a wolf charged at a sheep and seized it. The shepherd pursued it and snatched the sheep back. The wolf then sat on its haunches and said, “Do you not fear Allah? You have taken away from me a provision that Allah had sent to me!”

The shepherd exclaimed, “How astonishing—​a wolf speaking in human speech!”

The wolf replied, “Shall I tell you of something even more astonishing? Muhammad ﷺ is in Yathrib telling the people of what has already passed.”

The shepherd thereupon drove his flock until he reached Madinah, penned them into one of its corners, and went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to inform him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered that the call be made, “Gather for prayer!” He then came out and said to the shepherd, “Tell them.” So the shepherd told the people what had happened.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “He has spoken the truth. By Him in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, the Hour will not come until beasts of prey speak to human beings, a man is addressed by the tip of his whip and the strap of his sandal, and his own thigh tells him what his family did after he left.”

This chain of transmission fulfils the conditions of the Ṣaḥīḥ, and al-Bayhaqī declared it sound. Al-Tirmidhī (1) narrated only the wording: “By Him in whose hand is my soul, the Hour will not come until beasts of prey speak to people…” and so on, through Sufyān ibn Wakiʿ, from his father, from al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl. He then said, “This ḥadīth is ḥasan, gharīb, and ṣaḥīḥ; we know it only through al-Qāsim, and he is reliable and trustworthy in the sight of the ḥadīth scholars; Yaḥyā and Ibn Mahdī declared him reliable.”

Another route from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī:

Imām Aḥmad (2) said: Abū l-Yamān narrated to us; Shuʿayb informed us; ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Abī Ḥusayn narrated to me; Shahr narrated to me that Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī related to him that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“While a Bedouin was in one of the environs of Madinah tending his flock, a wolf attacked him and took a ewe from his flock. The Bedouin caught up with it, rescued the ewe, and raised a loud cry (3). The wolf stalked him, then sat down, tucking its tail beneath itself (4), and addressed him, saying, ‘You have taken away a provision that Allah had provided for me.’

He replied, ‘How amazing—​a wolf, tail tucked, speaking to me!’

The wolf said, ‘By Allah, you are leaving behind something even more amazing than this.’

He asked, ‘And what is more amazing than that?’

The wolf said, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ is between the two date-palm groves flanked by the two lava plains, telling the people of what has passed and of what is yet to come.’

So the Bedouin drove his flock, herded them into part of Madinah, and then went to the Prophet ﷺ and knocked at his door. When the Prophet ﷺ had prayed, he said, ‘Where is the Bedouin who owns the flock?’ The Bedouin stood up, and the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Tell the people what you heard and what you saw.’

The Bedouin then recounted to the people what he had seen of the wolf and what he had heard from it. Thereupon the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘He has spoken the truth. These are signs that will occur before the Hour. By Him in whose hand is my soul, the Hour will not come until one of you leaves his family and is informed by his own sandal, whip, or staff of what his family did after he left.’”