The fifth form: He supplicated for rain at Ahjār al-Zayt (the Oil Stones), near al-Zawrā’ (1). This lies outside the mosque gate now called Bāb al-Salām (the Gate of Peace), about a stone’s throw away, with a turn (2) to the right as one leaves the mosque.
The sixth form: He supplicated for rain during one of his military expeditions, when the polytheists reached the water before him. The Muslims suffered from thirst and complained to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). Some of the hypocrites said, “If he were a prophet, he would supplicate for rain for his people, as Moses did for his people.” When this reached the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), he said: “Have they really said that? Perhaps your Lord will grant you rain. Then he stretched out his hands and supplicated.” Before he lowered his hands from his supplication, clouds shaded them and rain fell upon them. The floodwaters filled the valley, and the people drank and quenched their thirst (3).
(1) Reported by Ahmad (21944) and Abū Dāwūd (1168, 1172) from ‘Umayr, the client of Ābī al-Lahm. Ibn Hibbān (878, 879) and al-Albānī in Sahīh Abī Dāwūd—al-Umm (4/331) graded it authentic. Ahmad (21943), al-Tirmidhī (557), and al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (1514) and al-Kubrā (1833) also transmitted it through another route, from ‘Umayr, the client of Ābī al-Lahm, from Ābī al-Lahm. This is an error, and al-Tirmidhī appears to have questioned it. See the editors’ comments on al-Musnad (21944).
(2) ج reads “tan‘atifu” (it turns); the adopted reading is from م. In the other witnesses, the imperfect-tense prefix is unmarked.
(3) Al-Sunan wa-l-Ahkām by al-Diyā’ al-Maqdisī (2431). Abū ‘Awānah (2514) transmitted it from ‘Ā’ishah bint Sa‘d, from her father, Sa‘d ibn Abī Waqqās. Ibn Abī al-Dunyā transmitted a similar report in al-Matar wa-l-Ra‘d wa-l-Barq (66). In al-Badr al-Munīr (5/166), Ibn al-Mulaqqin thought that it met Muslim’s criteria because Abū ‘Awānah included it in his Sahīh. However, al-Hāfiz stated in al-Talkhīs al-Habīr (3/1138): “It contains many unusual expressions; Abū ‘Awānah transmitted it through a very weak chain.” Its chain includes Abū ‘Awānah’s teacher, ‘Abd Allāh ibn Muhammad al-Ansārī, namely al-Balawī al-Madīnī. Al-Dhahabī stated in Mīzān al-I‘tidāl (2/491): “Al-Dāraqutnī said: ‘He fabricates hadith.’ I say: Abū ‘Awānah transmitted from him a fabricated report concerning supplication for rain in his Sahīh.” Al-Hāfiz stated in Lisān al-Mīzān (4/563): “He is the author of the account of al-Shāfi‘ī’s journey, which he expanded and embellished; most of what he included in it is fabricated.” See also Lisān al-Mīzān (7/233) and Sahīh Abī ‘Awānah, Islamic University edition (7/63–65).