and a man stood up and said, “I will.” He asked, “Will you make it?” He replied, “Yes, if Allah wills.” He said, “What is your name?” He answered, “Ibrāhīm.” He said, “Then make it.”

When Friday came, the people gathered for the Prophet ﷺ at the rear of the mosque. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ascended the pulpit, stood upon it, and faced the congregation, the palm-trunk moaned so loudly that I heard it while I was at the far end of the mosque. He related: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came down from the pulpit and embraced it, and did not let go until it quieted. He then returned to the pulpit, praised Allah and extolled Him, and said,

“This palm-trunk cried only out of longing for the Messenger of Allah when he parted from it. By Allah, had I not come down and embraced it, it would not have ceased until the Day of Resurrection.”

This chain of transmission meets Muslim’s criteria, yet the account itself is unusual. Allah most high knows best.

Another route from Abū Saʿīd:

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā (1) said: Masrūq ibn al-Marzubān narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā narrated to us, from Mujālid, from Abū al-Wadāk—who is Jabr ibn Nawf—from Abū Saʿīd, who said:

“The Prophet ﷺ used to stand at a palm-trunk, leaning on it, delivering the sermon every Friday, until a man from Byzantium (2) came to him and said, ‘If you wish, I can make something for you which, when you sit upon it, will make you appear as though you are standing.’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ So he made him the pulpit. When he sat upon it, the trunk cried like a she-camel yearning for its calf, until the Prophet ﷺ came down and placed his hand upon it. The next day I saw that it had been moved, so we asked, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came last night with Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, and they moved it.’ ”

This report is also unusual. (3)

The eighth narration is from ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her:

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym (4) also transmitted it through the report of ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Jūrabī, from Qabīṣah, from Ḥayyān ibn ʿAlī, from Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥayyān, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah, from ʿĀʾishah. He recorded the narration in full, wherein the Prophet offered the trunk the choice between this world and the Hereafter; it chose the Hereafter, then it sank into the ground until it disappeared and was no longer seen. (5)

This ḥadīth is peculiar in both its chain and its content.