1 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Walīd al-Salmī narrated to us, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlá al-Ṣanʿānī narrated to us, Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated to us, Khammas ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to us, Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind narrated to us, from ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī, narrated to us by ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from his father ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu), that the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) was in a gathering with his Companions when a Bedouin from Banī Sulaym, who had caught a lizard and placed it in his sleeve to take it to his camp, came and saw the group. He asked, "What is this gathering?" They said, "It is for this one who claims to be a prophet." The Bedouin then approached the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and said, "O Muḥammad, there is no one more deceitful or detestable than you among those born of women. If it were not for fear of being called hasty by my people, I would have killed you and found joy in doing so." ʿUmar (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) said, "O Messenger of Allāh, let me kill him." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said, "Do you not know that a patient person is almost a prophet?" Then he turned to the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and said, "By al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, I will not believe in you." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said to him, "O Bedouin, what made you say what you said, and say what is not true, and not honor my gathering?" He said, "Do you speak to me with disdain, O Muḥammad? By al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, I will not believe in you unless this lizard believes in you!" He took out the lizard from his sleeve and placed it before the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and said, "If this lizard believes in you, I will believe in you." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said, "O lizard," and the lizard spoke in clear Arabic that everyone understood: "At your service and pleasure, O Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said to it:

"And whose punishment is in the Fire." He said, "Then who am I, O lizard?" It said, "You are the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds and the Seal of the Prophets. Successful is the one who believes you, and doomed is the one who denies you." The Bedouin said, "I testify that there is no deity but Allāh, and that you are truly the Messenger of Allāh. By Allāh, I came to you, and there was no one on the face of the earth more hateful to me than you, and by Allāh, you are now more beloved to me than myself and my parents. I have believed in you with my hair, my skin, my inner self, my outer self, my secret, and my public." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said to him, "All praise is due to Allāh who guided you to this religion which is superior and cannot be surpassed. Allāh does not accept it except with prayer, and He does not accept prayer except with the Qurʾān." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) taught him al-Fātiḥah and Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ. He said, "O Messenger of Allāh, I have not heard anything better in simple or rhymed poetry than this!" The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said to him, "This is the speech of the Lord of the Worlds, it is not poetry. If you recite: 'Say: He is Allāh, the One' once, it is as if you have recited a third of the Qurʾān. If you recite it twice, it is as if you have recited two-thirds of the Qurʾān. If you recite it three times, it is as if you have recited the entire Qurʾān." The Bedouin said, "What a great deity our God is, who accepts little and gives much." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said, "Give to the Bedouin," and they gave him until he was overwhelmed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) stood up and said, "O Messenger of Allāh, I want to give him a she-camel to draw closer to Allāh with, beyond the ordinary and above the Bedouin, and she is ten months pregnant." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said, "You have described what you are giving, so shall I describe to you what Allāh will give you as a reward?" He said, "Yes." He said, "You will have a hollow pearl she-camel, its legs of green emerald, its neck of yellow emerald, with a howdah on it, and on the howdah are silk and brocade, passing with you over the path like a swift lightning." The Bedouin left the presence of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and met a thousand Bedouins on a thousand mounts with a thousand spears and a thousand swords. He asked them, "Where are you going?" They said, "We are going to fight this one who lies and claims to be a prophet." The Bedouin said, "I testify that there is no deity but Allāh and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh." They said to him, "You have apostatized!" He said, "I have not apostatized," and he narrated this story to them. They all said, "There is no deity but Allāh, Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh." This reached the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), who met them with a cloak, and they dismounted from their mounts, kissing what they could reach of him, saying, "There is no deity but Allāh, Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam)." They said, "Command us with your command, we will obey, O Messenger of Allāh." He said, "Be under the banner of Khālid ibn al-Walīd." He said, "There is no one among the Arabs who believed more than them, a thousand men altogether, except Banī Sulaym." End of the section, and all praise is due to Allāh, Lord of the Worlds. A section containing the words of some scholars on the ḥadīth. The preservers of the sunnah have spoken about this ḥadīth to clarify its degree of authenticity or weakness. Some of them weaken it, some consider it fabricated, and others attempt to strengthen it. I will convey in this section, if Allāh wills, what I have managed to gather from their words on the ḥadīth. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī: He included the ḥadīth in "Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah" and followed it with his statement: He narrated it in the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah and Abū Hurayrah, and what we mentioned is the best isnād in it, and it is also weak, and the blame is on this al-Salmī. I said: As long as this isnād is the best mentioned, we have no need for anything else, as it is fabricated. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Dāḥiyah al-Kalbī: He said about it: This is a fabricated report, "Kanz al-ʿUmmāl." Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī: He said: It is not authentic in isnād or text, and it is criticized, and it is said to be fabricated. "Sharḥ al-Mawāhib." Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī: He said: Al-Bayhaqī said: The blame is on this al-Salmī. I said: By Allāh, al-Bayhaqī spoke the truth, for it is a false report. "Al-Mīzān." Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Qayyim: He said in a letter of his on fabrications after mentioning the ḥadīth: I said: I heard our Shaykh, al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān, say: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Walīd al-Salmī al-Baṣrī, Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī narrated the ḥadīth of the lizard through his chain with a clean isnād, then al-Bayhaqī said: The blame is on this al-Salmī. Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: I said: By Allāh, al-Bayhaqī spoke the truth, for it is a false report. I said: What testifies to its falsehood and definite lie is that the Battle of Tabūk was after the land of the Arabs had embraced Islam, and both their urban and rural populations had submitted. In this report, it is mentioned that Sulaym came to fight the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), which is impossible. Woe to its fabricator, how ignorant he was of the biography and days of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam)! And Sulaym submitted with the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) in Islam and joined him on the day of the conquest. When they passed by Abū Sufyān at the mountain pass, he asked al-ʿAbbās, the uncle of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), "Who are these?" He said, "Sulaym." Abū Sufyān said, "What do I have to do with Sulaym!" And Sulaym allied that day with those who allied, so how could a thousand sword-wielders and spear-bearers gather from them after that and after the Battle of Tabūk to come and fight the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam)?! This is among the miracles of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), that no one lied about him except that Allāh exposed him and clarified his matter, and within the very ḥadīth itself was what revealed his lie, known to those who knew it and unknown to those who did not. All praise is due to Allāh who perfected our religion, completed His favor upon us, and chose Islam as our religion. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr: He said in "al-Bidāyah wa-al-Nihāyah": The ḥadīth of the lizard, despite its strangeness and oddity. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Haythamī: He said in "al-Majmaʿ": It was narrated by al-Ṭabarānī, in "al-Ṣaghīr" and "al-Awsaṭ," from his Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Walīd al-Baṣrī. Al-Bayhaqī said the blame is on him in this ḥadīth. I said: And the rest of its narrators are the narrators of the authentic collections. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Suyūṭī: Al-Suyūṭī attempted, without any substantial basis, to strengthen this ḥadīth and remove the ruling of fabrication from it. He said: For the ḥadīth of ʿUmar, there is another chain that does not include Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Walīd, narrated by Abū Nuʿaym, and a similar one was also reported from the ḥadīth of ʿAlī, narrated by Ibn ʿAsākir. "Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ." I said: The chain free of al-Salmī, I have not found it if he means that Abū Nuʿaym narrated it in "Dalāʾil," as the chain he has is also through al-Salmī, unless it is missing. The printed "Dalāʾil" is only a selection from it, and in any case, I do not think it is in a better state than the chain of al-Salmī, otherwise, the ḥāfiẓ would have pointed it out. And similarly, it is said regarding the ḥadīth of ʿAlī with Ibn ʿAsākir. And Allāh knows best. Quṭb al-Dīn al-Khayḍarī: Al-Khayḍarī preceded al-Suyūṭī in attempting to strengthen the ḥadīth, saying: The men of its chains and paths do not include anyone accused of fabrication, but there are weak narrators among them, and such cannot be boldly claimed as fabricated. However, his miracles (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) include what is more eloquent than this, especially since it was narrated by the great preservers of ḥadīth, like Ibn ʿAdī, his student al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī, and it is not considered fabricated, and al-Dāraqutnī, and suffice it to say, its end is weakness, not fabrication as claimed by Ibn Dāḥiyah. How so, when the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar has another chain not involving al-Salmī, narrated by Abū Nuʿaym, and a similar one from the ḥadīth of ʿAlī with Ibn ʿAsākir, and Ibn ʿAbbās, narrated by Ibn al-Jawzī, and from the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah and Abū Hurayrah with others?! "Sharḥ al-Mawāhib." I said: This has no weight in the scale of ḥadīth criticism, as the words of the specialists have preceded, and their clarification of the defect of the ḥadīth, and their ruling on it as fabricated, and the words of al-Khayḍarī (raḥimahu Allāh) require pauses, and Shaykh Ḥamdī ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Salafī has sufficed us in refuting it in his commentary on "Manāqib al-Ṭabarānī" by Ibn Mandah, so refer to it if you wish. This is what I have managed to gather from the words of the preservers of ḥadīth, and the conclusion I have reached from their words is that the ḥadīth is indeed fabricated.