A Fabricated Hadeeth
Question

                One day in our mosque, a person who claims to have knowledge gave a speech after leading us in Thuhr prayer. He told us that when Khadeejah, the wife of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), died, he slaughtered a camel for her and mourned for her for three days. He said that this was narrated in the hadeeth (narration) of Qatadah. Then he quoted another hadeeth but refused to say who narrated it. He said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “I am a tree, ‘Ali is its trunk, Fatimah is its branches and al-Hasan and al-Husayn are its fruits.” Then he narrated a third hadeeth in which he said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) encountered a Jewish man one day on one of the mountains of Makkah. He said to him, “Will you not believe in me?” The Jew said: “No, I do not believe in you.” He said to him, ‘Call this tree.” He said to it, “Muhammad is calling you.” So the tree came and lowered its branches towards him, dragging its roots. He said to it, “Who am I?” It said, “You are Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah.” The Jew uttered the Shahadatayn (testimony of faith) after that, then the tree ascended to heaven and circumambulated the Throne, the Kursiy (Footstool), al-Lawh al-Mahfooz and the Pen, and it asked Allah for permission to send blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and he said, “O Jew, kiss the hands and feet of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).” Then he told another story, in which he said that ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) saw a man circumambulating the Ka’abah and said to him, “You are an adulterer.” He said, “How do you know that?” He said, “I knew it from your eyes.” The man said: “I did not commit adultery but I looked at a Jewish woman.” The man said to ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan, “Did you know that through revelation (wahy)?” He said, “No, but it is the insight of the believer.” When (this preacher) was asked for evidence, his supporters were about to attack us. We hope you can give us a shar’i opinion on this.
Praise be to Allah.
    The stories which this preacher told are all false and are 
    lies against the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that 
    have no basis. He did not mourn after the death of Khadeejah (may Allah be 
    pleased with her), or slaughter a camel, or invite the people to mourn, as 
    some people do nowadays. He used to make a lot of du’a (supplication) for 
    Khadeejah (may Allah be pleased with her), and sometimes he would slaughter 
    a sheep and distribute the meat among her friends as a gift and act of 
    kindness, and he would pray for her and be kind to her by means of this 
    du’a.

    Similarly, what he said about the tree is also false and has 
    no basis, and what he said about the Jew is all lies, like the lies made up 
    by the evil fabricators. The same applies to what he narrated about ‘Uthman 
    (may Allah be pleased with him) and that man. Moreover Qatadah was not a 
    Sahabi (Companion of the Prophet), rather he was a Tabi’i (Successor). 

    The point is that these four reports are all false and are 
    not sound at all, But it was narrated in other, saheeh hadeeths (authentic 
    narrations) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) 
    called some trees and they came to him– and that was one of the signs of 
    Prophethood. This story was proven in Saheeh Muslim, where it says that on 
    one of his journeys he wanted to relieve himself, so he called two trees and 
    they came together, and he sat between them to relieve himself, then each 
    tree went back to its place. This was a sign from Allah that was evidence of 
    His almighty power, and that he says to a thing “Be!” and it is. This was 
    also a sign of the truth of the Messenger of Allah and that he was indeed 
    the Messenger of Allah. This is something other than the story that this 
    liar told. We must beware of these liars, and the preacher must fear Allah 
    when he preaches to people; he should remind them of things that will 
    benefit them in their spiritual and worldly affairs of verses of the Quran 
    and saheeh hadeeths from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon 
    him). That is sufficient. It was narrated in a saheeh hadeeth that the 
    Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever 
    narrates a hadeeth from me knowing that it is false, he is one of the 
    liars.” (Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh). And he (peace and blessings of 
    Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever narrated from me something that I did not 
    say, let him take his place in Hell.” (Saheeh, agreed upon). And there are 
    many similar hadeeths.