The Poisoned Sheep of Khaybar and the Warning That Stopped the Meal

The incident begins after the conquest of Khaybar. Authentic reports in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim establish that poisoned cooked meat from a sheep was presented to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He ate from it, and others also shared the food. The danger was therefore real: this was not a meal avoided before anyone touched it, but an actual poisoning attempt that had already begun to affect those present.

The extraordinary turning point is preserved in Sunan Abi Dawud. After the Prophet ﷺ and the people had eaten, he suddenly told them to take their hands away from the food. He explained that the sheep had informed him that it was poisoned. In the story's strongest miracle wording, the warning comes from the poisoned animal itself, and the immediate response is practical: stop the meal before more is eaten.

A related report from Jabir gives a more specific form. It says that the foreleg held by the Prophet ﷺ informed him of the poison. That detail is famous, but its individual route has been graded differently by hadith critics. For a careful account, the broader wording in Abu Dawud 4512—that the sheep informed him—is the strongest centerpiece, while the foreleg wording remains a separately attributed variant.

The poisoning was then investigated. Sahih al-Bukhari records an admission that poison had been placed in the roasted sheep and explains the motive as a test: if Muhammad ﷺ were false, they expected to be rid of him; if he were truly a prophet, they expected the poison not to overcome him. Sahih Muslim preserves another direct confession from the woman that she intended to kill him. The Prophet ﷺ answered that Allah would not give her power to accomplish that purpose.

The same sahih sources also keep the story grounded. Anas ibn Malik later said that he could still recognize the effect of the poison on the Prophet's palate. Abu Dawud records that Bishr ibn al-Bara', who had eaten from the sheep, died, and also preserves reports in which the Prophet ﷺ later connected pain in his final illness with the morsel from Khaybar. The miracle therefore should not be told as though the poison caused no physical harm.

Its meaning is stronger when told accurately: a deliberate poisoning reached the table, the danger was disclosed through an extraordinary warning, the meal was stopped, the plot was uncovered, and the Prophet ﷺ was preserved from the intended immediate killing. The story combines a prophetic sign with divine protection, while the authentic reports honestly preserve the real human cost of the poisoning.