the supporting trunk trembled like the plaintive cry of a she-camel, so that everyone in the mosque could hear it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then came down to it and embraced it, whereupon it became calm. Rūḥ’s version says: “and it fell silent.” This chain of transmission meets the criteria set by Muslim, yet it has not been recorded by him.
Another route from Jābir:
Imām Aḥmad (1) said: “Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAdī narrated to us, from Sulaymān, from Abū Naḍrah, from Jābir, who said:
‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to stand at the base of a tree—or he said: beside a trunk—until a pulpit was made for him. The trunk groaned,’ Jābir continued, ‘so that the people in the mosque could hear it, until the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to it, stroked it, and it quieted. Some of them remarked, “Had he not come to it, it would have groaned forever, until the Day of Resurrection.”’
This isnād likewise satisfies Muslim’s conditions, and it is reported only by Ibn Mājah (2) through Bakr ibn Khalaf, from Ibn Abī ʿAdī, from Sulaymān al-Taymī, from Abū Naḍrah—al-Mundhir ibn Mālik ibn Qiṭʿah al-ʿAbdī al-Naḍrī—from Jābir, with the same wording.
The fourth narration, from Sahl ibn Saʿd:
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah (4) said: “Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from Abū Ḥāzim, who said: People came to Sahl ibn Saʿd and asked, ‘From what was the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made?’ He replied, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would lean against a trunk in the mosque and pray toward it when he delivered the sermon. When the pulpit was built and he ascended it, the trunk yearned, until the Messenger of Allah ﷺ went to it and soothed it, and it became still.’”
The original version of this ḥadīth is found in both Ṣaḥīḥs (5), and its chain meets their standards. It was also transmitted by Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh and Ibn Abī Fudayk, from ʿAbd al-Muhaymin ibn ʿAbbās ibn Sahl ibn Saʿd, from his father, from his grandfather; and by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nāfiʿ and Ibn Wahb, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from ʿAbbās ibn Sahl, from his father, with similar wording. Ibn Lahīʿah likewise reported it from ʿImārah ibn ʿArafah, from Ibn ʿAbbās ibn Sahl ibn Saʿd, from his father, in comparable form.
The fifth narration, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās:
Imām Aḥmad (6) said: “ʿAffān narrated to us; Ḥammād narrated to us, from ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār, from Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with him—:”