Another ḥadīth:
Al-Bukhārī (1) said: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; Sufyān narrated to us; Abū al-Zinād narrated to us, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in the dawn prayer, then turned to the people and said:
“While a man was driving a cow he mounted it and struck it. The cow said, ‘We were not created for this; we were created for ploughing.’ The people exclaimed, ‘Glory be to Allah!—a cow that speaks!’ The Prophet replied, ‘I believe this, and so do Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, though neither of them is here.’
“And while another man was among his sheep, a wolf attacked and carried off a ewe. The man pursued it until he rescued the animal, whereupon the wolf said, ‘You have snatched her from me, but who will guard her on the Day of the Beast, a day when she will have no shepherd but me?’ The people said, ‘Glory be to Allah!—a wolf that speaks!’ The Prophet said, ‘I believe this, and so do Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, though neither of them is present.’ ”
He (7) also said: ʿAlī told us; Sufyān narrated to us, from Misʿar, from Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ in the same sense.
Al-Bukhārī recorded it with a continuous chain in the Book of Agriculture through ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī (9), and Muslim (10) through Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād, both from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah. Both of them also transmitted it through Shuʿbah, all from Misʿar. Al-Tirmidhī said: “ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.” (11)
(1) See vol. 6, p. 512, no. 3471 in Ahadith al-Anbiya’, chapter 54.
(2) Not found in ṭ.
(3) This reading appears in b, ṭ, and al-Bukhari; in a it reads “wa-hāhumā.”
(4) In ṭ: “fatlab.”
(5) “Yawm al-sab‘” (Day of the Seven): some interpret it as the Day of Resurrection but reject this due to inconsistency with the hadith’s continuation; others explain al-sab‘ as terror and panic; another view is that it refers to people altogether abandoning it during tribulations; yet another holds that it was a pre-Islamic festival during which people amused themselves and neglected their livestock. al-Nihaya fi Gharib al-Hadith 2:336–337.
(6) This reading appears in b, ṭ, and al-Bukhari; in a it reads “wa-hāhumā.”
(7) I.e., al-Bukhari, vol. 6, p. 512.
(8) The phrase “Ali said: he told us” is omitted in a but present in b, ṭ, and al-Bukhari.
(9) This is as in the author’s copy; in the printed edition of Sahih al-Bukhari the hadith of al-Muzara‘a (2314) is recorded only from Muhammad ibn Bashshar from Ghandar from Shu‘ba. It appears the author copied this from his teacher al-Mizzi’s Tuhfat al-Ashraf, which states: “Kh in al-Muzara‘a from Muhammad ibn Bashshar from Ghandar from Shu‘ba, and from ‘Ali from Sufyan from Mas‘ar, both from Sa‘d ibn Ibrahim.” (10/346, no. 14951, Dar al-Bashar ed.).
(10) Not in b. The hadith appears in its chains in Sahih Muslim, no. 2388, in the chapter on the virtues of the Companions, “On the virtues of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him).”
(11) Jami‘ at-Tirmidhi nos. 3677 and 3695.