|
PREDICTIONS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
Examples of the news the Quran gives concerning the
future
The triumph of the Byzantines over the
Persians
The
Byzantine and Persian Empires were the super-powers of the
time. It was during the years when the few believers were
severely persecuted in Makka that the Persians utterly
defeated the Byzantines. They had sweeping victories, and
conquered Aleppo, Antioch, and the chief Syrian provinces,
including Damascus. Jerusalem fell to their arms in 614-615.
The Christians were massacred and their churches burnt. The
Persian flood of conquest went on to Egypt, and reached as far
as Tripoli in North Africa. Another Persian army ravaged Asia
Minor and reached right up to the gates of Constantinople. The
Makkan pagans rejoiced greatly, and redoubled their taunts and
persecution against the Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, whose Message was a renewal of the Message of Jesus
preached in Palestine. The following Quranic verses, which
were revealed just at that time, gave certain tidings of a
very near victory of the Romans over the Persians:
Alif
Lam Mim. The Romans have been defeated in a land close
by, but they, after their defeat, will be victorious,
within nine years. God’s is the command in the former
case and in the latter, and on that day believers will
rejoice, with the help of God. He helps to victory whom
He wills. He is the All-Mighty, the All-Compassionate.
(30:1-5)
No one at
that time could make such a prediction. But the Prophet, upon
him be peace and blessings, conveyed these Divine Revelations
to his followers. They confirmed him without hesitation and
Abu Bakr bet the Makkan polytheists that the Romans would be
victorious in nine years. Heraclius, the Roman Emperor
attacked the Persians initially by sea in 622 (the year of the
Hijra), and after decisive battles and three successive
campaigns, put them to rout in a few years. His victories
happened at the same time as the believers won the victory of
Badr over the Makkan polytheists. Thus the verses above
contained two predictions, both of which came true in nine
years.
The Quran
gave the news of the conquest of Makka two years
before
It was only
six years after the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings,
had emigrated to Madina that he left for Makka for a minor
pilgrimage. However, the Makkans stopped him at Hudaybiya and
a peaceful treaty was concluded after negotiations. Some
articles of the Treaty were objected to by the believers but
the Quranic verses which were revealed following the
conclusion of the Treaty described it as a manifest victory
and gave the believers the decisive glad tiding, which is as
follows:
In
truth, God fulfilled the vision of His Messenger: You
will surely enter the Sacred Mosque, if God wills, in
full security; you will have your heads shaved, your
hair shortened, and you will have nothing to fear. He
knew what you knew not, and He granted, besides this, a
near victory. He it is Who has sent His Messenger with
guidance and the religion of truth, that He may cause it
to prevail over all religion. God is enough for a
witness. (al-Fath,
48.27-8)
One year
later the Muslims performed the minor pilgrimage and the year
after they conquered Makka. Also, Islam has been prevalent
over all other religions for centuries and, if God wills, it
will have a world-wide superiority in a near
future.
The Quran
gave the news that the dead body of Pharaoh would one day be
discovered
In ancient
Egypt, Pharaoh used to torture the Children of Israel. God
sent Moses to him with the mission of inviting him to believe
in One God and allow the Israelites to leave Egypt with Moses.
Pharaoh refused and the struggle between them continued for a
long time. However, one night Moses succeeded in marching
towards the frontier with his people but Pharaoh, becoming
aware of his attempt, set out to follow him. When Moses
reached the Red Sea, he touched it with his staff, and a
furrow opened across the sea. Pharaoh attempted to follow him,
but was engulfed with his legions. While narrating this event,
The Qur’an makes a very interesting prediction:
Today
We shall preserve your body that you may be a sign to
those after you: although most men give no heed to Our
signs. (Yunus,
10.92)
The dead
body of Pharaoh was later found floating on the Western shores
of the Sinai peninsula. The native residents can still show
you to this land, which is now known as Jabal Firawn (Hill of
Pharaoh). A few miles from this hill is a hot spring called
Hammam Firawn (the Bath of Pharaoh).
Tidings of the Last Day
A
considerable part of the Quran is about the events of the Last
Day. The Quran describes how the world will be destroyed and
re-built again and how the dead will be raised, assembled in
the Place of Mustering, and, after being judged, will go to
either Paradise or Hell. The Quran also gives a vivid
description of Paradise and Hell and the life in
them.
Examples of the Prophet’s predictions which exist
in books of Tradition
‘Umar
reports in a narration recorded in Sahih al-Muslim:
‘Before the Battle of Badr started, God’s
Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, walked
around the battlefield and pointed to some locations,
saying, Abu Jahl will be killed here, ‘Utba here, Shayba
here, Walid here, and so on. By God, we found, after the
battle, the dead bodies of all those men in the exact
places that God’s Messenger had pointed
out.’1
While in
Makka under great tortures, the Prophet predicted the future
victories of Islam.
Bukhari and
Abu Dawud quote Habbab ibn Arat, who said:
Once,
during the days of trouble and torture in Makka, I went
to God’s Messenger, who was sitting in the shade of the
Ka‘ba. I was still a slave in the hands of the Makkans
then. They inflicted on me severe tortures. Unable to
endure those tortures any more, I requested God’s
Messenger to pray to God for help and salvation. But he
turned towards me and said: “By God, previous
communities had to endure more pitiless tortures. Some
of them were made to lie in ditches and cut in two with
saws but this did not make them forsake their faith.
They were skinned alive but they never became weak
against the enemy. Surely God will perfect this
religion, but you display undue haste. A day will come
when a woman will travel alone by herself from San’a to
Hadramawt fearing nothing but wild beasts. However, you
show
impatience.”
Habbab
concluded:
By
God, what God’s Messenger predicted that day, have all
come true. I have personally witnessed it
all.2
The Messenger predicted ‘Ammar’s martyrdom in a
civil war
Bukhari,
Muslim and Ahmad ibn Hanbal record:
During
the construction of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina,
God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, told
‘Ammar: “What a pity O ‘Ammar, a rebellious group will
kill you.
3
Ammar was
killed in the Battle of Siffin by the supporters of Mu‘awiya,
who rebelled against Caliph ‘Ali.
The
Prophet foretold that Fatima would join him first of all after
his death
Before
his death, the Messenger called his daughter Fatima to
his bedside and informed her that she would be the first
among his family to join him after his death. Fatima
joined her father, the pride of mankind, six months
later.4
The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings,
predicted the Mongol invasion, saying:
The
Hour will not come before you fight against a people
with red faces, small, slant eyes and flat noses. They
wear hairy leather
boots.5
The Messenger predicted the caliphate of Abu Bakr
and ‘Umar
As
related by Hakim, Tirmidhi, Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Maja, by
repeatedly declaring, You should, after my death, follow
the way of Abu Bakr and ‘Umar,8 the Prophet, upon him be
peace and blessings, meant that Abu Bakr and ‘Umar would
succeed him as caliphs. He also predicted that Abu
Bakr’s reign would be short, whereas ‘Umar would remain
longer to be able to make many
conquests.6 The Prophet
predicted the conquest of many important cities.
According to authentic narrations, the Prophet,
upon him be peace and blessings, gave his community the
glad tidings that they would conquer Damascus,
Jerusalem, Iraq, Persia, Istanbul (Constantinople) and
Cyprus, and that the religion of Islam would reach as
far as the remotest corners of the world in the east and
west.7
The Prophet predicted the forms of government after
him
The Prophet
declared:
This
affair began with Prophethood and as a mercy; then it
will be mercy and Caliphate; afterwards it will change
into a cruel monarchy, and finally into an iniquity and
tyranny. He also prophesied: Surely, the Caliphate after
me will last thirty years; afterwards it will a cruel
monarchy.8
Whatever the
noble Prophet predicted came true.
The
Prophet predicted the caliphate and martyrdom of
‘Uthman
According to
an authentic narration, the Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, declared:
‘Uthman will be killed while reading the Quran.
God will dress him in a shirt but they will desire to
remove it from
him.9
By this
saying, he meant that ‘Uthman would become Caliph but his
deposition would be sought, and finally he would be martyred
while reading the Quran. This happened exactly as he
predicted.
The Prophet foretold the future victories of
Sa‘d
As narrated
in a authentic Tradition, the noble Prophet of God, upon him
be peace and blessings, said to Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas when the
latter was gravely ill:
It is
hoped that you will be spared so that some people may
benefit through you and some others be harmed through
you.10
By this, he
suggested that Sa‘d would be a great commander and make many
conquests, and while many peoples would benefit from him by
converting to Islam, many others would be harmed through him
as a result of the collapse of their states.
Sa‘d, just
as predicted by the holy Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, took the command of the Muslim armies and destroyed
the Persian Sassanid Empire, bringing many peoples within the
guidance of Islam.
The Prophet predicted the conquest of
Cyprus
Once, when
the Prophet woke up in the house of Umm Haram, the aunt of
Anas ibn Malik, who served the Messenger for ten years in
Madina, he smilingly said:
“I
dreamt that my community would be waging war in the sea
sitting on thrones like kings.” Umm Haram asked: ‘Pray
that I too may be with them’. He said firmly: “You shall
be.”11
All this
came true forty years later when Umm Haram accompanied her
husband ‘Ubada ibn Samit, on the conquest of Cyprus. She died
there, and her tomb has since been a visited place.
The Prophet predicted the appearance of Mukhtar and
Hajjaj
According to
an authentic narration, the Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, declared:
From
the tribe of Thaqif will appear a liar who claims
Prophethood and a blood-thirsty
tyrant.12
By this, he
gave tidings of the notorious Mukhtar, who claimed
Prophethood, and the criminal Hajjaj, who killed tens of
thousands of people.
The Prophet predicted the conquest of
Istanbul
Again,
according to an authentic narration, the Prophet, upon him be
peace and blessings, declared:
Surely, Constantinople (Istanbul) will be
conquered (by my community); how blessed the commander
who will conquer it, and how blessed his
army.13
He thus
foretold the conquest of Istanbul by Muslims, and indicated
the high spiritual rank of Sultan Mehmed, the Conqueror, and
the virtuousness of his army. What he foretold took place
centuries later.
1.
Bukhari, Tib, 1.
2. Abu
Dawud, Tib, 10; Muslim, Salam, 69.
3.
Tirmidhi, Tib, 2; Ibn Ma’ja, Tib, 1; I. Hanbal,
4.278.
4.
Bukhari, Tib, 30; Muslim, Salam, 98.
5.
Bukhari, Tib, 19; I. Hanbal, 2.443.
6.
Muslim, Tahara, 91.
7. Abu
Dawud, Adahi, 21; Ibn Ma’ja, Sayd, 2; I. Hanbal,
4.85.
8. Abu
Dawud, At‘ıma, 11; Tirmidhi, At‘ıma, 39; I. Hanbal,
5.441.
9.
Muslim, Tahara, 87; Abu Dawud, Tahara, 49; Tirmidhi,
Tahara, 19.
10.
Bukhari, Jumu‘a, 8; Muslim, Tahara, 42; Abu Dawud,
Tahara, 25; Tirmidhi, Tahara, 18; Nasa’i, Tahara, 6; I.
Ma’ja, Tahara, 7; I. Hanbal, 1.80.
11.
Tirmidhi, Zuhd, 47; I. Hanbal, 4.132.
12.
Kanz al-‘Ummal, 3.460.
13.
Muslim, Fitan, 110; Tirmidhi, Fitan, 59; I. Hanbal,
4.182. |
|
