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THE
INFORMATION HE GAVE ABOUT THE
PAST
Prophet
Muhammad, upon him be peace and
blessings, gave lots of
information about past peoples
and events
History
is an important branch of
knowledge. It is not a science
like physics or biology. It
mostly depends on documents
that have remained of the
past. Although we can have
knowledge of the past and past
events by means of documents,
it is quite often very
difficult to penetrate into
the facts behind those events.
We can hardly know the
intentions of historical ‘actors’
or ‘actresses’ and the
real motives behind events. In
order to be able to judge
rightly about persons and
events, the documents we have
should be reliable.
Nevertheless, it is quite
possible that personal
inclinations and interests,
prejudices, and different
other motives may have a part
of their own in documents,
and, worse, documents may have
been distorted. For example,
if the Quran had not been
sent down to our Prophet
Muhammad, upon him be peace
and blessings, we could not
have had true knowledge about
the Israelite Prophets and
especially the Prophet Jesus,
and the original identity of
Christianity and Judaism. The
Old and New Testaments have
been so frequently and badly
distorted and corrupted that
it is impossible to open a way
through them to historical
truths.
The
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be
peace and blessings, gave lots
of information about past
peoples and events. Much of
this information is in the Quran.
As well as the main points in
the histories of many past
peoples and places like the
‘Ad, Thamud, Iram, Sodom and
Gomorra, and ancient Egypt,
and the peoples of Noah,
Abraham and Shu‘ayb, we can
also find in the Quran at
least the general outlines of
the history of the Israelite
people from the beginning to
the time of Jesus,
particularly including the
time of the Prophets Moses,
David and Solomon, upon them
be peace. It is highly
interesting that much of this
information is in the Quranic
chapters which were revealed
in the Makkan period of
Muhammad’s Prophethood,
during which he had contact
with neither Christians nor
Jews. When the Prophet
emigrated to Madina, Jewish
and Christian scholars asked
him many questions about
certain topics in the Torah
and Gospels and since they
received from him convincing
answers, they could not object
to any of them.
Neither the
Quran nor the books of
Tradition have been changed the
least over time and none of the
information the Prophet gave
about the past has ever been
contradicted
Some
of the information which the
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be
peace and blessings, gave about
the past is found in the books
of Tradition like Sahih al-Bukhari,
Sahih al-Muslim, Sunan al-Tirmidhi,
and others. Neither the Quran
nor the books of Tradition have
been changed the least over time
and none of the information the
Prophet gave about the past has
ever been contradicted. Rather,
much of it has been affirmed the
rest will also be affirmed
through future investigations
and excavations. This is an
absolute, undeniable proof of
Muhammad’s Prophethood.
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be
peace and blessings, did not
only give information about past
events and peoples, but he also
analyzed them with their causes
and results
The
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be
peace and blessings, did not
only give information about past
events and peoples, but he also
analyzed them with their causes
and results. Thus, the
historical accounts of the
Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, are of the kind that
they presented laws of history
and the broad psychological,
social and economic principles
concerning human individual and
collective life. In addition,
these accounts are masterpieces
of literary style and eloquence,
such that it is impossible to
produce a like of them.
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