One day, a delegation of the most notable Christians headed for Baghdaad to attend a grand party to celebrate the conversion of a key Mongolian leader to Christianity. The Mongolian leader had his favourite hunting dog on a leash nearby. One of the Christians then began congratulating the Mongolian leader on his wise decision and then proceeded to revile the blessed character of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, supposedly in order to discourage them from accepting Islam.
The dog then started acting violently and jumped on the Christian, scratching him badly. It took several men to make the dog let go of the Christian. One of the attendees turned to the Christian and said: “𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗠𝘂𝗵̣𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗱 (صلى الله عليه وسلم).”
The Christian brushed aside the man’s comment and arrogantly said: “No, that was not the reason for the dog’s reaction. When I was speaking, I pointed with my hand and the dog thought that I was going to hit him.”
The Christian appeared unmoved by the incident and continued to insult Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. At that time the dog, in such a rage, cut itself loose, jumped on the Christian and sank its molars in the man’s neck. It snatched his throat out and the man died immediately.
This very incident inspired 40,000 Mongols present to abandon their former faith and embrace Islam. Such intense ghayrah and love did this dog have for our Master Muḥammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, Subḥanallah!
(Shaykh al-Islam Ḥafiẓ ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalani has narrated this magnificent event in his book al-Durar al-Kaminah and Imam adh-Dhahabi said that this narration is Ṣaḥīḥ in Muʿjam ash-Shuyūkh)
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It is astonishing that a dog reacted to the honour of our Master Sayyiduna Rasoolullah صلى الله عليه وسلم whilst we, as his Ummah, deliberately oppose his ways and emulate his enemies. We need to remind ourselves daily as to our loyalty to Sayyiduna Rasoolullah صلى الله عليه وسلم.