Thread by @enigmaoftruth1

THREAD: The Prophecies of Muhammad PBUH: Proofs of Prophethood. [Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy, Yaqeen]

This thread will present some of the most compelling and intriguing prophecies of Muhammad pbuh and the Quran from Sh. Elshinawy's elaborate article on the topic, which in their totality represent undoubtable miraculousness.

1. Some of the greatest and most convincing testimonies to the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ are the multiple occasions on which he correctly predicted future events. Only one to whom God had granted access to the unseen could have, time and again, accurately foretold the future.

2. Only the Creator of time, as we know it, is not restricted by it. Only God has full access to the forgotten past and unseen future.

3. Supposed psychics and fortune-tellers either speak in ways that carry a thousand potential interpretations (from which the most “accurate” is claimed after the fact) or get exposed as frauds over time (as eventually, their guesses are more often wrong than right).

4. As for predicting specifics about the future while never erring, that is only possible for the Knower of the Unseen, and whoever He may grant partial access to the unseen world.

5. Al-Qāḍi ‘Eyāḍ (d. 1149) says, “The hadith(s) in this regard are a bottomless ocean and an unending stream. They are one of his miracles which are undeniably established, transmitted to us by tawâtur (abundant recurrence),...

6. ...due to their many narrators and the concordance of their meanings, all corroborating the fact that he ﷺ was privy to [some of] the unseen.”

7. In this paper, Elshinawy takes a dive into this bottomless ocean, exploring its wonders, namely some of the events foretold by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ which are among the greatest testimonies to his prophethood.

8. A. The Byzantines will Rebound: Despite being isolated by endless deserts, and largely unaffected by the power struggles of the world’s superpowers, the Qur’an boldly foretold most unexpected events that would transpire between Persia and Byzantium in a few short years.

9. “The Byzantines have been defeated. In the nearest land. But they, after their defeat, will triumph. Within three to nine years.” [ar-Rūm 30: 2-4]

10. From 613-619 CE, the Byzantines were absolutely decimated by the Persian Empire, losing the territories of Antioch, then Damascus, then Armenia, then their most cherished Jerusalem, then Chalcedon, and finally Egypt.

11. In his book, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon says, “At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, no prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment,...

12. ...since the first twelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the empire.” Everyone saw Byzantium as on its deathbed; thus opponents of the Prophet ﷺ like Ubayy b. Khalaf mocked this “preposterous” foretelling in the Qur’an.

13. However, not long after, Heraclius led the Byzantine Crusade like a dagger into the heart of the Persian Empire, fulfilling the amazing prophecy 6-8 years after it was uttered.

14. The verses that immediately follow this prediction say, “The decision of the matter, before and after [these events], is only with Allah. And on that Day, the believers (i.e., Muslims) will rejoice in the victory of Allah.” [ar-Rūm 30: 4-5]

15. Abu Ḥayyān al-Andalūsi (d. 1344) lists in al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ four reasons for this rejoicing, of them being that the miraculous prophecy unfolding would further validate their belief in his prophethood.

16. Another reason, which involves another prophecy, is the Muslims would at that time find themselves celebrating their own victory: a long-awaited triumph against the Meccan oppressors in the Battle of Badr happened in 624 as well.

17. B. The Abode of Abu Lahab: In the moments following the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ first public call to Islam, his own uncle, Abu Lahab, scoffed at and chastised him. In his defense, God immediately revealed:

18. “May the hands of Abu Lahab be ruined, and ruined is he. His wealth will not avail him or that which he gained. He will burn in a Fire of [blazing] flame.” [al-Masad 111: 1-3]

19. It is astonishing that for the next nine years of Abu Lahab’s life, despite hearing these verses being recited, his pride still kept him from a potential golden opportunity to discredit the Qur’an.

20. Had Abu Lahab simply professed faith, even disingenuously, that could have brought into serious question the truth of this Revelation. Of course, He Who revealed this knew Abu Lahab would never do so.

21. C. Undeterred by Time or Distance: Anas (rA) reported that, as the Battle of Mu’tah was taking place in Jordan, the Prophet ﷺ had informed the people in Madinah of the martyrdom of Zayd b. Ḥāritha, Ja‘far b. Abi Ṭālib, and ‘Abdullāh b. Rawāḥa.

22. While 600 miles away, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Zayd took the flag (as commander) and was killed, then Ja‘far took the flag and was killed, then Ibn Rawāḥa took the flag and was killed.” Anas says that as the Prophet ﷺ was telling them this, “his eyes were shedding tears.”

23. He ﷺ continued, “Then the flag was taken by one of God’s swords (Khālid b. al-Walīd), and Allah made him victorious.”That army eventually returned to Madinah, with eyewitness accounts that matched exactly what the Prophet ﷺ had described.

24. D. Six in Sequence: During the Battle of Tabūk, the Prophet ﷺ said to ‘Awf b. Mālik (rA), “Count six signs before the Hour; my death, the conquest of Jerusalem, two mortal plagues that will take you [in great numbers] as the plague of sheep [depletes them], then wealth...

25. ...will be in such surplus that a man will be given a hundred gold coins and still be unsatisfied, then there will be a tribulation that will not leave an Arab home without entering it, then there will be...

26. ... a truce between you [Muslims] and Banu al-Aṣfar (Byzantines) which they will betray, and march against you under eighty flags, and under each flag will be twelve thousand [soldiers].”

27. Jerusalem was conquered five years after his death ﷺ, in the year 15H, followed by the plague of ‘Amwās in 18H which took the lives of many Companions.

28. An unprecedented surplus of wealth was then experienced during the caliphate of ‘Uthmān (rA), 23H, as a result of conquests on every front.

29. As for the tribulation that would spare no Arab home, this took place following the assassination of ‘Uthmān, 37H, for it resulted in dissent and chaos everywhere.

30. As for the truce and scourge of the Byzantines, traditional scholars seem to agree that this is a prophecy about the end-times.

31. E. Counting the Conquests: The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ foretold a multitude of Muslim conquests, including those of Rome, Persia, Egypt, Yemen, India, and Constantinople. None of these prophecies were described vaguely, but rather with an air of absolute certainty.

32. Jābir b. ‘Abdillāh (rA) reports that while digging the trench outside Madinah to repel an approaching army, a massive boulder obstructed them that no ax would break. With people’s fears and hunger eating away at them, the Prophet ﷺ walked over and picked up the ax.

33. He said, “Bismillah (In God’s name),” and hammered the boulder, reducing a chunk of it to rubble. He said, “Allāhu Akbar (God is Great)! I have been given the keys to Shām; I can see its red palaces at this very moment.”

34. Then he shattered another chunk and said, “Allāhu Akbar (God is Great)! I have been given the keys to Persia; I can see Madain’s white palace.”

35. Then he shattered the last chunk and said, “Allāhu Akbar (God is Great)! I have been given the keys to Yemen. By Allah, I can see the Gates of Sana‘a at this very moment from here.”

36. Abu Dharr (rA) narrated: The Prophet ﷺ said: “You will certainly conquer Egypt; a land in which [a currency] called al-qīrâṭ is customary...

37. ...When you conquer it, be gracious to its people, for they are entitled to a covenant and [the right of] family bonds. And when you see two men disputing over the place of a brick, then leave [Egypt].”

38. The Prophet ﷺ accurately spoke in the second person here, foretelling that none other than his personal Companions would conquer Egypt. Regarding Constantinople, the Prophet ﷺ determined that it would become a Muslim land nearly a millennium prior to that happening.

39. ‘Abdullāh b. ‘Amr (rA) reports that they were once sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and writing, he ﷺ was asked, “Which city will be liberated first; Constantinople or Rome?” He said, “Indeed, the city of Heraclius will be liberated first,”12 meaning Constantinople.

40. An entire 800 years later, the Ottoman sultan, Muhammad al-Fātiḥ, accomplished this great feat.

41. When the Quraysh tribe embraced Islam, they feared being blocked from their trade routes to Greater Syria (Shām) and Iraq as a result, since these territories were under Byzantine and Sassanid rule and both had rejected the call to Islam.

42. Jābir b. Samura (rA) reports the Prophet ﷺ addressing this concern by reassuring Quraysh that those empires would soon vanish from both regions.

43. He said, “When Chosroes dies, there will be no Chosroes after him. And when Caesar dies, there will be no Caesar after him. And I swear by the One in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, their treasures will be spent in the path of God.”

44. Imam ash-Shāfi‘i (d. 820) and al-Khaṭṭābi (d. 988) explained that this meant there would never be another Caesar in Greater Syria, nor any other Chosroes in Iraq (Sassanid Persia).

45. Indeed, the final Chosroes who rose to power during the Prophet’s ﷺ life was Yazdegerd III (d. 651), and he, in fact, became the 38th and final king of the Sassanid Empire.

46. The final Caesar during the Prophet’s ﷺ life was Heraclius (d. 641), and Byzantium did in fact collapse and lose Christendom’s holiest site of Jerusalem during his reign. After those individuals, neither empire maintained any presence in those two regions.

47: G. The Martyrdom of ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān: Anas b. Mālik (rA) reported that when the Prophet ﷺ ascended Mount Uḥud along with Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthmān, the mountain shook beneath them.

48. So the Prophet ﷺ tapped it with his foot and said, “Be firm, Uḥud, for upon you are none other than a Prophet, a Ṣiddīq, and two martyrs.” Both ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān attained martyrdom by being assassinated during their respective caliphates.

49. With ‘Uthmān in particular, the Prophet ﷺ gave further details: “O ‘Uthmān, Allah—the Mighty and Majestic—may garb you in a shirt. If the hypocrites demand that you remove it, do not remove it until you meet me.”

50. It was this very accusation, that ‘Uthmān was unfit to “wear that shirt” (i.e., to be the caliph), which the mobs repeated before laying siege to and then storming his house and killing him.

51. H. The Fate of ‘Ammār: Abu Sa‘īd al-Khudri (rA) narrated that, as the Muslims were building the mosque in Madinah, ‘Ammār b. Yāsir (rA) would carry two bricks at a time while others lifted one.

52. When the Prophet ﷺ saw him, he began removing the dust [from ‘Ammār] with his hands and said, “Woe to ‘Ammār! He will be killed by the transgressing party; he will be inviting them to Paradise and they will be inviting him to the Fire.”

53. To that, ‘Ammār replied, “We seek refuge with Allah from the trials.” When the Battle of Ṣiffīn took place, three decades after the prophecy, ‘Ammār was killed by the army of Shām who transgressed against the Muslim ruler (‘Ali) while seeking to avenge the murdered (‘Uthmān)

54. Finally, moments before the Battle of Ṣiffīn, as a glass of milk was passed to ‘Ammār (rA), he smiled and said, “The Prophet ﷺ told me that the last thing I would drink before dying would be some milk." Then he rose to the promise of his Prophet ﷺ and fought to his death.

55. I: Repairing the Rift: Abu Bakra ath-Thaqafi (rA) narrated that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ brought his grandson, al-Ḥasan (rA), out one day and ascended with him to the pulpit.

56. Then, he ﷺ said, “This son of mine is a chief, and perhaps Allah will use him to reconcile between two [disputing] factions of Muslims.”

57. In truth, al-Ḥasan singlehandedly mended a long and tragic split between the Muslims of Kūfa and those of Shām upon becoming caliph, by abdicating his caliphate to Mu‘āwiya b. Abi Sufyān (rA).

58. By doing so, he unified two great factions of believers and allowed the progress of Islam to regain its momentum for decades.

59. The Prophet ﷺ also foretold that at this precise point the Muslim nation would transition from a caliphate to a kingdom;..

60. ..“The caliphate will be for thirty years, then there will be a kingship after that.” Abu Bakr ruled for around two years, then ‘Umar for ten, then ‘Uthmān for twelve, then ‘Ali for five, before al-Ḥasan within months abdicated it to Mu‘āwiya who founded the Omayyad dynasty.

61. Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1148) says, “And the promise of the Truthful ﷺ came to pass… [the period of the caliphate] neither exceeded nor fell short a day, so glory be to the All-Encompassing; there is no other Lord but He.”

62. J. Um Ḥarām’s Date with Destiny: Um Ḥarām b. Malḥān (rA) heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “The first army from my nation to ride the sea have guaranteed themselves [Paradise].” Um Ḥarām said, “O Messenger of Allah, will I be among them?”

63. He said, “You will be among them.” Later, he ﷺ said, “The first army from my nation to march in battle to the City of Caesar (Constantinople) will be forgiven.” She said, “Will I be among them, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “No.”

64. During the reign of Mu‘āwiya (rA), Um Ḥarām b. Malḥān rode in the first Muslim naval fleet, accompanying her husband, and died upon falling off her mount in enemy lands. Imam aṭ-Ṭabarāni and others report that the whereabouts of her gravesite on Cyprus Island were known.

65. Ibn Ḥajar said, “This contains multiple prophecies by the Prophet ﷺ of what would take place, and it all occurred just as he said, and hence is considered among the signs of his prophethood.

66. Of them is that his nation would remain after him, and that among them are those who would be strong, formidable, and a consequential force against the enemy, and that they would conquer territories until the army rides the sea,...

67. ...and that Um Ḥarām would live until that time, and that she would be with that army who rides the sea, and that she would not live to see the second military campaign [to Constantinople].”

68. K. A Horrific Wildfire: Abu Hurayra (rA) narrates that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “The Hour will not take place until a fire emerges from the lands of Ḥijāz (central Arabia) that illuminates the necks of camels in Busra (Syria).”

69. As numerous scholars—such as Ibn Ḥajar, Ibn Kathīr, and an-Nawawi—confirm, this enormous fire erupted in the city of Madinah on Friday, 5th of Jumāda Thāni, 654H, and lasted for an entire month.

70. The great historian, Abu Shāma, experienced it firsthand and documented much of its details, including its visibility from hundreds of miles away, and how the Madinans sought refuge in the Prophet’s Mosque.

71. Historical records seem to indicate that this was a volcanic eruption, and the lava fields around Madinah remain observable until today.

72: L. The future of Arabia: Abu Hurayra (rA) reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The Hour will not commence before wealth becomes abundant and overflowing, to the point that a man brings out the Zakāt (charity due) on his wealth and cannot find anyone..

73. ..to accept it from him, and to the point that Arabia’s lands revert to meadows and rivers.” Current lifestyles in today’s “first world” illustrate that they live in greater luxury than 99.9% of recorded human history.

74. Perhaps even more intriguing is the Prophet ﷺ mentioning the agricultural transformation of Arabia in the same context as the surplus of wealth.

75. Fourteen centuries ago, the extensive irrigation methods just invented through modern technology were downright inconceivable. In fact, we are the very first generations privileged to see this geological phenomena. (see: NASA Sees Fields of Green Spring up in Saudi Arabia).

76. Regarding how material prosperity will be a sign of the end-times, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “And if you see the barefoot, naked, shepherds of camels competing [for praise] in the construction of high-rise buildings, then this is from among the signs [of the Hour].”

77. This intense competition will involve exploitation of others, and thus we find parallel prophecies of hedonism and exploitation in the prophetic tradition as well. In the hadith of Miswar b. Makhrama (rA):

78. “By Allah I do not fear poverty overtaking you, but I fear that you will have abundant wealth at your disposal as it became at the disposal of the nations before you, causing you to compete in it as they competed in it, and then it destroys you as it destroyed them.”

79. M. The Unavoidability of Ribā (Interest): Prophet Muhammad ﷺ also foretold that ribā (interest/usury), which is one of the most unethical and exploitative transactions, would become inescapable.

80. Abu Hurayra (rA) reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “A time will come over the people when they will consume ribā.” They asked him, “All of them?” He said, “Whoever does not consume it will [still] be reached by its dust.”

81. Whether for purchasing a property or vehicle, or simply for developing credit in today’s world, interest-bearing clauses have permeated every dimension of contemporary financial dealings.

82. These are just some of the prophecies I found most compelling of the many prophecies presented in El Shinawy's article, and more that exist apart from it. He states that For the sake of brevity, he settles for this set of verified prophecies of God’s last Prophet, Muhammad ﷺ

83. Any fair-minded person who considers the staggering number of these prophecies, and reflects that we ourselves 50 years ago could never have predicted the events he ﷺ predicted, must be impressed by them.

84. Given the number and precision of these prophecies, they must be seen for what they are: irrefutable proofs of his prophethood ﷺ.

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