The Second: This is the famous story of Shat b. Mas‘ud: before becoming a Muslim,  Ibn  Mas‘ud  used  to  act  as  a  shepherd  for  a  number  of  people.  God’s Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) went together with Abu Bakr the Veracious  to  the  place  where  Ibn  Mas‘ud  and  his  goats  were.  God’s  Messenger (UWBP) asked Ibn Mas‘ud for some milk. On replying that they were not his but someone else’s, the Messenger (UWBP) told him to bring him a barren, dry goat. So he brought a nanny-goat that had not been mated for two years. God’s Messenger (UWBP) stroked its teets with his hand and prayed. Then they milked it, and obtained sweet  milk  which  they  drank.  Ibn  Mas‘ud  came  to  believe  after  witnessing  this miracle. [249]

The Third: This is the well-known story of Halima Sa‘diya, the foster mother, that is, wet-nurse,  of the Noble Messenger  (Upon whom be blessings  and peace). There was drought  where the tribe was found,  and all the animals  were thin and without milk. They could not find sufficient to eat. But when the Messenger (UWBP) was sent to his foster mother there, through the blessing he brought, Halima Sa‘diya’s goats  would  return  in  the  evening  with  both  their  stomachs  and  their  teets  full, contrary to everyone else’s.

There are further instances in the books of biography similar to these, but these examples are sufficient for our purpose. [250]

N i n t h  E x a m p l e : We shall recount here a few out of many instances of wonders which were manifested  after God’s Messenger  (Upon whom be blessings and peace) had touched the faces and heads of certain people, and prayed.

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[248] Tabrizi, Mishkat al-Masabih (Tahqiq: al-Albani), no: 5943: al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id, vi, 58; viii, 313; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, ii, 109; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya, iii, 190-1; Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma’ad, iii, 55, 57; Ibn Sa’d, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, i, 230-1.

[249] Musnad (Tahqiq: Ahmad Shakir), v, 210 no: 3598; Ibn Hibban, Sahih, viii, 149; Ibn Kathir, al- Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya, vi, 102.

[250] al-Sa’ati, al-Fath al-Rabbani, xx, 192-3; al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id, viii, 220-1; Abu Nu’aym, Dala’il al-Nubuwwa, i, 111-3; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya, ii, 273; Qadi Iyad, al- Shifa’, i, 366; ‘Ali al-Qari, Sharh al-Shifa’, i, 750; al-Khafaji, Sharh al-Shifa’, iii, 313.