Quote · A few years into the Madani period
If I hadn't hugged it, it would have cried until the Day of Judgment.
Said of the tree stump he had used as his first minbar, after he came down to embrace it when it wept upon being replaced.
In the early Madani period, the Prophet ﷺ gave his khutbah standing on a tree stump, stepping down for sajdah; the stump stood toward one side of the Masjid, since one cannot choose exactly where a tree grows. As money came in, a sahabi recommended a custom pulpit be built, and one of the ladies of the Ansar had a servant trained in carpentry construct a three-step minbar, which was placed in the middle of the Masjid. During the first khutbah given from the new minbar (witnessed by a Masjid packed with over 1,000 people) the sahaba heard a wailing like that of a baby camel coming from the abandoned stump. The Prophet ﷺ stopped the khutbah, came down from the minbar, hugged the stump, and patted it until it stopped. He then had the stump buried beneath his new minbar.
A witnessed miracle in which Allah let the sahaba hear the tree's longing for the Prophet ﷺ; later cited by scholars such as al-Hasan al-Basri to urge believers to yearn for the Prophet ﷺ even more.
Other events recorded around the same time. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
If I hadn't hugged it, it would have cried until the Day of Judgment.
Said of the tree stump he had used as his first minbar, after he came down to embrace it when it wept upon being replaced.
O believers, look. This was a tree that was crying because it wished to be with the Prophet ﷺ. Is it not more befitting that those of us who are men should cry even more to be with the Prophet ﷺ?
Said to his students while narrating the hadith of the crying stump.