Hadith No: 5
Al-Isbahani - Dalail al-Nubuwwah - Chapter Eighteen: Mentioning the Narrations of the Complaint of Beasts and Wild Animals and Their Prostration to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) and What Was Preserved from Their Words During His Time, Including the Words of a Wolf - Mention of a Gazelle and a Horned Lizard
Volume: (1) - Page Number: (376)
275 - Suleiman ibn Ahmad narrated to us, via dictation and recitation, who said: Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Walid al-Sulami al-Basri narrated to us, who said: Abu Bakr narrated to us from his book, who said: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Ala al-Sanani narrated to us, who said: Mu'tamir ibn Sulayman narrated to us, who said: Kahmas ibn al-Hasan narrated to us, who said: Dawud ibn Abi Hind narrated to us, who said: Amir al-Sha'bi narrated to us, who said: Abdullah ibn Umar narrated to us from his father, with a narration about the horned lizard, that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) was in a gathering of his companions when a Bedouin from Banu Sulaym came, who had caught a horned lizard and placed it in his cloak, intending to take it to his tent and eat it. He said, "What is this group gathered here?" They replied, "Upon this one who claims to be a prophet." Then people parted, and he turned to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) and said, "O Muhammad, no woman has ever given birth to one with a more deceitful demeanor than you, or one more hateful to me than you. If it were not that you would call me impatient, I would act quickly and kill you, and I would take delight in killing you before all these people." Umar ibn al-Khattab said, "O Messenger of Allah, let me kill him." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) replied, "O Umar, do you not know that the forbearing is almost a prophet?" Then he turned back to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) and said, "By al-Lat and al-Uzza, I will not believe in you." The Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) said, "Why, O Bedouin? What led you to say what you said, and to speak untruths, and to show no respect in my presence?" He replied, "And you would speak to me again, showing contempt for the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny)? By al-Lat and al-Uzza, I will not believe in you unless this horned lizard believes in you." He then took the horned lizard from his cloak and placed it before the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny), saying, "If this horned lizard believes in you, I will believe." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) said,
"O horned lizard," and the horned lizard spoke with a clear Arabic tongue that all the people could understand, "Here I am at your service, O Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) asked, "And who do you worship, O horned lizard?" It replied, "Allah, who has His Throne in the heaven, His dominion on the earth, His path in the sea, His mercy in paradise, and His punishment in the Fire." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) asked, "So who am I, O horned lizard?" It replied, "You are the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds and the Seal of the Prophets. Blessed is he who believes in you, and wretched is he who denies you." The Bedouin said, "I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and that you are truly the Messenger of Allah." He continued, "By Allah, I came to you with no one on the face of the earth more hateful to me than you, but by Allah, you are now dearer to me than myself and my own children. I believe with my heart, my body, my inner being, my outer being, my secret, and my public." The Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) said to him, "Praise be to Allah who has guided you to this religion that is exalted and cannot be surpassed. Allah does not accept it except through prayer, and prayer is not accepted except with the Quran." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) taught him to recite al-Hamd and to say, "Say, He is Allah, One." The Bedouin said, "O Messenger of Allah, I have not heard anything in the open plain or in rhymes more beautiful than this." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) replied, "This is the speech of the Lord of the Worlds and not poetry. If you recite: {Say, He is Allah, One} (Surah Ikhlas 112:1), it is as if you have recited a third of the Quran. If you recite: {Say, He is Allah, One} twice, it is as if you have recited two-thirds of the Quran. And if you recite: {Say, He is Allah, One} three times, it is as if you have recited the entire Quran." The Bedouin said, "Our God is truly the best of gods, who accepts the little and grants the abundance." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) said, "Give to the Bedouin." So they gave him until he was overwhelmed. Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf stood up and said, "O Messenger of Allah, I wish to give him a she-camel as a means of drawing closer to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, one that is better than a Bactrian camel and not as good as an Arabian one, and it is pregnant, able to catch up, yet not lose him. It was a gift to me." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) said, "You have described what you wish to give. I will describe to you what Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will give you in return." He replied, "Yes." The Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) said, "You will have a she-camel made of shining pearl, hollow inside, with limbs of green emerald, and upon it will be a canopy of silk and brocade. It will pass you on the Sirat (Bridge) like a flashing lightning." The Bedouin left the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) and encountered a thousand Bedouins on a thousand mounts, with a thousand spears and a thousand swords. He said to them, "Where are you going?" They replied, "We are going to fight this one who lies and claims to be a prophet." The Bedouin said, "I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." They replied, "You have apostatized." He said, "I have not." He informed them of the story, and they all said, "I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." This reached the Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny), and he received them. They dismounted from their mounts, kissing what they had turned away from, and saying, "There is no deity but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." They said, "Command us with an action you love, O Messenger of Allah." He replied, "You will be under the banner of Khalid ibn al-Walid." None of the Arabs among them felt secure from a thousand men except for those from Banu Sulaym.