What is meant here is springs rather than rivers. “And among them are those that descend”—that is, they descend from the top of a mountain to its bottom—“out of fear of Allah”; yet your hearts, O assembly of Jews, neither soften nor humble themselves. If it is asked: “A stone is inanimate and does not understand, so how can it fear?” (1) The answer is: Allah enables it to understand and inspires it, and thus it fears through His inspiration.
The doctrine of the people of the Sunna and the community is that Allah, exalted is He, has placed in inanimate things and all other living creatures a form of knowledge—though not rational intellect—that none other than Him can comprehend. Thus, they have prayer, glorification, and fear, as He, glorious is His mention, says: “There is not a thing but that it glorifies Him with His praise” (al-Isrāʾ 17:44); and He says: “And the birds, spreading their wings—each knows its prayer and its glorification” (al-Nūr 24:41); and He says: “Have you not seen that whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth prostrates to Allah, as do the sun and the moon” (al-Ḥajj 22:18), and so on in the verse. It is therefore incumbent upon the believer (2) to believe in this and entrust knowledge of it to Allah, Mighty and Majestic.
It is narrated that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was on Mount Thabīr while the disbelievers were pursuing him. The mountain said, “Get down from me, for I fear that you may be captured while upon me, and that Allah will punish me because of that.” Mount Ḥirāʾ then said to him, “Come to me, Messenger of Allah.”
Imam Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Qāḍī informed us: Sayyid Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAlawī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Naysābūrī informed us; Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ṣāʾigh informed us; Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bakr informed us; Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān, from Simāk ibn Ḥarb, from Jābir ibn Samurah, who said: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “I know of a stone in Mecca that used to greet me before I was sent, and I know it now.” (3) [This is an authentic hadith; Muslim transmitted it from Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bakr.]
It is authentically reported from Anas that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—ascended Mount Uḥud and said, “This is a mountain that loves us, and we love it.” (4) It is also narrated from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—led us in the dawn prayer, then turned to face the people and said: “While a man was driving a cow, he became tired, so he rode it and struck it. The cow said, ‘We were not created for this; rather, we were created to till the land.’” The people said, “Glory be to Allah! A cow speaks?!” The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “I believe it, as do Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, though neither of them was present.” He then said: “While a man was among his sheep, a wolf attacked one of them. Its owner caught up with it and rescued it, whereupon the wolf said, ‘Then who will tend it on the Day of the Beast?’—that is, the Day of Resurrection, the day when it will have no shepherd but me.” The people said, “Glory be to Allah! A wolf—