These traditions involve inanimate nature recognizing and vocalizing the status of the Prophet.
Sahih Muslim 2277: Muhammad reportedly said, "I know a stone in Mecca which used to pay me salutations before my departure as a Prophet."
Sunan al-Tirmidhi 3626: Ali ibn Abi Talib reported that every mountain and tree they passed in Mecca would say, "Peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah."
Sahih al-Bukhari 3584: The "Crying Stem" (or Crying Trunk) Hadith. When Muhammad moved to a new pulpit, the old palm tree trunk he used to lean on began to cry out "like a child" until Muhammad embraced it to soothe it.
Critics argue these stories are "flattering legend"—pious stories that grow over time. The Quran describes Muhammad as a man who eats food and walks in the marketplaces (Surah 25:7), emphasizing his humanity. The Hadith, however, shifts him into a cosmic figure for whom nature itself weeps and speaks.
The Meccans explicitly dared Muhammad to produce these kind of miracles but he couldn't.
Surah 17:90–93: "And they say, 'We will not believe you until you break open for us from the ground a spring... or you have a house of gold or you ascend into the sky...' Say, 'Exalted is my Lord! Was I ever but a human messenger?'"
This parallels Balaam’s Donkey speaking in Numbers 22:28 and Jesus’ statement in Luke 19:40 that if the people were silent, "the very stones would cry out." The Islamic tradition takes a metaphor or a unique biblical event and turns it into a recurring supernatural attribute for Muhammad.