphate of Prophethood.”’”

Ṣāliḥ was not strong in memorisation, and the sound version is that of Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah from al-Zuhrī. Al-Zuhrī said: al-Walīd ibn Suwayd reported that an elderly man of Banū Sulaym who had met Abū Dharr at al-Rabadha mentioned this event to him and related the ḥadīth from Abū Dharr.

A similar account is transmitted from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, and from ʿĀṣim ibn Ḥumayd, on the authority of Abū Dharr. A comparable report is also attributed to Anas through two irregular chains.

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ayman said: My father narrated to me, from Jābir, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to stand on Fridays beside a tree—or a palm trunk—while preaching. People said, “Shall we not make a pulpit for you?” He replied, “If you wish.” They made one for him, and when Friday came and he ascended it, the palm trunk cried out like a child. He came down and embraced it; it was moaning like a soothed child. He said, “It is weeping for what it used to hear of the remembrance of Allah beside it.” Al-Bukhārī recorded this, and a number of others narrated it from Jābir as well.

Abū Ḥafṣ ibn al-ʿAlāʾ al-Māzinī—whose name was ʿUmar—related from Nāfiʿ, from ʿAbd Allah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to deliver the sermon leaning against a palm trunk. When a pulpit was set up for him, the trunk yearned for him until he approached it, stroked it, and it became quiet.

Al-Bukhārī recorded this through Ibn al-Muthannā, from