so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “This one has come (1) asking that a due share be fixed for him; therefore give him an allotment.”

They replied, “We defer to your judgment, O Messenger of Allah.”

He said, “From every pasturing herd, one sheep each year.”

They protested, “That is too much!” So he signaled to the wolf to take from them covertly, and the wolf went off. Al-Bayhaqī related this report. (2)

Al-Wāqidī also transmitted—through a man whom he named—from al-Muṭṭalib ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥanṭab, who said: “While the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was in Madinah, a wolf came and stood before him. He said, ‘This is the delegate of the wild beasts to you. If you wish, you may assign him something so that he will not go after anything else; but if you prefer, you may leave him alone and take precautions against him, and whatever he seizes will simply be his provision.’

“They said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, we do not feel inclined to give him anything.’ He then gestured to the wolf with three fingers to snatch from them as occasion arose, and it turned away, loping off in two bounds.” (4)(5)

Abū Nuʿaym said: “Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad told us; Muʿādh ibn al-Muthannā told us; Muḥammad ibn Kathīr told us; Sufyān told us; al-Aʿmash told us, from Shumr ibn ʿAṭiyyah, from a man of Muzaynah—or Juhaynah—who said: ‘Delegations of wolves—nearly a hundred of them—came when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had finished the prayer. They squatted on their haunches, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “These are delegations of wolves. They have come to ask you to allot them something from the food with which you are provided, so that you might be safe from anything else of yours being harmed.” The people complained to him of their own need, so he excused them. The wolves then went out, howling.’” (6)

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (7) discussed the hadith of the wolf, citing the reports of Abū Hurayrah, Abū Saʿīd, and Ahbān ibn Aws—who is therefore called “the man who spoke with the wolf.” He added that Ibn Wahb narrated a similar incident involving Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb and Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah: they saw a wolf seize a gazelle; when the gazelle entered the Sacred Precinct the wolf turned back. They were amazed, whereupon the wolf said, “More astonishing than this is Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh in Madinah—he calls you to Paradise while you call him to the Fire.” Abū Sufyān said, “By al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, if I relate this in Mecca, it will be left deserted.” (8)