ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥah al-Anṣārī related to me that Anas ibn Mālik said:
“A year of drought struck the people during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. While the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was delivering the Friday sermon from the pulpit, a Bedouin stood up and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, our wealth has been destroyed and our dependants are hungry; supplicate Allah to send us rain.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ raised his hands—when there was not a single cloudlet in the sky—and, by Him in whose hand is my soul, he had not yet lowered them before clouds like mountains surged forth. He had not even stepped down from the pulpit before I saw the rain running down his beard.
We were rained on that day, the next day, the day after, and the day following, until the next Friday. Then that same Bedouin—or someone else—stood and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, the buildings have collapsed and the property is drowning; pray to Allah for us.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ raised his hands and said,
‘O Allah, around us and not upon us.’
Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ pointed toward any part of the sky it would open up, until Madīnah looked like a hollow basin. The Valley of Qanāh flowed for an entire month, and no one came from any direction without reporting abundant rain (1).
Al-Bukhārī also recorded this report in the chapter on Jumuʿah, and Muslim (2) through the narration of al-Walīd from al-Awzāʿī.
Al-Bukhārī further said: Ayyūb ibn Sulaymān related to me: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Uways told me, from Sulaymān ibn Bilāl. He said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd said, ‘I heard Anas ibn Mālik say: A Bedouin from the desert came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a Friday and said, “O Messenger of Allah, the livestock have perished, the dependants are starving, the people are ruined.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ lifted his hands in supplication, and the people lifted their hands with him. We had not yet left the mosque before rain began to fall, and it continued until the following Friday. The man then came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, the traveler is worn out and the roads are impassable” (3).’
Al-Bukhārī said: al-Uwaysī—meaning ʿAbd Allāh—told me: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar, who is Ibn Kathīr, narrated to us from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd and Sharik, both of whom heard Anas say that the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands until I could see the whiteness of his armpits (4). Al-Bukhārī thus cited these two reports in suspended form, and none of the compilers of the Six Books have transmitted them with a fully connected chain.
He also said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr narrated to us; Muʿtamar related to us from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Thābit, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Prophet ﷺ was delivering the sermon on a Friday when the people stood up and cried out, ‘O Messenger of Allah, drought has…’