I say: We have already quoted from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh a report similar to the incident of the two trees, and a little earlier we related from several other Companions something akin to the story of the camel—though the wording seems to differ from the present version; Allah knows best.

The narration of the boy who used to be seized by fits, for whom the Prophet ﷺ prayed and who was cured on the spot, will appear later through other chains.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī has transmitted—through Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim and others—from Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aṣamm, from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, from Yūnus ibn Bukayr, from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, from Abū az-Zubayr, from Jābir, who said:

“I set out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a journey. Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wished to relieve himself, he would go so far away that no one could see him. We halted at a barren stretch of land where there was neither landmark nor tree, and he said to me,

‘O Jābir, take the water-skin and come with me.’

I filled the skin with water and we set off, walking until we were almost out of sight of the caravan. Between us and the horizon were two trees standing a few cubits apart. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

‘O Jābir, go to that tree and say: “The Messenger of Allah commands you to join your companion so that I may sit behind the two of you.”’

I conveyed the message and returned; the tree moved over to its companion, and he sat behind them until he had relieved himself.

We came back, mounted our rides, and travelled on in such stillness that it was as though birds were shading our heads. Presently a woman stopped the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, this son of mine is seized by the devil three times every day; he never leaves him.’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ halted, took the boy, placed him between himself and the saddle-front, and said,

‘Be gone, enemy of Allah, for I am the Messenger of Allah!’

He repeated this three times, then handed the child back to her. When we returned and were at the same watering-place, the woman came again, leading two rams and carrying the boy. She said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, please accept my gift. By the One Who sent you with the truth, he has never been afflicted again.’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Take one of them and return the other.’

Jābir continued: We travelled on with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ among us, when a runaway camel approached. As it came between the two lines of riders it fell down in prostration. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked, ‘People, whose camel is this?’

Some young men of the Anṣār replied, ‘It is ours, O Messenger of Allah.’

He said, ‘What is the matter with it?’

They answered, ‘It has carried loads for us for twenty years. Now that it is old and has put on some fat, we wanted to slaughter it and divide it among our boys.’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Will you sell it to me?’

They said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, it is yours.’

He said, ‘Treat it kindly until its appointed time comes.’

They said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, we are more deserving than the animals to prostrate to you.’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, ‘It is not permissible for any human being to prostrate to another human being. Had it been permissible, women would have been ordered to prostrate to their husbands.’(1)

Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Mājah (2) have likewise narrated, through Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī aṣ-Ṣafrāʾ, from Abū