The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): When the verse "Then your hearts became hardened after that, so that they were like rocks, or even harder" (al-Baqara/74) was revealed concerning the Jews and the Nasibis, they said: "O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Do you suppose that there is nothing in our hearts of supporting the poor and helping the weak and spending to refute falsehood and to establish the truth, and that stones are softer than our hearts and more obedient to Allah than we are? These mountains are before us. Come with us to one of these mountains and ask it to bear witness in confirmation of yourself and in denial of us. If it speaks in confirmation of you, then you are in the right and following you is obligatory upon us; and if it speaks in denial of you, or is silent and gives no reply, then know that you are false in your claim and [conceited and] self-aggrandising in what you seek." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said to the mountain: "[O mountain]! I ask you by the rank of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure family (peace be upon them), those by the mention of whose names Allah lightened the Throne upon the shoulders of eight of the angels after they had been unable to move it, though they are many creatures whose number none knows except Allah the Mighty and Majestic; and by the right of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure household, those by the mention of whose names Allah accepted the repentance of Adam (peace be upon him) and forgave his fault and returned him to his station; and by the right of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure household, those by the mention of whose names and by petitioning Allah through them Idris (peace be upon him) was raised in Paradise to a lofty station, I ask you that you bear witness in favour of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) by [uttering] what Allah has entrusted to you, so that you confirm him against these Jews concerning the hardness of their hearts, and refute them concerning their denial of the word of Muhammad the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)." Then the mountain moved and trembled, and water flowed from it, and it cried out: "O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! I bear witness that you are the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds and the master of all creatures, and I bear witness that the hearts of these Jews, just as you described, are harder than stone, and no good comes forth from them, as water sometimes comes forth from stone in a torrent or a flowing stream, and I bear witness that these people are liars in the false attribution they cast upon you, and they fabricate lies against the Lord of the Worlds." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) pointed to a stone on the mountain about the size of five ratls and said: "O stone, come down!" It rolled [and came forward], and the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said to the Jewish addressee: "Take it and hold it close to your ear, for it will repeat to you what you heard [from the mountain], because this is a part of that mountain." The man took the stone and brought it close to his ear, and the stone spoke just as the mountain had spoken. First it confirmed the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) regarding what he had said about the hearts of the Jews, and it reported that the Jews' expenditures in repelling the affair of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) are futile and a burden of ruin upon them. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: "Did you hear these words? Is there someone behind this stone speaking to you, [and that person] making you imagine that this stone is speaking to you?" He said: "No! Bring me what I proposed regarding the mountain." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) moved away and went to a wide open space. Then he called out to the mountain [and said]: "O mountain! By the right of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure household, those for the sake of whose rank and station, and by the petition of the servants of Allah through them, Allah sent upon the people of ʿAd a furious, cold, raging wind that plucked up the people as though they were trunks of hollow palm trees, and commanded Jibraʾil to cry out one cry among the people of Salih (peace be upon him) until they became كَهَشيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ [like the dry fragments of trees which the maker of an enclosure collects], [I ask you] that by the permission of Allah you be uprooted from your place and come to me here in my presence."