In short: The Prophet ﷺ used to give the Friday sermon standing by a date-palm trunk. When a pulpit was made for him and he stood on it, the trunk cried like a child. He came down and held it until it calmed, and said it cried for the remembrance it used to hear (Sahih al-Bukhari 3584).
The story
Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah reported that on Fridays the Prophet ﷺ used to stand by a tree, a date-palm trunk, to deliver the sermon. Someone from the Ansar offered to make him a pulpit, and he said: if you wish.
The next Friday he went up the new pulpit, and the palm trunk cried out like a child. The Prophet ﷺ came down and embraced it, and it kept moaning like a child being hushed until it was still. He said it had cried for the remembrance of Allah it used to hear beside it (Bukhari 3584). Ibn ‘Umar reported the same, that he went to it and stroked it with his hand (Bukhari 3583).
What we can take from it
- If a tree trunk longed for him, how should we feel? Love for the Prophet ﷺ is part of faith.
- The remembrance of Allah has weight, even for the creation around us.
- His mercy reached everything, down to a piece of wood.