We have already related above the ḥadīth of Jābir¹ and the story of his camel that had grown exhausted on the army’s return from the Tabūk expedition. Because the camel lagged at the rear of the column, the Prophet ﷺ caught up with him, prayed for the animal and struck it, whereupon it moved at a pace it had never shown before, even overtaking the people at the front. We also mentioned that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ bought the camel from Jābir and noted the considerable disagreement among the transmitters over the price—differences that do not affect the substance of the report, as we have explained.
Earlier we also cited the ḥadīth of Anas² concerning the Prophet ﷺ mounting Abū Ṭalḥah’s horse when the people of Madinah heard a commotion. The horse had been regarded as slow, yet he rode out on it while the other horsemen galloped toward the sound. They met the Messenger of Allah ﷺ already on his way back after investigating the matter and finding nothing. He had ridden the horse bare-back, wearing only a sword slung over his shoulder, and was saying:
‘Do not be alarmed! Do not be alarmed! We found nothing; and had there been anything, it would have been like the sea’—
meaning: faster than all others. The horse had been sluggish before that night; afterwards no mount could keep up with it or stir dust ahead of it—and all of that was by virtue of his blessing ﷺ.
A further, unusual narration about a camel:
Shaykh Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥāmid al-Faqīh says in his book Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah—a large, valuable volume: Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī told me; Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Shahlān al-Qawwās narrated to us; Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Khālid al-Rāsibī narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī al-Baṣrī narrated to us; Salāmah ibn Saʿīd ibn Ziyād ibn Abī Hind al-Rāzī narrated to us; my father related to me, from his father, from his grandfather; Ghunayn³ ibn Aws—i.e. al-Rāzī—reported:
We were sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when a camel came running until it stopped before him, trembling with fear. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Calm down, camel! If what you claim is true, the truth will stand you in good stead; if you are lying, the lie will recoil upon you. Moreover, Allah Most High has granted safety to whoever seeks refuge with us, and none who takes shelter with us need fear.’
We asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what is this camel saying?’ He replied, ‘Its owners intended to slaughter it, so it fled from them and has sought refuge with your Prophet.’
While we were still there, its owners came running up; when the camel saw them it pressed its head against the crown of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. They said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, this is our camel. It ran away from us three days ago and we have just found it here before you.’
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘It is lodging a bitter complaint.’
They asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what does it say?’ He answered, ‘It says that it was reared among your camels as a suckling calf. During the summer you would load it up and drive it to the pasture, and when winter came you would move to a warmer place.’
They said, ‘That is precisely what happened, O Messenger of Allah.’ He then asked, ‘What recompense is due from masters to a righteous servant?’
They replied: