Al-Anṣārī narrated:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked for rain on a Friday, saying, ‘O Allah, give us rain! O Allah, give us rain!’ Abu Lubābah then stood and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, the dates are lying in the drying yards and we see not a single cloud in the sky.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ invoked, ‘O Allah, send us rain until Abu Lubābah is forced to rise and plug the holes of his date yard with his cloak.’

The sky at once gathered clouds and rain began to fall. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in prayer. People went to Abu Lubābah saying, ‘O Abu Lubābah, by Allah the sky will not clear until you get up bare-bodied and block the holes of your drying yard with your cloak, just as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said.’ So Abu Lubābah rose without his upper garment and stuffed the holes of his yard with his cloak, whereupon the sky cleared.

This chain of transmission is sound (ḥasan); neither Aḥmad nor the authors of the standard collections have recorded it. Allah knows best.

A similar petition for rain occurred on the march during the expedition of Tabūk. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb said: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith related to me, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, from ʿUtbah ibn Abī ʿUtbah, from Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, that some people said to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ‘Tell us about the Hour of Hardship.’ He replied:

‘We set out for Tabūk in the fiercest heat. We halted at a place where thirst struck us so violently that we thought our necks would break. One of us would go off looking for a saddle-strap and could not find it, and would fear his neck was about to snap. A man would even slaughter his camel, squeeze its entrails, drink what came out, and smear the remainder over his body.

Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq said, “O Messenger of Allah, Allah has always granted you good through your supplications; pray to Him for us.” The Prophet ﷺ asked, “Do you wish me to do so?” He answered, “Yes.” The Prophet ﷺ then raised his hands toward the sky and did not lower them until the heaven rumbled, the clouds massed, and a downpour came. They filled every container they had. We went out to look and found that the clouds had not passed beyond the camp.’

This isnād is strong and reliable, though it is not found in the canonical collections.

Al-Wāqidī said: ‘The Muslims had with them on this expedition twelve thousand camels and an equal number of horses, and they were thirty thousand fighting men. Such heavy rain fell that the earth was drenched and the pools overflowed into one another, and that was in the very midst of the blazing summer heat—that is, the height of extreme heat. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him.’

He ﷺ has many other such occurrences related in authentic reports—praise be to Allah.

It was mentioned earlier that when he supplicated against Quraysh after they persisted in defiance—asking that Allah afflict them with a seven-year drought like that of Joseph—they were indeed afflicted.