us can’t even hear a conversation happening in the room next to us, yet the Prophet صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم could hear the sound of the heavens, which are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of miles away.

The prophetic faculty of hearing

O those who love Allah’s Messenger! Let’s look at another amazing aspect of the Prophet’s listening ability - صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم. From a scientific perspective, when two things collide or come into contact with each other, sound is generated. We can only hear this sound if it falls within hearing range. Even after hearing this sound, we will only begin to understand what meaning it conveys if the sound contains words. Additionally, these words must be in a language we understand. In other words, we only understand what a sound is if it falls within our range of hearing, reaches our ears, and contains words in a language we know.

The hearing of the Prophet صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم was such, not only could he hear things that were thousands of miles away from him or even hear sounds from incidents that had yet to occur in the future; amazingly, he could even hear things that apparently made no sound at all. So, despite having no soundwaves being generated or containing no words, the Prophet صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم could hear and understand all of these sounds.

Let us now mention a hadith narrated by the Companion Jabir رَضِىَ الـلّٰـهُ عَـنْهُ and mentioned in Sunan Abī Dāwūd:

During the Battle of Khaybar, a non-Muslim woman presented cooked lamb meat to the Prophet صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم as a gift. He accepted this gift. He picked up a leg of lamb and began eating, after which his Companions also joined in.

Only a morsel or so had been taken when the Prophet صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم then told everyone to stop eating. He summoned the non-Muslim woman and asked, “Did you poison this meat?”