Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): A group of hypocrites and weak-in-faith people who resembled hypocrites but were outwardly with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), resolved to destroy the mosques of Medina and all the mosques of the world, just as they had striven to kill Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) in Medina and to kill the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) on the road to al-Aqaba. On the road to Tabuk, Allah increased the signs He gave, fitting for His majesty and His power over His servants, for the insight of those seeking clarity and to cut off the excuses of the rebellious; among these was that when the hypocrites, being with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) on the road to Tabuk, said to him the same words Bani Israel had said to Musa (peace be upon him): "لَنْ نَصْبِرَ عَلی طَعامٍ واحِدٍ [We will not endure one kind of food]", and the sign the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) then showed them was greater than the sign shown to the people of Musa (peace be upon him). That was because when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) set out for Tabuk, he left Ali (peace be upon him) behind in Medina as his successor ... Allah the Exalted would raise up the ground on which Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) stood and travelled for Ali (peace be upon him) to see, so that Ali (peace be upon him) could observe them and know their state. Ali (peace be upon him) said: Whenever the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) intended a campaign, he would give the impression he was heading elsewhere, except for the campaign of Tabuk, when he told them plainly where he was going, and commanded them to take provisions. So they gathered abundant provisions of flour which they baked into bread along the way, salted meat, honey and dates; their provisions were plentiful because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) urged them to stock up on account of the distance of the journey, the harshness of the wilderness, and the scarcity of good things in it. They travelled for some days, and their food grew stale, and they grew weary of what remained of it and longed for fresh food. Some of them said: 'O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! We are sick of this food we have with us; it has grown old and dry and is about to spoil, and we can no longer bear it.' The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'What do you have with you?' They said: 'Bread, salted dried meat, honey and dates.' The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'You are now like the people of Musa, when they said: We will not endure one kind of food. So what do you want?' They said: 'We want fresh dried meat, roasted bird meat, and prepared sweets.' The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'But in this one matter, you differ from Bani Israel; for they wanted vegetables, cucumber, garlic, lentils and onions, and thus exchanged what was better for what was lesser, while you want to exchange what is more excellent for what is lesser. I will ask my Lord for it on your behalf.' They said: 'O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! Among us are some who want the same as they wanted: its herbs, its cucumbers, its garlic, its lentils and its onions.' The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'Soon Allah will give you that too, through the Messenger of Allah's supplication. O servants of Allah! When the people of Isa (peace be upon him) asked Isa (peace be upon him) to send down a table from heaven, Allah said: I will send it down to you, but whoever among you disbelieves after that, I will punish him with a punishment I have not inflicted on anyone in the worlds. So He sent it down to them, and whoever among them disbelieved afterward, Allah transformed him, some into pigs, some into monkeys, some into bears, some into cats, and some into the form of certain birds and creatures on land and sea, until they were transformed into four hundred kinds. And Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Messenger of Allah, will not bring down for you what you have asked until what befell the disbelievers among the people of Isa (peace be upon him) befalls your disbelievers too; and Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) is more merciful to you than to expose you to that.' Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) looked at a bird in the air and said to one of his companions: 'Tell this bird that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) commands it to land on the ground.' He said it, and it landed. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'O bird! Allah commands you to grow large.' So it grew larger until it became like a great mound. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said to his companions: 'Surround it.' So they surrounded it, and the bird was so large that his companions, who numbered more than ten thousand, formed a ring around it that encircled it completely. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'O bird! Allah commands your wings, down and feathers to separate from you.' So all of that separated from it, and the bird remained flesh on bone with skin over it. Then he said: 'Allah commands the bones of your body, your legs and your beak to separate too.' So it separated all of that, and the bones fell around it while the people stood around it. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'Allah the Exalted commands these bones to turn into cucumbers,' and they turned as he said. Then he said: 'Allah commands these wings, down and feathers to turn into herbs, onions, garlic and various vegetables,' and they turned as he said. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'O servants of Allah! Now put your hands on it, tear it with your hands, cut it with your knives, and eat it.' So they did. Then they said: 'O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! We are full, but we need water to drink.' The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'Do you not want milk? Do you not want other drinks?' They said: 'Yes, O Messenger of Allah! Among us are those who want that.' The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'Let each of you take a morsel of it, put it in his mouth, and say: بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِیمِ وَ صَلَّی اللهُ عَلَی مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِهِ الطَّیِّبِینَ [In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, and may Allah bless Muhammad and his pure family], for it will turn in his mouth into whatever he wishes, milk if he wishes milk, or another drink if he wishes another drink.' So they did, and found the matter just as the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) had said.'