“If you had seen him, you would have thought the very sun was rising.”⦗1⦘

Ibn Ḥāmid also set alongside Joseph’s (peace be upon him) trial of separation and exile the emigration of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from Mecca to Madinah—his leaving his homeland, his family, and the companions who had remained there.

A discourse on the clear signs granted to Moses (peace be upon him)

Foremost among them are the nine signs, as Allah the Exalted says:
“Indeed, We gave Moses nine clear signs.” (Al-Isrāʾ 17:101)

We have already explained these in the Qurʾān commentary⦗2⦘, citing the statements of the early scholars, their differences of opinion, and noting that the majority hold them to be:
• the staff when it turned into a serpent moving swiftly;
• the hand—when he placed it inside the opening of his cloak and brought it out again, it shone like a brilliant piece of the moon;
• his supplication against Pharaoh’s people when they denied him, whereupon Allah sent upon them the flood, locusts, lice, frogs, and blood—distinct signs, as we have detailed in the Tafsīr⦗3⦘;
• and likewise Allah’s afflicting them with the years of scarcity—diminished grain; with drought—diminished fruit; with devastating death—loss of life; and, according to one opinion, with the deluge.

Among the signs, too, were the parting of the sea that saved the Children of Israel and drowned the household of Pharaoh; the cloud that shaded the Israelites in the wilderness; the descent of manna and quails; and his providing them with water such that Allah caused it to gush from a rock they carried on a beast of burden. The rock had four faces, and when Moses struck it with his staff, three springs burst forth from each face—one spring for every tribe—then he would strike it again and the rock would be uprooted. Many other dazzling signs likewise occurred, as we have set out in the Tafsīr and in the account of Moses (peace be upon him) in this book’s section on the Stories of the Prophets—praise and favor belong to Allah—such as the slaying of all who had worshipped the calf, after which Allah restored them to life, and the story of the cow.

As for the staff, our shaykh, the eminent Ibn al-Zamlakānī, said: “Concerning the staff of Moses coming to life, the very pebbles glorified Allah in the palm of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, even though they were inanimate; the ḥadith about this is authentic.”⦗4⦘ This report is well known from al-Zuhrī, from a man, from Abū Dharr, and we have already presented it in full in Proofs of Prophethood, making repetition unnecessary.

It is also said that the pebbles glorified Allah in the hands⦗5⦘ of Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, just as they had in the hand of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and it was remarked, “This is the caliphate of prophethood.”

The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir relates with his chain to Bakr ibn Khunays, from a man he named, that Abū Muslim al-Khawlānī used to carry a string of prayer-beads with which he glorified Allah. One night he fell asleep with the beads still in his hand; the beads turned and wound themselves around his arm…