Abdullah reported:
We were with Allah's Messenger ( صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ) in a cave when there was revealed to him (the Sura al-Mursalat, i. e. Sura lxxvii.: By those sent forth to spread goodness ) and we had just heard (it) from his lips that there appeared before us a snake. He said: Kill it. We hastened to kill it, but it slipped away from us, thereupon Allah's Messenger ( صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ) said: Allah saved it from your harm just as he saved you from its evil.