Miracle of Muhammad
Apart from the greatest miracle he was given, the Quran, Prophet Muhammad – God’s praise and peace be upon him – performed many other miracles. Some of his contemporaries testified hundreds, others thousands. [1] The reports of the miracles have reached us through a reliable and strong delivery method that is unsurpassed in world history; as if the miracles had happened before our own eyes. It is this extremely precise method of transmission that convinces us Muslims that Muhammad – God’s praise and peace be upon him – has actually accomplished these great miracles with God’s help and that we can believe him when he says: ‚I am God Envoy.
Muhammad’s great miracles have been witnessed by thousands of believers and skeptics who have followed the Quranic verses revealed that mention the supernatural events. The Quran let some miracles last forever by engraving them in people’s consciousness. The former slanders simply remained silent when these verses were read out. Had these miracles not occurred, they would have used the opportunity to humiliate and deceive Muhammad. But the opposite was the case. The believers became increasingly certain of the truth about Muhammad and the Quran. The fact that the believers grew stronger in their faith, and the silence of the unbelievers and that they did not deny their appearance, is to be seen on both sides as approval that the miracles happened in exactly the same way,
In this part we will describe some miracles performed by Muhammad, may God praise him.
Miracles are of divine power
A miracle is one of the factors that underpin a prophet’s claim to be a prophet of God; Miracles should not be the sole essence of faith, because supernatural events can also be caused by magic and the devil. The truth of prophecy is clear and obvious in the current message that the prophet brings with it, because God has given people a talent, albeit a limited one, to recognize the truth as it is, especially when it comes to matters of Monotheism. But to further reinforce the prophecy argument, God performed miracles through the hands of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. For this reason, God did not simply produce the Meccan miracles on the coming, but God, the wise man, gave Muhammad the miracles,
“And they say: ‚We will never believe you until you let us have a spring gushing out of the earth, or (until) you have a garden with date palms and grapes and brooks in the middle of them let gushes out; or (until) you drop the sky above us in pieces, as you say, or (until you) bring God and the angels to our face; or (until) you own an ornate house or ascend to heaven; and we won’t believe in your ascent until you send us a book that we can read. ‚ Say: ‚Praise be to my Lord! Am I anything other than a human being, a messenger? ‚”(Quran 17: 90-93)
The answer was:
“And nothing could prevent us from sending signs even though the previous ones had rejected them. And we gave the camel mare to the Thamud as a visible sign, but they tortured her. And we send signs just to deter. ” (Quran 17:59)
When asked hypocritically – and God knew in his wisdom that they would not believe – He refused to show them miracles:
“And they swore by God high and holy if only a sign came to them , you would surely believe it. Say: ‚God has the signs. And what gives you the certainty that they will believe when they come? ‚ And we will confuse their hearts and their eyes because they did not believe it for the first time, and then we will blindly blind them in their stubbornness. ” (Quran 6: 109-110)
Here are some of the greatest miracles of Prophet Muhammad.
Footnotes:
[1] The miracles are over a thousand. See ‚Muqaddima Sharh‘ Sahieh Muslim ‚by al-Nawawi and‘ al-Madkhal ‚by al-Baihaqi.
Splitting the Moon
One of the times when God caused miracles to happen through the hand of Muhammad – God’s praise and peace be upon him – was when the Meccans wanted to see a miracle from Muhammad to confirm his credibility. God split the moon in half and then put them back together. The Quran reports of this event:
„The hour has come and the moon has split.“ (Quran 54: 1)
The Prophet Muhammad recited these verses in front of a large community at the weekly Friday prayer and the two ´Id prayers. [1] Had the event never occurred, the Muslims would have had doubts about their religion and many might have left! The Meccans said: “Your prophet is a liar! The moon never split and we never saw it split! ” Instead, the believers were reinforced in their beliefs by the actual split of the moon, and the only explanation the Meccans found for it was ‘temporary sorcery!’
”The hour has come and the moon has split. But when they see a sign, they turn away and say: (This is) an eternal magic. And they deny and follow their desires. ” (Quran 54: 1-3)
The splitting of the moon has been confirmed by eyewitnesses and has been handed down by an unbroken chain of credible scholars, so it can’t possibly be wrong. (hadith mutawatir). [2]
A skeptic might ask if there is any independent historical source that mentions that the moon ever split. In addition, people around the world should have seen and reported this wonderful event.
The answer to this question consists of two parts:
First, not everyone in the world could have seen it, because in many parts of the world it was just day, late night or early morning. The following table will give the reader an idea of the world times when it is in Mecca at 9 p.m .:
Country
Time
Mecca
9:00 pm
India
11:30 pm
Perth
2:00 am
Reykjavik
6:00 pm
Washington DC
2:00 pm
Rio de Janeiro
3:00 pm
Tokyo
3:00 am
Beijing
2:00 am
Also it is not expected that a large number of People in different countries were watching the moon at exactly the same time. They had no reason to do so. Even if some did, it does not mean that the others believed him and wrote it down somewhere, especially not in civilizations that did not even write their own history.
Second, we actually have an independent and rather astonishing historical account of this event from an Indian king at the time.
Kerala is a country in India. The state extends 360 miles (580 kilometers) along the Malabar coast on the southwestern side of the Indian Peninsula. [3] King Chakrawati Farmas of Malabar was a Chera king, Cheraman perumal of Kodungallure. It is reported that he saw the moon split. This event was documented in a manuscript that is kept in the India Office Library in London. With the reference number: Arabic, 2807, 152-173. [4] A group of Muslim traders came through Malabar on their trip to China. They spoke to the king about how God supported the Arab prophet with the miracle of the splitting of the moon. The excited king said that he had seen it with his own eyes, deputed his son and left for Arabia, to meet the Prophet personally. The Malabari king met the Prophet, spoke the two creeds, learned the basics of the faith, but died on the way back and was buried in the port city of Zafar in Yemen. [5]
It is said that the contingent was led by a Muslim, Malik bin Dinar, and moved on to Kodungallure, the capital of Cheras, and built the first and oldest mosque in India in 629 AD, which still exists today.
A picture before its renovation: the Cheraman Juma Masğid, India’s oldest mosque, built in 629 AD. Image courtesy of www.islamicvoice.com.
The news of his adoption of Islam reached Kerala, where his people also accepted Islam. The people of Lakshadweep and the Moplas (Mapillais) from the Calcutta Kerala province have since converted to Islam.
Cheraman Juma Masğid, named after India’s first Muslim converted, Cheraman perumal Chakrawati Farmas, after its renovation. Image courtesy of www.indianholiday.com.
The observation of the Indian king and his meeting with the Prophet Muhammad is also reported in Muslim sources. The famous Muslim historian Ibn Kathier reports that the splitting of the moon was also seen in parts of India. [6] The arrival of the Indian king and his meeting with the prophet were also documented in the books of the hadith. Abu Sa’iid al-Khudri, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, said:
“The Indian king gave the Prophet a pitcher of ginger. The companions ate him piece by piece. I also took a bit. ”[7]
The king is thus seen as a “companion” – an expression used for a person who met the prophet and died as a Muslim – his name is listed in the major compedes listing the prophet’s companions ]
The night journey and the ascent to heaven
A few months before his emigration from Mecca to Medina, God took Prophet Muhammad one night from the great mosque in Mecca to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem – a journey that would have taken a month with the caravan, 1230 km. From Jerusalem he ascended to the heavens, transcended the boundaries of the physical universe to feel the presence of God, meet God and be a witness to God’s great signs (al-Ayat ul-Kubra). Its credibility was evident in two ways. First: ´The Prophet described the caravans that he had overtaken on the way home and said where they were and when they were to be returned in Mecca and each arrived as predicted and the details that he had described also met to.´ [9] Second: it was not known by him,
The mysterious journey mentioned in the Quran.
“Praise be to the One who at night led His servant from the holy mosque to the distant mosque, the surroundings of which we have blessed, so that we showed him some of our signs. Verily, He is the All-Hearing, The All-Seeing. ” (Quran 17: 1)
“Do you want to argue with him over what he saw? And he saw him at another encounter at the lotus tree at the very end, where the paradise of security lies. This flooded the lotus tree, which flooded (him). Then the eyes never wavered, nor did he wander. Verily he had seen one of the greatest signs of his master. ” (Quran 53: 12-18)
This event was also confirmed by contemporary witnesses and confirmed over the centuries with an uninterrupted chain of credible scholars. (hadith mutawatir). [10]
Entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, from where Muhammad ascended to the heavens. Image courtesy of Thekra A. Sabri.
Footnotes:
[1] Saheeh Muslim.
[2] See ‚Nadhm al-Mutanathira min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir,‘ by al-Kattani p. 215.
[3] “Kerala.” Encyclopædia Britannica from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. (http://www. Britainica.com/eb/article-9111226)
[4] This was quoted in the book “Muhammad Rasulullah,” by Muhammad Hamidullah: “There is a very old tradition from Malabar, on the south west coast of India, that Chakrawati Farmas, one of their kings, has watched the moon split, which Miracle of the Blessed Prophet in Mecca. After questioning, he learned that this was a sign of the coming of a prophet of God in Arabia and after naming his son as king, he went to meet the prophet. He accepted Islam and when he returned on the Prophet’s instructions, he died at the port of Zafar in Yemen, where the tomb of the „Indian King“ was visited by the pious for centuries.
[5] ‚Zafar: biblical: Sephar, classic: Sapphar, or Saphar: ancient Arab region in the southwest of Yarims, in the south of Yemen. It was the capital of the Himyarites, a tribe that ruled a large part of southern Arabia from 115 BC to 525 AD. Until the Persian conquest (AD 575), Zafar was one of the most important and famous cities in southern Arabia – a fact that is confirmed not only by Arab geographers and historians, but also by Greek and Roman writers. After the extinction of the Kingdom of Himyar and the rise of Islam, Zafar gradually disintegrated.´ “Zafar.” Encyclopædia Britannica from the Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. (http
://www. Britainica.com/eb/article-9078191 ) [6] ‚Al-Bidaya wal-Nihaya,‘ by Ibn Kathir, vol 3, p. 130.
[7] Reported by Hakim in ‚Mustadrik‘ vol 4, p. 150. Hakim comments: „I have heard no other report that the prophet ate ginger.“
[8] ‚Al-Isaba‘ by Ibn Hağr, vol 3. P. 279 and ‚Lisan ul-Mizan‘ by Imam al-Dhahabi, vol. 3 p. 10 under the name ‚Sarbanak,‘ the name by which the Arabs knew him.
[9] ‚Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources‘ by Martin Lings, p. 103.
[10] Forty-five companions of the Prophet reported accounts of his night journey and ascension to heaven. See the works of the masters of Hadith: ‚Azhar al-Mutanathira fi al-Ahadith al-Mutawatira‘ by al-Suyuti p. 263 and ‚Nadhm al-Mutanathira min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir,‘ by al-Kattani S. 207.
There are many other miracles that the Prophet performed that are recorded in the Sunnah or collection of the Prophet’s statements, deeds, consents, and descriptions.
The tree trunk
In Medina, Muhammad used to lean against a tree trunk when giving a speech. As the number of believers grew, someone suggested building a pulpit to make the speeches. After the pulpit was built, he gave up the tree trunk. Abdullah ibn Umar, a companion, testified what he saw with his own eyes. The tribe was heard crying when the Prophet of Mercy went to him and stroked it with his hand. [1]
This event was also reported by eyewitnesses and transmitted over the centuries with an uninterrupted chain of credible scholars (hadith mutawatir). [2]
The flow of water
On more than one occasion, when people were terribly short of water, Muhammad’s blessing saved them. In the sixth year after his emigration from Mecca to Medina, Muhammad went to Mecca for pilgrimage. On the long journey through the desert all people ran out of water, only the Prophet still had a vessel with water with which he did the washing for prayer. He put his hand in the jar and the water began to bubble out between his fingers. Jabir bin Abdullah, who witnessed the miracle, said of the fifteen hundred men: „We drank it and did the prayer washing.“ [3] This miracle was handed down with an uninterrupted chain of credible scholars (hadith mutawatir). [4]
The bubbling of water from human fingers resembles the miracle of Moses, which made water come out of the stone.
Blessed meal
On more than one occasion, the Prophet blessed food, which he either touched or prayed about, so that everyone present could be satisfied. This happened at a time when food and water shortages were afflicting the Muslims. [5] These miracles took place in the presence of many people, and for that reason alone cannot be denied.
Healing the sick
Abdullah ibn Atiek broke his leg and Muhammad healed it by running his hand over it. Abdullah said it was as if nothing had happened to it! The person who transmitted this miracle was another companion, Bara´ ibn Azib. (Sahieh Al-Bukhari)
During the expedition from Khaibar, Muhammad healed Ali ibn Abi Talib’s aching eye from the whole army. Many years later, Ali became the fourth Khalif of the Muslims. [6]
Driving out
the devil Muhammad drove the devil out of a boy’s body, which his mother brought to him to heal him. He said: „Come out! I am Muhammad, the Messenger of God!“ The woman said: „With the one who sent you with the truth, we have seen nothing wrong with him since then.“ [7]
Answer to prayers
(1) The mother of Abu Hurairah, a close companion of Muhammad, used to speak poorly of Islam and his prophet. One day Abu Hurairah came to Muhammad crying and asked him to pray for his mother so that she could be saved. Muhammad prayed and when Abu Hurairah returned home he found that his mother was ready to accept Islam. She spoke the creed in front of her son and entered Islam. [8]
(2) Jarir ibn Abdullah was commissioned by the Prophet to free the country from an idol who was worshiped next to God, but who complained that he could not ride a horse so well. Then the Prophet prayed for him: „Oh God, make him a strong rider and make him one who leads and is led.“ Jarir testifies that he has never fallen off a horse since the Prophet prayed for him . [9]
(3) People suffered from famine at the time of Muhammad. When Muhammad preached his weekly sermon on Friday, a man got up and said, „O Messenger of God, our wealth has been destroyed and our children are dying. Pray to God for us.´ Then Muhammad raised his hands in prayer.
Those who attended testified that just as he took his hands back down, the clouds started to pile up like mountains!
As he descended from the pulpit, the rain ran from his beard!
It rained all week – until next Friday!
The same man got up again and this time complained: ´O Messenger of God, our buildings are destroyed and our possessions are flooded. Pray to God for us! ´
Muhammad raised his hands and prayed: ´O God, (let it) (rain) around us, but not on us.´
Those who participated testified that the clouds are in the direction to which he had pointed, the city of Medina was surrounded by clouds, but there was no cloud above it! [10]
(4) Here is the beautiful story of Ğabir. He testifies that one day the camel he was riding on was exhausted because it had been used to carry water. The camel had difficulty walking. Muhammad asked him: „What is wrong with your camel?“ When he found out how tired the camel was, Muhammad prayed for the weak camel, and from then on, according to Ğabir, the camel always ran in front of the others! Muhammad asked Ğabir: „What is your camel doing?“ Abir replied: „He is fine, your blessing has been achieved.“ Muhammad bought the camel from Ğabir on the spot for a piece of gold on condition that Ğabir rode back to the city . When they reached Medina, Ğabir brought it to Muhammad the next morning. Muhammad gave him the gold piece and ordered him to keep the camel! [11]
It is no wonder why those who were with him and witnessed these great miracles performed before crowds were so sure of his honesty.
Footnotes:
[1] Sahieh Al-Bukhari.
[2] More than ten companions of the Prophet reported that they heard the tree trunk crying. See the works of the masters of Hadith: ‚Azhar al-Mutanathira fi al-Ahadith al-Mutawatira‘ by al-Suyuti p. 267, ‚Nadhm al-Mutanathira min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir,‘ by al-Kattani p. 209 and ‚Shamail‘ by Ibn Kathir p. 239.
[3] Sahieh Al-Bukhari.
[4] More than ten companions of the Prophet reported this. See ‚Nadhm al-Mutanathira min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir,‘ by al-Kattani p. 212, ‚al-Shifa‘ by Qadhi Iyyad, vol 1, p. 405, and ‚al-‚Ilaam‘ by al-Qurtubi , P. 352.
[5] Sahieh Al-Bukhari. Siehe ‚Nadhm al-Mutanathira min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir,‘ von al-Kattani S. 213 und ‚al-Shifa‘ von Qadhi Iyyad, vol 1, S. 419.
[6] Sahieh Al-Bukhari, Sahieh Muslim
[ 7] Musnad of Imam Ahmad, und Sharh ‚al-Sunnah
[8] Sahieh Muslim
[9] Sahieh Muslim
[10] Sahieh Al-Bukhary, Sahieh Muslim
[11] Sahieh Al-Bukhary, Sahieh Muslim
Source: https://www.islamland.com/deu/articles/die-wunder-von-muhammad-