(tanṭufu) – that is, “it drips”; an-nuṭf are the droplets.
(yatakaffafūn) – meaning: “they scoop up with their hands.”
(sabab) – meaning: “a rope.”

122 – “By Him in Whose hand is my soul, the Hour will not be established until the beasts of prey speak to human beings, a man’s whip-cord and the strap of his sandal speak to him, and his own thigh tells him what his family did after he left.”

Imām Aḥmad narrated it (3/83–84): Yazīd related to us; al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl al-Ḥadaʾī informed us, from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī, who said:

“A wolf attacked a sheep and carried it off. The shepherd pursued it and snatched the animal away. The wolf then sat back on its tail and said, ‘Will you not fear Allah? You have taken from me a provision that Allah had sent to me.’ The man exclaimed, ‘How astonishing—a wolf, sitting on its tail, talking to me with human speech!’ The wolf replied, ‘Shall I not tell you of something even more astonishing? Muḥammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is in Yathrib telling the people news of what has passed before!’

“So the shepherd set off, driving his flock, until he entered Madinah. He penned the sheep into one of its corners and went to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and informed him. The Messenger of Allah ordered that the call be made, ‘Prayer in congregation!’ He came out and said to the shepherd, ‘Tell them.’ The shepherd told the story, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘He has spoken the truth, by Him in Whose hand is my soul…’ ” (and the ḥadith continues).

I (al-Albānī) say: Its chain is sound; its narrators are trustworthy—indeed the men of Muslim—except for al-Qāsim, and he too is unanimously deemed reliable; Muslim recorded from him in the introduction to his Ṣaḥīḥ.

Ibn Ḥibbān also recorded the ḥadith (2109), and al-Ḥākim recorded it in two places (4/467, 467-468) and said, “Authentic according to the criteria of Muslim.”