Second Sign: It is on the prophethood of Hz. Muhammad.

SECOND SIGN

Allah’s Most Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) declared his prophethood, and presented to humanity such a decree as the Qur’an of Mighty Stature and such manifest miracles as number, according to the scholars, one thousand.¹ The occurrence of those miracles in their entirety is as certain as the fact that he declared himself prophet. In fact, as is shown by the words of the most obstinate unbelievers quoted in various places of the Wise Qur’an, even they could not deny the occurrence of his miracles, but only called them -God forbid!- sorcery, in order to satisfy themselves, or to deceive their followers.

The miracles of Muhammad (PBUH) have the certainty of confirmation by consensus to the hundredth degree. The miracle is the confirmation by the Creator of the cosmos of his declaration of prophethood; it has the effect of the words, “You have spoken truly!” Suppose that you said in the assembly of a ruler, while being observed by him, “The ruler has appointed me to such-and-such a position.” At a time when you were asked for a proof of your claim, the word “Yes” uttered by the ruler would sufficiently support you. Or, if the ruler changed his usual practice and attitude at your request, this would confirm your claim even more soundly and more definitely than would the word “Yes.”

In the same way, the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) claimed: “I am the envoy of the Creator of the universe. My proof is that He will change His unbroken order at my request and my prayer. Now look at my fingers: He causes them to run like a fountain with five spigots. Look at the moon: by a gesture of my finger, He splits it in two. Look at that tree: to affirm me and to bear witness to me, it moves and comes near to me. Look at this food: although it is barely enough for two or three men, it satisfies two or three hundred.” He demonstrated too hundreds of similar miracles.

However, the evidences of the veracity of this being and the proofs of his prophethood are not restricted to his miracles. All his deeds and acts, his words and behaviour, his moral conduct and manners, his character and appearance prove to the attentive his truthfulness and seriousness. Indeed, many people such as ‘Abd Allah b. Salam, the famous scholar of the Children of Israel, came to believe merely by seeing him, and said, “No lie can hide in this face, nor fraud be found in it!”²

Although many scholars who have researched the matter have concluded that the proofs of the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH) and his miracles number about one thousand, there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of proofs of his prophethood. And hundreds of thousands of men with varying opinions have affirmed his prophethood in an equal number of ways. The Wise Qur’an alone demonstrates a thousand of the proofs of his prophethood, in addition to its own forty aspects of miraculousness.

Since prophethood is a phenomenon of humanity, and hundreds of thousands of individuals who claimed prophethood and performed miracles have lived and passed away,³ of a certainty the prophethood of Muhammad is superior to all the others. For whatever evidences, qualities, and attributes made prophets such as Jesus and Moses (Upon whom be peace) be known as prophets and were the means of their messengership, they were all possessed in a more perfect and comprehensive fashion by Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace). And since the causes and means of prophetic authority were more perfectly present in the person of Muhammad, this authority was to be found in him with more certainty than in all the others.

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1. Al-‘Asqalânî, Fath al-Bârî vi, 454; Muslim (Sharh: nawawî) i,2.

2. Tirmidhî, Qiyâma 42; Ibn Mâja, Iqâma 174; At’ima 1; Dârimî, Salât 156; Isti’dhân 4; Musnad v, 451.

3. Musnad v, 266; Valîyyuddîn Tabrîzî, Mishkât al-Masâbîh iii, 122; Ibn al-Qayyimal-Jawzî, Zâd al-Ma’âd (Tahqîq: al-Arnacûd) i, 43-44.