‘How strange! Can wolves speak?’ The wolf said to him: ‘You’re the strange one, for beyond the hill is someone calling you to Paradise. He is a Messenger of God, yet you do not recognize him!’” Although all the lines of transmission agree on the wolf’s speech, in his report, which has a strong line, Abu Hurayra says: “The shepherd said to the wolf: ‘I am going to see him, but who will look after my goats?’ The wolf replied: ‘I’ll look after them.’ So the shepherd handed over the herd to the wolf and went to see the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), believed in him, and returned to his herd. The shepherd found the wolf; not a goat had been lost. So he slaughtered one for the wolf, for it had become his teacher.”(249)

According to one chain of transmission, one of the chiefs of Quraysh, Abu Sufyan, and Safwan saw a wolf pursuing a gazelle into the enclosure of the Ka‘ba. As it returned, the wolf spoke, telling of the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH). They were astonished. Abu Sufyan said to Safwan: ‘Don’t let’s tell anyone of this; I’m frightened everyone will join him and Makkah will be emptied.’(250)

------------------------------------------
(249) Musnad iii, 83, 88; Musnad (Tahqiq: Ahmad Shakir) xv, 202-3, nos: 8049, 11864, 11867; Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa: i, 310; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak iv, 467; Ibn Hibban, Sahih viii, 144; al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id viii, 291-2; al-Sa’ati, al-Fath al-Rabbani xx, 240; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya vi, 141.
(250) Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa: i, 311; al-Khafaji, Sharh al-Shifa: iii, 84.