(3) Quite a number of stories tell how trees and stones saluted Muhammad as the Apostle of God, and how trees followed him or moved at his command. From these we select one, though modesty requires the omission of some words in it. The story is told by Muslim ¹ on the authority of Jabir: "We travelled with the Apostle of God until we descended into a spacious valley . . . . And lo! two trees at the edge of the valley . . . . The Apostle of God took hold of a branch of one of them, and said, 'Follow me, with God's permission.' Accordingly it followed him, like the camel with a nose-ring which comes slowly after its guide, until he came to the other tree. He took hold of one of its branches and said 'Follow me with God's permission,' And it followed him thus, until he was to the midst of the space between them. He said, 'Meet above me, with the permission of God.' Then they met." Jabir goes on to say that, glancing aside quietly he himself saw that, when Muhammad had done with the trees, they returned to their places.

(4) As a specimen of another class of asserted miracles we select the following, given by Anas.² "Verily there was a man who used to write for the Prophet. Then he apostatized from Islam and joined the Polytheists. Accordingly the Prophet said: 'Verily the earth shall not receive him.' Abu Talhah therefore informed me that he came to the land in which the man had died, and found him cast out. He said, 'What is the matter with this man?' They said, 'We have buried him several times, and the earth would not receive him.'" Muslim men of learning have never been able to agree who this unfortunate man was.

(5) On the authority of the same Jabir, Al Bukhari tells the following story.³ " The Prophet, when preaching, had leaned on the trunk of a date-palm, one of the columns of the Mosque. When, therefore, the pulpit

was made for him and he stood upon it, the date-palm by which he was wont to preach cried out so that it was near splitting. Accordingly the Prophet descended till he took it and pressed it to him. Then it began to wail with the wailing of the babe which is being soothed to silence, until it was pacified. He said, 'It wept because it was not [any longer] listening to the Warning.'"¹

(6) At Tirmidhi and Ad Darimi ² relate the following tale on the authority of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib "I ³ was with the Prophet at Mecca. We went out into one of its neighbouring districts. No mountain or tree met him that did not say, 'Peace be upon thee, O Apostle of God."'

(7) Ibn 'Abbas is the authority for the following. "Verily ⁴ a woman brought a son of hers to the Apostle of God, and she said: 'O Apostle of God, verily my son has a demon in him, and verily he surely seizes him at our breakfast and our supper.' Therefore the Apostle of God rubbed his chest and prayed. Accordingly [the child] vomited, and there came out from within him as it were a black whelp."

(8) Ad Darimi tells ⁵ the story of how Muhammad on one occasion called a thorn-tree to come to him. It came, ploughing up the ground, and stood before him: and at his bidding it thrice recited the words, "There is no god but God alone: He hath no partner and Muhammad is His servant and His Apostle."

(9) At Tirmidhi vouches for the truth of the tale that,⁵ at Muhammad's command, a bunch of dates fell from a date-palm, to prove to an Arab of the Desert that Muhammad was a Prophet. Then, at his bidding, the bunch of dates returned to its former position on the tree.

(10) In the First Part of the Turkish work entitled