peace). We shall mention only two or three which are well-known and certain, as examples:

The First: All the reliable books of the Prophet’s biography relate that when God’s Prophet and Abu Bakr the Veracious were migrating to Madinah, they came to the house of Umm Ma‘bad, called Atika Bint Khalid al-Khuza‘i. There was an extremely thin, barren, and dry goat there. God’s Messenger asked Umm Ma‘bad: “Has this no milk?” She replied: “It has no blood in its body, how should it produce milk?” The Prophet stroked its loins and teets, and prayed. Then he said: “Bring a vessel, and milk it.” They milked it, and after the Messenger and Abu Bakr had drunk, all the people of the house drank to repletion. The goat grew strong, and remained thus blessed.(237)

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 certain 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 asked Ibn Mas‘ud for some milk. On replying that they were not his but the property of someone else, God’s Messenger told him to bring him a barren, dry goat. So he brought a nanny-goat who had not been mated for two years. God’s

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(237) 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, Tabaqat al-Kubra i, 230-1.