Prophet Muhammad---the Last Messenger !

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !

Stories of the prophets


When the people heard that he tried and failed, they again went back to Abu Talib, but this time with the whole delegation of the Quraysh.

They said to him, "We have a suggestion - we have chosen the most noble young man, the son of al-Walid ibn al-Mughira; and one son for one son: we'll hand over al-Umara ibn al-Walid to you, and he will become yours (your son), and in return you hand over your nephew to us and we do as we please." At this Abu Talib became very angry and said, "What an evil, treacherous bargain! What kind of foolish bargain is this? You want me to take care of one of your own so that I fatten him (with my food) while you take my son and you kill him?"

At this Mut'im ibn Adi stood up and said, "O Abu Talib, I think your people have done as much as they humanly can. You must accept one of their offers." Mut'im ibn Adi is the senior most person in all of Makkah.

This was again literally Abu Talib vs the whole of Makkah. He said, "Do as you please, I will not budge from my position."

And Allah willed that the Quraysh backed down even though Abu Talib had literally no power on his side. But it was the sense of dignity and sincerity and the strength of conviction that allowed him to win.

The next thing, they tried to ban the recitation of the Qur'an in public. When the Qur'an was recited, they would try to drown it out with their voices or stop it from being recited. Ibn Abbas mentions whenever the Prophet (peace be upon Him) recited the Qur'an in front of the Ka'bah, the Quraysh would begin shouting and making noise, and they would curse the One who revealed it, and the one upon whom it was revealed. Thus if someone wanted to listen to the Qur'an, he would have to pretend he isn't listening and hear it over the noise. Because of the shouting, the Prophet (peace be upon Him) often tried to raise his own voice above theirs. But this is when Allah revealed:


"Do not say it loudly, nor in a whisper, but say it in a moderate voice." [17:110]

We also know the famous story wherein the three leaders of Quraysh went in secret to hear the recitation of the Prophet (peace be upon Him) during nights.

Ibn Ishaq wrote in his Seerah: "Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Shihab al-Zuhri told me that it happened that Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, Abu Jahal ibn Hisham and al-Akhnas ibn Shurayq ibn Amr ibn Wahb al-Thaqifi, the ally of Bani Zuhrah, went out one night to listen to the Messenger of Allah when he was praying at night in his house. Each one of them took up a position for listening, and none of them knew that the others were also there. They stayed listening to him all night until dawn came. When they left, they met up on the road, each of them blaming the others, saying to one another; `Do not come back again, lest you give the wrong impression (i.e. that you like what you hear).' Then they went away until the second night came, when each of them came back to his place and spent the night listening. When dawn came they left and they met on the road, each of them blamed the others, saying the same as they had said the previous night. Then they went away until the third night came, when each of them came back to his place and spent the night listening. When dawn came they left, then when they met up on the road, they said to one another, `Let us not leave until we promise not to come back,' so they made a promise to that effect, and went their separate ways.

In the morning, al-Akhnas bin Shurayq took his stick and went to the house of Abu Sufyan bin Harb, where he said, `Tell me, O Abu Sufyan what do you think of what you have heard from Muhammad;' Abu Sufyan said, `O Abu al-Akhnas, by Allah, I have heard something I understand and I know what is meant by it, and I have heard things I do not understand and do not know what is meant by it.' Al-Akhnas said: `Me too, by the One by Whom you swore.' Then he left and went to Abu Jahal, and entered his house. He said, `O Abu al-Hakam (i.e. Abu Jahal) what do you think of what you have heard from Muhammad;' He said, `What did you hear' He said, `We and Banu `Abd Manaf competed for honor and position: They fed people so we fed people, they engaged in battle so we engaged in battle, they gave in charity,so we gave, until we were neck to neck , like race horses. Now they say, we have a prophet among us who receives revelation from heaven. How could we compete with that -'So by Allah, as long as I live, I will never accept him." {He is being honest that he cannot accept because of competition and arrogance}

[Note: Abu Sufyan is the one revealing this incident at a later stage after he accepted Islam]



In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


The another tactic was to ridicule the Prophet (peace be upon Him) and his followers.

Once the Prophet (peace be upon Him) did not receive new revelation for weeks or months, and one of the lady among Quraish perhaps the wife of Abu Jahal said to the Prophet (peace be upon Him), "I see that your shaytan (Angel Jibril peace be upon Him) has abandoned you. I don't see you recite anything new."

Also, Abu Jahal would go out of his way and personally try his best to ridicule them. If it's a person of status, he would make fun of him and say to him, "How can you leave the religion of your father? Are you better than your father and grandfather?" And if it's a lowly person (as per his status), he would get physical and abuse them.

Another tactic was false accusations and slander.This is where the Quraysh stooped to a very low level that they've never stooped to before. The Qur'an mentions 3~5 of their particular lies - and it's amazing that to this day whoever lies about the Prophet (peace be upon Him) has to say one of these lies; they cannot get out of the same lies that are recorded in the Qur'an. Of these lies, "He is crazy." [Quran 68:51] [To that] the Qur'an says, "I lived a whole lifetime among you, you know who I am, can't you think?" [Quran 10:16] .

They said, he is "a soothsayer" [Quran 69:42], or he is either "a magician" [15:15, 51:52] or "magic has been done on him." [17:47] And to this day those people who reject Islam say similar things, and the most common understanding [among non-Muslim academics who study Islam in depth] is that the Prophet (peace be upon Him) was deluded into thinking he was a prophet - which is a type of madness - because even they cannot doubt the sincerity of the Prophet. But it's impossible for a man to be crazy in only one area and completely sane in every other area of life.

They also accused him of being a poet. This too is standard to this day - they say the Prophet (peace be upon Him) was a marvelous poet who had a command of the Arabic. But Allah tells us in the Qur'an [36:69] that the Prophet (peace be upon Him) is not a poet. And yet the eloquence of the Qur'an is beyond measure.

The Qur'an was completely unprecedented. Its tone, style, language etc. is completely unique and on another level. Imagine the Qur'an being recited to the masters of the Arabic language. And the biggest master was al-Walid ibn al-Mughira who was the chief of the Banu Makhzum (the tribe of Abu Jahal). He was the Shakespeare of Makkah - the best poet of Makkah.

Once the Prophet (peace be upon Him) was reciting the Qur'an and al-Walid ibn al-Mughira managed to listen uninterrupted for the first time. And he is mesmerized - he stops in his tracks and listen until the Prophet (peace be upon Him) until he finishes recitation, and he goes away a changed man. He muttered something as he walks away and it spread in the people of Makkah - again, the people of Makkah were few and it's a very small village, so everything spreads - gossip was rampant. As he walks away, he says a beautiful prose, describing the beauty of the Qur'an.

Makkah is a very small village, so everything spreads. When the news reached Abu Jahal, he went to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira. He said, "Your people have heard your praise of the Qur'an, and they will not be satisfied with you until you say something against it." Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said, "What do you want me to say? Tell me, I'll say it." (Compare this to Abu Talib - he stood his ground and said, "Do what you want.") Abu Jahal says, "Call him a mad man." But al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said, "But he is not a mad man, and everybody knows he is not a mad man. We have seen crazy people, but he has no symptoms of a crazy man." Then Abu Jahal said, "Say he is a fortune teller." But al-Walid ibn al-Mughira says, "He isn't a fortune teller - he doesn't have anything of the fortune tellers." So Abu Jahal said, "Call him a magician." But again al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said, "He isn't a magician." Then he said, "Say he is a poet." But al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said, "By Allah, I am the best poet amongst you. And I am telling you that this is not the type of poetry that we are used to." So Abu Jahal then said, "You need to say something and we won't be satisfied with you until you say something." So al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said, "Leave me alone for a few days."

But before he could say it, Allah revealed in the Qur'an exactly what is happening in the privacy of his house, and the feelings in his heart, and the expressions in his face that nobody, not even his family knew.


Allah says in Quran:

leave ME to deal with the one I created helpless,

then gave vast wealth,

and sons by his side,

making everything easy for him––

yet he still hopes I will give him more.

No! He has been stubbornly hostile to Our revelation:

I will inflict a spiraling torment on him.

He planned and plotted––

devilishly he plotted!

ferociously he plotted!––

and looked

and frowned and scowled

and turned away and behaved arrogantly

and said, ‘This is just old sorcery,

just the talk of a mortal!’ {Quran, 74: 11-25}


It's also narrated that Abu Jahal would stand outside of Makkah and tell the pilgrims, "Careful, there is a mad man in town." Sometimes Abu Lahab would do this as well, "He is my own nephew and he has gone crazy. And I warn you, do not listen to him because if you do, you will be mesmerized." "He is a magician who will captivate you. So when you see him, turn around, put your hands in your ears, and do not listen to him."

Tufayl ibn Amr ad-Dawsi was the leader of his tribe. He was also a very skillful poet; and he decided to pay his respects to Makkah to visit and make tawaf of the house of Allah (kaaba).

The leaders of Quraysh realize that he's coming and when he comes he might hear the Prophet (peace be upon Him), reciting Qur’an. And if that happens he might get “enchanted” so we better protect another tribe leader from falling at the hand of Muhammad (peace be upon Him) Because if a tribe leader accepted his message; the chances were the whole tribe would.

They go to meet him outside Makkah before he even enters city. They said to him: “Listen, we’ve got a problem. There is this man. He says these words and they cast spells on people.

It is causing disunity in our tribe. These people are being possessed by demons when he speaks to them. We think you are an important figure for your tribe. We think that your integrity is going to be compromised if he's able to cast his spells on you. We would advise you to go back. We don't want you to come into Makkah.” He is hesitating to go but he says: “I came all this way. I am at least going to go and make tawaf. I'm going to pay my respects to the house and then go.” They advised him to cover his ears with some pieces of cloth etc. They told him, “If you see him, you'll recognize those words. And when you hear those words, just plug your ears and run.”

He goes in. He’s paying his respects to the house. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon Him) is there praying, reciting Qur’an. He hears the sweetness of the words and he recognizes immediately. “This must be what they were talking about.” He plugs his ears and rush. And halfway, he stops. And he thinks to himself: “I am the leader of my tribe. I am the pride of my people. I'm one of the most skillful poets in all of the Arabia. Some words are not going to overpower me? ” He unplugs his ears. He goes back to the Messenger. He listens to the Qur’an. He accepted the message; and then he is the one who narrates this story himself.

But of course, the bulk of people listened to Abu Jahal and avoided the Prophet(peace be upon Him).



In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


Their other tactic was to challenge the Prophet (peace be upon Him) for a miracle. And they demanded to see something with their eyes.

Allah mentions many such challenges in the Qur'an.

"And they say, 'We will not believe you until you break open for us from the ground a spring.
Or [until] you have a garden of palm trees and grapes and make rivers gush forth within them in force [and abundance].

Or you make the heaven fall upon us in fragments as you have claimed or you bring Allah and the angels before [us].

Or you have a house of gold or you ascend into the sky. And [even then], we will not believe in your ascension until you bring down to us a book we may read.' Say, 'Exalted is my Lord! Was I ever but a human messenger?'" [17:90-93]

Allah tells the Prophet (peace be upon Him) to, "Say: I am only a prophet, not God walking on earth."

Well, Allah did give them many miracles. The major one was the splitting of the moon [Qur'an, 54:1]. And when Allah did this they said, "He bewitched our eyes." [Qur'an, 54:2]

Second, Allah revealed the greatest miracle - the Qur'an. Allah kept emphasizing that Qur'an is His miracle.

Thirdly, Allah knew they are just asking out of stubbornness and arrogance. (And this is proven by the fact that when the miracle is shown, they rejected it, such as [the splitting of] the moon.) Allah says in the Qur'an, "And even if WE had sent down to them the angels [with the message] and the dead spoke to them and WE gathered together every [created] thing in front of them, they would not believe unless Allah should will." [Qur’an, 6:111]

Another wisdom is that Allah is above being so petty that every time somebody asks, they're going to get it. Allah has given enough signs that they should believe in those signs.

Another wisdom is that if Allah is challenged, He takes it, but with a challenge back. And that is if you reject, you will face the punishment.

Narrated in Sahih Bukhari (book of authentic statements of Prophet), once they begged the Prophet (peace be upon Him) to convert Mount Safa into gold. The Prophet (peace be upon Him) felt they were very sincere so he made a special supplication to Allah to convert it into gold. So Allah sent Jibra’eel (peace be upon Him) down and said, "If you want, I will convert Mount Safa into gold, but if they refuse, they will not have a second chance." If they refuse, the punishment will come instantaneously. So the Prophet (peace be upon Him) realized it's better this doesn't happen. There are at least 20 verses in the Qur'an about this where Allah says, of them is, "The only reasons WE don't send signs is because even the earlier nations rejected them." [17:59] "How do you know [O Prophet] - [I know]; when the miracles come, they will reject them."[Qur’an, 6:109]

So the Prophet (peace be upon Him) is being told, there is a reason why Allah is not answering all the miracles; So HE gave some miracles and denied others.


In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


NOTE:{The following post is the condensed version of the published paper “Physical Miracles of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him),by Mohammad Elshinawy & Dr Nazir/yaqeeninstitute.org} part 1


Physical Miracles of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him)

Conviction in the prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon Him) is not dependent on his performance of miracles, but historically reliable reports of these miracles make their occurrence undeniable and increase one’s awe of the Divine.

As for those solely interested in validating their presupposed truths, the Qur’an itself asserts that miracles are futile for those not willing to believe them, even if they were to witness them with their own eyes. Allah (Most High) says, “And even if WE opened for them a gate to heaven, through which they continued to ascend, still they would say, ‘Our eyes have truly been dazzled! In fact, we must have been bewitched’” (Qur’an 15:14-15).

The Qur’an repeatedly describes this inevitable response to miracles from skeptical minds across the ages and explains why some still rejected him even after witnessing the Prophet’s miracles themselves.

Even the clearest signs and miracles can be doubted if a person is willing to be skeptical of their own senses and question reality entirely.

The Possibility of Miracles

Most people believe that God is the Creator of the universe and remains a willful agent in the world; hence, God’s ability to perform miracles—or enable others to perform them—is easy for them to accept. After all, if God created the laws of nature, it logically follows that He is not bound by the system He designed, but can also bring about occurrences outside of that system. Miracles are only problematic for those who believe in no God and those who posit a non-intervening God.

Just as the universe began by the command of God, and its laws run as ordered by God, miracles can sometimes occur in it by the will of God. The reality of miracles is ultimately an extension of the Divine reality; just as God evidenced His existence and magnificence through the brilliant laws of nature, He evidenced His omnipotence and the integrity of His messengers through occasionally breaching these same laws in mind-boggling ways.

The Provability of Miracles

Neither the logical possibility of an omnipotent God performing miracles, nor the mere historical claim of their incidence, prove that miracles did, in fact, take place. There must be compelling evidence, and no sensible person will handle accounts of miracles without heightened scrutiny, as it is often said, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

The discipline of Hadith (statements of Prophet Muhammad) is an instrumental science in the Islamic intellectual tradition, invested in verifying reports about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him), and hence central to any discussion of miracles.

It is a unique sophisticated process which involves the interplay of seven sub-disciplines, all engineered to satisfy an inflexible stipulation of traceability for each narration. Ultimately, a tiny fraction of these transmitted narrations survive the rigorous mechanism to receive the “authentic” classification, but Hadith scholars did not stop there. Authentic narrations were further stratified into mutawātir (abundantly recurring) and aḥād (solitary).

Abundantly recurring reports are those narrated by a large number of narrators in each layer of their transmission, making it inconceivable that they were all mistaken or had all colluded on a forgery. Solitary reports—when authentic—are those transmitted reliably but without meeting the criteria of abundantly recurring, hence most Hadith scholars believe they confer preponderance (greater likelihood) as opposed to certain knowledge.

However, this majority simultaneously deems solitary reports worthier of being accepted than discarded, due to the reliability of their chains of transmission and the fact that all sensible people act on greater likelihood in the absence of certainty.

Miracles occurring at the hands of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) is a mutawātir (abundantly recurring) concept, meaning the sheer multitude of reports make it incontestable in principle, even if some of its specific accounts are not independently mutawātir(abundantly recurring) .

The occurrence of World War I is a simple example of a mutawātir concept; the concurrence of abundant testimony about it renders it inconsequential whether any particular report of it having taken place is verifiable. Rejecting a recurring concept would be tantamount to someone refusing to confirm that Mayan, Inca, or Aztec civilizations existed until humans invent a time machine and travel to their era themselves. Until then, this person would be willing to entertain the possibility of it all being an oversight or trans historical conspiracy—similar to what the Flat Earth Society champions today.

Islam, therefore, requires a demonstrable chain of command before attributing a statement or action (like a miracle) to its Prophet.


Specific Miracles of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him)

Most of acquired human knowledge comes through solitary reports, and such a stipulation would prevent us from believing any bit of news that people circulate. It might even prevent us from believing our own eyes when we are the sole witness to an event. We generally trust our eyes, at least until we are compelled by stronger reasons to suspect them.

Therefore, after realizing the possibility and provability of miracles in principle, even solitary reports of them should not be dismissed whenever their reliability is defensible and no defects in their transmission have been identified.

1) The Moon Splitting

Allah says, “The Hour has come near, and the moon has split [in two]. And if they see any miracle, they turn away and say, ‘Passing magic.’ And they denied and followed their desires—and every matter will be settled” (Qur’an 54:1-3).

In an attempt to stump him, disbelievers from the Quraysh clan demanded an undeniable sign from the Prophet (peace be upon Him), which led to God splitting the moon before their eyes; the Prophet (peace be upon Him) then said,“Behold” The baffled crowd said that Muhammad must have cast a spell on them, but since he could not have cast a spell on everyone, they decided to ask the travelers from surrounding areas if they saw what they did. They sent riders racing out to question those beyond the city of Mecca, and they too confirmed having seen the exact same phenomenon.

Ultimately, the disbelievers from Quraysh chose denial and, because nobody could deny seeing the moon split, they were forced to deny their own eyes.

Alongside showcasing many reports of the moon-splitting, Ibn Kathīr (d. 1373) brings a key aspect of this incident to our attention: “When the moon split, it never left the sky, rather it cleaved once the Prophet (peace be upon Him) gestured to it and became two pieces. It [only] proceeded to hover behind Mount Ḥirā’, setting the mountain between itself and its counterpart, as described by Ibn Mas‘ūd who reports witnessing this himself.”

Imam al-Khaṭṭābi (d. 988) similarly said, “The moon splitting was a grand sign to which no other prophet’s miracle could compare, for it was something that appeared in the distant sky that was contrary to every naturally existing phenomenon which this world is comprised of. It therefore falls beyond what anyone can hope to achieve through trickery, making its proof value even more evident.”

Of the objections to this incident is the expectation that there should be scientifically detectable sequelae to a supernatural event, such as a gravitational disturbance or a geological trace on the moon's surface. However, this is a fallacious objection. The splitting of the moon is a miraculous phenomenon, something that transcends the natural order. It is unclear why one should expect a supernatural event to have natural effects.


In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


NOTE:{The following post is the condensed version of the published paper “Physical Miracles of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him),by Mohammad Elshinawy & Dr Nazir/yaqeeninstitute.org} part 2


2) The Night Journey

Allah (Most High) says, “Glory be to the One Who took His servant [Muhammad] by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him of Our signs. Indeed, He Alone is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing” (Qur’an 17:1).

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) was taken from Mecca to Jerusalem and back in a single night; a journey that would ordinarily take a full month for any traveler in the 7th century. When the pagans caught scent of this story being shared the following morning, they became jubilant with hopes of finally proving Muhammad was a madman. They rushed to gather everyone around him, and to their delight, people literally fell off their seats in laughter upon hearing this ‘ludicrous tale’ from the Prophet (peace be upon Him). Saddened by their mockery and disbelief, he (peace be upon Him) proceeded to the Kaa‘ba where he praised God and asked Him to be reshown Jerusalem. To the dismay of everyone present, the Prophet (peace be upon Him) then began describing that blessed city in inexplicable detail, as if he was walking through it at that very moment.

{Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him)had never been to Jerusalem}

People nervously turned to the Meccan traders who—unlike Muhammad—were known to frequent Jerusalem, only to find them admitting his accuracy. Many still denied him and stormed out in frustration.

It should be known that the creature called al-Burāq was emphatically not a winged horse and was never described as such by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him)

As for the logical fallacy behind this argument, it is grounded only in what is known as argumentum ad incredulum—the argument from incredulity. They seek for people to ridicule a belief purely because it sounds unimaginable and fantastically foreign to the natural realm.

Yet, it is, in fact, the logical consequence of belief in an omnipotent God that such miraculous matters lie entirely within HIS Capability.

In addition to the Qur’an describing this night journey, al-Kattāni (d. 1927) collected the names of forty-five different Companions who reported in corroboration this astonishing event.

In one of these narrations, ‘Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) reports that even some Muslims felt this miracle was too outrageous to accept, and reneged on their Islam that morning as a result. They rushed to her father, Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with Him), and said in protest, “Your companion is claiming he was taken to Jerusalem last night.” Abu Bakr asked, “Did he say that?” They said, “Yes.” He said, “If he did, in fact, say that, then he has been truthful.” They said, “You are willing to believe that he was carried to Jerusalem in a single night?” He said, “Yes, for I believe him about something that is more astonishing than that; I believe that he (peace be upon Him) receives messages from heaven in the blink of an eye.”

Finally, the Qur’an is filled with parallels of this miracle, such as God splitting time for the man who slept a hundred years without aging while his donkey decomposed (Qur’an 2:259), and for the youth and their dog who slept for 309 years while generations were born and died outside their cave (Qur’an 18:9-25).


3) The Tree Weeping

‘Abdullāh b. ‘Umar reports that the Prophet (peace be upon Him) used to deliver his sermons while standing beside the trunk of a date-palm tree. Upon the request of an Anṣāri woman, the Prophet (peace be upon Him) permitted that a small pulpit of three steps be constructed for him so that he would be more visible and project his voice farther into the growing audience.

When the Prophet (peace be upon Him) ascended the new pulpit on the following Friday,sounds of weeping emerged from this tree-trunk. The Prophet (peace be upon Him) descended and proceeded over to it, and began rubbing his hand over it just as someone does to quiet a child. Anas b. Mālik adds, “And the mosque shook from its whimpers.”

Sahl b. Sa‘d adds, “Many people started weeping from hearing its crying and moaning.” Ibn ‘Abbās adds, “He(peace be upon Him) went and hugged it until it quieted, then said [to us], ‘Had I not embraced it, it would have continued like this until the Day of Resurrection.’” Jabir adds, “It was weeping over the Revelation that it would hear [recited] close by.”


4) Increasing the Water Supply

Imam an-Nawawi (d. 1277) says, “These hadith(s) on water gushing from among his fingers and increasing for him, and the food supply increasing as well, are all clear miracles performed by Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon Him) on many occasions and in different conditions and have collectively reached recurring status.Hadith scholars have compiled volumes on just these incidents, of which are the following:


Jābir b. ‘Abdillāh narrated that the people became very thirsty on the Day of Ḥudaybiya. There was a small pot containing some water in front of the Prophet(peace be upon Him), and he found the people rushing towards him as he finished performing his ritual ablution using it. He(peace be upon Him) asked them, “What has happened?” They said, “We neither have water for ablution nor drinking.” So he(peace be upon Him) placed his palm into that pot, and water began flowing upwards from between his fingers like springs. He said, “All those seeking ablution, come forward; the blessing is from Allah.” Jābir said, “We all drank and performed ablution [from that pot], and I did not care how much I drank because I knew it was blessed.” One narrator asked Jābir, “How many were you?” He said, “Even if we had been one hundred thousand, it would have been sufficient for us, but we were fifteen hundred. Anas b. Malik personally narrated several other nearly identical incident of water pouring forth from between the Prophet’s blessed fingers.


5) Increasing the Food Supply

Jābir b. ‘Abdillāh reports: We were digging on the Day of the Trench when a huge solid boulder hindered us. They came to the Prophet (peace be upon Him) and complained to him about this boulder, and he said, “I am coming.” He then stood, stones tied to his stomach, as we had not tasted food in three days, and took the sledgehammer and struck the boulder until it became a dust mound. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, would you permit me to [go to] my home?” I [went and] said to my wife, “I saw on the Prophet something that one cannot bear (i.e., the stones he had fastened from hunger). Do you have anything?” She said, “I have some wheat and a small goat.” I slaughtered the small goat, ground the wheat, then placed the meat in the clay pot. Before I left, my wife said, “Do not humiliate me in front of the Prophet(peace be upon Him) and those with him.” I went to the Prophet(peace be upon Him) and whispered to him, “I have a little food, so you come, O Messenger of Allah, along with a man or two.” He said, “How much is it?” I informed him, so he said, “That is plenty and good!” Then, he (peace be upon Him) said, “O People of the Trench! [Stand, all of you], Jābir has prepared a banquet for you. Let us go.” The Muhājirīn (migrators from Makkah) and Anṣār (people of Madinah)stood, and the Prophet(peace be upon Him) said to me, “Tell her not to pull the pot, nor the bread from the oven, until I come.” When I entered upon my wife and informed her of the army behind me, she said, “What is with you?!” I said, “I did what you said!” She said, “Did he ask you?” I said, “Yes.” The dough was brought out to the Prophet (peace be upon Him) and he spat in it and prayed for blessings, then reached for the pot and did the same. Then, he would tear the bread and place it inside the pot and serve ample bread and meat to each Companion. They were one thousand people and, by Allah, each of them ate until they stopped [of their own accord] and left, and our pot was still full and our bread still plenty. In the end, he (peace be upon Him) said to us, “Eat from this, or gift it, for the people [of Madinah] have been struck with hunger.


6) Answered Prayers

God responded to the prayers of the Prophet (peace be upon Him) on so many occasions, and this was corroborated by testimony from so many directions, that doubting it would be utterly irrational. An outnumbered and unequipped Muslim army was granted victory by God at the Battle of Badr, milk was drawn from the udders of a non-lactating goat, and rain poured from a cloudless sky—all by virtue of the Prophet (peace be upon Him) raising his palms to the heavens, and those who spent the shortest time with him witnessed these events, and were driven to conviction by them.

Anas narrates that as the Prophet (peace be upon Him)was once delivering a Friday sermon, a man rose up and said, “O Messenger of Allah, the horses and sheep have perished; will you not invoke Allah to bless us with rain?” The Prophet (peace be upon Him) proceeded to lift his two hands and supplicated at a time when the sky was as clear as glass. Suddenly wind blew, driving together the clouds and causing heavy rain. We exited [the mosque] wading through the flowing water till we reached our homes. It kept raining until the following Friday, when the same man—or another man—stood up and said, “O Messenger of Allah(peace be upon Him) the houses have [almost] collapsed; please ask Allah to withhold the rain!” On that, the Prophet (peace be upon Him) smiled and said, “O Allah, [let it rain] around us and not upon us.” I looked to the clouds and found them separating into a crown-like formation around Madinah.


In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


The other tactic was attempts of a middle ground/bribery. So they told the Prophet(peace be upon Him), "Let's reach a compromise. One day we'll all be Muslim, the next day we'll all worship our gods." This is the compromise they wanted.

Once, they called a meeting with the Prophet(peace be upon Him) in Abu Talib's house and propositioned to him directly, "What can we do so that you get rid of this message?" The Prophet(peace be upon Him) said, "I only want one word from you." They stood up, "One word? We'll give you 10!" Of course they understood it as just 'one condition' but the Prophet(peace be upon Him) said, "What I want is 'La illaha illaLLaah (there is no God but Allah).'

And they said as revealed in the Qur'an: "How can he claim that all the gods are but one God? what an astonishing thing to claim! [38:5]

Utbah was from the Banu Hashim and was a man of wisdom. He is a distant uncle of the Prophet(peace be upon Him). Utbah says, "Has any of you tried to negotiate with him?" They say, "No, we haven't." So he said, "Okay then, that's what needs to be done. Send me as a representative, allow me to speak on your behalf. We know him to be a good man, I'm sure we can work something out."

Utbah goes to the Prophet(peace be upon Him), who was sitting in front of the Ka'bah, and said, "We have never seen any young man as promising as you who flip around and become so unpromising. What a desolate failure you have become - you have broken our society. You had so much potential. But now we have not seen any young man bring forth more harm to his people than you have. The Arabs are all making fun of us, the people are mocking your call, you have split us up. You are an intelligent man, so listen to me, I will propose certain conditions, perhaps you will agree to one or more of them:

(1) If you wish for money, I have the power of Quraysh invested in me, and we will give you more money than anybody of us have. You shall be the richest of the Arabs.

(2) If you want power, we will make you our king. (The Quraysh didn't have a king, but now they so desperate that they are willing to unify).

(3) If you want woman, go choose any woman you want, and we will ensure she will marry you.

(4) And if you think you are unwell (mentally), we will hire doctors to cure you."

When he is finished, the Prophet(peace be upon Him) asked, "Are you done with what you wanted to say”?

Utbah replied, “That is all I have."

The Prophet(peace be upon Him) said, "Now listen to me," and he begins reciting Surah Fussilat [41:1-13]

Just like the rest of the Quraysh, Utbah has never listened to the Qur'an wholeheartedly. After he's done with his negotiations, he was sitting back initially, but as the Prophet (peace be upon Him) recites,aayah after aayah, Utbah's expression began to change.And there is a verse which says, "But if they turn away, then say, 'I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt [that struck] Ad and Thamud.'" [41:13] When the Prophet(peace be upon Him) reached this verse, it was so powerful and frightening that Utbah jumped up and put his hand on the Prophet's mouth and said, "I beg you, by Allah, and by the rights that I have over you as your blood relative! Do not send this punishment!"

He returned back to his people who sent him as their delegate, and says to them, "Listen to me. Leave this man alone. Because I have heard a speech from him that I have never heard before though I could not comprehend all of it, but If the Arabs get rid of him for us, then our hands are clean (we won't have to kill our own tribesman); but if he overcomes the Arabs, then by Allah, his victory is our [own tribe's] victory; his power is our power." When Utbah said this, they told him, "He has bewitched you as he has bewitched everyone else." They just cannot accept the truth as it comes to them.


In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


Their another attempt was to try to 'expose' the Prophet (peace be upon Him) by quizzing him with questions that only a true prophet would know the answers. The Arabs didn’t really had the notion of a prophet. The Jews did, since they had got prophet after prophet.

Allah says about the Quraysh in the Qur'an [32:3], "A people to whom no warner (prophet) has come before." Of course Prophet Ibraheem (peace be upon Him) was there, but his legacy was almost forgotten.

The Arabs wanted to test whether the Prophet (peace be upon Him) was a true prophet; but they only knew the Jews and the Christians as those who believed in prophets - so they sent emissaries to Madinah (which at the time was called Yathrib) to the Jews and said, "The phenomenon (prophets) that used to occur in your groups has now entered ours. Tell us something to quiz Muhammad (peace be upon Him) with, so that we can expose that he is a liar."

The People of the Book said, "Ask him about Ishaq ,Ya'qub and Yusuf - ask him what happened to the family of Ya'qub"(peace be upon them).

So they went to the Prophet (peace be upon Him) and asked him same.

And Allah revealed the whole of Surah Yusuf as a response:

"That is from the news of the unseen which WE reveal, [O Muhammad], to you. And you were not with them when they put together their plan while they conspired." [12:102]

The Quraysh had no clue who Yusuf was - yet the Prophet(peace be upon Him) answered miraculously in one of the most beautiful surah (chapter) in the Qur'an.

Arabs again sent delegation to Madinah and asked the Jews, "Give us some really difficult questions we can quiz Muhammad (peace be upon Him)] with?" They said to ask him about 3 things that no one would know the details except a true prophet:

1. Story of the young men who entered a cave and slept a long time.

2. Ask him about a man who traveled the world from east to west, and had experiences that are legends.

3. Ask him about the rooh (spirit/soul), what is it made of and where does it come from.

The Prophet (peace be upon Him) was asked these 3 questions, and He replied, "Come back tomorrow and I'll let you know."

But the Prophet didn't said In-Sha-Allah (if Allah wills or allows).

He (peace be upon Him)never spoke anything except with revelation.

Fifteen days passed away without any revelation; neither did Jibra’eel (peace be upon Him) came to the Prophet (peace be upon Him).

All the while the Quraysh were mocking the Prophet (peace be upon Him), "Has your 'false spirit' abandoned you?" etc.

The Messenger (peace be upon Him) felt sad because of the delay in revelation and was grieved by what the people of Makkah were saying about him.

Finally after 2 weeks, Jibra’eel (peace be upon Him) came with the revelation of Surah Kahf, which contained answers to the questions and also mentioned aayah explaining the correct etiquette when determining to do something in the future.

"And never say of anything,'I shall do such and such thing tomorrow.Except with the saying:
'In-Sha-Allah (if Allah wills)!And remember your Lord when you forget " Qur'an:18:23

And Allah revealed Surah al-Kahf (chapter 18:The Cave) in response to their questions.



In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


And then began the outright torture.

Abu Jahal was the main propagator of this torture. This is why the Prophet PBUH called him the Fir'awn of this nation.

Abu Jahal had a series of tactics:

i.If the person who converted was from the noblemen of Quraysh, they would begin verbal abuse.

ii. If the person was a businessman who was doing business with the Quraysh, they would boycott him.

iii. If they were slaves then they would physically torture and try to kill them.

Khabbab ibn al-Aratt :

Khabbab (may God be pleased with him) was one of the first ten converts of Islam and the first person to face torture for his Islam. He was an Arab slave (Arab slaves were treated a little better than slaves of other ethnicity.) He was a young man of around 18 yrs at that time.

Khabbab used to work as a forger. His master was a female, Ummi Anmar. When she found out that Khabbab has accepted Islam, she gathered a gang to torture him. They would use the iron that he would use to forge things to beat him. He was starved and lashed. And in their cruelty they went to the extreme where they actually tied him with chains and put burning hot coals on his back and this would literally melt the flesh of his back n he would be unconscious for hours.

Being a slave, he had no one to come to his rescue.

It is said after sometime, Ummi Anmar one day woke up sick, panting around and crawling around the house, completely lost her senses. The doctors of Makkah said that the only treatment for her would be cauterization. She had to be cauterized on her back and her head and she died as a result of this as she couldn’t endure pain.


Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi:

He (may Allah be pleased with him) was born into slavery.

He was a very dark sickened handsome man who was slave of Ummayah Ibn Khalaf.

He was among the first 7 people who embraced Islam and publicly announced it. Being a slave, he had no family/tribe to protect him.

Ummayah reportedly put a collar around his neck and was handed over to the ruffians, and they would run around with a rope around his neck and drag him through the streets, all the while Bilal would say, "Ahadun Ahad! " {The One God}.

slaves were considered 'property' – like any other expensive property.. To punish your own slave means you are harming your own income. Yet they tortured him. He would be trapped and pinned under a rock, under the hot sun in the desert without any food and water. Ummayah used to tell him just say the names of our gods and this torture would end but all he would say was “The One, The One”.

They would refer to him with the derogatory terms like, "You, son of a black woman."

And this torture went on for a long time. More than anything, it was a matter of ego for Ummayah as his own slave was refusing to obey him and this was a challenge for his prestige.

It is said that even when they put iron chains around his neck and dragged him in the streets, Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him) would not even express any pain until he used to get unconscious due to the torture.


In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


Yasir , Sumayyah & Ammar : (may God be pleased with them)

Yasir and Sumayyah - they were a family being tortured in front of each other with their 2 children, Abdullah and Ammar. All of them were slaves. Yasir and Sumayyah became the first martyrs, one after the other.

There are many other such incidents.

It is narrated that Abu Jahal, once remarked, "O Muhammad, how is it possible that if you are upon the truth, People like these (slaves) are following it before us?! If you want us to accept your religion, you have to get rid of these people." He basically meant, "Your religion has meager slaves following it. How can people good and noble men like us, be in the same boat as them?"


Persecution Prophet (peace be upon Him) faced:

We have a number of incidents in which the Prophet (peace be upon Him) was physically harmed.

1) Once the Prophet (peace & blessings be upon Him) was praying by the Ka'bah. Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt (one of the worst enemies of Prophet), stooped to lowly tactics. He came from behind, took off his thobe (outer long garment) and threw it around the neck of the Prophet (peace be upon Him), and began to choke him. The Prophet (peace be upon Him) was struggling, but the people did not intervene. Until finally Abu Bakr was told, "Your companion is being tortured," he rushed to the Ka'bah, and attacked Uqba, and said to Uqba:
"Are you going to kill a person just because he says, 'My Lord is Allah'?!"

2)Ibn Mas'ud narrates (Ibn Mas'ud was not able to do anything since he was of the slave class.) He said, "Once the Prophet (peace be upon Him) was praying at the Ka'bah; Abu Jahal and his peers were sitting around. He asked his people, "Who will bring the entrails of the camel and throw it on the back of Muhammad (peace be upon Him) when he is praying to his Lord?" The worst of them, Uqba, goes to a dead carcass, pulls out the entrails etc. of the camel, and when the Prophet (peace be upon Him) goes into prostration, Uqba dumped all the intestine, entrails etc. on the Prophet (peace be upon Him). The weight of it was so heavy that the Prophet (peace be upon Him) could not lift himself up! The people began to laugh and I was standing at the distance looking, but I had no way to help (I would have been killed).

The Prophet (peace be upon Him) remained in prostration until someone went to tell Fatima (may God be pleased with Her), daughter of Prophet, that, 'you need to help your father.' She was a young child that time, she went crying and running towards the Prophet (peace be upon Him) and helped him get the entrails off his back.

{The following part taken from Yaqeeninstitute by Sh.Mohammad Elshinawy and Dr.Omar Suleiman}

Once the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) began to preach publicly, his few followers quickly found that merely professing faith meant facing ruthless torture and even execution. Men from the Meccan nobility, like Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), were beaten unconscious in the streets while slaves like Bilâl and Suhayb were shackled and left to scorch in the midday desert sun.

The first martyr was Sumayya , who was murdered with a spear, and her son, ‘Ammâr, was tortured with fire—like so many others—until he verbally feigned recanting his faith. Khabbâb was forced to lie on burning coals and smell his own flesh cooking,and some of these atrocities only escalated as this tragic decade progressed.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) clearly directed a policy of perseverance and non-violent response against a backdrop of repeated provocations of the Quraysh.

These provocations increased in severity as the Quraysh grew frustrated at their failure to stop his preaching; he had an eager and receptive audience that grew steadily despite all efforts to instill fear.


In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!

 

In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


House of Arqam:

When the companions reached around 20~30, the Prophet (peace be upon Him) realized they need a place to congregate. At that point there was no 'mosque' they could pray in. So the house of Arqam became the place where the companions used to meet secretly.

Arqam was a young man of around 18-19 yrs of age from the tribe of Banu Makhzum. The house of Arqam was located behind the Mountain of Safa.(near Kaa’ba). He had inherited this house from his father.


The First Emigration to Abyssinia:

The series of persecutions started slowly at first, but steadily accelerated and worsened day by day and month by month until the situation got so extremely grave and no longer tolerable. It got so difficult, the Prophet (peace be upon Him) allows the companions to emigrate.

The Prophet (peace be upon Him) had already known that Ashamah Negus, king of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), was a fair ruler who would not wrong any of his subordinates for their faith, so he permitted some of his followers to seek asylum there in Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

Most of us will never understand the hardship involved with emigrating from land to land during that time, as most of us have lived in multiple cities in our lives. But uprooting yourself in jahili Makkah was completely unheard of. As a Qureshi you had to be linked to Makkah, because of the concept of tribalism. If you went anywhere else, you have no honor or protection because there is no law or government or civilization. You become a 2nd/3rd class citizen. This is Arabia - imagine going to a foreign land. On top of that, there is no bank transfer; your property is your property - you can't sell it because you can't tell anyone you are leaving. So, when you're making Hijrah (migration), you are entering into a strange world with no honor, protection, and you are at the mercy of those around you.

To make the matters worse, it's a land in Africa where the people don't even speak Arabic. The culture is completely different. So this underscores how difficult Makkah was for them to prefer going to Abyssinia over staying in Makkah.

In Rajab (7th month of Lunar calader) of the fifth year of Prophethood,a group of 15 people migrated - 11 men and 4 women. Among them was Usman ibn Affan and his wife Ruqayyah, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon Him).

Some reports seem to indicate that they left secretly. They made their way to Juddah (now Jeddah), and then took a ship to Abyssinia.

To Be Noticed: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon Him) described the Najashi of Abyssinia (the Emperor of Abyssinia), named As'hama Negus (Arabic :Najashi), as a JUST king. Why? Because he did not persecute his subjects for their faith nor did he interfere in their religion - allowing people freedom in worship. Then how is it possible that Prophet (peace be upon Him) praised a Christian King for allowing the freedom of worship, yet He and His religion does not allow the same??

NO ! In fact,It is un-Islamic to infringe on the freedom of worship.


In-Sha-Allah,To Be Continued...!