Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 16007

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Sayyiduna al-Ala' bin al-Hadrami (may Allah be pleased with him) to Bahrain, I went after him. I saw three things from him, and I could not tell which of them was the most astonishing. When we reached the seashore, he said: "Enter it taking the name of Allah." We took the name of Allah and entered, and we crossed it, and the water did not even wet the lower part of our camels' feet. When we were returning, we passed with him through a barren land, and we had no water with us. We complained to him about it, and he said: "Offer two units (rak'ahs) of prayer." Then he supplicated, and a cloud like a shield appeared, and then heavy rain began to fall on us, and we drank water and also collected water to drink (or also watered the animals). When he died, we buried him in the sand. We had not gone very far when we thought that some predatory animal might come and desecrate his body. When we came back, we did not find him at all.
Al-Tabarani recorded it in all three books; its chain contains Ibrahim bin Ma'mar al-Harawi, the father of Isma'il, whom I do not know, and the rest of its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy). (Allamah al-Haythami says:) I say: His story in "Bahrain," his besieging of those people and his being granted help against them, has all been mentioned earlier in the chapter on fighting the apostates.