A young shepherd wandered near the Prophet’s resting place and saw him speaking gently to the stone. Curious, he asked, “O Prophet, why do you speak to a stone?” The Prophet smiled and told him the story. The boy sat down, humbled. “My heart is harder than that stone,” he confessed. “I never cry in prayer, nor feel the weight of my sins.”

The Prophet placed his hand on the boy’s chest and said, “Hearts too can become stone. But even the hardest rock cracked when struck by truth.” He recited, 

“Then your hearts became hardened… but among stones are those from which rivers burst forth” (2:74).

 That day, the boy cried for the first time in prayer. The little stone had become a teacher of hearts, reminding all who saw it that the path to Allah begins with humility, and blooms with longing.