my Lord concerning this need of mine; so fulfil it for me. O Allah, accept his intercession on my behalf.’

In another version he said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have no one to lead me, and the matter has become difficult for me,’ and he related the rest of the report.

ʿUthmān (ibn Ḥunayf) added, ‘By Allah, we had not dispersed, nor had the conversation gone on for long, before the man came in as though he had never suffered any ailment at all.’

Al-Tirmidhī said: ‘A sound (ṣaḥīḥ) hadith.’

[Influence on trees and wood as one of the signs of his prophethood, peace be upon him]

The Third Category
His effect upon trees and wood: In the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is narrated from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh that he said, ‘The mosque was roofed with trunks of date-palms. Whenever the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—delivered the sermon, he would stand next to one of those trunks. When the pulpit was constructed and he stood upon it, we heard that trunk emit a sound like the moaning of a she-camel about to calve, until the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—came…’