Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 14086

Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates the incident of the lizard: Once the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was in a gathering of his Companions when a bedouin from Banu Sulaym came. He had hunted a lizard and had placed it in his sleeve, and he was taking it to his lodging. On the way he saw some people and asked: "Who are these people?" The people said: "This is the man who says that he is a prophet." That man pushed through the people, came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "O Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), women have not borne anyone (that is, they have not given birth to anyone) more of a liar and more deficient than you. Were it not for the fear that the Arabs would call me hasty, I would have acted hastily against you and killed you, and by killing you I would have made all the people happy." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "O Messenger of Allah! Permit me to kill him." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do you not know that a forbearing person is close to being a prophet?" Then the bedouin turned to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "By al-Lat and al-Uzza, I will not believe in you." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "O bedouin! What is the reason for what you have said? You have said something untrue, and you have not even respected my gathering." Belittling the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the bedouin said: "You speak to me like this as well? By al-Lat and al-Uzza, I will not believe in you until this lizard believes in you." Then he took his lizard out of his sleeve, placed it in front of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "If this lizard believes in you, I too will believe in you." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O lizard!" The lizard spoke to him in clear Arabic which all those present understood. It said: "O Messenger of the Lord of all the worlds! Here I am at your service." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whom do you worship?" It said: "The One whose Throne is in the heavens, whose dominion is on the earth, whose way is in the sea, whose mercy is in Paradise, and whose punishment is in Hell." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "O lizard! Who am I?" It said: "You are the Messenger sent by the Lord of all the worlds and the Seal of the Prophets. Whoever affirmed you has succeeded, and whoever denied you has been disgraced." The bedouin said: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah Almighty and that you are truly the Messenger of Allah. By Allah! When I came to you, there was no one on the face of the earth more hateful to me than you, and by Allah! Now my state is that you are dearer to me than my own self and my children. My hair, my skin, my inner self, my outer self, my secret and my open, all believe in you." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "All praise belongs to Allah Almighty, who guided you to this religion which will prevail and will not be overcome. Allah Almighty accepts it only together with prayer, and prayer is not accepted without the Qur'an." Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught him Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Ikhlas. He said: "O Messenger of Allah! I have not heard in the basit or in the rajaz any speech finer than this." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "This is the speech of the Lord of all the worlds; it is not poetry. When you recite Surah al-Ikhlas once, it is as though you have recited a third of the Qur'an; when you recite Surah al-Ikhlas twice, it is as though you have recited two thirds of the Qur'an; and when you recite Surah al-Ikhlas three times, it is as though you have recited the whole Qur'an." The bedouin said: "What an excellent God this is, who accepts a little and grants abundant reward!" Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Give the bedouin something!" So the people gave to him until they had given him a great deal. Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman bin Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up and said: "O Messenger of Allah! I wish to give him a she-camel by which I seek nearness to Allah Almighty; it is less than a Bactrian camel and more than a bedouin camel, and it is ten months pregnant." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You have described what you are about to give; now I will describe to you what Allah Almighty will grant you as its reward." Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Very well." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You will receive a she-camel made of a hollow pearl; its legs will be of green emerald and its neck of yellow chrysolite. There will be a howdah upon it, and upon the howdah will be fine silk and brocade, and that she-camel will carry you across the Sirat like flashing lightning." The narrator says: The bedouin left the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and met a thousand bedouins riding a thousand mounts, carrying a thousand spears and a thousand swords. The bedouin said to them: "What do you intend?" They said: "We want to fight that man who lies and claims that he is a prophet." The bedouin said: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah Almighty and that Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah." Those bedouins said to him: "Have you abandoned your religion?" He said to them: "I have not abandoned my religion." Then he told those people the whole incident, and all of them said: "There is no god but Allah Almighty, and Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah." When news of this reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he met those people while wearing a cloak. They dismounted from their mounts and began kissing whatever of him they could see, saying: "There is no god but Allah Almighty, and Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah." Then they said: "O Messenger of Allah! Give us your command." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Enter under the banner of Khalid bin al-Walid." The narrator says: There is no tribe among the Arabs a thousand of whose members became Muslim together, except Banu Sulaym.
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Saghir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat from his teacher Muhammad bin Ali bin al-Walid al-Basri. Imam al-Bayhaqi says: The entire burden of this narration rests on this narrator. (Allamah al-Haythami says:) I say: The remaining narrators of this narration are the narrators of the Sahih.