Arabic Text
حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيٌّ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ، قَالَ قَالَ لِي ابْنُ أَبِي نَجِيحٍ عَنْ مُجَاهِدٍ، قَالَ صَحِبْتُ ابْنَ عُمَرَ إِلَى الْمَدِينَةِ فَلَمْ أَسْمَعْهُ يُحَدِّثُ عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم إِلاَّ حَدِيثًا وَاحِدًا، قَالَ كُنَّا عِنْدَ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَأُتِيَ بِجُمَّارٍ فَقَالَ " إِنَّ مِنَ الشَّجَرِ شَجَرَةً مَثَلُهَا كَمَثَلِ الْمُسْلِمِ ". فَأَرَدْتُ أَنْ أَقُولَ هِيَ النَّخْلَةُ، فَإِذَا أَنَا أَصْغَرُ الْقَوْمِ فَسَكَتُّ، قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم " هِيَ النَّخْلَةُ ".
English Translation
We were with the Prophet and a spadix of date-palm tree was brought to him. On that he said, "Amongst the trees, there is a tree which resembles a Muslim." I wanted to say that it was the date-palm tree but as I was the youngest of all (of them) I kept quiet. And then the Prophet said, "It is the date-palm tree."
This hadith is from Sahih al-Bukhari, the most rigorously authenticated collection in Islamic scholarship. No editorial opinion is added.