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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:
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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.
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