|
EXAMPLES
OF THE PREDICTIONS OF GOD’S MESSENGER
It
is enough to establish one’s truthfulness that one has not
been heard telling even a single lie during one‘s whole
life. However, if the person is a Prophet who has brought a
universal system from God, people will expect him to offer
explanations and to establish rules in all fields of life -
theology, law, sociology, human psychology, economics,
history, etc. - and to be proven to be truthful in all of
them.
The
explanations of God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and
blessings, concerning theology - Divine Essence, Attributes
and Names - are such that philosophers, religious scholars,
and saints cannot compete with him. What, in fact, they can
and should do, is to study his explanations and try to
perceive the truths his words contain.
God’s
Messenger dealt with, besides those pertaining to Divine
Essence and Attributes, the most subtle matters of Destiny and
man’s free will so ably and convincingly that without his
account no one can obtain a true understanding of these
matters.
What
he reported concerning the past nations and previous Prophets
have all been confirmed by historical research and the
followers of previous Scriptures. Although he was unlettered,
neither read a book nor was taught by any human, he
established the most rational, practical and just rules in
every field of life such that, as a result, a large portion of
mankind have experienced true happiness for centuries under
his banner. Indeed, the religion, the universal system of life
that was revealed to him from God, continues to offer a unique
alternative for the future of mankind in general, and the
happy world of the future will be built upon its principles.
What
I would like, however, to emphasize here, concerning his
truthfulness, is that out of hundreds of his predictions, the
vast majority have already come true, and the remainder will
be proven when their time is due.
‘Umar
reports that one day he, upon whom be peace, ascended the
pulpit after the dawn prayer and spoke about almost everything
from the creation of the world to the Last Day, including
certain past events and what will befall mankind until that
Day. These predictions, together, clearly demonstrate that his
teacher was God, the All-Knowing, and that he did not speak on
his own but always communicated what was revealed to him.
Before giving specific examples of his predictions, I think it
worthwhile to clarify a few points concerning knowledge of the
Unseen.
Knowledge
of the Unseen
The
concept of the Unseen pertains to what is supra-sensory and
metaphysical or even meta-cosmic. In this sense, the past, as
well as the future and everything beyond ordinary human senses
are all included in the concept of the Unseen, provided that
some concrete indications have not been manifest. However, in
a narrower sense of the concept, the Unseen pertains only to
the future and what I intend here to concentrate on is the
tidings God’s Messenger gave of certain future events.
The
knowledge of the Unseen is, first of all, with God. This is
evident from some Qur’anic verses, such as the following:
With
Him are the keys of the Unseen, none knows them but He. He
knows whatever is in the earth and in the sea. Not a leaf
falls but He knows it. There is not a grain in the darkness of
the earth nor anything wet, fresh or dry but is in a Manifest
Record. (al-An‘am, 6.59)
Say,
[O Muhammad]: ‘I do not tell you that with me are the
treasures of God, nor that I know the Unseen, nor do I tell
you that I am an angel. I but follow what is revealed to me’.
Say: ‘Are the blind and the one who sees equal? Will you not
then reflect’? (al-An‘am, 6.50)
Say:
‘I have no power over any benefit or harm to myself except
as God wills. If I had the knowledge of the Unseen, I should
increase good for myself and no evil should have touched me. I
am but a warner and a bringer of glad tidings unto people who
believe’. (al-A‘raf, 7.188)
These
verses clearly state that the knowledge of the Unseen is with
God. Does this, however, mean that no one can, by God’s
leave, obtain any part of the knowledge of the Unseen?
In
order to answer this question, we should consider the
following points:
-
Everything
man has, like health, knowledge, and power, essentially
belongs to God and is, accordingly, from God. We have no
power except that with which He has endowed us . We have
no knowledge except what He has taught us or what He has
enabled us to learn. Likewise, we see through His enabling
us to see and hear through His enabling us to hear. Since
this is so, the verses do not absolutely exclude man from
possessing, by God’s leave, some knowledge of the
Unseen.
-
The
concept of the Unseen does not only relate to the future,
it also relates to the past. The Qur’an presents the
stories of past nations as the stories of the Unseen.
Historical researches make us informed of the past.
-
Many
people can, by God’s Will, get some glimpse of the
future, partly or generally, in dreams or through some
other ways which it is not proper to explain here.
-
The
Qur’an, like the universe and man, is an organic entity,
each verse being interrelated to the others. So, the first
and foremost interpreter of the Qur’an is the Qur’an
itself. In which case, the complete and true understanding
of a verse depends on the understanding of other relevant
verses. As a principle of creed, and as explicitly
declared in the verses mentioned above, the knowledge of
the Unseen, like power, seeing, and hearing, belongs to
God. However, He reveals the knowledge of some of the
Unseen to a Messenger whom He has chosen, as declared in
the following verse:
[God
alone is] the knower of the Unseen and He does not
disclose His Unseen to anyone, except a Messenger whom
He has chosen. (al-Jinn, 72.26-7)
God
revealed to His Messenger many of His secrets and the
Messenger informed his nation about some of them which they
needed to know. The number of the predictions which he made
and were reported in authentic books of Tradition exceeds
three hundred. These predictions fall into three categories:
In the
following sections, some examples will be given from each category.
|
|
