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PREDICTIONS
OF GOD’S MESSENGER RELATED TO EVENTS THAT WOULD FOLLOW HIS
DEPARTURE FROM THE WORLD
Recorded
in the reliable books of Tradition, there are as many as, or
even more than, three hundred predictions of this kind. Out of
them, I will cite a few examples.
¨
Bukhari and Muslim report from Usama, who was much loved by
God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings. Usama
says:
One
day I was with God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and
blessings, on the roof of a tall building in Madina.
Looking around, God’s Messenger said: Now I see
seditious events and internal conflicts pouring down
like drops of rain, among your houses.1
‘Umar
was very afraid of the appearance of disorder and sedition in
the Muslim community. One day during his caliphate, he asked
Hudhayfa about them. Hudhayfa responded: ‘They have nothing
to do with you, O ‘Umar. There is a gate between you and
them’. ‘Umar asked again: ‘Will this gate be opened or
broken down?’ Hudhayfa answered: ‘It will be broken down’.
This answer shook ‘Umar, who reacted: ‘Then, this gate
will never be closed again!’ ‘Umar was the gate between
the Muslim community and sedition.2
After
he was stabbed by a treacherous Persian slave, Muslim unity
received a fatal blow, and the following centuries, till
today, have unfortunately witnessed discord and sedition in
Muslim lands.
¨
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 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 Hadramut fearing nothing but wild beasts. However,
you show impatience.3
Habbab
concluded: ‘By God, what God’s Messenger predicted that
day, has all come true. I have personally witnessed it all.’
¨
During his last illness, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace
and blessings, called his beloved daughter, Fatima, to his
bedside. He whispered something to her, which caused Fatima to
burst into tears. Afterwards, he called her again and this
time too, he whispered something to her. This made Fatima
display great joy.
‘A’isha,
Mother of Believers, saw this and asked Fatima what he had
said. ‘This is a secret belonging to God’s Messenger,’
she replied. However, when ‘A’isha asked again after the
death of God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings,
Fatima answered: ‘The first time he called me, he said that
he would die of that illness, which made me weep bitterly.
When, however, he called me the second time, he gave me the
glad tiding that I would be the first among his family to join
him after his death, and this made me very joyful.’4
Everything
happened just as God’s Messenger predicted. He died of that
illness and, six months later, Fatima, his beloved daughter
and the mother of his blessed progeny, was reunited with him.5
¨
As related in most of the six authentic books of Tradition,
one day on the pulpit, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace
and blessings, took Hasan, his grandson, into his arms and
declared:
This
son of mine is a noble one; it is hoped that God will
reconcile through him two large hosts of Muslims.6
Hasan
was, indeed, a noble person, the grandson of the noblest of
humanity. About thirty-five years after this prediction, he
renounced the caliphate in favour of Mu‘awiya, thus
demonstrating the truthfulness of his noble grandfather.
¨
One day, he put his blessed hand on the head of ‘Adbullah
ibn Busr, declaring: This boy will live a hundred years,
and those warts on his face will disappear.7
‘Adbullah
lived, as predicted by God’s Messenger, a hundred years, and
when he died, there were no warts on his face.
Just
as God’s Messenger developed spiritually moment by moment
and begged God’s forgiveness seventy times a day for his
former states, so too, his community have since taken a new
step every day in recognition and understanding of him through
witnessing his predictions being proven true one after
another.
¨
As recorded in almost all books of Tradition and the Prophet’s
biography, a ditch was dug around Madina during the battle of
Khandaq (the Ditch). The Prophet actually took part in the
work of digging and, in order to reinforce the morale of his
Companions, occasionally prayed for them, saying, O God,
the true life is the life of the Hereafter, so forgive the
Helpers and the Emigrants.8 To this, his
Companions responded in utmost zeal and joy, saying.
O
God, had it not been for Your help and grace, we could
not have found the Straight Path, we had not paid alms,
nor had we performed the prayer. And so, send down upon
us serenity, and make our steps firm if we encounter the
enemy!9
During
the digging of the ditch, a huge rock appeared. The
Companions, unable to remove it, referred the matter to God’s
Messenger. He came with a lever and pickaxe, and set out to
break the rock. At each blow, a spark was produced and,
through God’s inspiration, he gave glad tidings of a future
conquest, saying, I have been given the keys of Byzantium;
I have been given the keys of Persia; I have been given the
keys of the Yemen,10 and so on.
Less
than two decades later, all those predictions came true. The
whole of Persia and many parts of Byzantium were conquered by
Muslim armies under the command of invincible generals such as
Khalid ibn Walid and Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas. The conquest of
Byzantium, also predicted by God’s Messenger, was achieved
by the Ottoman ruler, Sultan Mehmed, the Conqueror.
¨
‘Adiy ibn Khatam reports:
One
day people complained, in the presence of God’s
Messenger, about poverty, deprivation and the insecurity
of desert roads. To such complaints, God’s Messenger,
upon him be peace and blessings, responded with glad
tidings of a happy future, saying:
A
day will come when a woman will travel alone on her
camel from Hira to the Ka’ba with fear of nothing but
God alone. Again, a day will come and the treasures of
Chosroes (the Persian ruler) will be distributed amongst
you. And again, another day will come and people will
travel around to find someone to pay the prescribed alms
to but in vain.
When
God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, made
these predictions, the robbers from the tribe of Tayy
used to attack travellers and the Persian Empire was
living its most splendid days. But I have personally
witnessed the first two predictions come true, and I am
expecting the third will also prove to be true.11
‘Adiy
ibn Khatam did not live long enough to see the third
prediction come true. However, soon after his death, during
the caliphate of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, people became
so rich that no one could be found to give the prescribed alms
to in the vast lands of the Muslim state. Living standards
were very high and there was not any discernible imbalance in
the distribution of wealth.
¨
While the Prophet’s Mosque was being built in Madina,
everybody, including God’s Messenger, tried their hardest to
complete it as quickly as possible. Some cast sun-dried
bricks, and the others carried them to the place of
construction. Meanwhile, ‘Ammar ibn Yasir, who was among the
first to embrace Islam, approached God’s Messenger and,
probably in order to attract his love and affection, said: ‘O
God’s Messenger, they loaded on me two sun-dried bricks.’
God’s
Messenger smiled and, while rubbing off the dust on ‘Ammar’s
face with his blessed hand, gave him the tiding of his
martyrdom, saying, What a pity (Glad tidings for you,
according to another version), O ‘Ammar, a rebellious group
will kill you!12
‘Ammar
was martyred about forty years later by the followers of Mu‘awiya
in the Battle of Siffin to confirm the Messenger‘s
prediction. This event, like the others, demonstrates that the
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, did not
speak on his own, but that he was taught by God.
¨
God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, was
distributing the spoils of a war, when a man with Mongolian
features voiced an objection, saying, ‘Be just in
distribution!’ To this impertinence, God’s Messenger gave
the response, Who else will show justice if I am not just?
If I do not show justice, then I have been lost and brought to
nought. According to another version, he said: If I am
not just, then, (by following me) you - the people - have been
lost and brought to nought.13
‘Umar
became furious with the impertinence of the man and told God’s
Messenger, ‘Let me cut off the head of this hypocrite!’
But the Messenger did not allow him to do so, and said:
In
the future there will appear a group of people with
chubby faces, slanting eyes and flat noses [of the same
type as that impertinent man]. They will recite so much
of the Qur’an that, when compared to their recitation,
you will regard yours to be too little. Nevertheless,
what they recite will not have the slightest affect on
them. They will leave the religion in the manner of an
arrow being shot from the bow. There will, moreover, be
a large fatty growth on the arm of one of them.14
Years
passed, and the group, called the Kharijites, that bore the
characteristics described by God’s Messenger, upon him be
peace and blessings, were put to the sword by the Caliph ‘Ali
in Nahrawan. Having based themselves on the misinterpretation
of the Qur’an, they had rebelled against him. The dead body
of a man just as described by God’s Messenger, upon him be
peace and blessings, and who had a fatty growth on his arm was
taken to ‘Ali. This event, besides proving the truthfulness
and Messengership of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace
and blessings, demonstrated the truth of another prediction of
God’s Messenger, namely,
O
‘Ali, I have fought for the sending down of the Qur’an;
you will fight against its misinterpretation.15
¨
One day God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings,
slept in the house of Umm Haram, his foster aunt. He woke up
with a smile on his lips. When asked by Umm Haram about the
reason for his smile, he answered: I have dreamt about a
group from my nation, who, like kings seated on thrones,
boarded ships and were going to war. Umm Haram requested
him to pray for her to be included among them. You will be
among them, he declared.16
Years
passed. During the caliphate of Mu‘awiya, Muslims waged war
upon Cyprus. Umm Haram was in the army accompanying her
husband, ‘Ubada ibn Samit. She died there and her tomb has
been visited ever since.
As
with all the other predictions of God’s Messenger, upon him
be peace and blessings, this one too, leads us to confirm his
Prophethood and say: ‘O God’s Messenger, surely you told
the truth!’
1.
Bukhari, Fada’il al-Madina, 8; Muslim, Fitan,
9.
2. Bukhari, Sawm, 3; Muslim, Fitan, 27.
3. Bukhari, Manaqib, 22; Abu Dawud, Jihad, 97.
4. I. Ma’ja, Jana’iz, 65; Muslim, Fadail al-Sahaba,
15; I. Hanbal, 3.197.
5. The death of God’s Messenger touched Fatima so deeply
that she gave voice to her grief in the following verses:
What
else does the one who has smelt the soil of Muhammad’s
tomb need?
Does
one really need the smell of anything else?
I
have been struck by such misfortunes that if they had
fallen upon days,
They
would have changed into nights!
6.
Bukhari, Sulh, 9; I. Hanbal, 5.49.
7. al-Majma’ al-Zawa’id, 9. 404-5.
8. Bukhari, Manaqib al-Ansar, 39; Muslim, Jihad,
127.
9. Bukhari, Maghazi, 29; Muslim, Jihad, 123,
124, 125.
10. I. Kathir, al-Bidaya, 4.116; I. Hanbal,
4.303; I. Hisham, Sira, 3.230.
11. Bukhari, Manaqib, 22.
12. Bukhari, Salat, 63; Muslim, Fitan, 70, 72,
73; I. Hanbal, 12. 161, 164.
13. Bukhari, Adab, 95; Muslim, Zakat, 142; I.
Hanbal, 3.56.
14. Bukhari, Adab, 95; Muslim, Zakat, 142; I.
Hanbal, 1, 356.
15. I. Hanbal, 3.82.
16. Bukhari, Jihad, 3.8; Muslim, ‘Imara,
160-161.
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