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 years in Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ gave his khutbah (sermon) standing on a tree stump. When the mosque was first built, the Companions had cut down the trees on the site and left one stump for this purpose. It was large enough that he once led the prayer on it to show the Ansar how to pray, stepping down for the prostrations. Because no one can choose where a tree grows, the stump stood toward one side of the mosque.
As money came in, a Companion suggested building a proper pulpit. One of the women of the Ansar had a servant who was trained as a carpenter. He built a minbar (pulpit) with three steps, and it was placed in the middle of the mosque.
The first time the Prophet ﷺ gave the khutbah from the new minbar, the mosque was packed with over 1,000 people. The Companions heard a wailing like the cry of a baby camel, and they found that it came from the old stump. The Prophet ﷺ stopped the khutbah, came down from the minbar, and hugged the stump. He patted it until it stopped crying. 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.