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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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