Is the hadith of the camel that complained its owner to the prophet authentic?

Question

Is there anywhere in the hadith where rasulallah had a dialogue with a camel and the camel complain to rasulallah about its master always sleeping and not performing isha prayers therefore it does not want to obey him It was reported that 'Uqail ibn abi Talib. was the witness to this dialogue

Answer 1

This hadith has been compiled in different hadith compilations and versions one of them appears in abu Dawod's Sunan:

‘Abd Allaah bin Jafar said “The Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) seated me behind him(on his ride) one day, and told me secretly a thing asking me not to tell it to anyone. The place for easing dearer to the Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) was a mound or host of palm trees by which he could conceal himself. He entered the garden of a man from the Ansar(Helpers). All of a sudden when a Camel saw the Prophet (ﷺ) it wept tenderly producing yearning sound and it eyes flowed. The Prophet (ﷺ) came to it and wiped the temple of its head. So it kept silence. He then said “Who is the master of this Camel? Whose Camel is this? A young man from the Ansar came and said “This is mine, Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ).” He said “Don’t you fear Allaah about this beast which Allaah has given in your possession. It has complained to me that you keep it hungry and load it heavily which fatigues it.”

this version is qualified as sahih by sheikh al-Albani especially for specific parts of the statement, which actually don't include the story of the camel.

It was also narrated by imam Muslim in a much shorter version. In Riyadh as-Saliheen his version was quoted beside that of abu Dawod:

Abu Ja'far 'Abdullah bin Ja'far (May Allah be pleased with them) reported:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) made me ride behind him one day and confided something to me which I shall never disclose to anyone. ('Abdullah added:) He ((ﷺ) preferred to screen himself from others when responding to the call of nature, either behind a wall or the trunk of a date-palm.

[Muslim].

Al-Barqani added: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) entered an orchid belonging to an Ansari and saw there a camel. When it saw him, it began to groan and its eyes shed tears. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) approached it and patted it on the hump and the base of its head until it quieted down. Then he (ﷺ) asked, "Who is the owner of this camel? To whom does it belong?" An Ansari youth stepped forward and said: "It is mine O Messenger of Allah!" He said, "Do you not fear Allah in respect of this beast which Allah has placed in your possession? This camel is complaining to me that you starve it and put it to toil."

[Abu Dawud].

None of the versions I could find so far have been narrated on the authority of 'Uqail ibn abi Talib. Imam Muslim compiled it - as quoted above--in his Sahih here (which is basically the same hadith as mentioned by ibn Majah in his Sunan) and here. Imam ad-Darimi has also compiled this verison on the authority of Ja'afar in his Sunan see for example here.

A longer version of this hadith of imam al-Bayhaqi and imam Ahmad has been qualified as Sahih according the conditions of imam Muslim by sheikh al-Arnaoot. The hadith or versions of it have been compiled by imam an-Nasa-i, al-Bazzar and Ahmad on the authority of Khalaf ibn Khalifah. And imam ibn Kathir has quoted it in his al-Bidaya wa an-Nihayah and commented the quote saying that the isnad is good.

Major source for the qualifications of the hadith is the fatwa on islamweb #331399.