the miracles of our prophet (saas)

w w w . h a r u n y a h y a . c o mw w w . h a r u n y a h y a . n e t

e n . h a r u n y a h y a . t v

About the AuthorNow writing under the pen-name of HARUN

YAHYA, Adnan Oktar was born in Ankara in 1956.Having completed his primary and secondary educa-tion in Ankara, he studied fine arts at Istanbul's MimarSinan University and philosophy at Istanbul University.

Since the 1980s, he has published many books on political, scien-tific, and faith-related issues. Harun Yahya is well-known as the

author of important works disclosing the imposture of evolution-ists, their invalid claims, and the dark liaisons between Darwinism

and such bloody ideologies as fascism and communism. Harun Yahya's works, translated into 63 different languages, con-

stitute a collection for a total of more than 55,000 pages with 40,000 il-lustrations.

His pen-name is a composite of the names Harun (Aaron) andYahya (John), in memory of the two esteemed Prophets who foughtagainst their peoples' lack of faith. The Prophet's seal on his books'covers is symbolic and is linked to their contents. It represents theQur'an (the Final Scripture) and Prophet Muhammad (saas), last of theprophets. Under the guidance of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (teachings

of the Prophet [saas]), the author makes it his purpose to disprove eachfundamental tenet of irreligious ideologies and to have the "last word,"

so as to completely silence the objections raised against religion. He usesthe seal of the final Prophet (saas), who attained ultimate wisdom and

moral perfection, as a sign of his intention to offer thelast word.

All of Harun Yahya's works share one sin-gle goal: to convey the Qur'an's message, en-courage readers to consider basic faith-re-lated issues such as Allah's existence andunity and the Hereafter; and to expose ir-religious systems' feeble foundations andperverted ideologies.

Harun Yahya enjoys a wide reader-ship in many countries, from

India to America,

England to Indonesia, Poland toBosnia, Spain to Brazil, Malaysia to Italy, France

to Bulgaria and Russia. Some of his books are availablein English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese,

Urdu, Arabic, Albanian, Chinese, Swahili, Hausa, Dhivehi (spoken inMauritius), Russian, Serbo-Croat (Bosnian), Polish, Malay, Uygur Turkish,

Indonesian, Bengali, Danish and Swedish. Greatly appreciated all around the world, these works have been instrumental in

many people recovering faith in Allah and gaining deeper insights into their faith. Hisbooks' wisdom and sincerity, together with a distinct style that's easy to understand, di-rectly affect anyone who reads them. Those who seriously consider these books, can nolonger advocate atheism or any other perverted ideology or materialistic philosophy, sincethese books are characterized by rapid effectiveness, definite results, and irrefutability.Even if they continue to do so, it will be only a sentimental insistence, since these books re-fute such ideologies from their very foundations. All contemporary movements of denialare now ideologically defeated, thanks to the books written by Harun Yahya.

This is no doubt a result of the Qur'an's wisdom and lucidity. The author modestly in-tends to serve as a means in humanity's search for Allah's right path. No material gain issought in the publication of these works.

Those who encourage others to read these books, to open their minds and hearts andguide them to become more devoted servants of Allah, render an invaluable service.

Meanwhile, it would only be a waste of time and energy to propagate other books thatcreate confusion in people's minds, lead them into ideological confusion, and that clearlyhave no strong and precise effects in removing the doubts in people's hearts, as also veri-fied from previous experience. It is impossible for books devised to emphasize the author'sliterary power rather than the noble goal of saving people from loss of faith, to have sucha great effect. Those who doubt this can readily see that the sole aim of Harun Yahya'sbooks is to overcome disbelief and to disseminate the Qur'an's moral values. The successand impact of this service are manifested in the readers' conviction.

One point should be kept in mind: The main reason for the continuing cruelty, conflict,and other ordeals endured by the vast majority of people is the ideological prevalence ofdisbelief. This can be ended only with the ideological defeat of disbelief and by conveyingthe wonders of creation and Qur'anic morality so that people can live by it. Consideringthe state of the world today, leading into a downward spiral of violence, corruption and

conflict, clearly this service must be provided speedily and effectively, or it may betoo late.

In this effort, the books of Harun Yahya assume a leading role. Bythe will of Allah, these books will be a means through which peo-

ple in the twenty-first century will attain the peace, justice,and happiness promised in the Qur'an.

To the ReaderAll the author's books explain faith-related issues inlight of Qur'anic verses, and invite readers to learn

Allah's words and to live by them. All the subjects con-cerning Allah's verses are explained so as to leave no doubt or

room for questions in the reader's mind. The books' sincere, plain,and fluent style ensures that everyone of every age and from every so-cial group can easily understand them. Thanks to their effective, lucidnarrative, they can be read at one sitting. Even those who rigorously

reject spirituality are influenced by the facts these books document andcannot refute the truthfulness of their contents.

This and all the other books by the author can be read individually, ordiscussed in a group. Readers eager to profit from the books will finddiscussion very useful, letting them relate their reflections and experi-

ences to one another. In addition, it will be a great service to Islam to contribute to the publi-

cation and reading of these books, written solely for the pleasure ofAllah. The author's books are all extremely convincing. For this reason,to communicate true religion to others, one of the most effective meth-

ods is encouraging them to read these books.We hope the reader will look through the reviews of his other

books at the back of this book. His rich source material onfaith-related issues is very useful, and a pleasure to

read. In these books, unlike some other books, you willnot find the author's personal views, explana-tions based on dubious sources, styles that

are unobservant of the respect and rever-ence due to sacred subjects, nor

hopeless, pessimistic argu-ments that create doubtsin the mind and devia-

tions in the heart.

Introduction ... 10

The Prophet's (saas) Miracles ... 30

The Qur'an: Our Prophet's (saas)

Greatest Miracle ... 44

Our Prophet's (saas) Excellent Character ... 68

Some of the Miracles in the Life of Our

Prophet (saas) ... 96

The Efficacy of Our Prophet's (saas) Prayers ... 116

Allah's Miraculous Protection of

Our Prophet (saas) ... 124

Our Prophet's (saas) Knowledge

of the Unseen ... 164

Conclusion ... 202

The Deception of

Evolution ... 206

hrough out his to ry, Allah sent mes sen gers

to all peo ples, show ing them how to live a

good life in this world and the next. We are told in the Qur'an

that this is a won der ful grace and mer cy for all be liev ers:

Allah showed great kind ness to the be liev ers when He senta mes sen ger to them from among them selves to re cite Hissigns to them, pu ri fy them, and teach them the Book andWisdom, even though be fore that they were clear ly mis -guid ed. (Surah Al 'Imran: 164)We have on ly sent you as a mer cy to all the worlds.

(Surat al-Anbiya': 107)

These mes sen gers were a grace to their

com mu ni ties, for they showed their peo ple

the right path, helped them leave the

dark ness of un be lief and en ter in to the

light of be lief, and pro claimed the com -

mands of our Lord, Who cre at ed the

uni verse from noth ing. They told

peo ple that they could have con -

tent ment, peace, and se cu ri ty

on ly by liv ing a good re -

The Miracles of our Prophet (saas)

li gious life. However, Allah al so re veals that "...most peo ple

have no faith" (Surat al-Ra'd: 1). Thus, few peo ple em braced

faith and ap pre ci at ed what a great mer cy these mes sen gers

were for them.

As re vealed in the Qur'an, they sin cere ly de sired that peo -

ple should come to faith: "But most peo ple, for all your ea ger -

ness, are not be liev ers" (Surah Yusuf: 103). They called their

peo ple to truth so that they could re ceive bless ings in both

worlds and live good and hap py lives. They asked no re ward

for this. Due to their sin cere fear of and re spect for Allah and

their su pe ri or mor al char ac ter, the mes sen gers ded i cat ed their

hon or a ble lives to this goal. All of the en su ing dif fi cul ties and

trials on ly in creased their faith and ded i ca tion. With Allah's

help and sup port, they be came ex am ples of cour age; with His

per mis sion, they al ways pre vailed. Our Lord says:

Allah has writ ten: "I will be vic to ri ous, I and My mes sen -gers." Allah is Most Strong, Almighty. (Surat al-Mujadalah:21)

In re turn for their de vo tion, faith ful ness, pa tience, sin cer i -

ty, and trust in Him, Allah im part ed a sense of se cu ri ty and

con tent ment to their hearts, gave them ma te ri al and spir it u al

strength, and de stroyed the un be liv ers' traps:

We will cer tain ly help Our mes sen gers and those who be -lieve both in the life of this world and on the Day the wit -ness es ap pear. (Surah Ghafir: 51)

O Messenger, trans mit what has been sent down to youfrom your Lord. If you do not, you will not have trans mit -ted His mes sage. Allah will pro tect you from peo ple. Allahdoes not guide the un be liev ers. (Surat al-Ma'idah: 67)

Allah tells us that He de fend ed our Prophet (saas)

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against all of the un be liev ers' traps:

… when the un be liev ers were plot ting against you to im -pris on, kill, or ex pel you: They were plot ting and Allah wasplan ning, but Allah is the Best of Planners. (Surat al-Anfal:30)

We learn from sev er al vers es that Allah pro tect ed His mes -

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)

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sen gers in ev ery ad ver si ty and anx i e ty and from ev ery trap. He

in creased His bless ings up on them, pro vid ed an es cape from

ev ery dif fi cul ty, in creased their cour age and strength, light -

ened their bur dens, and strength ened their re solve by re -

mind ing them of His mer cy.

Our Lord sup port ed some of His mes sen gers by

al low ing them to per form mir a cles. These great

bless ings from Allah had a strong ef fect on peo -

ple, strength ened the be liev ers' re -

solve and faith, and caused

many un be liev ers to em -

brace Islam.

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The Miracles Granted to the Messengers

Allah en a bled His mes sen gers to per form mir a cles to

pro tect them from the un be liev ers' and the hyp o crites'

traps, to bring peo ple to faith, and for oth er rea sons. In

the Qur'an He gives a de tailed ac count of the mes -

sen gers' lives, the mir a cles He sent to sup port

their mes sage, and the mir a cles He al lowed

them to per form. Our be lov ed Prophet

Muhammad (saas) and the

Prophet Moses (as),


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the Prophet Abraham (as) and the Prophet Jesus (as) were all

bless ed mes sen gers to whom Allah grant ed mir a cles.

For ex am ple, the trap set for the Prophet Abraham (as)

was foiled by a mir a cle:

We said: "Fire, be cool ness and peace for Abraham!" (Suratal-Anbiya': 69)

As a re sult, the un be liev ers' trap was de stroyed. We will

now re late some oth er mir a cles.


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The mir a cles that 'the Prophet Jesus (as)

showed his peo ple:

Remember when Allah said: " O Jesus, son of Maryam, re -mem ber My bless ing to you and to your moth er when I re -in forced you with the Purest Spirit so that you could speakto peo ple in the cra dle and when you were ful ly grown; andwhen I taught you the Book and Wisdom, and the Torahand the Gospel; and when you cre at ed a bird-shape out ofclay by My per mis sion, and then breathed in to it and it be -came a bird by My per mis sion; and [when you] healed theblind and the lep er by My per mis sion; and when youbrought forth the dead by My per mis sion; and when I heldback the tribe of Israel from you, when you brought themthe Clear Signs and the un be liev ers among them said: 'Thisis noth ing but down right mag ic.'" (Surat al-Ma'idah: 110)

... as a mes sen ger to the tribe of Israel, the Prophet Jesus (as)say ing: "I have brought you a sign from your Lord. I willcre ate the shape of a bird out of clay for you, breathe in to it,and it will be a bird, by Allah's per mis sion. I will heal theblind and the lep er, and bring the dead to life, by Allah'sper mis sion. I will tell you what you eat and what you storeup in your homes. There is a sign for you in that if you arebe liev ers." (Surah Al 'Imran: 49)

The Prophet Moses's (as) staff turned in to a

snake and swal lowed those pro duced by Pharaoh's

ma gi cians:

He [Pharaoh] said: "If you have come with a clear sign pro -duce it, if you are tell ing the truth." So he [Moses] threw


19


down his staff and there it was, un mis tak a bly a snake.(Surat al-A'raf: 106-107)Throw down what is in your right hand [O Moses]. It willswal low up their hand i work, which is just a ma gi cian'strick. Magicians do not pros per wher ev er they go. (SurahTa Ha: 69)

The Prophet Moses (as) struck the sea with his

staff and its wa ters part ed:

And when the two hosts came in to sight of one an oth er,Moses's com pan ions ex claimed: "We will sure ly be over tak -en!" Moses said: "Never! My Lord is with me and will guideme." So We re vealed to Moses: "Strike the sea with yourstaff." And it split in two, each part like a tow er ing cliff.And We brought the oth ers right up to it. We res cued Mosesand all those who were with him, and then drowned therest. (Surat al-Shu'ara': 61-66)

The birds that the Prophet Abraham (as) cut

in to pie ces came back to him alive:

When Abraham said: "My Lord, show me how You bringthe dead to life." He asked: "Do you not then have be lief?"Abraham re plied: "Indeed I do! But so that my heart may beat peace." He said: "Take four birds and train them to your -self. Then put a part of them on each moun tain and call tothem; they will come rush ing to you. Know that Allah isAlmighty, All-Wise." (Surat al-Baqara: 260)

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The Prophet Jonah’s (as) was mi rac u lous ly

saved aft er be ing swal lowed by a whale:

Yunus was one of the Messengers. When he ran away to theful ly lad en ship and cast lots and lost, then the fish de -voured him and he was to blame. Had he not been a per sonwho glo ri fied Allah, he would have re mained in side its bel -ly un til the Day of Resurrection. So We cast him up on to thebeach and he was sick. (Surat al-Saffat: 139-145)

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23


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The Prophet Zechariah. (as) was told he would

have a child in his old age

Then and there Zechariah called on his Lord: "O Lord, grantme by Your fa vor an up right child. You are the Hearer ofPrayer." The an gel called out to him while he was stand ingin prayer in the up per room: "Allah gives you the goodnews of John, who will come to con firm a Word from Allah,and will be a lead er and a cel i bate, a proph et and one of thejust." He asked: "My Lord, how can I pos si bly have a sonwhen I have reached old age and my wife is bar ren?" He re -plied: "It will be so. Allah does what ev er He wills." (SurahAl 'Imran: 38-40)


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Many oth er mir a cles are informed in the Qur'an, all of

which hap pen by the will of Allah Who rules the uni verse and

has in fi nite pow er. Every mir a cle hap pens at Allah's com mand

and in the way He wills:

We sent mes sen gers be fore you and gave them wives andchil dren. Nor was any mes sen ger able to bring a sign ex ceptby Allah's per mis sion. There is a pre scribed lim it to ev eryterm. (Surat ar-Ra'd: 38)

In Surat al-Ma'idah, it is re ve aed that the Prophet Jesus (as)

per formed mir a cles by Allah's per mis sion:

Remember when Allah said: "O 'Jesus, son of Maryam, re -mem ber My bless ing to you and to your moth er when I re -in forced you with the Purest Spirit so that you couldspeak to peo ple in the cra dle and when you were ful -

"Still Life with Cheeses." Floris Van Dijck (1575-1651). Rijksmuseum,

Amsterdam.


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ly grown; and when I taught you the Book and Wisdom,and the Torah and the Gospel; and when you cre at ed a bird-shape out of clay by My per mis sion, and then breathed in -to it and it be came a bird by My per mis sion; and healed theblind and the lep er by My per mis sion; and when youbrought forth the dead by My per mis sion; and when I heldback the tribe of Israel from you, when you brought themthe clear signs and the un be liev ers among them said: 'Thisis noth ing but down right mag ic.'" (Surat al-Ma’ida: 110)

All of the mes sen gers were bless ed in di vid u als who sub -

mit ted them selves to Allah. They had good mor al char ac ters

and were ex am ples to the world. Like ev ery one else, they were

help less and needy in Allah's sight. Allah, Who cre at ed the uni -

verse from noth ing, has ab so lute pow er and gov ern ance over

all things, both liv ing and in an i mate. The uni verse and all crea -

tures in the heav ens and on Earth be long to Him, for He, the

Lord of the uni verse, cre at ed them all. Everything moves at His

com mand and ex ists at His pleas ure.

Allah feeds all liv ing crea tures, pro vides them with many

bless ings, brings forth plants and cre ates their sea sons, and

brings dark ness in the even ing and makes the sun a bril liant

light. He cre at ed all hu man be ings who have ev er lived and

who are yet to live; all an i mate and in an i mate things owe their

ex is tence to Him, and ev ery crea ture needs Him. He has hon -

ored some in di vid u als by choos ing them to be His mes sen gers.

They al so stand in need of Him, act at His com mand, and per -

form their mir a cles on ly by His will.

We are told in Surat al-Anbiya' of Allah's in fi nite pow er:

Everyone in the heav ens and on Earth be longs to Him.Those in His pres ence do not con sid er them selves too great


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to wor ship Him anddo not grow tired ofit. They glo ri fy Himnight and day, nev erflag ging. Or havethey tak en de i ties outof the soil who canbring the dead to life? Ifthere had been any de i -ties be sides Allah inheav en or Earth, theywould both be ru ined.Glory be to Allah, Lordof the Throne, be yondwhat they de scribe! He willnot be ques tioned about what Hedoes, but they will be ques tioned. Or have theytak en oth er de i ties be sides Him? Say: "Produceyour proof. This is the mes sage of those with me and

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the mes sage of those be fore me." But most of them donot know the truth, so they turn away. (Surat al-Anbiya': 19-24)

This book in forms the read er about some of the

Prophet Muhammad's (saas) mir a cles. Allah made this

bless ed in di vid u al an ex am ple to all peo ple due to his

good ness and deep faith, and his ev ery word and ac tion.

With Allah's per mis sion, he per formed mir a cles through -

out his life, some of which were wit nessed on ly by the

Companions and oth ers of which were seen by great num -

bers of un be liev ers.

An ac count of some of these mir a cles has come down

to us in the Qur'an; we know of oth ers through the had iths

and the var i ous writ ings of Islamic schol ars. We in tend to

show the mi rac u lous as pects of this bless -

ed per son who was sent as a mer cy to

the world and to in vite our read ers to

take the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the

Prophet (saas) as their guide.


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s Allah says, He sent our Prophet

(saas) as the last proph et to hu man i ty:

"… the Messenger of Allah and the Final

Seal of the Prophets" (Surat al-Ahzab: 40). This bless ed

man de liv ered the fi nal rev e la tion and serves as hu man -

i ty's role mod el be cause of his good ness, pi e ty, and

close ness to Allah. He is a friend of Allah, and the

friend and ad vo cate of be liev ers. Allah tells us

that He en trust ed our Prophet (saas) with a

great re spon si bil i ty:

We will im pose a weighty Word up onyou. (Surat al-Muzzammil: 5)

With his pow er ful faith in Allah,

the Prophet (saas) car ried out his re -

spon si bil i ty per fect ly by in vit ing

hu man i ty to fol low the Way of

Allah and serv ing as their

guide.


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The Revelation of

the Qur'an

According to Islamic and his tor i cal

texts, Allah be stowed pro pheth ood up on

the Prophet Muhammad (saas) when he

was for ty years old. But even be fore that

time, cer tain mi rac u lous events took

place. For ex am ple, his dreams came true.

The had iths say that these dreams last ed

for about six months. The em i nent

Islamic schol ar Imam al-Bukhari re lates:

The com mence ment of the Di vine in spi ra -tion to the Messenger of Allah was in theform of good right eous (true) dreams in hissleep. He nev er had a dream but that itcame true like bright day light. 1

The had iths tell us that when he

turned for ty, he would of ten go by him -

self to the Cave of Hira' (Ghar Hira) in

Jabal al-Nur (the Mountain of

Light), which was lo -

cat ed about twelve

kil o me ters from

Mecca. During

the Ramadan

of his third

an nu al re -


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treat, Allah grant ed the Prophet Muhammad (saas) the rank of

proph et by send ing Gabriel to re veal some Qur'anic vers es to

him. The first rev e la tion was giv en on August 10, 610 CE

(Monday night, 21 Ramadan).

This was cer tain ly a won der ful grace from Allah. Our

Prophet (saas) was bless ed; he was an able, good, and a man of

deep faith; had a de gree of fear and re spect to ward Allah; and

was wor thy of this hon or:

… but for a mer cy from your Lord. His fa vor to you is in -deed im mense. (Surat al-Isra': 87)

You did not ex pect to be giv en the Book. It is noth ing but amer cy from your Lord... (Surat al-Qasas: 86)

The fact that his dreams came true is one proof that our

dear Prophet (saas) was cho sen by Allah. Islamic schol ars in ter -

pret this as mean ing that Allah pre pared him for this great re -

spon si bil i ty while he slept. After these dreams, the Prophet

(saas) re ceived the first rev e la tion and was en trust ed with

guid ing hu man i ty to the true path. He con tin ued to do so, with

great de ter mi na tion, un til he died.

The had iths re late the mi rac u lous events that oc curred be -

fore he re ceived the first rev e la tion:

Aisha nar rat ed: The first thing with which the rev e la tion be gan forthe Messenger of Allah was cor rect dreams in sleep. He nev er sawa dream but that it came like the break ing of the dawn. He used togo in se clu sion to (the cave of) Hira', where he used to wor ship(Allah alone) con tin u ous ly for many nights. He used to take pro vi -sion with him for that (stay) and then like-wise come back toKhadijah to take his food again for an oth er pe ri od. Then sud den lythe Truth de scend ed up on him while he was in the cave of Hira'.The an gel came to him and asked him to read.

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The Prophet re plied: "I do not know how to read" (and add ed:) "Thean gel caught me (force ful ly) and pressed me so hard that I could notbear it any more. He then re leased me and again asked me to read,and I re plied: 'I do not know how to read,' where up on he caught meagain and pressed me a sec ond time un til I could not bear it any -more. He then re leased me and asked me again to read, but again Ire plied: 'I do not know how to read (or, what shall I read?).'Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me and thenre leased me and said: 'Read: In the Name of your Lord, Whohas cre at ed, has cre at ed hu man i ty from a [blood] clot.


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A copy of the Qur'an from 1790 CE (1205 AH) writ ten in the Naskhi style.

Classic style lay out, ev ery page con tain ing sev en teen lines. Ruled in gold,

leath er bind ing from the time. (Suleyman Tevfik)


Read, and Your Lord is Most Generous, He Who taught bythe pen, taught man what he did not know.' (Surat al-'Al aq: 1-5)" Then Allah's Messenger re turned with it… 2

We are told in the Qur'an about his con ver sa tion with

Gabriel and the rev e la tion of the Qur'an to him. It is re vealed in

Surat al-Najm that Gabriel taught the Qur'an to the Prophet

(saas):

Your com pan ion is not mis guid ed or mis led; nor does hespeak from whim. It is noth ing but Revelation re vealed,taught to him by one im mense ly strong. (Surat al-Najm: 2-5)

We al so learn of the won drous events that oc curred as

Gabriel trans mit ted the Qur'an to the Prophet (saas):

… pos sess ing pow er and splen dor. He [Gabriel] stood theresta tion ary, there on the hi ghest ho ri zon. Then he drew nearand hung sus pend ed. He was two bow-lengths away oreven clos er. Then He [Allah] re vealed to His ser vant whatHe re vealed. His [Muhammad's] heart did not lie aboutwhat he saw. What! Do you dis pute with him about what hesaw? (Surat al-Najm: 6-12)

It is al so stat ed in sev er al oth er vers es that Gabriel, al so

called the "Purest Spirit" or the "Faithful Spirit," de liv ered the

rev e la tion:

It does not be fit Allah to ad dress any hu man be ing ex ceptby in spi ra tion, or from be hind a veil, or He sends a mes sen -ger who then re veals by His per mis sion what ev er He wills.He is in deed Most High, All-Wise. (Surat al-Shura: 51)

Say: "Anyone who is Jibril's en e my should know that it washe who brought it [the Qur'an] down up on your heart, byAllah's au thor i ty, con firm ing what came be fore, and as gui -dance and good news for the be liev ers." (Surat al-Baqarah: 97)

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Say: "The Purest Spirit has brought it down from your Lordwith truth, to make those who have faith firm, and as gui -dance and good news for the Muslims." (Surat al-Nahl: 102)

Truly it is rev e la tion sent down by the Lord of all theworlds. The Faithful Spirit brought it down to your heartso you would be one of the Warners. (Surat al-Shu'ara':192-194)

There is a tra di tion that the rev e la tions ceased for a while

aft er the first vers es had been re vealed. The had iths tell us that

when the rev e la tions re sumed, the first vers es he re ceived were

the open ing vers es of Surat al-Muddaththir. After that, the

Prophet (saas) as sumed his re spon si bil i ty of pro claim ing the

rev e la tion. Later, by a com mand from Allah, he told peo ple to

have faith on ly in Allah and not to make any crea ture His equal:

O you who are en vel oped in your cloak, arise and warn.Magnify your Lord. (Surat al-Muddaththir: 1-3)

It is al so said in Surat al-Shura 194 that rev e la tions were

placed in the Prophet's (saas) heart. In ad di tion, Allah caused

him to mem o rize the Qur'an: "We will cause you to re cite so

that you do not for get" (Surat al-A'la: 6). His abil i ty to mem -

o rize the Qur'an in this way was an oth er one of his mir a cles.

The vers es of the Qur'an were root ed in the Prophet's

(saas) heart, and he spent his whole life pro claim ing them. In

Surat al-A'la 8, "We will ease you to the Easy Way," Allah an -

nounced that He is the Prophet's (saas) help er and will give

him suc cess. Allah tells us that He is the bless ed mes en ger's

con stant Helper: "It is Our du ty to help the be liv ers" (Surat al-

Rum: 47). He re fresh ed the Prophet's (saas) heart and cre at ed

mar vel lous things in his mind and mem o ry. He tells us that it

is He Who en a bled the Prophet (saas) to re cite and re -


37


38


39


40

mem ber all of its vers es:

Do not move your tongue try ing to has ten it. Its col lec tionand rec i ta tion are Our af fair. So when We re cite it, fol lowits rec i ta tion. Then its ex pla na tion is Our con cern. (Surat al-Qiyamah: 16-19)

Clearly, Allah placed the Qur'an's vers es in his mem o ry in

a spe cial way:

High ex alt ed be Allah, the King, the Real! Do not rushahead with the Qur'an be fore its rev e la tion to you is com -plete, and say: "My Lord, in crease me in knowl edge."(Surah Ta Ha: 114)

With his love and live ly faith in Allah, our Prophet (saas)

will ing ly and whole heart ed ly obeyed all of His com mands.

Allah made him pow er ful and gave him suc cess, grant ed him

many bless ings, and made him spe cial in both worlds.

What Happened While the Prophet (saas)

Was Receiving Revelation

Allah tells us that He told our Prophet (saas) to get up in

the night and pre pare to re ceive a rev e la tion, a "weighty

Word":

O you who are en wrapped in your cloth ing, stay up atnight, ex cept a lit tle, half of it, or a lit tle less, or a lit tle more,and re cite the Qur'an dis tinct ly. We will im pose a weightyWord up on you. Certainly, ris ing at night has a strong er ef -fect and is more con du cive to con cen tra tion. In the day time,much of your time is tak en up by busi ness mat ters.Remember the Name of your Lord and de vote your self toHim com plete ly. (Surat al-Muzzammil: 1-8)


41


The had iths in form us about how ex traor di na ry it is to

re ceive a rev e la tion and of the mar vel lous spir it u al things the

Prophet (saas) ex pe ri enced in his room. We learn that when the

rev e la tions came, those who were with him heard a sound like

a bee buzz ing around his face. Sahih al-Bukhari states:

Aisha nar rat ed: "Al-Harith ibn Hisham asked the Prophet (saas):'How does the rev e la tion come to you?' He re plied: 'In all of thatthe an gel comes to me, some times with a voice that re sem bles thesound of a ring ing bell. When this state aban dons me, I re mem berwhat the an gel has said. This type of rev e la tion is the hard est on me.Sometimes the an gel comes to me in the shape of a man and talks tome, and I un der stand and re mem ber what he says.'" 3

Aisha nar rat ed: "I saw the Prophet (saas) re ceive rev e la tion on avery cold day and no ticed the sweat drop ping from his fore head." 4

Zayd ibn Thabit nar rat ed: "I wrote down Allah's rev e la tions to theProphet (saas). When the rev e la tion came to him, he felt a greatwea ri ness and had beads of sweat like pearls. When the state of rev -e la tion end ed, he re cit ed and I would write." 5

Abu Hurayrah nar rat ed: "When the rev e la tion came from Allah tothe Prophet (saas), it was as if he had faint ed." 6

42


43

ur Prophet's (saas) great est mir a cle is the

Qur'an, which Allah re vealed four teen cen -

tu ries ago as a guide for hu man i ty and called ev ery one to obey

to at tain sal va tion:

But it is noth ing less than a Reminder to all the worlds.(Surat al-Qalam: 52)

Since that time, the Qur'an's lan guage has been eas i ly un -

der stand a ble by peo ple of ev ery era:

We have made the Qur'an easy to re mem ber. (Surat al-Qamar: 22)

At the same time, its ex cel lent and in com -

pa ra ble lit er ary style, as well as the su pe ri or

wis dom it con tains, are def i nite proofs

that it is the Divine word. Many oth er mi -

rac u lous as pects al so at test that it is the

word of Allah. For ex am ple, some sci -

en tif ic facts could on ly be "dis cov -

ered" with the aid of mod ern tech -

nol o gy; but their es sence was

re vealed in the Qur'an some


1,400 years ago. Since it was im pos si ble to dis cov er these facts

sci en tif i cal ly when the Qur'an was be ing re vealed, it is clear

that the Qur'an is Allah's word to hu man i ty.

When the Qur'an was re vealed in the sev enth cen tu ry, the

Arabs had in nu mer a ble myths about what we would con sid er

sci en tif ic mat ters. Lacking the tech nol o gy to in ves ti gate the

uni verse and the world of na ture, they be lieved in myths and

leg ends passed down from gen er a tion to gen er a tion. For ex am -

46

ple, they thought that the sky was held up by moun tains: Earth

was flat, and high moun tains lo cat ed on its two sides act ed as

col umns sup port ing the vault of the heav ens. All of these

myths were erad i cat ed with the com ing of the Qur'an. For ex -

am ple, the verse read ing "Allah is He Who raised up the heav -

ens with out any sup port…" (Surat al-Ra'd: 2) in val i dat ed that

par tic u lar su per sti tion.


47


48


49


Im por tant knowl edge about this and many oth er mat ters

un known at that time are giv en in the Qur'an. When it was sent

down, hu man be ings knew very lit tle about as tron o my, phys -

ics and bi ol o gy. And yet it con tained im por tant knowl edge

about the cre a tion of the uni verse and hu man be ings, the com -

po nents of the at mos phere, and the bal ance in na ture. (For a de -

tailed dis cus sion, see Harun Yahya, The Miracles of the Qur'an,

Toronto: Al-Attique Publishers Inc., 2001)

Allah cre at ed the uni verse from noth ing and knows all

things. The Qur'an, which has a plain and clear style that ev ery -

one can un der stand, was re vealed so that peo ple would read

and un der stand it, know the Creator, and know how to serve

Him. Allah then elu ci dat ed the vers es with nu mer ous ex am -

ples and sto ries, for "We have not omit ted any thing from the

Book" (Surat al-An'am: 38). The Qur'an is per fect and thus con -

tains much de tailed knowl edge about both worlds, which it ex -

plains in wise terms: "We have sent down to you a Book con -

tain ing your Reminder. So will you not use your in tel lect?"

(Surat al-Anbiya': 10).

One of the Qur'an's most im por tant as pects is that its orig -

i nal text has re mained in tact since its rev e la tion: "We have sent

down the Reminder and We will pre serve it" (Surat al-Hijr: 9).

The scrip tures re vealed be fore the Qur'an were al tered, for var -

i ous peo ple add ed, changed, or de let ed cer tain parts. But when

a rev e la tion came to our Prophet (saas), Allah mi rac u lous ly en -

a bled him to mem o rize it. Immediately aft er wards, it was writ -

ten down by the "re cord ers of rev e la tion." During Abu Bakr's

(ra) reign, the Qur'an be came one vol ume; dur ing Uthman's

(ra) reign, cop ies were made and sent to the ma jor cit ies of the

em pire.

50

The Qur'an Con tains Ad vice

For All Hu man i ty

The Qur'an is the last Divine book that was re vealed to ad -

vise hu man i ty; there fore, its de crees re main val id for all peo -

ple, re gard less of their par tic u lar time or lo ca tion, un til the Day

of Judgment. The Qur'an shows hu man be ings the right path

and re minds them about cer tain things per tain ing to their eter -

nal life. For ex am ple:

It is cer tain ly a re mind er to you and to your peo ple, and youwill be ques tioned. (Surat al-Zukhruf: 44)

The su preme wis dom it con tains, the truth it re veals about

the past and the fu ture, and its style that dis pels ig no rance and

un a ware ness make the Qur'an unique and with out equal. Its

mi rac u lous char ac ter ap plies to all peo ple who will ev er live,

and its va lid i ty be gan on the day it was re vealed and will con -

tin ue un til the Day of Judgment.

All peo ple are re spon si ble for serv ing Allah prop er ly. This

is pos si ble on ly if they be lieve in Him sin cere ly and are guid ed

by the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (saas). Allah re -

veals how won der ful the Qur'an is and how im por tant it is to

adopt it as on e's guide:

If We had sent down this Qur'an to a moun tain, you wouldhave seen it hum bled, crushed to pie ces out of fear of Allah.We make such ex am ples for peo ple so that, hope ful ly, theywill re flect. (Surat al-Hashr: 21)


51


Everything Has Been

Ex plained in the Qur'an

Allah ex plains clear ly in the Qur'an what is

right and wrong, al lowed and for bid den.

Therefore, it is an easy mat ter for be liev ers who lis -

ten to the voice of their con science and avoid the self ish

pro mot ing of their low er selves to find the truth. The Qur'an

con tains ad vice that is full of wis dom. Its wis dom and the

good ness en joined in its vers es are clear. Sincere be liev ers

whom Allah has put on the right path can un der stand it with -

out dif fi cul ty and im ple ment its truths in their at ti tudes and

ideas, for the Qur'an is "gui dance for hu man i ty, with clear

52

signs con tain ing gui dance and dis crim i -

na tion" (Surat al-Baqarah: 185).

However, on ly those who fear and re spect

Allah, abide by His de crees, sub mit to Him in their

heart, and choose the next world to this one can con sid er its ad -

vice:

We did not send down the Qur'an to you to make you mis -er a ble, but on ly as a re mind er for those who have fear [andre spect for Allah]. (Surah Ta Ha: 2-3)

This is a ma jor se cret of the Qur'an. It does not take a high

in tel lect, a broad cul ture, or any spe cial abil i ty to un der stand

the Qur'an; it is on ly nec es sa ry to have sin cer i ty. Allah re veals

the truth to His sin cere ser vants and brings them to sal va tion.

The Qur'an has been sent to hu man i ty, but is the way to the

right path on ly for those who fear and re spect Him and be lieve

in the Last Day:

Those are the signs of the Wise Book – gui dance and mer cyfor those who do good. (Surah Luqman: 2-3)

O hu man i ty, ad mo ni tion has come to you from your Lord,and al so heal ing for what is in the breasts and gui dance andmer cy for the be liev ers. (Surah Yunus: 57)

Given the above, we can see that the Qur'an con tains ad -

vice for ev ery one and guides the ob ser vant and gen er ous

Muslims to the right path. As the great Islamic think -


53


er Bediuzzaman Said Nursi said: "The All-Wise Qur'an is the

lead er to the aware and the con scious, the guide of jinn and men, the

teach er of those at tain ing to per fec tion, and in struct or of those seek -

ing re al i ty." 7 In or der to bring hu man i ty out of its dark ness and

in to the light, Allah re vealed the an swer to ev ery ques tion to

those who seek it in their con science:

We have sent down the Book to you mak ing all things clearand as gui dance and mer cy and good news for the Muslims.(Surat an-Nahl: 89)

…We have not omit ted any thing from the Book – then theywill be gath ered to their Lord. (Surat al-An'am: 38)

This is a man i fes ta tion of Allah's mer cy to ward His ser -

vants.

Moreover, Allah lets us know some thing about Him

through the Qur'an. For ex am ple, He re veals that He cre at ed

the uni verse from noth ing, rich be yond need of any be ing, is

be yond de fect, knows ev ery thing, and sees and hears ev ery se -

cret. Besides this, He re vealed why and how hu man be ings

were cre at ed; what kind of life will win His ap prov al; the ex is -

tence of the Day of Judgment, Paradise, and Hell; taught hu -

man be ings how to pray and be good, how to be sound in body

and spir it, and what to do in times of dif fi cul ty and un ex pect -

ed sit u a tions; and de scribed the var i ous kinds of hu man char -

ac ter. But He has al so re vealed far more than just these things,

for some vers es point to sci en tif ic truths and knowl edge as well

as how to solve per son al and so cial prob lems. In oth er words,

the Qur'an con tains all of the ba sic knowl edge nec es sa ry for ev -

ery mo ment of a per son's life:

In this way We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an andhave giv en var i ous warn ings in it so that, hope ful ly,

54


55


they will have fear of Allah or thatit will spur them to re mem brance.(Surah Ta Ha: 113)

We have spread through out thisQur'an all kinds of ex am ples forpeo ple, but most peo ple spurn any -thing but un be lief. (Surat al-Isra':89)

We have spread through out thisQur'an all kinds of ex am ples forpeo ple, but, more than any thingelse, hu man i ty is ar gu men ta tive.(Surat al-Kahf: 54)

Allah tells peo ple to obey His de -

crees ab so lute ly, to take Him as their

on ly friend and guard i an, and that the

on ly pur pose of life is to win His ap -

prov al and mer cy and there by reach

Paradise. The on ly cri te ri on for liv ing is

the Qur'an, and the on ly way to fol low

is the way of Prophet Muhammad

(saas).

Allah, Who was pleased to choose

Islam as the re li gion for His ser vants,

re vealed the Qur'an as a guide to which

they could re fer and made the life of

our Prophet (saas) an ex am ple for

them. All oth er paths are er rant and

false, based on ly on myths, her e sy, and

opin ion. Therefore, peo ple can hope

56


57


for a re ward from Allah on ly if they

take the Qur'an and the Prophet's (saas) Sunnah as

their meas ure of judg ment, obey Allah's com mands ful ly by al -

ways do ing good works to win His ap prov al, and take the

Prophet's (saas) mor al char ac ter as their ex am ple.

As Allah re vealed in the Qur'an, His words are "per fect"

and peo ple can on ly reach the truth by fol low ing the Qur'an

and the Prophet's (saas) Sunnah, for:

"Am I to de sire some one oth er than Allah as a judge whenit is He Who has sent down the Book to you clar i fy ing ev -ery thing?" Those to whom We have giv en the Book know ithas been sent down from your Lord with truth, so on no ac -count be among the doubt ers. The Words of your Lord areper fect in truth ful ness and jus tice. No one can change HisWords. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Surat al-An'am: 114-115)

58

The Qur'an's Lit er ary Ex cel lence

Allah pro claims: "We have made the Qur'an easy to re -

mem ber" (Surat al-Qamar: 22).

In spite of the fact that it has an eas i ly un der stand a ble

style, it can not be com pared in any way with an oth er book.

This is one of Allah's great mir a cles. Those who doubt ed, in

spite of clear proofs, slan dered the Prophet (saas), and so Allah

re vealed:

Do they say: "He has in vent ed it"? Say: "Then pro duce a su -rah like it and call up on any one you can, be sides Allah, ifyou are tell ing the truth." (Surah Yunus: 38)

Even though noone could ev er achieve this, the un be liev -

ers could mis tak en ly con sid er it an easy mat ter. In Arabia, po -

et ry and lit er a ture were high ly de vel oped; there were po ets

and flu ent and el o quent in di vid u als who used Arabic very

well. As Bediuzzaman Said Nursi said, a tri be's lit er ary peo ple

were con sid ered the peo ple's great est he roes. Given the im por -

tance they placed on lit er a ture and rhet o ric, the Mu'allaqat

(sev en od es writ ten by sev en po ets) were sus pend ed in gold


59


60

let ters on the walls of the Ka`bah. 8 Some of them were re cit ed

to the peo ple on great oc ca sions, such as the trade fair at Ukaz.

Even the Bedouins could re cite po et ry that was just as good as

any com posed by the ur ban po ets. Whether their po ems were

met ri cal or com posed in a free style, the peo ple were moved.9

So, at a time when el o quence and style were well de vel -

oped, Allah re vealed the Qur'an to our Prophet (saas). It was

not long be fore these lit er ary in di vid u als, even though their in -

ner ar ro gance and con ceit made them per sist in their re bel -

lious ness, no ticed that the Qur'an was, in lit er ary terms, a mir -

a cle.

The Qur'an in cludes in ci dents that are means of gui dance

for peo ple, al lows peo ple to recog nize their own low er selves,

gives in for ma tion about the past and the fu ture. Its rich ness is

in fi nite and in com pa ra ble. In fact, this mir a cle is so great that

Allah told the Prophet (saas) to pro claim to those who were too

ar ro gant to lis ten to it:

Say: "If both hu man i ty and jinn band ed to geth er to pro -duce the like of this Qur'an, they could nev er pro duce any -thing like it, even if they backed each oth er up." We havespread through out this Qur'an all kinds of ex am ples forpeo ple, but most peo ple spurn any thing but un be lief.(Surat al-Isra': 88-89)

Or do they say: "He has in vent ed it"? Say: "Then pro duceten in vent ed su rahs like this and call up on any one you canbe sides Allah, if you are tell ing the truth." If they do not re -spond to you, then know that it has been sent down withAllah's knowl edge and that there is no de i ty but Him. Sowill you not be come be liev ers? (Surah Hud: 13-14)


61


Do they say: "He has in vent ed it"? Say: "Then pro duce a su -rah like it and call on any one you can be sides Allah, if youare tell ing the truth." No, the fact is that they have de niedsome thing that their knowl edge does not em brace and themean ing of which has not yet reached them. In the sameway, those be fore them al so de nied the truth. See the fi nalfate of those who do wrong! (Surah Yunus: 38-39)

Unbelievers re main weak and pow er less in re la tion to the

Qur'an's ex cel lence. No one has ev er pro duced any thing like it,

and no one ev er will. All the un be liev ers' traps and rus es de -

signed to dis cred it the Prophet (saas) and pre vent him from de -

liv er ing his mes sage were, as a bless ing from Allah, ren dered

in ef fect ive.

From the lit er ary point of view, with the Qur'an, our

Prophet (saas) gave the wis est re sponse to his peo ple's pow er -

ful and elab o rate rhet o ric, to their most fa mous po ets and fin -

est or a tors. Besides this, he proved him self su pe ri or to all lit er -

ary peo ple. No doubt this was one of the ef fects of the Qur'an's

in com pa ra ble lit er ary qual i ty and wis dom. In re sponse to the

vers es that the Prophet (saas) re cit ed, the Meccan pol y the ists

were amazed. But in spite of their own cer tain ty about them,

some of them re belled be cause of their pride:

If you have doubts about what We have sent down to Ourser vant, pro duce an oth er su rah equal to it and call your wit -ness es, be sides Allah, if you are tell ing the truth. If you donot do that – and you will not do it – then fear the Firewhose fu el is peo ple and stones, made ready for the un be -liev ers. (Surat al-Baqarah: 23-24)

The great schol ar Bediuzzaman Said Nursi in ter prets these

vers es in this way:

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63


64

When the Qur'an came, it chal lenged at the same time the ex -perts in these four fields. First, it made the peo ple of el o quencebow down be fore it. They all lis tened to it with amaze ment.Second, it stunned the po ets and or a tors so that they bit their fin -gers in as ton ish ment. Their most beau ti ful po ems writ ten in goldwere giv en a blow, and the fa mous Seven Poems that were placedon the walls of the Ka`bah as an ob ject of pride were broughtdown. Third, it al so si lenced the sooth say ers and ma gi cians,made them for get about their dis cov er ies of hid den knowl edge, re -sult ed in the ex pul sion of the jinn from the heav ens, and broughtthe proc ess of div i na tion to a cer tain end. Fourth, it res cued frommyth and fab ri ca tions those who were cog ni sant of the events ofby gone times and the facts of cos mol o gy, teach ing them the re alsto ry of past events and the il lu mi nat ing knowl edge of the factsof cre a tion. Thus did those four groups bow down be fore theQur'an in as ton ish ment and re spect and be come its stu dents.None of them ev er dared dis pute with a sin gle verse of it. 10

The rev e la tion of an ex traor di na ry book to the Prophet

(saas), who had lived among them all his life, amazed the ar -

ro gant peo ple and led them to hate him with out cause. As a

re sult, they did their best to harm him in ev ery pos si ble way.

Although they saw that he was good both in his life and mor -

al char ac ter, they con spired against him:

They are sur prised that a warn er should come to themfrom among them selves. The un be liev ers say: "This is aly ing ma gi cian." (Surah Sad: 4)

Do peo ple find it so sur pris ing that We should re veal toa man among them: "Warn hu man i ty." The un be liev ersex claim: "This is down right mag ic!" (Surah Yunus: 2)

Those who slan dered this good and bless ed man were

per son al wit ness es to his mor al su pe ri or i ty. With their


65


own eyes they saw the Prophet Muhammad's (saas) faith ful -

ness to his prom is es, loy al ty, jus tice, hon esty, truth ful ness,

kind ness to or phans and those in need, gen er os i ty, and in ter est

in oth ers. His ex cel lent char ac ter and mor al qual i ties al ways

caught ev ery on e's at ten tion, and he was ev ery on e's most trust -

ed, be lov ed, and re spect ed friend.

Our Prophet's (saas) mor al char ac ter could not be de nied

or ig nored. His mor al char ac ter, as de scribed in the Qur'an, was

pleas ing to Allah, Who made him an ex am ple and guide to all

peo ple. According to Islamic sour ces, Nadr ibn al-Haris at -

tempt ed to harm the Prophet (saas) with his words; lat er on, he

met with the ido la ters' lead ers and told them:

66

O Qurayshis, I swear that to day you have en coun tered some thingthat has nev er be fall en you be fore. From ear ly child hood,Muhammad was your most be lov ed, the great est speak er oftruth, and the one who achieved the great est re spect. When hewas old er and brought Allah's Book, you said that he was a ma gi -cian. I swear that he is not a ma gi cian. We have seen many ma gi -cians and how they breathe on knots. You then called him a seer. Iswear that nei ther is he a seer. How many seers have we seen andwit nessed their speech? You called him a po et. I swear that he is nota po et. How many po ems have we learned and seen their me tre?You called him cra zy. I swear that he is not cra zy. Are there anysigns of faint ing, non sense, or fits in him? O Qurayshis think welland de cide… 11


67

he proph et Muhammad (saas) is a bless -

ed man and great ly hon ored in Allah's

sight. Allah sent him to guide ev ery one to the

right and made him great in the world; he had the kind of mor -

al char ac ter that made him the most trust wor thy of all hu man

be ings, and he was an ex am ple to oth ers in his hon esty. He was

a mes sen ger of Allah whose god li ness, good mor al char ac ter,

and dis po si tion were ex em pla ry. His com pas sion, po lite -

ness, sub tle un der stand ing, trust in Allah, and pa tient

de ter mi na tion make him a guide for all Muslims.

Ibrahim ibn Muhammad (ra), a grand son

of Ali ibn Abu Talib (ra), re lates the fol low ing

in for ma tion:

Whenever Ali de scribed the Messenger ofAllah's (saas) no ble fea tures, he used to say: "Hewas the most gen er ous and the most truth ful

per son. He was the most kind-heart ed per -son. Any per son who saw him would sud -

den ly be come awed. Anyone who camein to close con tact with him andknew his ex cel lent char ac ter


loved him. The one who de scribed him said: 'Ihave not seen any one like him be fore him oraft er him.'" 12

In his com mu ni ty, our Prophet (saas)

was known as al-Amin (the Turstworthy).

His face shed a no ble light that con vinced

ev ery one who saw it of his hon esty. Those

who lis tened to their con science while

speak ing with him un der stood that he was

spe cial; they saw many proofs that he was a

proph et. He was in tel li gent and in sight ful

and, due to his ex cel lent char ac ter, even the

hyp o crites asked him to solve their dis -

putes.

Ibn Sa`d gave the fol low ing ac count,

which he re ceived from Ibn Asakir (ra),

con cern ing the vir tues and good ness that

the Companions con tin u al ly saw in our

Prophet (saas):

The Prophet (saas) grew as the best

among peo ple in terms of hon esty, the most

beau ti ful in char ac ter, the most per fect in

so cial re la tions, the most gen er ous in neigh -

bor li ness, the most for ward

in gen tle ness and se cu -

ri ty, the tru est spo -

ken, and the one

who at tached the

great est im por -

tance to cour te sy

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71


72

and good man ners. He got on well with all. For that rea son

they called him al-Amin – the tru est and most trust wor thy. 13

Ibn Sa`d re lat ed the fol low ing from ibn Hashim (ra):

During the Days of Ignorance, ev ery one asked the Prophet of Allahto re solve dis putes. 14

Ya`qub ibn Sufyan (ra) and al-Bayhaqi (ra) re ceived the

fol low ing from Ibn Shihab (ra):

When the Quraysh re built the Ka`bah, they be gan to ar gue whowould lay the Black Stone (in its orig i nal po si tion). Each tribewished to lay it. Then they said: "Whoever comes from that road,let's ap point him to judge among us." The first to ap proach wasProphet Muhammad (saas), who was then still a young man.(According to re li a ble sour ces, he was thir ty-five.) They ap point edhim ar bi ter. He said: "Bring a ground cloth." A ground cloth wasbrought. "Now put the stone on it to geth er," he said. After the stonewas placed on the cloth, he said: "Let the eld est man of each tribecome and hold one end of the cloth." They car ried the stone to itsplace in that man ner. He then went up and in stalled the stone hehad tak en from them. As he grew old er, he at tract ed the love and re -

spect of all. Because of the fame his hon esty wonhim, he was known as al-Amin, the most

trust wor thy. This was be fore the rev e la tionhad de scend ed up on him.15

Our Prophet (saas) spent his

life guid ing peo ple to the right

path, teach ing his Companions and

talk ing with the un be liev ers in an

at tempt to di rect them to the right

way. As a re sult, sim ple Bedouins


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Al-Hajar al-Aswad (The Black Stone).


be came good hu man be ings shin ing with the light of faith. This

was a great mir a cle. Besides his own mor al good ness, our

Prophet (saas) man i fest ed many kinds of mi rac u lous qual i ties

that were wit nessed not on ly by the Companions, but al so by

many un be liev ers. His mir a cles were di vine

proofs to the be liev ers and a means to faith

and the right path.

Given that he worked for twen ty-three

years, fought many bat tles, dealt with wick ed

and an gry peo ple, and was al ways in the van -

guard of the strug gle, it is mi rac u lous that noth -

ing un to ward hap pened to him and that he was

not mur dered. His ex traor di na ry de ter mi na tion

and her o ism in creased all of his Companions'

74

en thu si asm. It is al so mi rac u lous that he was able to plant the

roots of the fear of and re spect for Allah in his en e mies' hearts

and to de feat the un be liev ers ev ery time. Allah helped him in

bat tle with an gels and un seen ar mies, and so he could scat ter

hos tile ar mies that were far larg er and more

pow er ful than his own:

Yes in deed! But if you are stead fast and havetaq wa and they come up on you sud den ly, yourLord will re in force you with five thou sand an -gels, clear ly iden ti fied. Allah on ly did this forit to be good news for you and so that yourhearts might be set at rest by it (help comesfrom no one but Allah, the Almighty, the All-Wise) (Surah Al 'Imran: 125-26)


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Our Prophet (saas) pro claimed Islam very ef fect ive ly and

with de ter mi na tion. As a re sult, he en dured great suf fer ing.

Even when he was of fered a treas ure to stop spread ing Islam,

he re ject ed this and many sim i lar pro pos als. Always par a -

mount in his mind was win ning Allah's ap prov al and work ing

for the Muslims and Islam. He al ways hoped for Allah's help

and be lieved that, with His help, he and the be liev ers would

even tu al ly pre vail. So, he was al ways un der Allah's pro tec tion

and nev er suf fered any harm from the un be liev ers:

You will have a wage that nev er fails. Indeed, you are tru lyvast in char ac ter. (Surat al-Qalam: 3-4)

Truly it is the speech of a no ble Messenger, pos sess inggreat strength, se cure ly placed with the Lord of the Throne,obeyed there, trust wor thy. Your com pan ion is not cra zy. He[Muhammad] saw him on the clear ho ri zon. Nor is he mis -er ly with the Unseen. (Surat at-Takwir: 19-24)

The great Islamic schol ar Imam al-Ghazzali gives an ac -

count of the Prophet's ex cel lent mor al char ac ter, based on the

had iths col lect ed by al-Tirmidhi, al-Tabarani, Imam al-Bukhari,

Sahih Muslim, Imam Ahmad, Sunan Abu Dawud, and Ibn

Majah:

The Prophet was the most pa tient of men, the brav est, the bestjudge, and one who par doned most. He was the most char i ta ble ofmen. He did not store up the pro vi sions of his fam i ly mem bers thatAllah was pleased to give him for more than a year. What re mainedin ex cess, he used to give in sad aq ah. He used to give away in sad -aq ah to those who begged any thing of him, even out of his stored-uppro vi sions.

He used to speak the truth, even though it some times caused troub -le both to him self and his Companions. He used to ac cept in vi ta -

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tions to wed dings, vis it the sick and the dis eased, and at tend fu ner -als. He was the most mod est, with out pride; his speech was most el -o quent, with out length i ness. His con sti tu tion was the most beau ti -ful.

He even used to go to dis tant pla ces to vis it the sick, ... sit with thepoor and des ti tute, eat with them, hon or those pos sess ing no bil i ty,and ad vise them to do good deeds and show kind ness to rel a tives. Hedid not treat any one harsh ly and ac cept ed the ex cus es of fered tohim. He joked, but spoke the truth.

He held in no cent sport and play as law ful, played with his wivesand held ra ces with them. He did not be lit tle the poor for their pov -er ty nor show re spect to the wealthy for their rich es. He used to callpeo ple to Allah. 16

Our Prophet's (saas) Illiteracy

The Prophet Muhammad (saas) was the il lit er ate proph et

whose com ing was fore told in the Torah and the Gospel. When

he be gan re lay ing the Qur'an to hu man i ty, and un til the end of

his life, he could nei ther read nor write. This was one of the

most im por tant in di ca tions that he was a proph et.

Although they knew that our Prophet (saas) was il lit er ate,

the un be liev ers ac cused him of writ ing it him self. In re sponse,

Allah re vealed:

Accordingly We have re vealed to you a Spirit by Our com -mand. You had no idea of what the Book was, nor faith.Nonetheless, We have made it a Light by which We guidethose of Our ser vants whom We will. Truly, you are guid -ing to a Straight Path. (Surat as-Shura: 52)


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Were it not for Allah's fa vor to you … Allah has sent downthe Book and Wisdom to you and taught you what you didnot know be fore. Allah's fa vor to you is in deed im mense.(Surat al-Nisa': 113)

The Prophet re layed the Qur'an to hu man i ty, al ways stat -

ing that it was "a rev e la tion from Allah." He men tioned this fact

con stant ly and re mind ed the peo ple that they had known him

for years be fore Allah bless ed him with pro pheth ood:

Say: "Had Allah so wished, I would not have re cit ed it toyou. Nor would He have made it known to you. I livedamong you for many years be fore it came. Will you not useyour in tel lect?" (Surah Yunus: 16)

Despite his il lit er a cy, our Prophet (saas) de liv ered his re li -

gious mes sage very ef fect ive ly. He knew what was con tained

in the Old and New Testaments, and Allah gave him knowl -

edge from oth er ho ly books and of long-ago so ci e ties. During

his life, our Prophet (saas) man i fest ed many oth er wond ers.

Imam al-Ghazzali writes about the mi rac u lous proofs in his il -

lit er a cy:

The char ac ter and con duct of the Prophet, his ac tions, his hab its,man age ment of af fairs, his treat ment of the dif fer ent class es of peo -ple, his show ing the straight path to them, his won der ful an swers todif fer ent dif fi cult and sub tle ques tions, his un tir ing ef forts for thegood of peo ple, his good gui dance re gard ing the open laws ofShari'ah; all these mat ters lead one to the con clu sion that these werebe yond the pow er of a man with out the help of an un seen hand. Itis im pos si ble on the part of a hyp o crite or a li ar. The peo ple tes ti fiedon see ing his con sti tu tion and qual i fi ca tions that he was a greattruth ful man sent by Allah.

Allah gave him these qual i ties though he was un taught and hadno ed u ca tion and lived al ways among il lit er ate Arabs.

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Being un taught, an or phan and weak, how did he ac quire such goodchar ac ter and con duct, such knowl edge about Allah with out world -ly or oth er-world ly ed u ca tion? His true and cor rect knowl edgeabout the ear li er pro phets, peace be up on them, shows that he is atrue mes sen ger of Allah, be cause he knew these truths by rev e la -tions. How could he know what was be yond man un less he re ceivedrev e la tion? 17

The People of the Book knew for cer tain that the mes sen -

ger whose com ing was pre dict ed in the Old and New

Testaments would be il lit er ate. But the un be liev ers spread the

lie that our Prophet (saas) wrote the Qur'an him self, re gard less

of the en su ing in con sist en cies in their words. Conflicting dates

and dif fer en ces in how a sto ry is told will cer tain ly come to the

sur face. Our Prophet (saas), who spoke with el o quence and

wis dom, was the most hon est, mod er ate, knowl edge a ble, and

well-man nered man in his com mu ni ty. His in tel li gence and in -

sight won the ad mi ra tion and trust of ev ery one.

Although he did not read the Old or the New Testament,

he knew their con tents and de crees, as well as the his to ry of past

so ci e ties, thanks to Allah's rev e la tions. All of those who knew

him were aware of this. Our Prophet (saas) had nev er gone to

school to re ceive an ed u ca tion. Thus, the wis dom con tained in

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the mes sage he preached to his fel low Meccans and oth ers is

on ly one of the mi rac u lous as pects of this bless ed per son:

You nev er re cit ed any Book be fore it, nor did you write onedown with your right hand. If you had, the pur vey ors offalse hood would have voiced their doubts. (Surat al-'Ankabut: 48)

The fa mous Islamic schol ar Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti in ter -

prets this verse as fol lows:

You did not read a book be fore this, in oth er words be fore theQur'an. You did not write it with your own hand. Had that beenso, had you been lit er ate, the ad her ents of su per sti tions would havehar bored doubts about you and would have said: "The proph et de -scribed in the Torah could not read and write." 18

Although ev ery thing was so ob vi ous, the un be liev ers at -

tacked him, told all sorts of lies about him, and said that he was

a hu man be ing just like them selves:

Their hearts are dis tract ed. Those who do wrong con fer to -geth er se cret ly, ask ing: "Is this man any thing but a hu manbe ing like your selves? Do you suc cumb to mag ic with youreyes wide open?" Say: "My Lord knows what is said inheav en and Earth. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing."Furthermore, they say: "A mud dled jum ble of dreams!" and"He has in vent ed it!" and "He is a po et!" (Surat al-Anbiya':3-5)

But our Prophet (saas) asked for Allah's help and for give -

ness, fol lowed His Way, and obeyed His com mands:

When Our Clear Signs are re cit ed to them, those who do notex pect to meet Us say: "Bring a Qur'an oth er than this one,or change it." Say (O Muhammad]: "It is not for me tochange it of my own ac cord. I fol low noth ing ex cept whatis re vealed to me. I fear, were I to dis o bey my Lord, the


85


pun ish ment of a Dreadful Day." (Surah Yunus: 15)

The Encyclopedia of Seerah tells how the great knowl edge

that Allah gave to the Prophet Muhammad (saas) is proof that

he was His mes sen ger:

The Prophet Muhammad (saas) was un taught; he could not read orwrite. Throughout his life the mem bers of the fam i ly he grew up in,those close to him, and the peo ple of Mecca nev er saw him touch abook nor hold a pen. Therefore, the Qur'an, the sea of knowl edge re -vealed to him, is a unique mir a cle. That is be cause the text con tainstreas ures of in for ma tion such as the main sub ject mat ter of all pre -vi ous di vine scrip tures, sto ries of pre vi ous pro phets, re li gions andtheir be liefs, an cient his to ry, civ il i sa tion, cul ture and eco nom ics,pol i tics and mor al val ues. … The way that, de spite be ing un taughthim self, he ap peared be fore the un be liev ers with a Book is in anycase the great est proof of his pro pheth ood. 19

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Some Jewish schol ars recog nize

our Prophet (saas)

Jews and Christians, de scribed in the Qur'an as "People of

the Book," have some cer tain cor rup tions in their be liefs and

prac ti ces. However, they still fol low a re li gion sent down by

Allah. Allah says that the Qur'an was sent down to con firm

oth er ho ly books:

Believe in what I have sent down, con firm ing what is withyou. Do not be the first to re ject it, and do not sell My Signsfor a pal try price. Have fear and con scious ness of Me alone.(Surat al-Baqarah: 41)

Allah reveals in another verse that some Jewish schol ars

knew the Qur'an:

It is cer tain ly in the scrip tures of the pre vi ous peo ples. Is itnot, in deed, a Sign for them that the schol ars of the tribe ofIsrael have knowl edge of it? (Surat al-Shu'ara':196-97)

In his work Al-Asas fi al-Tafsir, the fa mous Qur'anic com -

men ta tor Imam Said Hawa states:

It is cer tain that the Qur'an ex ist ed in ear li er books. In oth er words,it is re ferred to in ear li er scrip tures, or the sens es it con tains weretrans mit ted by the pro phets of oth er com mu ni ties and were presentin their books in the man ner re vealed by Allah, as can be seen inDivine texts.

…Moderate and hon est Jewish schol ars know that the Tawrah,Psalms, and Gospel con tain the con tents of the Qur'an; that ev eryel e ment in it is the truth from Allah; and that this is the last bookand the last proph et of whom the ear li er scrip tures speak. 20

Jewish and Christian schol ars there fore im me di ate ly

recog nized the Prophet Muhammad (saas) as

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93

the fore told il lit er ate proph et (no mat ter how much they did

not want to ac cept this truth). Allah states in the Qur'an that the

People of the Book will recog nize our Prophet (saas) as they

know their own chil dren, but that some will rebel in spite of

this and that those who do not be lieve in him will be dis ap -

point ed:

Those We have giv en the Book recog nize it as they recog -nize their own sons. Yet a group of them know ing ly con cealthe truth. (Surat al-Baqarah: 146)

Those to whom We have giv en the Book recog nize it as theyrecog nize their own chil dren. As for those who have losttheir own selves, they have no be lief. (Surat al-An'am: 20)

Allah warns the Israelites in Surat al-Baqarah:

O tribe of Israel, re mem ber the bless ing I con ferred on you.Honor My con tract and I will hon or your con tract. Have fearand re spect of Me alone. Have be lief in what I have sentdown, con firm ing what is with you. Do not be the first to re -ject it, and do not sell My Signs for a pal try price. Have fearand taq wa of Me alone. Do not mix up truth with false hoodand know ing ly hide the truth. (Surat al-Baqarah: 40-42)

The on ly way that our Prophet (saas) could have known of

these bless ings and the vows they had made to Allah was if the

Lord had told him. When the Prophet Muhammad (saas) re cit ed

these vers es, the wise men of the Israelites recog nized him as the

mes sen ger for whom they had been wait ing. The People of the

Book knew who he was and that he spoke the truth due to his

way of life and mor al char ac ter. Allah re lates in the Qur'an:

Those who fol low the Messenger, the un let tered Prophet,whom they find writ ten down with them in the Torah andthe Gospel, com mand ing them to do right and for bid -ding them to do wrong, mak ing good things law ful


for them and bad things un law ful for them, re liev -ing them of their heavy loads and the chains that

were around them. Those who be lieve him, hon orand help him, and fol low the Light that has been sent

down with him, they are the ones who are suc cess ful."(Surat al-A'raf: 157)

The fa mous Islamic schol ar Omer Nasuhi Bilmen

in ter prets this verse as fol lows:

This verse re veals that those pos sessed of the most dis tin guishedqual i ties, the best deeds and ex cel len ces in this world and the

Hereafter, are the fol low ers of the Khatam al-Anbiya' (the LastProphet): those who fol low the Prophet Muhammad (saas)– to whomthe Divine Book, in which the knowl edge of the past and fu ture are con -tained, was re vealed, though he read noth ing from any one and wrotenoth ing – achieve the hon or of be ing of his com mu ni ty. He is re ferredto by name or by his char ac ter is tics in the Tawrah and the Gospel.There can be no doubt that he is present in name and in his char ac ter -is tics in these books. If such were not writ ten in those books, would theProphet Muhammad (saas) claim to be [re ferred to] and thus givegrounds for his re jec tion? He is such a great Prophet that he com mandsand ad vis es those whom he calls to faith, all hu man i ty, to re spect andhon or the com mands of Allah, to ac quire prop er be lief and mo ral i ty,and to show af fec tion to crea tures (and he for bids the wrong). 21

As we can see, the fact that his com ing and the qual i ties of

this bless ed per son were fore told to the People of the Book is

an oth er of the mir a cles as so ci at ed with him. Those Jews and

Christians who, with faith and com mon sense, used their con -

science to con sid er what they saw have con firmed this ev -

i dent truth.

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here were many mir a cles in our

Prophet's (saas) life, such as the Qur'an (the

great est mir a cle), his ex cel lent mor al char ac ter, and his ac -

tions and say ings. He pro claimed the Qur'an as a guide to

the right path and reached all of his peo ple, from the least

civ il ized Bedouins to high ly civ il ized peo ple. This was al so

one of Allah's mir a cles. He com mu ni cat ed the mo ral i ty of

Islam most ef fect ive ly. Through him, peo ple who

used to bury their daugh ters alive turned in to

mer ci ful and com pas sion ate hu man be ings,

and peo ple who used to wor ship idols made

with their own hands came to be lieve in the

one ness of Allah.

Many of these mir a cles are related

in the Qur'an and the hadiths. Among

them the fol low ing:


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His as cen sion in to heav ens (Mi`raj)

The Prophet Muhammad's (saas) as cen sion is one of the

great est mir a cles. Surat al-Isra' and Surat al-Najm re late his mi -

rac u lous night jour ney to the Masjid al-Aqsa and his as cen sion

to the "lo te tree of the ut most bound a ry" (sid rat al-mun ta ha).

In Arabic, is ra' means "night jour ney" or "night walk." In

the first verse of Surat al-Isra', Almighty Allah tells us of our

dear Prophet's mi rac u lous jour ney:

Glory be to Him Who took His ser vant on a jour ney bynight from the Masjid al-Haram to the Masjid al-Aqsa,whose sur round ings We have bless ed, in or der to show himsome of Our Signs. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.(Surat al-Isra': 1)

Sidrat al-Muntaha: The bor der at which the knowl edge of cre at ed things ends and which it can not pass.

The Qubbat al-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock), built

on the Hajar Muallaq stone.


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The Hajar Muallaq: The sa cred stone up on

which our Prophet (saas) stepped when he

as cend ed to Mi'raj.


The word aq sa means "far" or "far thest." The Masjid al-

Haram is lo cat ed in Mecca; the Masjid al-Aqsa is lo cat ed in

Jerusalem. The dis tance be tween them is about 1,235 kil o me tres

(767 miles). Our Prophet (saas) was trans port ed from Mecca to

Jerusalem. The great Islamic schol ar Ibn Kathir says that at least

twen ty-five Companions heard the sto ry from our Prophet

(saas) but that this num ber could have been as high as for ty-

five. The ac counts re port ed by Anas ibn Malik, Abu Hurayrah,

Abu Sa`id al-Khudri, Malik ibn Sa'sa, Abu Zarr al-Ghaffari,

Abdullah ibn Abbas, Abdullah ibn Mas`ud, and Umm Hani are

con sid ered the most re li a ble. According to them, while our

Prophet (saas) was sleep ing in his nie ce's (Umm Hani Abi

Talib) house, Gabriel ap peared to him, put him on a horse

called Buraq, and took him to the Masjid al-Aqsa,

100

Above: Our Prophet's (saas) mi rac u lous jour ney was from the al-Haram al-

Sharif in Mecca to the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.

Side: External view of the Qubbat al-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock).


101


where he as cend ed. The had iths con tain a great deal of de tailed

in for ma tion about what he saw dur ing this event, such as his con -

ver sa tions with ear li er pro phets and his glimps es of Paradise and

Hell.

According to Islamic texts, the Meccan un be liev ers doubt ed

this mir a cle be cause of their weak in tel lects and so tried to find

out if his words were true. Due to this un seem ly at ti tude, the Lord

hu mil i at ed them and turned their rid i cule against them:

They asked: "Will you de scribe the Masjid al-Aqsa to us?" Some ofthem had been there and seen it. The Prophet (saas) re lat ed: "I be gan

102

de scrib ing the mosque. In de scrib ing some pla ces, I fell in to doubt. Atthis, the mosque was brought and placed in front of the house of 'Iq alor 'A qil. I looked at it and be gan de scrib ing it." After the Prophet's ad -dress they ex claimed: "As for the de scrip tion, by Allah, he was cor -rect!" 22

He al so said:

"I re mem ber be ing in al-Hijr, and the Qurayshis were ask ing me aboutmy Night Journey. They asked me things about Bayt al-Maqdis ofwhich I was not sure ... Then Allah raised it up for me to see, and therewas noth ing they asked me about that I could not tell them."23


103

The land on which the Qubbat al-Sakhra and the Masjid al-

Aqsa stand is sa cred to all Muslims.


Before this event, the Prophet Muhammad (saas) had

nev er gone to the Masjid al-Aqsa, so it was a great mir a cle and

mer cy from Allah that he could an swer all of these ques tions.

This mir a cle in creased the be liev ers' en thu si asm and ea ger ness

and strength ened their bond with our Prophet (saas); some of

the un be liev ers, how e ver, per sist ed in their re bel lion. They

went to Abu Bakr and, aft er mak ing ground less ac cu sa tions

about our Prophet (saas), asked if he be lieved this sto ry and if

he would con tin ue to be lieve in our Prophet (saas). He re plied:

"If he said it, then I be lieve him, yes." For his loy al ty, our Prophet

(saas) gave him the ti tle al-Siddiq (the Faithful).

The had iths al so tell us that our Prophet (saas) gave them

one more mi rac u lous sign that they could not de ny:

They asked him: "What is your proof?" The Prophet re plied: "I en -coun tered a car a van be long ing to Quraysh. It was at such-and-sucha place. The car a van was fright ened by us and changed course.There was a black and a white sack on one cam el in the car a van; thatpar tic u lar cam el cried out and then col lapsed." When the car a vanre turned, they asked what had hap pened and were told of the events,just as the Prophet (saas) had said. 24

104

Both his de scrip tion of the Masjid al-Aqsa and of the car -

a van were great mir a cles of Allah's mer cy. Allah informs us in

the Qur'an of some of the vers es about his as cent to the "lo te

tree of the fi nal lim it":

He saw him again an oth er time by the Lote-tree of the FinalLimit, be side which is the Garden of Refuge, when thatwhich cov ered the Lote-tree cov ered it. His eye did not wa -ver, nor did he look away. He saw some of the GreatestSigns of his Lord. (Surat al-Najm: 13-18)

This great mir a cle is an im por tant proof from the Lord to

the un be liev ers. Every sin gle mir a cle that the Lord al lowed our

Prophet (saas) to per form was cre at ed by Allah's will; none of

them de pend ed up on a cause. And, they all strength ened the

be liev ers' faith.


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Our Prophet (saas) split the Moon in two

Another mir a cle oc curred when our Prophet (saas) split

the Moon in two. Allah men tions this ex traor di na ry event in

the Qur'an, and many had iths tell us about it:

The Hour has drawn near and the Moon has split. If theysee a Sign, they turn away, ex claim ing: "There is no end tothis witch craft!" They have de nied the truth and fol lowedtheir whims and de sires. But ev ery thing has its time. (Suratal-Qamar: 1-3)

The split ting of the Moon (wa in shaq qa al-qam ar) con sists

of the words "split ting" and "Moon." "Splitting" comes from the

ba sic Arabic root mean ing "to di vide, gum, the ap pear ance of a

plant aft er the soil has been plough ed." In this sense, it means

"to be di vid ed, to be cut in to pie ces, to be sep a rat ed." The

Encyclopaedia of Seerah con tains a com pi la tion of all of the re lat -

ed had iths. In sum ma ry, they say:

It was an even ing on the 14th day of the lu nar month, five years be -fore the hij ra (im mi gra tion) to Madinah. At that time, the new-bornMoon was di vid ed in two. One part went to ward a hill op po site; thesec ond part in the oth er di rec tion. It was on ly a sec ond. Then thetwo parts of the Moon joined up again. At that time, the Prophet(saas) was in Mina. He ad dressed those who were there, say ing:"Look and wit ness!" The un be liev ers sug gest ed that he had be -witched them, for which rea son their eyes had not seen ac cu rate ly.Others present there said: "Muhammad (saas) could have be -witched us, but not those not here. Wait a lit tle, and let's ask thosewho come this way if they saw such an oc cur rence." Those com ingfrom out side agreed that they had wit nessed this. (Afzalur Rahman,Encyclopaedia of Seerah, 164.)

108

This sto ry is in clud ed in the works of such great had ith

schol ars as Imam al-Bukhari, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Ahmad ibn

Hanbal, Abu Dawud, al-Hakim, al-Bayhaqi, and Abu

Nuàym.25 Some of these had iths are as fol lows:

Abdullah ibn Masùd (said): We were with the Messenger

of Allah at Mina when the Moon was split in two. One part was

be hind the moun tain and the oth er one was on this side of the

moun tain. He said to us: "Bear wit ness to this." 26

Abdullah ibn Masùd re port ed that the Moon was split in

two parts dur ing the Messenger of Allah's life time. The moun -

tain cov ered one of its parts and one part of it was above the

moun tain, and he said: "Bear wit ness to this." 27

During the life time of the Messenger of Allah, the Moon

was split in two; one part re mained over the moun tain, and the

oth er part went be yond the moun tain. On that, he said:

"Witness this mir a cle."28

The had iths state that this mir a cle oc curred in Mecca. They

al so re late that the Meccans want ed him to per form this mir a -

cle:

The peo ple of Mecca asked the Messenger of Allah to

show them signs (mir a cles), and he showed them the split ting

of the Moon twice.29

According to the sto ry, the Prophet Muhammad (saas) did

as they asked, but they con tin ued to de ny the truth of his mes -

sage and em brace Islam:

If they see a Sign they turn away, say ing: "There is no endto this witch craft!" They have de nied the truth and fol -lowed their whims and de sires. But ev ery thing has its time.(Surat al-Qamar: 2-3)

The un be liev ers could say noth ing in the face of


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such a great mir a cle and ac cused our Prophet (saas) of be -

witch ing them. After they saw the Moon split with their own

eyes, they should have re al ized that he was a true proph et. But

be cause of their ar ro gance, de sires, and pas sions, they did not

ac cept the Qur'an. This at ti tude is com mon among all un be liev -

ers. No mat ter what mir a cle they wit ness, they say:

Our eye sight is be fud dled! Or, rath er, we have been put un -der a spell! (Surat al-Hijr: 15)

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi men tions the split ting of the

Moon in his The Letters. He re lates that many Companions wit -

nessed it and that the un be liev ers were ren dered to tal ly pow -

er less in the face of this event:

Among his great est mir a cles, a cer tain and mu ta wat ir one,

is the split ting of the Moon. This mir a cle was re lat ed through

var i ous chan nels, to the de gree of ta wa tur and by the fore most

Companions, among them Ibn Mas`ud, Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar,

Ali, Anas, and Hudhayfa (ra). Moreover, Allah stated in the

Qur'an this su preme mir a cle to the whole world: "The Hour

has drawn near and the Moon has split." (Surat al-Qamar: 1).

Even the stub born un be liev ers could not de ny this verse; all theycould say was: "It is mag ic!" Thus, even the un be liev ers were cer -tain that it had oc curred. 30

Bediuzzaman says that one of rea sons be hind our

Prophet's (saas) mir a cles was to ex pose the dif fer ence be tween

a ty rant like Abu Jahl and a good man like Abu Bakr. In his The

Letters, he says:

Miracles take place in or der to prove the claim of pro pheth ood andto con vince de niers, but not to force them to be lieve. This mir a clewas need ed to con vince those who had al ready heard of the pro -pheth ood of Muhammad. To let it be seen from oth er parts of the

110


111


world, or to dem on strate it in an un de ni a bly ob vi ous way, there fore,would have been con tra ry both to the wis dom of the All-WiseCreator and to the pur pose of hu man i ty's func tion in the uni verse,which is to open the way for the mind with out dis a bling the free

will. If the All-Wise Creator had, in ac cord ance with thewhims of ma te ri al ist phi los o phers, left the Moon in the

same con di tion for a few hours to show it to the en -tire world, and if this fact had there by been re -

cord ed by all his to ri ans, it would havebeen treat ed among oth er as tro nom -

i cal in ci dents, with out be ing re -

112

strict ed to the mes sen ger ship of Muhammad and with out be ingcon sid ered a proof of his pro pheth ood. Or, it would have been suchan ob vi ous mir a cle that it would have forced minds to be lieve andde prived them of free will. As a con se quence, coal and di a monds (orAbu Jahl and Abu Bakr) would have been the sameand the pur pose of hu man i ty's func tion in theuni verse would have been lost... 31

Like all oth er bod ies and be ings in

the uni verse, the Moon lies in the

Lord's pow er; it can be seen

if He wills and how He

wills it to be seen. As


113


Allah informs in the Qur'an, what ev er He com mands to

hap pen hap pens:

His com mand when He de sires a thing isjust to say to it, "Be!" and it is. (Surah YaSin: 82)

All this shows that Allah has

placed His Messenger, the

Prophet Muhammad (saas),

above all oth er hu man be -

ings; re vealed His last ho ly

book to him, and, in His

mer cy, em pow ered him to

per form mir a cles to sof ten

peo ple's hearts as a way of

bring ing them to faith. Some

peo ple have em braced Islam to save

their lives in the next world; oth ers have lost their

eter nal life by per sist ing in their re bel lion. The

words that Allah spoke to our Prophet (saas) have al -

ways turned out to be true.

114


115

he Lord graced our Prophet (saas)

with in com pa ra ble bless ings. Our

Prophet (saas) showed his

Companions many mir a cles, one of which

was the ef fi ca cy of his prayers.

His prayers for rain were an swered

Like all oth er pro phets, our Prophet (saas) had an in -

ti mate bond with Allah; he was a sin cere ser vant with

deep faith and in tense fear of and re spect for

Allah. The Lord grant ed his prayers, which en -

a bled his Companions and oth ers around him

to wit ness mir a cles. For ex am ple, Sahih

Bukhari and Sahih Muslim re late the fol -

low ing from Anas (ra):

A man en tered the mosque on Friday while theProphet was ad dress ing the peo ple. The mansaid: "O Messenger of Allah, our wealth

has been de stroyed and we have notrans port to the mar ket place. Pray

for rain for us." The Prophetraised his


hands and said: "O Allah, give us rain. O Allah, give us rain. OAllah, give us rain." By Allah, at that time there were no clouds inthe sky and there was no house or build ing be tween us and themoun tain. From be hind the moun tain came a cloud look ing like ashield. By the time it reached the mid dle of the sky, it burst andstart ed to rain. 32

Here are some oth er rel e vant had iths:

Narrated Sharik bin 'Ab dul lah bin Abi Namir:

I heard Anas ibn Malik say: "One Friday a per son en tered the mainmosque through the gate fac ing the pul pit while the Messenger ofAllah was de liv er ing the khut bah. He stood in front of theMessenger of Allah and said: 'O Messenger of Allah , the live stockare dy ing and the roads are cut off. Please pray to Allah for rain.'Anas add ed: 'The Messenger of Allah raised both his hands andsaid: "O Allah, bless us with rain. O Allah, bless us with rain. OAllah, bless us with rain."' Anas add ed: 'By Allah, we could not seeany trace of cloud in the sky and there was no build ing or house be -tween us and (the moun tains of) Sila.' Anas add ed: 'A heavy cloudlike a shield ap peared from be hind it (i.e., Sila' Mountain). When itcame in the mid dle of the sky, it spread and then rained.'" 33

Yahya re lat ed to me from Malik from Sharik ibn Abdullah ibn AbiNamir that Anas ibn Malik said: "A man came to the Messenger ofAllah (saas) and said: 'O Messenger of Allah, our an i mals are dy -ing and our cam els are too weak to trav el. Please pray to Allah [forus].' The Messenger of Allah (saas) did so, and it rained on us fromone ju mu`ah to the next." 34

Narrated Anas:

A man en tered the mosque on Friday while the Prophet was ad -dress ing the peo ple. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, our wealth hasbeen de stroyed and we have no trans port to the mar ket place. Prayfor rain for us." The Prophet raised his hands and said: "O

118

Allah, give us rain. O Allah, give us rain. O Allah, give us rain."By Allah, at that time there were no clouds in the sky and there wasno house or build ing be tween the moun tain and us. From be hindthe moun tain came a cloud look ing like a shield. By the time itreached the mid dle of the sky, it burst and start ed to rain. 35

Companions who re ceived our Prophet's

(saas) prayers and re mained young

Allah says in the Qur'an that our Prophet (saas) was very

at tached to the be liev ers: "A Messenger has come to you from

among your selves. Your suf fer ing is dis tress ing to him, he is

deep ly con cerned for you, and he is gen tle and mer ci ful to the

be liev ers" (Surat al-Tawba: 128). In the had iths, he made many

rec om men da tions about their health, se cu ri ty, and faith, all the

while ap proach ing them with mer cy and com pas sion. One re -

sult of this love and at tach ment was that he prayed for many

things on their be half. Allah states in the Qur'an:

… pray for them. Your prayers bring re lief to them. Allah isAll-Hearing, All-Knowing. (Surat al-Tawba: 103)

Thus, his prayers for be liev ers brought them rest and

peace of mind. Similarly, the had iths say that he prayed for

long life for his Companions and that these prayers were an -

swered. Some of these Companions are men tioned by name:

Ibn Abi Shaybah re lat ed from Abu Nu`aym and Ibn al-Asakir: Hecaused the Prophet to drink milk. The Prophet prayed to Him: "OAllah, may He make the most of his youth." 36

Other had iths men tion how his prayers made some of the

Companions con tin ue to look young even when they were

quite old. Those Companions for whom he


119


prayed for long lives lived for 100 years. 37 He stroked the head

of an oth er Companion and prayed: "O Allah, make him beau -

ti ful and make that beau ty long-last ing." That Companion's

face re mained young and hand some un til he died. 38

The grant ing of our Prophet's (saas)

prayers for bless ing

Our Prophet (saas) was in ter est ed in his Companions'

prob lems and did what he could to help them. By the will of

Allah, his prayers for them al ways re sult ed in bless ings and

heal ing. There are many ex am ples of this in the had iths, sev er -

al of which are giv en here:

Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim re late from Anas: The Prophetsaid: "O Allah, give him (i.e., Anas) prop er ty and chil dren andbless him." Thus I am one of the rich est Ansaris and have had nu -mer ous chil dren. 39

The Prophet said to 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn 'Awf: "May Allah makeyou plen ti ful." Ibn Sa`d and al-Bayhaqi re late this from an oth ersource and add: `'Abd ar-Rahman said: "I have be come so wealthythat which ev er stone I raise I know I will find ei ther gold or sil -ver."40

The Prophet prayed for al-Baraqi. He reached such a lev el in com -merce that he knew that even if he sold soil he would earn from it.41

Abu 'U qayl said that when his grand fa ther 'Ab dul lah ibn Hishamwent to the mar ket to buy wheat, he met Ibn al-Zubayr and Ibn'Um ar, who said: "Be our part ner, be cause the Prophet prayed forplen ty for you." At that, he shared his wheat with them. Yet hiscam el load nev er grew less due to this abun dance. He re turnedhome with it. 42

120


121


122


123

ll the pro phets have very sen si tive

con scien ces, which they use to keep

peo ple on the true path by urg ing them to be good and

avoid evil. By lead ing all peo ple they come in to con tact

with to fol low the right path, the pro phets work for their

sal va tion in the world to come. They want to bring peo ple

to aware ness, hop ing to di rect them to ward the kind of

mor al life that will please Allah. Sometimes, dur ing the

course of this hon or a ble strug gle, pro phets have been

sub ject ed to ac cu sa tions and all kinds of threats

from un be liev ers, hyp o crites, and ido la ters.

But even un der such cir cum stan ces they con -

tin ued to de liv er their mes sage with pa -

tience, good ness, kind ness, and hu mil i ty.

Like all oth er pro phets, our Prophet

(saas) was sub ject ed to phys i cal and

ver bal abuse be cause of the truth of

his mes sage. In fact, for many years

he lived un der the pres sure of

death threats. Both he and the


126

Companions were boy cott ed for a long time by the com mu ni -

ties in which they lived. But all of these ap par ent ad ver si ties

en a bled them to at tain a good life in both worlds. Those whose

faith is sin cere and who trust in the Lord are nev er daunt ed by

such ad ver si ties; on the con tra ry, they see these dif fi cul ties as a

way to draw close to Allah and to win His fa vor.

Before he be gan to pro claim Islam, our Prophet (saas) was

called al-Amin (the Trustworthy), be cause his peo ple en trust ed

their pos ses sions to him and of ten chose him to set tle their dis -

putes. They al ways praised his good ness and jus tice. Since he

was wise, for ward-think ing, in sight ful, and al ways me tic u lous

in ev ery thing he did, ev ery one who saw him was im me di ate ly

aware of his spe cial qual i ties. But when he be gan to call them

to Islam and to re nounce their idols, they nev er the less tar get ed

him. As Allah relates in the Qur'an, this hap pened to the ear li -

er mes sen gers as well:

They said: "O Salih, we had great hopes in you be fore thishap pened. Do you for bid us to wor ship what our fa therswor shipped? We have grave doubts about what you arecall ing us to." (Surah Hud: 62)

They said: "O Shu'ayb, do your prayers in struct you that weshould aban don what our fa thers wor shipped or stop do ingwhat ev er we want to with our wealth? You are clear ly thefor bear ing, the right ly-guid ed!' (Surah Hud: 87)

He asked: "What was this past af fair of yours when you so -lic it ed Yusuf?" Then they ex claimed: "Allah for bid! Weknow no bad of him." The gov ern or's wife then said: "Thetruth has now emerged. Indeed I tried to se duce him then,and he has sim ply told the hon est truth. (Surah Yusuf: 51)

The peo ple's hos tile re ac tion to our Prophet's (saas) call to


127


128


129


jus tice and truth, as Allah tells in the Qur'an, con sist ed of mak -

ing ground less ac cu sa tions: "They say: 'You, to whom the

Reminder has been sent down, are clear ly cra zy. Why do you

not bring an gels to us if you are tell ing the truth?'" (Surat al-

Hijr: 6-7). Although sub ject ed to many oth er forms of abuse, he

con tin ued his bat tle of ideas with the un be liev ers and pro -

claimed the Qur'an's mor al teach ings. But these truths on ly

pro duced re sent ment and an ger, for the ma jor i ty of his peo ple

op posed him. Shortly aft er wards, he was forced to move from

Mecca to Madinah.

While he was among a dan ger ous and pa gan peo ple, our

Prophet (saas) pro claimed Islam, taught those who fol lowed

him, and en gaged in a dif fi cult strug gle. From time to time, this

turned in to open war fare. At that time, some of the Jews per -

sist ed in their re bel lious and hos tile at ti tude to ward our

Prophet (saas). But he took an in ter est in them too. Some of the

Christians al so tried to make things dif fi cult for our Prophet

(saas) and set traps to harm him.

While our Prophet (saas) was en gaged in this strug gle, the

hyp o crites were busy pro vid ing the un be liev ers with in for ma -

tion that could be used in their se cret cam paign against him.

Out of en vy they nur tured their re sent ment and an ger. They

showed their in sin cer i ty by ap proach ing our Prophet (saas)

and talk ing with him, de spite their re sent ment. Other un be liev -

ers lis tened to his words and sought to place dif fi cul ties in his

way:

The un be liev ers all but strike you down with their evillooks when they hear the Reminder and say: "He is quitecra zy." (Surat al-Qalam: 51)

We can see from the fore go ing that our Prophet

130

(saas), even though he faced death threats from the un be liev -

ers and lived among hyp o crites, con tin ued to pro claim Islam

and tried to guide them to the right path. Prominent un be liev -

ers set traps and tried to kill him. One of the Lord's great est

mir a cles was that our dear Prophet (saas) was not harmed dur -

ing these years, for:

Allah will pro tect you from peo ple. Allah does not guide theun be liev ers. (Surat al-Ma’ida: 67)

This prom ise of Allah was ful filled by many mir a cles, one

of them be ing that all un be liev ers, ido la ters, and hyp o crites,

not to men tion his oth er en e mies, could not harm him. Their

plots and traps were al ways foiled. And, even though the ido -

la ters and un be liev ers of ten met him on the bat tle field, our

Lord al ways pro tect ed him so that he could ful fil his mis sion.

His en e mies nev er de feat ed him. On the con tra ry, they be came

vile and des pi ca ble while he be came more phys i cal ly strong

and healthy, more joy ful, and more filled with light and beau -

ty. Allah pro tect ed our Prophet (saas) with His mer cy and gave

him great pow er and maj es ty, both phys i cal ly and spir it u al ly.

The de cep tions of the un be liev ers and the hyp o crites were

turned back up on them, and our Prophet (saas) con tin ued his

strug gle safe ly un der the pro tec tion of Allah's mer cy.

The un be liev ers could not kill our

Prophet (saas)Our Prophet's (saas) call to jus tice and truth caused those

who ben e fit ed from in jus tice and op pres sion, along with those

who feared los ing their po si tion and rank, to op pose him and

his fol low ers in or der to re tain the val ue of their world ly ac -


131


qui si tions. Due to their ar ro gance, they con tin ued to wor ship

their idols and re fused to com pro mise the su per sti tions in

which they be lieved. Instead, they met to geth er to dis cuss how

they could ei ther make our Prophet (saas) give up his re li gion

or kill him:

When the un be liv ers were plot ting to im pris on, kill, or ex -pel you: they were plot ting and Allah was plan ning, butAllah is the Best of Planners. (Surat an-Anfal: 30)

In oth er words, the Lord makes things work out for the

best and pro tect ed our Prophet (saas) from all harm: "…their

schem ing will not harm you in any way. Allah en com pass es

what they do" (Surah Al 'Imran: 120).

Allah al so prom ised that no one would do any phys i cal or

spir it u al harm to him:

Were it not for Allah's fa vor to you and His mer cy, a groupof them would al most have man aged to mis lead you. Butthey mis lead no one but them selves and do not harm you inany way. Allah has sent down the Book and Wisdom to youand taught you what you did not know be fore. Allah's fa -vor to you is in deed im mense. (Surat an-Nisa': 113)

They are peo ple who lis ten to lies and con sume ill-got tengains. If they come to you, ei ther judge be tween them orturn away from them. If you turn away from them, theycan not harm you in any way. But if you do judge, judge be -tween them just ly. Allah loves the just. (Surat al-Ma’ida: 42)

The had iths say that his op po nents did their best to per -

suade our Prophet (saas) to aban don pro claim ing his mor al

mes sage. They of fered him what they thought was most val u a -

ble: wealth and sta tus. Allah re lates the fol low ing in the

Qur'an:

132


133


They wish that you would con cil i ate with them, then theytoo would be con cil i at ing. (Surat al-Qalam: 9)

In spite of all of fers, ma te ri al and oth er wise, our Prophet

(saas) per se vered and ig nored the many threats he re ceived. In

Musnad, Ibn Abi Shaybah re lates Utbah's un seem ly of fer to our

Prophet (saas): "If you want mon ey, we will col lect enough mon ey

for you so that you will be the rich est of us. If you want lead er ship, we

will take you as our lead er and nev er de cide on any mat ter with out

your ap prov al. If you want a king dom, we will crown you king over

us..." 43

Our Prophet (saas) put win ning Allah's ap prov al above

ev ery thing else; the on ly re ward he want ed was Allah's mer cy

and to at tain Paradise. No world ly of fer of wealth or po si tion

could de ter him. Allah had al ready grant ed him vic to ry and

abun dant pos ses sions in this world, and there was no doubt

that the re ward wait ing for him in Paradise would be even

great er. Many prom i nent un be liev ers tried to per suade him to

aban don his mis sion; when they fail ed, they re sort ed to treach -

ery and plans in volv ing his ex ile, ar rest, and even mur der.

Islamic sour ces re late these events:

According to Ibn Ishaq, the Qurayshi lead ers met and con sult edeach oth er: "You know what de gree this in di vid u al has come to." Atthis they be gan dis cuss ing. One of them said: "Let's im pris on himsome where, let ting him speak to no body, and let's keep him thereun til he dies! Let's give him just enough food to keep him alive!…"

But there were ob jec tions to this pro pos al. Such an in i ti a tive couldlead to cha os. One of them said: "Let's not im pris on him; let's re -move him from Mecca." But this was al so re gard ed as in ap pro pri -ate, be cause "Muhammad (saas) would go to any Arab tribe, bindthem to him with fair words, cause them to fol low him and have

134

his re venge on us …" At this Abu Jahl said: "There is no al ter na -tive to kill ing Muhammad." 44

Even though the Meccan pol y the ists had ev ery thing that

they need ed to im ple ment their plots, they were still un suc cess -

ful; Allah pro tect ed our bless ed Prophet (saas). The had iths in -

form us that armed strong young men had been as sem bled

from all the tribes to kill him; many oth er vol un teers came to

kill him with swords. It is a great mir a cle that our Prophet

(saas) was not killed and his en e mies' traps were al ways foiled.

Our brave and he ro ic Prophet (saas) fought in open bat tle

and per son al ly faced with the en e my many times. Although he

fought in the front ranks, he was not killed and, by a mir a cle of

Allah, re turned from bat tle un harmed. Despite all the dan gers

he faced, he nev er the less ful filled his call ing.

Ibn Hanbal, at-Tabarani, and Abu Nu`aym re late that:

I saw the Prophet (saas). A man was brought be fore him. "This manwant ed to kill you," they said. At this, the Prophet said: "Do notfear. Do not fear. Even if you had wished, Allah would not have letyou troub le me." 45

Knowing that he was un der Allah's pro tec tion on the bat -

tle field, our Prophet (saas) put him self com plete ly in His hands

and thus served as an ex am ple to all be liev ers. Fearing no one

but Allah, he was a cour a geous and pa tient man who had an

ex cel lent mor al char ac ter. His read i ness for self-sac ri fice, es pe -

cial ly when he got up ear ly and left the house to place the be -

liev ers in the best lo ca tions for a com ing bat tle, made him a fine

ex am ple for all peo ple:

Remember when you left your fam i ly ear ly in the day topo si tion the be liev ers in their bat tle sta tions. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. (Surah Al 'Imran: 121)


135


Even when he was the tar -

get of his en e mies and his life

was in dan ger, our Prophet

(saas) per son al ly saw to it that

the be liev ers were safe. He con -

stant ly en cour aged them and

stirred their en thu si asm to

great er heights.

Allah informs us in the

Qur'an that "the le gions of the

heav ens and Earth be long to

Allah. Allah is All-Knowing,

All-Wise" (Surat al-Fath: 4).

Since the un be liev ers did not

ap pre ci ate His in fi nite pow er as

they should have, they dared to

lift their hand against our

Prophet (saas). In re turn, Allah

caused all of their traps to fail or

back fire: "They plot ted and

Allah planned. But Allah is the

Best of Planners" (Surah Al

'Imran: 54). The un be liev ers wit -

nessed for them selves the

Messenger of Allah's (saas)

good ness and ex cel lent mor al

char ac ter, but did not let go of

their hos til i ty. Unaware that

Allah heard them and saw

136

what they were do ing, they con -

tin ued to plot. However, even

they even tu al ly came to re al ize

that them selves had fall en in to

the big gest trap of all:

They con coct ed their plots,but their plots were withAllah, even if they weresuch as to make the moun -tains van ish. (SurahIbrahim: 46)

Abu Jahl, our Prophet's

(saas) great est en e my, missed no

op por tu ni ty to try to kill him.

Imam al-Bukhari re lates the fol -

low ing in for ma tion from Ibn

Abbas:

Abu Jahl said: "If I seeMuhammad pray ing at theKa`bah, I will tread on his neck."When the Prophet (saas) heardof this, he re plied: "If he does so,the an gels will snatch himaway." 46

Ibn Ishaq re lates the fol low -

ing about Ibn Abbas:

Abu Jahl, car ry ing a very heavystone with the in tent of ful fill inghis oath [to kill the Prophet


137


138


139

(saas)], stag gered as he ap proached the Prophet (saas), who washum bly ab sorbed in prayer. Before Abu Jahl was able to get closeenough to the Prophet (saas), he turned back in death ly fright. Hishand had start ed to with er on the stone, where up on he dropped itand ran as fast as he could. Some Qurayshis rushed to ward him andasked what had come over him. He told them he had seen a ter ri fy -ing cam el with a tre men dous ly large head, enor mous shoul ders, anda fear some set of teeth that looked as if it was about to de vour him ifhe con tin ued. Later on, the Prophet (saas) told his Companions thatthe cam el was none oth er than Gabriel and that if Abu Jahl had per -sist ed, he would in deed have seized him. 47

As our Prophet (saas) was al ways un der Allah's pro tec -

tion, all traps laid against him were turned aside so that Allah's

prom ise was al ways ful filled. Believing that Allah had cre at ed

ap par ent ly dif fi cult sit u a tions and that He would bring ev ery -

thing to the best con clu sion, our Prophet (saas) con tin ued to

pro claim Islam with out suf fer ing any harm. Due to his deep

trust in Allah and en dur ance, the Lord gave him the strength to

pre vail.

The mir a cles in the cave

According to doc u ments from Islamic and his tor i cal sour -

ces, the Prophet (saas) left his home on 27 Safar, four teen years

aft er Allah had be stowed pro pheth ood up on him, and went to

Abu Bakr's (ra) house. Later, they left Mecca to geth er. Our

Prophet (saas) knew that his en e mies would first look for him

on the north ern road to Madinah. Therefore, they took the

south ern road lead ing to Yemen. After walk ing about 6 kil o me -

tres (5 miles), they came to the Thawr Mountain, which was


140

high as well as dif fi cult and dan ger ous to climb. They hid in a

cave lo cat ed in the moun tain known as Athal. 48

In the mean time, the Quraysh blocked all of the roads and

sta tioned armed men to con trol them. Men on foot and mounts

combed the moun tain slopes and val leys, search ing for foot -

prints. When they came right up to the cav e's mouth, the

Prophet Muhammad (saas) put his whole trust in Allah:

If you do not help him, Allah did help him when the un be -liev ers drove him out and there were two of them in thecave. He said to his com pan ion: "Do not be de spond ent,Allah is with us." Then Allah sent down His se ren i ty up onhim and re in forced him with troops you could not see. Hemade the word of the un be liev ers un der most. (Surat at-Tawba: 40)

Allah tells in the Qur'an that our Prophet (saas) sub mit ted

to Allah and was re signed to his fate. But the Lord as sist ed him,

in re turn for his ex cel lent mor al char ac ter and trust, by grant -

ing him phys i cal health and strength and a sense of se cu ri ty

and well-be ing in his heart.

Many peo ple might con sid er such a dan ger ous sit u a tion

su per fi cial ly, with out feel ing the anx i e ty of that mo ment, for

those who are not tar gets can not know such anx i e ty. For ex am -

ple, those who have nev er been pur sued by an en e my can not

know the wake ful vig i lance of our Prophet (saas) as he hid in

mor tal dan ger in the cave. It is very im por tant for ev ery one

with faith to think care ful ly about this sit u a tion in or der to ap -

pre ci ate prop er ly our Prophet's (saas) great self-sac ri fice, pa -

tience, and wis dom.

But, as in oth er sit u a tions through out his life, here too

Allah mi rac u lous ly de liv ered our Prophet (saas). When


141


the Meccans fi nal ly reached the cav e's mouth, they saw a spi -

der's web at its en trance and that pi geons had made their nests

and laid eggs there. So, think ing that no one was in side, they

be gan to look else where. Indeed, when we think of it, such an

un dis turbed spi der's web could have been tak en as a sign that

no one was in side, for any one en ter ing it would have bro ken

the web. The same is true with the pi geons. Certainly this was

a mir a cle of Allah, the all-pow er ful rul er of all things, Who

caused the spi der to weave its web and placed the pi geons at

the cav e's en trance. Nothing hap pened to our Prophet (saas) or

Abu Bakr (ra).

Another mir a cle is how Allah sup port ed him with in vis i -

ble ar mies and gave him a sense of in ner se cu ri ty and well-be -

ing. According to the com men ta ries, the ar mies put un der the

com mand of the Prophet Muhammad (saas) con sist ed of an -

gels. Indeed on the last part of Surat at-Tawba it is stat ed:

"Then Allah sent down His se ren i ty up on him and re in forced

him with troops you could not see. He made the word of the

un be liev ers' un der most. It is the word of Allah that is up per -

most. Allah is mighty and all-wise." In the Tafsir of Jalalayn,

this mir a cle is in ter pret ed as fol lows:

Allah says "if you do not help him," that is, it does not mat ter if youdid not help Prophet Muhammad (saas), for Allah helped him, justas he helped him when "the un be liev ers drove him out, the sec ondof two." This re fers to the year when the pol y the ists in tend ed to killthe Prophet (saas), so he es caped from them, along with hisCompanion Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (ra). They con cealed them selves inthe cave of Thawr for three nights, with the en e my prowl ing aroundin great num bers, fruit less ly search ind for them. This was when

142

Abu Bakr (ra) felt afraid, lest the un be liev ers would find and harmthem. However, the Prophet (saas) was cer tain of Allah's pro tec tionand sup port, and so re as sured Abu Bakr (ra).

On the au thor i ty of Anas (ra), Imam Ahmad re port ed that AbuBakr al-Siddiq (ra) said: "I was with the Prophet (saas) in the caveand, on see ing the tra ces of the pa gans, said: 'O Messenger of Allah,if one of them should lift his foot, he will see us.' He re plied: 'Whatdo you think? For two (peo ple), the third (of whom) is Allah?'" Al-Bukhari and Muslim al so re port ed the same had ith.

Therefore Allah says, "then Allah sent his sa ki na up on him" that is,He sent His peace, tran quil li ty, and sup port up on His Messenger(saas) and "sup port ed him with for ces you saw not": an gels. As forthe verse "and made the word of the un be liev ers while it was theWord of Allah that be came up per most," Ibn Abbas said: "The wordof the un be liev er re fers to as so ci at ing part ners with Allah, while theword of Allah re fers to 'La ila ha il la Allah.'" 49

The Lord helped our Prophet (saas) with many mir a cles,

de fend ed him with an gels, com fort ed his heart, and pre vent ed

his en e mies from harm ing him. Allah pro tects, de fends, and

watch es; He is the best of help ers and all pow er be longs to

Him.

Our Prophet (saas) ac com plished ev ery thing with Allah's

help:

If they in tend to de ceive you, Allah is enough for you. Hesup port ed you with His help and with the be liev ers. (Suratal-Anfal: 62)

But if you sup port one an oth er against him, Allah is hisProtector, and so are Gabriel and ev ery right-act ing be liev -


143


er. Furthermore, an gels al so will come to his sup port.(Surat al-Tahrim: 4)

Allah will cer tain ly help those who help Him – Allah is All-Strong, Almighty. (Surat al-Hajj: 40)

… and so that Allah may help you great ly. (Surat al-Fath:40)

… and oth er things you love: sup port from Allah and im mi -nent vic to ry. Give good news to the be liv ers. (Surat as-Saff:13)

The un be liev ers did not prop er ly un der stand our

Prophet's (saas) su pe ri or i ty and so were un a ble to ap pre ci ate

that He is the sole Ruler over ev ery thing. They were very

wrong to think that our Prophet (saas) could be de feat ed while

un der Allah's pro tec tion. Thus, they en tered a strug gle that

could on ly to re sult in their de feat:

Allah has writ ten: "I will be vic to ri ous, I and MyMessengers." Allah is Most Strong, Almighty. (Surat al-Mujadalah: 21)

Allah reveals another verse that no one can harm our

Prophet (saas) and that Allah, Gabriel, an gels, and sin cere be -

liev ers are his friends, help ers, and sup port ers:

If the two of you would on ly turn to Allah, for your heartsclear ly de vi at ed ... But if you sup port one an oth er againsthim, Allah is his Protector and so are Gabriel and ev eryright-act ing be liev er. Furthermore, an gels al so will come tohis sup port. (Surat al-Tahrim: 4)

144


145


The Lord pro tects and sup ports our

Prophet (saas) with an gels

The Qur'an's mor al teach ings re quire that Muslims avoid

war and con flict, re move mis un der stand ing through dis cus -

sion, and be have in a con cil i a to ry man ner. According to the

Qu'ran, war should be re sort ed to on ly when it is un a void a ble,

mean ing that it is an un de sired ne ces si ty that should be or ga -

nized by des ig nat ed per sons and with in spe cif ic mor al lim its.

Muslims must seek peace and un der stand ing when ev er they

en coun ter dif fi cul ties; how e ver, they are re quired to fight to de -

fend them selves if at tacked.

Allah tells us in the Qur'an that cor rup tion is the cause of

war and that Allah does not love cor rup tion:

Each time they kin dle the fire of war, Allah ex tin guish es it.They rush about the land cor rupt ing it. Allah does not lovecor rupt ers. (Surat al-Ma’idah: 64)

When we look at our Prophet's (saas) life, we see that he

re sort ed to war on ly when it was nec es sa ry for self-de fence.

The rev e la tion of the Qur'an last ed for twen ty-three years.

For the first thir teen years, Muslims lived as a mi nor i ty and op -

pressed re li gious com mu ni ty among the non-Muslim Meccans.

Many of them were phys i cal ly tor tured, some were killed, and

oth ers had their hous es and pos ses sions plun dered. All of them

were con stant ly sub ject ed to in sults and threats. In spite of this,

they re mained non-vi o lent and al ways tried to make peace

with their en e mies. Finally, when the pres sure be came un bear -

a ble, the Muslims moved to Yathrib (lat er Madinah) and set up

their own city-state.

146

At those times when war was un a void a ble, the Lord as -

sist ed our Prophet (saas) with many mir a cles, among them

send ing an gels to give the Muslims vic to ry over su pe ri or en e -

my for ces:

Allah helped you at Badr when you were weak, so fear [andre spect] Him, so that, hope ful ly, you will be thank ful.(Surah Al 'Imran: 123)

Although the sin cere Muslims were far few er than their

en e mies, they fought in the field with great cour age be hind our

Prophet (saas) and, with Allah's sup port, won great vic to ries.

Allah tells us in the Qur'an that He sup port ed them with an gels

and an nounced that the an gels would help them:

And when you asked the be liev ers: "Is it not enough foryou that your Lord re in forced you with three thou sand an -gels, sent down?" Yes in deed! But if you are stead fast andhave fear of [and re spect for] Allah and they come up on yousud den ly, your Lord will re in force you with five thou sandan gels, clear ly iden ti fied. Allah on ly did this for it to begood news for you, so that your hearts might be set at restby it (help comes from no one but Allah, the Almighty, theAll-Wise), and so that He might cut off or crush a group ofun be liev ers they might be turned back in de feat. (Surah Al'Imran: 124-27)

In oth er words, He sent the good news of an gels' as sist -

ance to sat is fy the Muslims' hearts. Of course, this was the on -

ly rea son Allah need ed. If He wills, He can de feat un be liev ers

with a sin gle blow or drive them in to the depths of the earth

with in mi nutes or sec onds. Allah states in the Qur'an that many

un be liev ers per ish ed in an un ex pect ed mo ment due to a sin gle

sound, cy clone, or sud den dis as ter or that they were con -

fused and bur ied be neath the ground. Of course,


147


Allah has the pow er to do all of these things. It was good news

for our Prophet (saas) and his com mu ni ty that the Lord gave

them such a glo ri ous and mi rac u lous vic to ry. Many Muslim in -

ter pret ers and schol ars have spo ken of these things, among

them the great schol ar Omer Nashuhi Bilmen, who writes:

The ar my of Islam, ven tur ing war with the pol y the ists of theQuraysh, ad vanced to wards the River Badr The Prophet (saas)showed the pla ces where the ones from the en e my's ar my would bekilled, and this came about and was a great mir a cle. Eventually thear my of Qureysh came to the Badr and seized it. But the next day itrained. The Companions had plen ty of wa ter, and their dis tress wasthus over come. They then de scend ed on to the bat tle field; the en e myfor ces were three times more nu mer ous than the Muslims, but stillthey were afraid, and the fight ing be gan. Since the Muslims ap pre -ci at ed the spir it u al val ue of ji had and mar tyr dom, they threw them -selves with out fear, joy ful ly, in to the fray. At this point Omar'sfreed man "Mahca" was killed. "Mahca is the lord of mar tyrs," saidthe Prophet. 50

Our Prophet (saas) prayed:

"O Lord, grant me the vic to ry You prom ised," fell in to a lightslum ber, and im me di ate ly awoke smil ing. He ad dressed Abu Bakr,who was by his side: "Glad tid ings, Abu Bakr. Gabriel and a greatnum ber of an gels have come to our as sist ance." He then donned hisar mor and left the tent. Some Muslim war ri ors were con cerned atthe num bers of the more nu mer ous en e my ar my who would takepart in the fight ing. At this, the glad tid ings were im part ed thathelp would come to the Muslims from the pres ence of Allah bymeans of an gels. According to the ac count, at that mo ment a pow -er ful wind blew up and no body could see any thing. This was a signthat Gabriel and a great num ber of the an gels had come to the bat -tle field. Those an gels were rid ing white hors es. They ap peared in

148

the guise of white and yel low hu man be ings and phys i cal ly par tic i -pat ed in the bat tle of Badr.

During this bat tle, first 1,000, then 2,000, and then 3,000 an -gels came to as sist the Muslims. Their num bers fi nal lyreached 5,000 in to tal. 51

Allah tells in otther vers es that He sent an gels to help the

Muslims:

Remember when you called on your Lord for help and Here spond ed to you: "I will re in force you with a thou sand an -gels, rid ing rank aft er rank." Allah on ly did this to give yougood news and so that your hearts would be at rest. Victorycomes from no one but Allah. Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.And when He over came you with sleep, mak ing you feelse cure, He sent wa ter from heav en to pu ri fy you and re -


149

Sir Edward Landseer's paint ing "The Arab Tent," dat ed 1866.


move satan's taint from you, and to for ti fy your hearts andmake your feet firm. (Surat al-Anfal: 9-11)

In his com men ta ry, Imam Sabuni de scribes the an gels' as -

sist ance as fol lows:

Through the had ith that He would as sist with 1,000 con sec u tive an -gels, Allah re vealed that He had heed ed his prayer. Commentatorssay this: According to the had ith, Gabriel sent down 500 an gels andfought with them on the ar my's right wing. Mika'il al so sent down500 an gels and fought on the ar my's left wing. Apart from Badr, ithas not been pos si ble to de ter mine in which bat tles the an gelsfought. In oth er bat tles, they de scend ed to make the num ber ofMuslims look great er, but they did not fight.

Allah's help ing you with an gels is sole ly to give you glad tid ings ofvic to ry. He helped so that you could find con tent ment with this vic -to ry. In fact, vic to ry is on ly in the sight of Almighty Allah. Trustin His help; do not trust in your own strength and arms. Allah isvic to ri ous and can not be de feat ed. Whatever His wis dom re quires,that is what He does.

Remember that Allah brought you sleep from His own pres ence asan el e ment of se cu ri ty. This is a mir a cle of the Prophet (saas), be -cause at the mo ment of fear, sleep weighed on all. Ali (ra) says: "Onthe day of Badr, there was no horse oth er than Miqdat. I saw thatev ery one, apart from the Prophet (saas), was sleep ing." Ibn Kathirsays: "In or der for the be liev ers' hearts to be at peace with His help,they were as if asleep dur ing the bat tle's most vi o lent mo ment. Thisis an oth er bless ing grant ed by Allah. What hap pened was that dur -ing the bat tle of Badr, the Muslims were with out wa ter. At this,Allah caused such a rain to de scend on them that wa ter flowed fromthe val leys.'" 52

Another mir a cle was our Prophet's (saas) abil i ty to rec -

on cile the hearts of be liev ers who took part in var i ous

150

strug gles. By His word, it hap pened that peo ple com ing from

dif fer ent cit ies and com mu ni ties, and even mu tu al en e mies,

came to geth er to work for a com mon goal and to win Allah's

ap prov al. In many vers es, Allah stated the good news of His

help and sup port for all de vout be liev ers:

If they in tend to de ceive you, Allah is enough for you. Hesup port ed you with His help and with the be liev ers, anduni fied their hearts. Even if you had spent ev ery thing onEarth, you could not have uni fied their hearts. But Allahhas uni fied them. He is Almighty, All-Wise. O Prophet,Allah is enough for you and for the be liev ers who fol lowyou. (Surat al-Anfal: 62-64)

With Allah's help, our Prophet (saas) and the be liev ers, de -

spite their weak ness, de feat ed nu mer ous ar mies of the un be -

liev ers. Despite the Meccans' nu mer i cal strength and tech ni cal

ad van ta ges, Allah en a bled the be liev ers to rout them.

Allah grant ed an oth er mir a cle dur ing this event:

O Prophet, spur on the be liev ers to fight. If there are twen -ty of you who are stead fast, they will over come two hun -dred; and if there are a hun dred of you [who are stead fast],they will over come a thou sand of those who are un be liev -ers be cause they are peo ple who do not un der stand. NowAllah has made it light er on you, know ing there is weak -ness in you. If there are a hun dred of you who are stead fast,they will over come two hun dred; and if there are a thou -sand of you [who are stead fast], they will over come twothou sand with Allah's per mis sion. Allah is with the stead -fast. (Surat al-Anfal: 65-66)

In an oth er verse, Allah re veals that He sent in vis i ble ar -

mies to pun ish the Meccan pol y the ists.


151


Then Allah sent down His se ren i ty on His Messenger andon the be liev ers, sent down troops you could not see, andpun ished the un be liev ers. That is how the un be liev ers arere paid. (Surat at-Tawba: 26)

While Allah helped the Muslims with mir a cles, He al so

pun ished their en e mies for their on go ing cru el ty and op pres -

sion to ward those Muslims still in Mecca.

In his com men ta ry, Ibn Kathir in cludes a sto ry of those

who lived at this time:

On the au thor i ty of Abu Hurayrah (ra), Imam Muslim re -

port ed that the Prophet (saas) said: "I have been helped by hav -

ing ter ror (in stilled in the hearts of my en e mies), and I have

been giv en words (of wis dom) that are con cise though com pre -

hen sive in mean ing." 53

Another com men ta tor re lates that the un be liev ers' traps

and rus es will be foiled by the be liev ers' pa tience:

After Almighty Allah had for bid den us to take non-Muslims as ourpro tec tors and friends and told us why, He prom ised that He wouldfoil all of the un be liev ers' traps and snares as long as we had fear of[and re spect for] Him and were pa tient. There were two sit u a tionsin when He act ed as the be liev ers' guard i an: on the Day of Uhudand the Day of Badr. On these two days, Almighty Allah foiled theen e mies' traps and snares on ac count of the be liev ers' pa tience andfear of [and re spect for] Him. The proof of this as ser tion lies in thefact that stead fast ness and fear of [and re spect for] Allah are men -tioned in the pre ce ding verse: "But if you are stead fast and fear [andre spect] Allah, their schem ing will not harm you in any way." 54

152


153


154

The ap par ent small num bers of

en e my sol diers

By a mir a cle of Allah, the be liev ers were vic to ri ous.

However, this was not due to their su pe ri or num bers; rath er, it

was due to the in tel li gence, in sight, wis dom, and fine mor al

char ac ter with which Allah had bless ed our Prophet (saas).

Allah says that He some times in tim i dat ed the un be liev ers by

show ing them that the be liev ers were far more nu mer ous and

pow er ful:

There was a sign for you in the two par ties that met face toface, one par ty fight ing in the Way of Allah and the oth ercon sist ing of un be liev ers. You saw them as twice theirnum ber with your own eyes. Allah re in for ces with His helpwho ev er He wills. There is in struc tion in that for peo ple of

in sight. (Surah Al 'Imran: 13)

The Tafsir al-Jalalayn ex plains this

verse as fol lows:

Certainly there is a les son foryou, for war, in the twogroups that met at Badr.

One bat tled on the path ofAllah, in obe di ence to Him:the Prophet (saas) and his

Companions, 313 peo ple,to geth er with two hors es,six suits of ar mor, and

eight swords. Mostwere on foot. The

oth er group


155

was the un -b e l i e v e r s .The Muslims' num berswere seen to be, in ex ter nalap pear ance, twice as greatas those of the un be liev ers,who num bered up to 1,000 sol -diers. Allah as sist ed theMuslims, al though theywere out num bered. Allahas sists and strength enswhom He wills.Certainly there is ales son for those within sight in these twothings. Are you apeo ple who will notlearn from themand will not havefaith? 55

Ibn Kathir com ments:

"They saw them with their owneyes as twice their num ber,"mean ing: the un be liev ers sawthe Muslims dur ing thebat tle of Badr as twicetheir num ber, and Allahmakes that a cause for theMuslim's vic to ry overthem. This is Ibn Jarir'sin ter pre ta tion, based on


the au thor i ty of some schol ars…

It seems that Allah less ened the ap par ent num -ber of un be liev ers in the Muslims' eyes andmade the Muslims ap pear as few in the un be liev -ers' eyes when they met each oth er at the bat tleof Badr … As for the un be liev ers, they saw theMuslims as twice their num ber so that fear andpan ic would over whelm them. This is ex em pli -fied in Allah's say ing: "They saw them withtheir own eyes as twice their num ber," mean ing:they saw 2,000 Muslim sol diers with their owneyes, as a sup port from Allah. For this rea son,Allah says: "But Allah sup ports with His vic to -ry whom He wills. Verily, in this is a les son forthose who have eyes." In oth er words, Hestrength ens the be liev ers and hu mil i ates the un -be liev ers. 56

Allah states in many vers es that Allah

as sists those be liev ers who de pend on Him to -

tal ly in times of dif fi cul ty and dis tress, and

that He will pro vide a way out of ap par ent ly

hope less sit u a tions:

Whoever fears [and re spects] Allah – Hewill give him a way out and pro vide forhim from where he does not ex pect.Whoever trusts Allah – He will be enoughfor him. Allah al ways achieves His aim.Allah has ap point ed a meas ure for allthings. (Surat al-Talaq: 2-3)

156

Sometimes both un be liev ers and be -

liev ers see each oth er as less nu mer ous

than they re al ly are. There is a rea son for

this mir a cle: when the Muslims saw that the

un be liev ers were few er in num ber than

they were, it gave them strength and im -

proved their mo rale. And when the un be liev -

ers saw the Muslim ar my, al ready less in

num ber than theirs, as even small er, they be -

came care less and were led to think that they

would be vic to ri ous. Given that in the world

of caus es no ar my can ap pear less nu mer -

ous than it is, this can on ly be a mi rac u -

lous man i fes ta tion of Allah's as sist ance:

Remember when Allah showed them toyou in your dream as on ly a few. IfHe had shown you them as many,you would have lost heart and quar -relled about the mat ter; but Allah savedyou. He knows what your hearts con tain.Remember when Allah made you seethem as few when you met them, and al somade you seem few in their eyes. Thiswas so that Allah could set tle a mat terwhose re sult was pre or dained. All mat tersre turn to Allah. (Surat al-Anfal: 43-44)

In his com men ta ry, al-Sabuni writes:

O com mu ni ty of be liev ers, re mem ber whenyou were at war. In or der to in crease your cour -


157


age, Allah made you think the en e my wasfew er in num ber than it ac tu al ly was. He

al so showed you thus to their eyes, so theywould make no prep a ra tions for the bat tle.

This im pres sion was formed dur ing a stateof wake ful ness, not of sleep. Ibn Mas`ud says

that the en e my was shown to our eyes to be sofew in num bers be fore the bat tle of Badr that I

asked: "What do you think, are there about 100of them?" That was be fore the bat tle be gan.When it start ed, Allah gave the un be liev ers theim pres sion that the faith ful were many in num -ber. The un be liev ers were stunned and seized byfear. Their strength was bro ken, and they sawthings for which they were not pre pared. This isone of Allah's great mir a cles in the bat tle. … Hegave the be liev ers cour age against the un be liev -ers so that they would wage war and so that Hewould help His own ar my and de feat the su per -sti tious [peo ple] and their ar my. In this way,His word would be su pe ri or and the un be liev -

ers' word would be in fe ri or. All works re turnto Allah. Allah op er ates in them as He wills.

158

Nobody can over turn what He hasstip u lat ed. He is Almighty and theLord of wis dom." 57

Ibn Kathir in ter prets the same

verse as fol lows:

Allah's verse, "And when you met(the un be liev ers' ar my), He showedthem to you as few in your eyes,"shows His mer cy and kind ness to ward Hisbe liev ing ser vants. He made the Muslimsview the Qurayshi pol y the ists, in their eyes,as few, in or der to en cour age them to at tackthe un be liev ers. On the au thor i ty of AbdullahIbn Mas`ud, Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i said: "Allahshowed the Quraishi ar my to us as few, in oureyes, to the point that I asked a man who wasby my side: 'They are sev en ty, ar en't they?'He said: 'No, they are 100.' We then took aman from the Qurayshi ar my and asked himabout their num ber. He said: 'We were 1,000fight ers.'"…

Allah had ex cit ed the state of en mi ty be -


159


tween the Muslims and the un be liev ers, and made each par ty ap -pear less in the eyes of the oth er so that they would not fear the bat -tle. However, when the two ar mies ac tu al ly met, Allah sup port edthe Muslims with 1,000 an gels so that the un be liev ers would see theMuslims as twice their ac tu al num ber. As Allah says: "There wasa sign for you in the two ar mies that met (in the Battle ofBadr): one ar my fight ing in the Cause of Allah, and an oth erun be liev ing, whom they saw as twice their num ber, clear ly,with their very eyes. Thus Allah sup ports with His Victorywhom He wills. Verily, in this is a les son for those who un -der stand." (Surah Al 'Imran: 13) 58

Another mir a cle at this time was the Muslims' lack of fear

and hes i tan cy. Allah informs us in the Qur'an that un be liev ers

had many pow er ful sol diers on their side and tried to op press

the Muslim mi nor i ty. In this sit u a tion, the be liev ers turned in

sin cer i ty to Allah and placed them selves in His hands. As a re -

sult, they were abun dant ly bless ed and had a safe re turn:

… those to whom peo ple said: "The peo ple have gath eredagainst you, so fear them." But that mere ly in creased theirbe lief and they said: "Allah is enough for us and the Best ofGuardians." So they re turned with bless ings and boun tyfrom Allah, and no evil touched them. They pur sued thepleas ure of Allah. Allah's fa vor is in deed im mense. (SurahAl 'Imran: 173-74)

Those who al ways trust ed in Allah com plete ly and placed

them selves in His hands lived ac cord ing to the Qur'an's mor al

teach ings and sought to win His ap prov al in ev ery thing they

did. In re turn, Allah gave them a sense of se cu ri ty and well-be -

ing and, even in the most dif fi cult cir cum stan ces, caused them

to live a good life and at tain great wealth from the spoils of

war.

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163

nly Allah knows the Unseen, de fined as

what hap pened in the past and what will

hap pen in the fu ture:

The keys of the Unseen are in His pos ses sion. No oneknows them but Him. He knows ev ery thing in the land andsea. No leaf falls with out His know ing it. There is no seedin the dark ness of the soil and noth ing moist or dry thatis not in a Clear Book. (Surat al-An'am: 59)

Allah cre at ed time and taught the con cept to hu -

man be ings; how e ver, He ex ists apart from it. All

knowl edge is hid den and pre served in Allah's

pres ence; ev ery thing that hap pens any where

in cre a tion is con tained in His knowl edge

and is un der His con trol. He knows the

se cret of ev ery thing. Certainly it was a

mir a cle that our Prophet (saas) knew the

Unseen to the ex tent that the Lord

willed:

He is the Knower of theUnseen and does not di vulge

His Unseen to any one –


ex cept a Messenger with whom He is well pleased, andthen He posts sen ti nels be fore him and be hind him. (Suratal-Jinn: 26-27)

One of these cho sen mes sen gers was our proph et

Muhammad (saas); an oth er one was the Prophet Joseph (as).

While in pris on, The Prophet Joseph (as) told two friends about

Allah's ex is tence:

He said: "No meal to feed you will ar rive be fore I have in -formed you what they [your dreams] mean. That is part ofwhat my Lord taught me. For I have left the re li gion of apeo ple who clear ly have no be lief in Allah and do not be -lieve in the world to come. (Surah Yusuf: 37)

This mir a cle of knowl edge was sup ple ment ed by the

knowl edge of dream in ter pre ta tion. According to Allah's will,

the Prophet Joseph (as) saw some fu ture events. The Prophet

Jesus (as) al so had this type of knowl edge:

… as a Messenger to the tribe of Israel, (who will de clare):"I have brought you a Sign from your Lord. I will cre ate theshape of a bird out of clay for you, breathe in to it, and itwill be a bird by Allah's per mis sion. I will heal the blindand the lep er, and bring the dead to life, by Allah's per mis -sion. I will tell you what you eat and what you store up inyour homes. There is a Sign for you in that if you are be liev -ers. (Surah Al 'Imran: 49)

As Allah states in the above verse, the Prophet Jesus (as)

knew what peo ple had eat en and what they were se cret ly stor -

ing. Allah states in the Qur'an that the Prophet Jesus (as) an -

nounced that a proph et named Ahmad would come aft er him

(Surat as-Saff: 6). The Lord told our Prophet (saas) many se cret

things, among them events of the past and the fu ture:

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167


168

This is news of the Unseen that We re veal to you. You werenot with them [Joseph’s broth ers] when they de cid ed whatto do and de vised their scheme. (Surah Yusuf: 102)

Our Prophet (saas) did not know of these hid den things;

rath er, he on ly re layed the knowl edge of the Unseen, which

point ed to past and fu ture events, to the ex tent that Allah

willed. This was yet an oth er mir a cle that the Lord be stowed

up on him, and yet an oth er proof that he was a true proph et. In

ad di tion to in form ing us of this, Allah al so states his hu mil i ty

and sub mis sion:

Say: "I pos sess no pow er to help or harm my self, ex cept asAllah wills. If I had had knowl edge of the Unseen, I wouldhave sought to gain much good and no evil would havetouched me. I am on ly a warn er and a bring er of good newsto peo ple who be lieve." (Surat al-A'raf: 188)

The Prophet Muhammad (saas) re ceived such knowl edge

from the Qur'an and from the spe cial rev e la tions giv en to him.

Allah gave knowl edge about many things be long ing to the

Unseen that no one else could know. This en a bled him to pre -

dict the good news of vic to ry to Muslims in dif fi cult sit u a tions

and thus to en cour age them. And all that he pre dict ed came

true, one aft er the oth er.

Our Prophet (saas) an nounced 1,400 years ago many

things that have hap pened dur ing our own times. Al-Bukhari,

Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, and

oth ers agree that this knowl edge con cern ing the Unseen re lat -

ed in the had iths is true. Thus, they have al ready oc curred or

will oc cur in the fu ture. People are wit ness es to these mir a cles.


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171


The Unseen: Our Prophet's

(saas) Miracle

Ever since he be gan to pro claim the Qur'an, un be liev ers

ac cused our Prophet (saas) of ly ing. They doubt ed what ev er he

said to them and did not want to be lieve him. But it was clear

from just look ing at his life and his face that he was an hon est

and trust wor thy man. Throughout his life, ev ery one called him

al-Amin (the Trustworthy); many of them al so called him a li ar

so that they would not have to fol low the true path to which he

was call ing them.

Those peo ple who made one cru el ac cu sa tion aft er an oth -

er ig nored the fact that a per son can not lie ev ery mo ment of his

life and live ac cord ing to those lies. Besides, our Prophet (saas)

prayed day and night, was very pa tient, had a su pe ri or mor al

char ac ter, and was a bless ing to the world. He was more aware

than those around him, went in to bat tle with great cour age,

and even while fight ing in the front lines would speak about

di vine truths.

Our Prophet (saas) lived in the best pos si ble way and was

al ways an ex am ple for be liev ers. He taught peo ple to give alms

and gave ev ery thing away he owned to win Allah's ap prov al.

He taught pa tience, self-sac ri fice, true love and friend ship, and

lived these fine mor al qual i ties per fect ly. He urged peo ple to be

mer ci ful and for giv ing, and be haved in just this man ner

through out his life. When the un be liev ers ac cused our Prophet

(saas), they should have thought about these things:

A per son can not lie with out ceas ing for his whole life. A

per son can not live in har mo ny with thou sands of con sist -

172

ent vers es and lie through out his life while be ing de vot ed to

those same vers es. Why would a per son es tab lish such a pat -

tern? Why would he en dan ger his own life to tell oth ers about

the world to come and show them the right path? Would it be

pos si ble for such lies to be so mean ing ful? Would it be pos si ble

for ev ery thing he said to be so per fect ly lit er ary and con tain

some math e mat i cal codes? Could ev ery thing he said for twen -

ty-three years be so lit er ary, math e mat i cal, and in har mo ny

with sci ence; so per fect ly mean ing ful, giv ing an swers to all

peo ple's ques tions, and con tain ing all of the rules need ed for a

har mo ni ous so cial life? Certainly a li ar could not avoid one day

be ing caught in a lie. However, ev ery thing our Prophet (saas)

said came true, as many Muslims and non-Muslims wit nessed.

Certainly, the mir a cles giv en to all of the pro phets were

im por tant. But many peo ple wit nessed some of our Prophet's

(saas) mir a cles, and this makes him dif fer ent from the oth er

pro phets. For ex am ple, when the Prophet Jesus (as) raised

some one from the dead or cured a dis ease, on ly those present

saw the mir a cle; on ly Pharaoh and the Israelites saw the

Prophet Moses's (as) mir a cles. But when our Prophet (saas)

said that the be liev ers would go to war and be vic to ri ous, all of

the peo ple saw that both the war and the vic to ry oc curred.

Thousands of peo ple wit nessed these mir a cles.

The Byzanitnes' Victory

At the be gin ning of Surat al-Rum, Allah says that the

Byzantine Empire suf fered a de feat but that it would soon be

vic to ri ous again:


173


Alif, Lam, Mim. have been de feat ed in the low est land, butaft er their de feat they will be vic to ri ous with in three to nineyears. The af fair is Allah's from be gin ning to end. On thatday, the be liev ers will re joice. (Surat al-Rum: 1-4)

The pa gan Persians de feat ed the Christian Byzantines in

613-14, and these vers es were sent down about sev en years lat -

er. However, at that time the Byzantines suf fered so many loss -

es that it was hard enough for them to sur vive, let alone be vic -

to ri ous. In 613, the Persians de feat ed them at Antioch and then

con quered Damascus, Cilicia, Tarsus, Armenia, and Jerusalem.

The loss of Jerusalem in 614 and the de struc tion of the Church

of the Holy Sepulchre were par tic u lar ly hard blows for the

Byzantines. 59

In ad di tion to the Persians, the Avars, Slavs, and

Lombards were al so threat ing Byzantium. The Avars held

174

This gold re lief, dat ing from the 5th-3rd cen tu ries BC, is part of the treas ure

of the Persian king Oxus.

some of Constantinople's out skirts and, in or der to pay the ar -

my, Emperor Heraclius had the church es' gold, sil ver, and oth -

er adorn ments, as well as bronze stat ues, melt ed down to pro -

duce new coins. Many gov ern ors re belled, and it came to the

point where the em pire was about to be torn apart. The

Persians in vad ed Byzantine-held Mesopotamia and went on to

oc cu py Cilicia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Armenia. 60

In short, ev ery one was wait ing for Byzantine Empire to

col lapse. But at this very time, Surat al-Rum was re vealed and

pro claimed that the Byzantines would be vic to ri ous be fore nine

years had passed. The un be liev ers thought that this would nev -

er hap pen. But it did, for in 622 Heraclius in vad ed Armenia

and de feat ed the Persians in sev er al bat tles. 61 In December 627,

both sides fought a huge bat tle near the ru ins of Nineveh (fif ty

kil o me tres east of the River Tigris). Here, the Byzantines de -

feat ed the Persians and, some months lat er, forced them to sign

a trea ty that re quired them to re store Byzantium's lost ter ri to ry

to it.62The Byzantine vic to ry was com plete when Jerusalem was

re turned and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre once again

came un der Christian con trol.63 So, the vic to ry that Allah had

re vealed and our Prophet (saas) had pro claimed oc curred mi -

rac u lous ly, as Allah says in the verse, with in three to nine

years.

These vers es are al so mi rac u lous be cause the facts of the

ar ea's ge og ra phy could not have been known at that time. For

ex am ple, Allah says in the third verse that the Byzantines were

de feat ed at the low est re gion of Earth. This Arabic ex pres sion

ad na al-ard is in ter pret ed as "a near by place" in many trans la -

tions. However, this is a fig u ra tive in ter pre ta tion. Adna, de -


175


rived from dani (low), means "the low est"; ard means "the

world." Therefore, ad na al-ard means "the low est place on

Earth."

176

The Byzantines' vic to ry was

com plet ed with Emperor

Heracleus'defeat of Persia's

Khosrow II in 630, the re cap ture

of Jerusalem, and the re turn of

the Church of the Holy

Sepulchre to Christian hands.

The re gion of the Dead Sea (Lake

Lut) is the low est in the world.

This was re vealed in the Qur'an

1,400 years ago, and mod ern

tech nol o gy has proven it.

Some Qur'anic in ter pret ers, bear ing in mind that the ar ea

is close to the Arabs, pre fer to use "near est." But the word's re -

al mean ing re lates to a ma jor ge o log i cal fact: the world's low est

place is the Dead Sea, which is 399 me ters be low sea lev el. 64 The

most dif fi cult thing about this de feat was, as we said, the loss

of Jerusalem, the sym bol of Christianity lo cat ed near the Dead

Sea. Calculating the Dead Sea's el e va tion is pos si ble on ly with

mod ern meas ur ing de vi ces. Thus, our Prophet (saas) could not

have known this fact. This knowl edge is an oth er proof that the

Qur'an is Allah's word and that He grant ed a great mir a cle to

our Prophet (saas).

Mecca's Conquest

Allah has con firmed His Messenger's vi sion with truth:"You will en ter the Masjid al-Haram in safe ty, Allah will -ing, shav ing your heads and cut ting your hair with out anyfear." He knew what you did not know and or dained, inplace of this, an im mi nent vic to ry. (Surat al-Fath: 27)

In Mecca, our Prophet (saas) dreamed that he saw be liev -

ers go ing safe ly in to the Masjid al-Haram and cir cum am bu lat -

ing the Ka'bah. He an nounced this good news to the be liev ers,

for those who had moved from Mecca to Madinah with him

could not, at that time, re turn to Mecca.

As a help and sup port to him, Allah re vealed Surat al-Fath

27, in which He said that the dream was true and that, if He

willed, the be liev ers could en ter Mecca. Indeed, a while lat er

and as it was predicted in the verse, the Muslims en tered the

Masjid al-Haram aft er the Treaty of Hudaibiyah and the sub -

se quent cap ture of Mecca. In this way, Allah dem on -


177


178


179

strat ed that the good news He in spired in our Prophet (saas)

was true.

Al-Bukhari tells this sto ry from Abu Musa about Mecca's

fall:

The Prophet said: "I dreamed that I waved a sword and

that it broke in the mid dle. That sym bol ized the cas u al ties that

the be liev ers suf fered on the Day of Uhud. Then I waved the

sword again, and it be came bet ter than it had ev er been be fore.

That sym bol ized the open ing (of Mecca to Islam), which Allah

brought about, and the gath er ing of the be liev ers." 65

However, if we look at Surat al-Fath 27, we see that an oth -

er city will fall be fore Mecca. According to the Qur'an, Muslims

first took Khaybar's cas tle, which had been a Jewish strong -

hold, and then took Mecca. Tafsir al-Jalalayn ex plains this verse

as fol lows:

In the year of Hudaybiyyah be fore set ting out, the

Messenger of Allah dreamed that he and his Companions were

en ter ing Mecca and shav ing and cut ting their hair. He told his

Companions about this, and they re joiced. So when they went

out with him and the un be liev ers blocked them at

Hudaybiyyah and they re turned, it was hard for them. Some of

the hyp o crites fell in to doubt. But then it was re vealed: "[He

knew what you did not know and or dained, in place of this,]

an im mi nent vic to ry," which was the open ing of Khaybar to

Islam. And the dream came true the very next year. 66

Eight years aft er leav ing it, our Prophet (saas) re turned to

Mecca to con quer it. When he gave this good news to the be -

liev ers, the sit u a tion was not at all fa vor a ble. In fact, the

Meccans seemed de ter mined not to al low the be liev ers in, be -

cause they still doubt ed our Prophet's (saas) words. But he


180

trust ed in Allah, ig nored what the peo ple might say, and re lat -

ed it to thou sands of peo ple who wit nessed this mir a cle.

Other news from the un seen re vealed by our

Prophet (saas)

Egypt's con quest:

Abu Dharr re port ed that the Messenger of Allah (saas)

said: "You will soon con quer Egypt, and that is a land in which

the qir at 67 is named. So when you con quer it, treat its in hab it -

ants well." 68 When he an nounced this good news, Egypt was

still gov erned by the Byzantines. In ad di tion, the Muslims were

not yet very strong. But this pre dic tion came true dur ing

Umar's (ra) cal i phate, when Amr ibn al-As con quered it in

641.69

Conquering the lands held by Byzantium

and Persia

"Khosrow will die and there will be no Khosrow aft er

him. Caesar will die and there will be no Caesar aft er him,

but you will dis trib ute their treas ures in the way of Allah." 70

Kisra was the word used for the an cient Persian kings, and

Qaysar was the des ig na tion of the Byzantine em per or. When

our Prophet (saas) an nounced this good news, the Muslims

were not in a po si tion, as re gards their mil i tary strength and

eco nom ic and po lit i cal or gan i za tion, to achieve such a ma jor

vic to ry. Besides, at that time, Persia and Byzantium were the

re gion's strong est states. However, dur ing Umar's (ca) cal i -

phate, Byzantine was de feat ed and no oth er Kisra emerged.

Before the death of Heraclius, the Caesar of the time, in

641, his treasury passed into Muslims' hands as the Muslim

armies began to conquer Byzantium's major centers during the

reigns of the four rightly guided caliphs. For example, under

Abu Bakr (ra), Jordan, Palestine, Damascus, Jerusalem, Syria,

Egypt, and other lands were taken.

In 1453, the Ottoman sul tan Fatih Sultan Mehmet

(Mehmed the Conqueror) con quered Constantinople and, fol -

low ing Byzantium's fall, the ti tle of Qaysar was no longer used.

Thus, the Prophet's (saas) pre dic tions turned out to be true.


181


182

Our Prophet's (saas)

an nounce ment of

Kisra's deathThroughout his life, our Prophet

(saas) called rul ers and ad min is tra tors to

Islam by send ing mes sen gers and let ters to

them. Historical sour ces tell us that some of

them heed ed the call im me di ate ly and that oth -

ers re fused to do so and al lied them selves with

his en e mies. Our Prophet (saas) in vit ed Perviz

ibn Hurmuz, the kis ra at that time, by send ing

Abdullah ibn Hudhayfah to him as a mes sen ger.

But Ibn Hurmuz re fused to em brace Islam and, in

fact, dis played hos til i ty to ward the Muslims. He even

went so far as to send two mes sen gers to tell the Muslims

to sub mit to him.

Our Prophet (saas) first in vit ed these two mes sen gers to

ac cept Islam. Then he left them, say ing that he would in form

them of his de ci sion the next day. 71 At that time, he told the

mes sen gers what Allah had re vealed to him: "Allah will send

many trib u la tions to Khosrow by means of his son Shireveyh,

who will kill him in such-and-such a month, on such-and-such

a night, at such-and-such an hour." 72 He al so told them: "Tell

Khosrow that my re li gion and my em pire will reach far be yond

his king dom. And tell him: "Enter Islam, and I will con firm you

in what you have and ap point you king over the peo ple of

Yemen." 73

The am bas sa dors then re turned to Yemen and de scribed

what had hap pened. Badhan was im pressed and said:

"We will see what hap pens next. If what he said is true, then he is

the Prophet whom Allah has sent." 74 He then turned to his men

and asked what they thought of our Prophet (saas). The am bas -

sa dors, who had been great ly im pressed by him, said: "We nev -

er saw a rul er more ma jes tic, more fear less, and less guard ed than

him. He walk ed hum bly among

the peo ple."


183


Badhan wait ed for a while to see if our Prophet's (saas)

words about the kis ra had come true. After some time had

passed, he an nounced that he was cer tain that our Prophet

(saas) had been sent by Allah. According to the had iths and

oth er his tor i cal doc u ments, short ly Badhan re ceived a let ter

writ ten by Shivereyh: "I killed Khosrow. When this let ter reach es

you, take the peo ple's oath of al le giance in my name. Regarding what

Khosrow wrote to you, wait and do noth ing un til there is a new com -

mand from me." 75

When Badhan and his men worked it out, they re al ized that

the Prophet (saas) had told the truth.76 He be lieved aft er this great

mir a cle and ac cept ed Islam. He was fol lowed by the Yemeni

Abna. 77 Badhan be came the first gov ern or ap point ed by the

Prophet (saas) and the first Persian gov ern or to be a Muslim. 78

Our Prophet (saas) knew of events that no

one else knew about

Allah tells us about a mi rac u lous event in volv ing one of

the Prophet's (saas) wives. Once, he told a se cret to one of them,

and one of them told the se cret to some one else. After Allah

told him about this, he told that par tic u lar wife that he knew

what she had done. When she asked who had told him, he re -

plied that Allah had in formed him:

The Prophet con fid ed a cer tain mat ter to one of his wives.But when she di vulged it [to oth er wives], Allah dis closedthat to him. So, he com mu ni cat ed part of it and with heldpart of it. When he told her of it, she asked: "Who told youof this?" He re plied: "The All-Knowing and All-Aware in -formed me of it." (Surat al-Tahrim: 3)

184

By Allah's grace, our Prophet (saas) had great knowl edge,

for Allah told him things that no oth er per son could know. The

in ci dent re lat ed above was just one of many mir a cles.

Elsewhere, Allah in forms our Prophet (saas) of peo ple's hid den

sides, as well as their se cret thoughts and ac tions, and of how

he is to act and what he is to say:

Then He sent down to you, aft er the dis tress, se cu ri ty and arest ful sleep over tak ing a group of you, where as an oth ergroup be came prey to anx ious thoughts, think ing oth erthan the truth about Allah – thoughts be long ing to theTime of Ignorance – ask ing: "Do we have any say in the af -fair at all?' Say: "The af fair be longs en tire ly to Allah." Theyare con ceal ing things in side them selves that they do notdis close to you, say ing: "If we had on ly had a say in the af -fair, none of us would have been killed here in this place."Tell [them]: "Even if you had been in side your homes, thosepeo ple for whom kill ing was de creed would have gone outto their place of death," so that Allah might test what is inyour breasts and purge what is in your hearts. Allah knowsthe con tents of your hearts. (Surah Al 'Imran: 154)

They have the word "obe di ence!" on their tongues, butwhen they leave your pres ence a group of them spend thenight plot ting to do oth er than what you say. Allah is re -cord ing their noc tur nal plot ting. So let them be and putyour trust in Allah. Allah suf fi ces as a Guardian. (Surat al-Nisa': 81)

Those Arabs who re mained be hind will say to you: "Ourwealth and fam i lies kept us oc cu pied, so ask for give nessfor us." They say with their tongues what is not in theirhearts. Ask [them]: "Who can con trol Allah for you in anyway, wheth er He wills harm or ben e fit for you?" Allah


185

is aware of what youdo. (Surat al-Fath: 11)

As for those who haveset up a mosque, caus -ing harm and out ofun be lief, to cre ate di vi -sion be tween the be -liev ers and in read i -

ness for those who pre -vi ous ly made war on

Allah and His Messenger,they will swear: "We on ly de sired

the best." But Allah bears wit nessthat they are tru ly liars. Do not ev er

stand in it. A mosque found ed on fear of[and re spect for] Allah from the first day has

a great er right for you to stand in it. In it there arepeo ple who love to pu ri fy them selves. Allah loves thosewho pu ri fy them selves. (Surat al-Tawba: 107-08)

Allah says in the Qur'an that He re vealed knowl edge of

the Unseen to our Prophet (saas), such as the hyp o crites' lies,

traps, and hid den true in ten tions. The hyp o crites pre sent ed

them selves in the best pos si ble light, but, by Allah's will, our

Prophet (saas) could recog nize their re al char ac ter from their

fa ces. This was in deed a great mir a cle. No one who sees a per -

son per form ing many acts of wor ship, act ing and speak ing like

a Muslim, call ing him self as a Muslim, and even go ing to war

along side our Prophet (saas) could ev er re al ize that such a

186

per son is ac tu al ly a hyp o crite. The Companions tell sto ries of

how he could recog nize these peo ple through what Allah told

him. Allah re veals this abil i ty in the Qur'an:

If We willed, We would show them to you and you wouldknow them by their mark and am biv a lent speech. Allahknows your ac tions. (Surah Muhammad: 30)

Our Prophet (saas) gave an swers be fore

any one asked the ques tions

Allah reveals in the Qur'an that the Prophet Jesus (as) told

peo ple what they had eat en and had stored up (Surah Al

'Imran: 49) and that the Prophet Joseph (as) said that "no meal

to feed you will ar rive be fore I have in formed you what

they [the dreams] mean" (Surah Yusuf: 37). As our

Prophet (saas) said, he could mi rac u lous ly an swer a

ques tion be fore it was asked and could know a per -

son's in ner thoughts. For ex am ple, he told his

Companions what cit ies would be con quered

and when. 79The had iths al so state that he knew

when peo ple were go ing to come home and

who was go ing to en ter a room. When a per son

re turned late from some where, our Prophet

(saas) could tell him the rea son why he was

late. 80 Our Prophet (saas) im me di ate ly knew

when wick ed thoughts passed through an un -

be liev er's mind and those who thought ill of

Muslims. 81

The had iths con tain

hun dreds of such


187


ex am ples. For ex am ple, our Prophet (saas) an swered a ques -

tion that Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith (ra) had been pon der ing:

Abu Sufyan would sit in a cor ner of the mosque. One day theProphet (saas) eft his house, wrapped up in his cloak. From wherehe was sit ting, Abu Sufyan said: "I won der how he was vic to ri ous."The Prophet (saas) ap proached him, tapped him on the back, andsaid: "I de feat ed you with Allah's help." Abu Sufyan said: "I bearwit ness that you are the Messenger of Allah." 82

One had ith about Wabisa (ra) shows how our Prophet

(saas) could un der stand and an swer a per son's si lent ques tion:

Wabisah ibn Ma`bad said: I came to the Messenger of

Allah, and he said: "You have come to ask about de vout ness

(birr)?" I re plied: "Yes." He said: "Ask your heart for a judg ment.

Devoutness is that to ward which the self is tran quil and to ward

which the heart is tran quil. Impiety (ithm) is that which be -

comes ag i tat ed in the self and it goes ag i tat ed ly to and fro in the

breast even though peo ple re peat ed ly give you a judg ment [as

to a mat ter's per mis si bil i ty]." 83

The had iths al so tell us that he knew a per son's ques tion

be fore it was even asked. For ex am ple:

Abu'd-Darda was wor ship ping an idol. Abdullah ibn Rawahah andAbu Salamah went and broke it. When Abu'd-Darda came and sawthe idol in that state, he could not re frain from ask ing [it]: "Aren'tyou ashamed? Couldn't you have de fend ed your self?" Later hecame to the Prophet (saas). Ibn Rawahah saw him on the way andsaid: "This is Abu'd-Darda. He must have come to look for us!" TheProphet said: "No, he is com ing to em brace Islam. My Lord prom -ised that he would be come a Muslim." 84

All of the above ex am ples show that our Prophet (saas), by

Allah's will, per formed many mir a cles. With this ex cel lent

mor al char ac ter, con scious ness of Allah, and deep

188

faith, sin cer i ty, and trust in Him, he was an ex am ple to all

Muslims. Through these mir a cles, he strength ened and en cour -

aged the be liev ers.

Our Prophet (saas) pre dict ed his own death

Another of our bless ed Prophet's (saas) mir a cles was that

all of his pre dic tions came true (or will come true) in time. One

of the events he pre dict ed was his own death.

The Messenger of Allah (saas) looked at us and said: "You sug gestthat I shall be the last to die. Be warned, I shall die be fore all of you!You will die aft er me." 85

Narrated 'Uq bah ibn 'Am ir (ra):

The Prophet went out and of fered the fu ner al prayer for the mar tyrsof the (bat tle of) Uhud. He then as cend ed the min bar and said: "Iwill pre cede you (in death), and I am a wit ness against you, and –by Allah! – I am at this mo ment gaz ing up on my pond. I have beengiv en the keys of the treas ur ies of Earth" – or "the treas ur ies ofEarth" – "and – by Allah! – I do not fear that you will be come ido -la ters aft er me, but I fear that you will com pete for them [the treas -ur ies]." 86

In an oth er hadith, our Prophet (saas) re veals that he is go -

ing to die:

Abu Muwyahibah nar rat ed: The Messenger of Allah called for mein the mid dle of the night and said to me: "O Abu Muwayhibah, Ihave been or dered to pray for for give ness for the peo ple of Baqi'[grave yard], so come with me." So I went with him. When he stoodamong them, he said: "Peace be up on you, O dwell ers of the graves.May the sit u a tion you are in be more com fort a ble than the sit u a tionthe peo ple are in, for trib u la tions have ap proached like dark

patch es of night, one fol low ing an oth er, and each one is


189


190

worse than the one be fore it." Then he drew near to me and said:"O Abu Muwayhibah, I have been giv en the keys to the treas ures ofthe world and to last ing life in it, fol lowed by the Garden. I was giv -en a choice be tween this and the meet ing with my Lord and theGarden, so I chose the meet ing with my Lord." 87

Our Prophet (saas) gave many de tails about his death, and

this great ly in creased and deep ened the be liev ers' faith. For ex -

am ple:

I was born on a Monday. The rev e la tion be gan on a Monday. I mi -grat ed [to Madinah] on a Monday, and shall die on a Monday. 88

Ibn Hanbal and al-Bayhaqi re late from Ibn Abbas (ra):

Ibn Abbas nar rat ed: "The Prophet (saas) was born on a Monday,be came a proph et on a Monday, mi grat ed from Mecca on a Monday,and en tered Madinah on a Monday. Mecca was opened [to Islam]on a Monday, and he died on a Monday."89

In some of the had iths, he re vealed where he would die:

The place to which I mi grat ed and where I shall lie – where I shallbe bur ied when I die – is Madinah. 90Madinah is where I em i grat ed.I shall die there and there be raised up. 91

Our Prophet (saas) an nounced

the Companion's mar tyr dom

As a mir a cle from Allah, our Prophet (saas) an nounced

when his Companions would die long be fore they did so. In

these had iths, he said that some would be mar tyr ed and re -

vealed where they would die. Those Muslims who saw these

pre dic tions ful filled saw the out come as joy ous. Every one of

these had iths is a mir a cle that Allah grant ed to our Prophet

(saas), whom He chose and ex alt ed above all worlds:


191


Umar's (ra) mar tyr dom

Narrated Anas ibn Malik: The Prophet (saas) once climbed

Uhud moun tain with Abu Bakr, 'Um ar, and 'Uth man. The

moun tain shook. The Prophet said (to the moun tain):

"Be firm, Uhud! For on you there are no more than a Prophet, aSiddiq, two mar tyrs." 92

The books of the Sunnah tell us that one day the Prophet (saas) wassit ting at the well of Àris, with Abu Musa al-Ashàri act ing as hisgate keep er. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq came and asked per mis sion to seehim, and the Messenger (saas) said: "Let him in, and give him theglad tid ings of Paradise." Then Ùmar came, and he said: "Let himin, and give him the glad tid ings of Paradise." Then Ùthman came,and he said: "Let him in, and give him the glad tid ings of Paradisebe cause of an af flic tion that will be fall him." (Reported by al-Bukhari, Muslim, and al-Tirmidhi, Jami` al-Usul, 8/562, no. 6372.)

Uthman's (ra) mar tyr dom

Ibn 'A di and Ibn 'As a kir nar rat ed from Anas, who said:

"The Messenger of Allah said: "O Uthman, you will be giv en

the cal i phate aft er me, but the hyp o crites will want you to re -

nounce it. Do not re nounce, it but fast on that day so that you

break your fast with me." 93

Al-Tabarani and al-Bayhaqi nar rat ed from Zayd ibn

Arqam, who said: The Prophet (saas) sent me out, say ing: "Go

and see Abu Bakr. You will find him sit ting in side his house

wrapped up in his cloak with his legs drawn up. Give him the

glad tid ings of the Garden. Then go to the moun tain un til you

find 'Um ar rid ing a don key and his tall frame loom ing in the

dis tance. Give him the glad tid ings of the Garden.

192

Then go to 'Uth man, whom you will find in the mar ket sell ing

and buy ing, and give him the glad tid ings of the Garden aft er

a har row ing or deal." I went and found them as the Messenger

of Allah had said, and I told them. 94

Al-Tabarani nar rat ed from Zayd ibn Thabit, who said that

he heard the Prophet (saas) say: "Uthman passed by me while

one of the an gels was with me, and the lat ter said: 'This is a

mar tyr whose peo ple will kill him. We are shy of him.'" 95

Ali's (ra) mar tyr dom

Al-Hakim (who de clared it sound) and Abu Nuàym nar -

rat ed from 'Am mar ibn Yasir that the Prophet said to 'A li: "The

most griev ous of all peo ple is he that shall strike you here," in -

di cat ing his tem ple, "un til blood soaks this," in di cat ing his

beard. 96

Al-Tabarani and Abu Nuàym nar rat ed from Jabir ibn

Samurah, who said: The Messenger of Allah said to 'A li: "You

will be giv en lead er ship and the cal i phate; and tru ly, this will

be dyed red with this," mean ing his beard with [the blood

from] his head. 97

Al-Hakim nar rat ed from Anas, who said: I went in with the Prophet(saas) to see Àli, who lay sick, while Abu Bakr and Ùmar were vis -it ing him. One of them said to the oth er: "I do not think that he willsur vive," where up on the Messenger of Allah (saas) said: "In truth,he shall not die oth er than [by be ing] mur dered. 98

Hussain's (ra) mar tyr dom

Ibn Rahwayh, al-Bayhaqi, and Abu Nuàym nar rat ed

from Umm Salamah: The Messenger of Allah (saas) lay


193


down one day and woke up, hold ing a hand ful of red dirt in

his hand and turn ing it this way and that. I asked: "What is this

dirt, Messenger of Allah?" He re plied: "Jibril in formed me that

this one [mean ing Hussain] would be killed in Iraq, and this is

his rest ing-ground." 99

Ibn al-Sakan, al-Baghawi, and Abu Nu`aym nar rat ed from

Anas ibn al-Harith, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah

say: "Truly this son of mine [mean ing Husayn] will be killed in

a land called Karbala'. Whoever among you is present then,

help him." Thus, Anas ibn al-Harith went to Karbala' and was

killed there with Husayn. 100

All of these pre dic tions came true, and many sin cere

Muslims who shoul dered the great re spon si bil i ty of spread ing

Islam al so died as mar tyrs. As a re sult, more of his pre dic tions

came true. Every one of these is a mir a cle that Allah be stowed

up on his bless ed mes sen ger, Muhammad (saas), from the

Unseen.

Signs of the End Times

The world will ex pe ri ence the End Times be fore the Day of

Judgment. Our Prophet (saas) told us many things about this

time, and the fact that many of them are hap pen ing now is a

mir a cle. Muhammad (saas) de tailed events that would hap pen

1,400 years aft er his death as if he had ac tu al ly seen them. We

present a par tial list be low:

The Iran-Iraq War

The had iths tell of a ma jor war that will hap pen in the

End Times:

194

There will be tu mult in Shawwal (the tenth Islamic month), talk ofwar in Dhu al-Qa`dah (the elev enth Islamic month), and the out -break of war in Dhu al-Hijjah (the twelfth month). 101

These months co in cide with the dates of the de vel op ing

sta ges of the Iran-Iraq War.

There will be tu mult in Shawwal…

The first up ris ing against the Shah hap pened on 5

Shawwal 1398 (September 8, 1976).

Talks of war in Dhu al-Qa`dah (the elev enth Islamic month), andthe out break of war in Dhu al-Hijjah (the twelfth month)...

The Iran-Iraq War broke out in Dhu al-Hijjah 1400

(October 1980).

In an oth er had ith, the de tails of this war are giv en:

A na tion/tribe will come from the Farsi di rec tion, say ing: "O YouArabs, you have been too zeal ous. If you don't give them their duerights, no body will have an al li ance with you ... It must be giv en tothem one day and to you the fol low ing day, and mu tu al prom is esmust be kept ..." They will be go ing up to Mutekh; Muslims will becom ing down to the plain ... Polytheists will be stand ing over thereon the bank of a black riv er [Rakabeh] on the oth er side. There willbe a war be tween them. Allah will de prive both ar mies of a vic to ry... 102

On the right you see some of the news about Iran-Iraq war.

- Those com ing from the Farsi di rec tion: Those com ing

from the Iranian side:

- Farsi: Iran, Iranian

- Coming down to the plain: Coming down to the Iranian

plain

- Mutekh: Name of a moun tain in the re gion


195


196

Türkiye Daily, January 22, 1987

Türkiye Daily, August 3, 1988

THE BLOOD I EST CON FLICTS

OF THE 7 YEARS

CLOSE COMBAT BETWEEN

IRAN AND IRAQ

HEAVY LOSS OF IRAN-IRAQ

WAR OF 8 YEARS:

APPROXIMATELY 2 MILLION

CASUALTIES

BACK-AND-FORTH: HERE IS

THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR

IRAN ENTERED IRAQ

- Rakabeh: A re gion where the oil wells are con cen trat ed

"O you Arabs, you have in dulged your selves in big ot ry! Unlessyou grant due rights to them, no one will agree with you on a planof ac tion…"

This had ith may draw at ten tion to the out break of a ra cial

dis pute that will cause both sides to come down to the (Iranian)

plain and wage war.

Allah will not give vic to ry to any one of the ar mies...

The Iran-Iraq war last ed for eight years and, de spite many

thou sands of cas u al ties, nei ther side could claim a de ci sive vic -

to ry.

The Occupation of Afghanistan

Pity poor Taliqan [a re gion in Afghanistan]. At that place are trea-s ures of Allah, but these are not of gold and sil ver. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi `Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir al-Zaman, 59.)

This had ith may be an in di ca tion of Afghanistan's oc cu pa -

tion dur ing the Last Days. The Soviet in va sion of Afghanistan

took place in 1979 (1400, ac cord ing to the Islamic cal en dar).

… at that place are treas ures of Allah, but these are not of gold andsil ver …

In ad di tion, this had ith draws at ten tion to Afghanistan's

ma te ri al rich es. Today, large oil de pos its, iron ba sins, and coal

mines have been de tect ed there and await com mer cial ex ploi -

ta tion.

Damming the Euphrates

Soon the riv er Euphrates will dis close the treas ure [the moun tain]of gold. So, who ev er will be present at that time should not take any -thing of it. (Sahih al-Bukhari.)

197



Other had iths re veal im por tant in for ma tion on this sub -

ject:

The Messenger of Allah (saas) said: "The Hour will not come topass be fore the riv er Euphrates dries up to un veil the moun tain ofgold, for which peo ple will fight. Ninety-nine out of 100 will die [inthe fight ing], and ev ery man among them will say: 'Per haps I maybe the on ly one to re main alive.'" (Sahih al-Bukhari, SahihMuslim.)

The Prophet (saas) said: "The Euphrates re veals the treas ures with -in it self. Whoever sees it should not take any thing from it." (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan, 28.)

Damming the flow of wa ter in the Euphrates and the

emer gence of a treas ure as val u a ble as gold are both men tioned

in many had ith col lec tions.

Let's ex am ine some im por tant state ments re vealed in the

had iths one by one:

The Messenger of Allah (saas) said: "The Hour will not cometo pass be fore the riv er Euphrates dries up and un veils themoun tain of gold." (Sahih Muslim.)

(1)… the riv er Euphrates dries up …

As-Suyuti men tions this had ith as "the stop ping of wa ter."

The Keban dam,

built in 1975, has

ac com plished this.

(2)… un veilsthe moun tainof gold…

198


199

Newsweek, February 11, 1980


The sur round ing land has be come as val u a ble as gold for

var i ous rea sons, for the Keban dam has en a bled elec tric i ty pro -

duc tion and high er soil fer til i ty through ir ri ga tion and trans -

port fa cil i ties. The Keban and oth er dams lin ing the Euphrates

re sem ble a con crete moun tain, and wealth as val u a ble as gold

comes out of it. Therefore, they take on the prop er ties of "the

gold en moun tain." (Allah knows the truth.)

Our Prophet (saas) al so gave oth er in for ma tion about this

time, which can be found in Harun Yahya's The Signs of the

Second Coming of Jesus, The End Times and the Mahdi, Signs of The

Last Day, and oth er books. Among these signs are the fol low -

ing: lu nar and so lar eclip ses dur ing Ramadan, the rise of a com -

et, storm ing the Ka'bah and the sub se quent blood shed, sight -

ing a flare in the east, a sign com ing out of the Sun, the be gin -

ning of wide spread slaugh ter, the kill ing of the rul ers of

Damascus and Egypt, the en slave ment of the Egyptians, the de -

struc tion of great cit ies, the re build ing of ru ined pla ces, the

fourth peace and Arab-Israeli peace agree ment, the des ti tu tion

of the Iraqi peo ple, the burn ing of Baghdad, an em bar go

against Iraq and Damascus, the re struc tur ing of Iraq, confusion

and disorder in Damascus as well as in Iraq and Arabia, con -

flict be tween Muslims and Jews, the kill ing of in no cent chil -

dren, per va sive cor rup tion, re li gious pro hi bi tions gain ing ac -

cept ance, open de ni al of Allah, in creas ing num bers of earth -

quakes, the col lapse of mor al val ues, an in crease in ur ban i za -

tion, the green ing of de serts, and the ap pear ance of false mes -

si ahs.

These are on ly a few of the signs. Since our Prophet's (saas)

death, they have been ob served at var i ous times and in dif fer -

ent pla ces. However, since 1400 AH, all of them have oc -

200

curred in the same pe ri od

one aft er an oth er. This

means that an oth er of his

pre dic tions has come true:

Signs fol low ing one an oth -er, like the pie ces of a neck -lace fall ing one aft er theoth er when its string iscut.103


201

Hürriyet Daily,

November 4, 1973

THE GREAT EUPHRATES

CAME TO A HALT WHERE IT

WAS BORN

hrough out his to ry, peo ple to whom Allah

sent mes sen gers and pro phets de mand ed mir -

a cles so that they could see some thing ex traor di -

na ry that would con vince them to be lieve. Allah graced some

of the pro phets with the pow er to per form mir a cles; He helped

them, there by en a bling them to pro claim His mes sage and en -

gage in a clash of ideas with all sorts of un be liev ers. However,

peo ple of con science and in tel li gence do not need a mir a cle

in or der to be lieve, for those with un der stand ing see

ev ery thing as an ev i dent proof of His ex is tence.

Even though all of cre a tion is filled with

signs of Allah's ex is tence and won drous cre a -

tive pow er, some peo ple con tin ue to de -

mand at least one mir a cle. But their re al

in ten tion is not what it seems, for in stead

of be liev ing in these mir a cles, they

false ly ac cuse those who per form

them of such things as witch craft

or cor rup tion.


They have sworn by Allah with their most ear nest oathsthat if a Sign comes to them, they will be live in it. Say:

"The Signs are un der Allah's con trol alone." What willmake you re al ize that even if a Sign did come that theywould still not be lieve? We will over turn their hearts andsight, just as when they did not be lieve in it at first, and Wewill aban don them to wan der blind ly in their ex ces sive in -so lence. Even if We sent down an gels to them, the deadspoke to them, and We gath ered to geth er ev ery thing infront of them right be fore their eyes, they would still notbe lieve, un less Allah willed. The truth is that most of themare ig no rant. (Surat an-An'am: 109-111)

As Allah pro claims, those with out faith who in sist on see -

ing mir a cles do not re al ly want to be lieve; rath er, they want to

test the pro phets by mak ing things dif fi cult for them. In their

own shal low minds, they want to show that the pro phets are

liars so that they can ex cuse their own re bel lious ness. Such peo -

ple do not be lieve even in a mir a cle when they see one; they

sim ply in crease their ac cu sa tions that they have been be -

witched.

When they see a Sign they on ly laugh with scorn. They say:"This is just down right mag ic." (Surat al-Saffat: 14-15)

If they see a Sign, they turn away say ing: "There is no endto this witch craft!" (Surat al-Qamar: 2)

It is a grace from Allah that many peo ple have their faith

strength ened by mir a cles. But peo ple of con science and in tel li -

gence be lieve in Allah be cause of the ex traor di na ri ness of cre a -

tion, and thus do not ex pect a spe cial mir a cle from the pro -

phets. If the Lord man i fests Himself in cer tain mir a cles, they

see such events as bless ings that stir up ea ger en thu si asm

204

in them and strength en their re solve. Throughout his to ry, un -

be liev ers have nev er ex pect ed such a thing and, as a re sult,

have lost much. In or der to find an ex cuse for their re bel lious -

ness, they have dis re gard ed the truths an nounced by the pro -

phets in their search for some thing ex traor di na ry. The Lord

says that He could make these peo ple sub mit to Him with just

one mir a cle: "If We wished We could send down a Sign to

them from heav en, be fore which their heads would be bowed

low in sub jec tion" (Surat al-Shu'ara': 4). But all things hap pen

ac cord ing to what is re quired by the na ture of this world as a

place of test ing.

The mir a cles of our Prophet (saas) are a source of great joy

for all Muslims. They in crease the be liev ers' faith and cause

them to be more en thu si as tic in their at tach ment to the sub lime

Qur'an.


205

arwinism, in other words the theory of

evolution, was put forward with the aim

of denying the fact of Creation, but is in truth

nothing but failed, unscientific nonsense. This theory, which

claims that life emerged by chance from inanimate matter,

was invalidated by the scientific evidence of miraculous or-

der in the universe and in living things, as well as by the

discovery of about 300 million fossils revealing that

evolution never happened. In this way, science

confirmed the fact that Allah created the uni-

verse and the living things in it. The propa-

ganda carried out today in order to keep the

theory of evolution alive is based solely

on the distortion of the scientific facts, bi-

ased interpretation, and lies and false-

hoods disguised as science.

Yet this propaganda cannot conceal

the truth. The fact that the theory of

evolution is the greatest decep-

tion in the history of science

has been expressed


more and more in the scientific

world over the last 20-30 years.

Research carried out after the

1980s in particular has revealed

that the claims of Darwinism are

totally unfounded, something that

has been stated by a large number

of scientists. In the United States in

particular, many scientists from

such different fields as biology,

biochemistry and paleontology

recognize the invalidity of

Darwinism and employ the fact of

Creation to account for the origin

of life.

We have examined the collapse of the theory of evolution

and the proofs of Creation in great scientific detail in many of

our works, and are still continuing to do so. Given the enor-

mous importance of this subject, it will be of great benefit to

summarize it here.

The Scientific Collapse of Darwinism

As a pagan doctrine going back as far as ancient Greece, the

theory of evolution was advanced extensively in the nineteenth

century. The most important development that made it the top

topic of the world of science was Charles Darwin's The Origin

of Species, published in 1859. In this book, he opposed, in his

own eyes, the fact that Allah created different living species on

Earth separately, for he erroneously claimed that all liv-

208

Charles Darwin

ing beings had a common ancestor and had diversified over

time through small changes. Darwin's theory was not based

on any concrete scientific finding; as he also accepted, it was

just an "assumption." Moreover, as Darwin confessed in the

long chapter of his book titled "Difficulties on Theory," the

theory failed in the face of many critical questions.

Darwin invested all of his hopes in new scientific discover-

ies, which he expected to solve these difficulties. However, con-

trary to his expectations, scientific findings expanded the di-

mensions of these difficulties. The defeat of Darwinism in the

face of science can be reviewed under three basic topics:

1) The theory cannot explain how life originated on Earth.

2) No scientific finding shows that the "evolutionary mecha-

nisms" proposed by the theory have any evolutionary power at

all.

3) The fossil record proves the exact opposite of what the

theory suggests.

In this section, we will examine these three basic points in

general outlines:

The First Insurmountable Step: The Origin

of Life

The theory of evolution posits that all living species evolved

from a single living cell that emerged on the primitive Earth 3.8

billion years ago. How a single cell could generate millions of

complex living species and, if such an evolution really oc-

curred, why traces of it cannot be observed in the fossil record

are some of the questions that the theory cannot answer.

However, first and foremost, we need to ask: How


209


did this "first cell" originate?

Since the theory of evolution ignorantly denies Creation,

it maintains that the "first cell" originated as a product of

blind coincidences within the laws of nature, without any

plan or arrangement. According to the theory, inanimate mat-

ter must have produced a living cell as a result of coincidences.

Such a claim, however, is inconsistent with the most unassail-

able rules of biology.

"Life Comes From Life"

In his book, Darwin never referred to the origin of life. The

primitive understanding of science in his time rested on the as-

sumption that living beings had a very simple structure. Since

medieval times, spontaneous generation, which asserts that

non-living materials came together to form living organisms,

had been widely accepted. It was commonly believed that in-

sects came into being from food leftovers, and mice from

wheat. Interesting experiments were conducted to prove this

theory. Some wheat was placed on a dirty piece of cloth, and it

was believed that mice would originate from it after a while.

Similarly, maggots developing in rotting meat was assumed

to be evidence of spontaneous generation. However, it was lat-

er understood that worms did not appear on meat sponta-

neously, but were carried there by flies in the form of larvae,

invisible to the naked eye.

Even when Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the belief

that bacteria could come into existence from non-living matter

was widely accepted in the world of science.

However, five years after the publication of

210

Darwin's book, Louis Pasteur announced his results after

long studies and experiments, that disproved spontaneous

generation, a cornerstone of Darwin's theory. In his triumphal

lecture at the Sorbonne in 1864, Pasteur said: "Never will the

doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal

blow struck by this simple experiment."104

For a long time, advocates of the theory of evolution resist-

ed these findings. However, as the development of science un-

raveled the complex structure of the cell of a living being, the

idea that life could come into being coincidentally faced an

even greater impasse.


211

Louis Pasteur's ex per i ments in val i dat ed the

idea that "life can emerge from in an i mate

mat ter," the ba sis of the the o ry of ev o lu tion.


Inconclusive Efforts of

the Twentieth Century

The first evolutionist who took

up the subject of the origin of life

in the twentieth century was the

renowned Russian biologist

Alexander Oparin. With various

theses he advanced in the 1930s,

he tried to prove that a living cell

could originate by coincidence.

These studies, however, were

doomed to failure, and Oparin had

to make the following confession:

Unfortunately, however, the problem of the origin of the cell

is perhaps the most obscure point in the whole study of the

evolution of organisms.105

Evolutionist followers of Oparin tried to carry out experi-

ments to solve this problem. The best known experiment was

carried out by the American chemist Stanley Miller in 1953.

Combining the gases he alleged to have existed in the primor-

dial Earth's atmosphere in an experiment set-up, and adding

energy to the mixture, Miller synthesized several organic mol-

ecules (amino acids) present in the structure of proteins.

Barely a few years had passed before it was revealed that

this experiment, which was then presented as an important

step in the name of evolution, was invalid, for the atmos-

phere used in the experiment was very different from the re-

al Earth conditions.106

After a long silence, Miller confessed that

212

Alexander Oparin

the atmosphere medium he used was

unrealistic.107

All the evolutionists' efforts through-

out the twentieth century to explain the

origin of life ended in failure. The geo-

chemist Jeffrey Bada, from the San Diego

Scripps Institute accepts this fact in an ar-

ticle published in Earth magazine in 1998:Today as we leave the twentieth century,

we still face the biggest unsolved problem

that we had when we entered the twenti-

eth century: How did life originate on Earth?108

The Complex Structure of Life

The primary reason why the theory of evolution ended up

in such a great impasse regarding the origin of life is that even

those living organisms deemed to be the simplest have

outstandingly complex structures. The cell


213

One ex am ple of ev o lu -

tion ists' at tempts to ex -

plain the or i gin of life is

the Miller Experiment. It

was grad u al ly re al ized

that this ex per i ment, in i -

tial ly her ald ed as a ma -

jor de vel op ment on be -

half of ev o lu tion, was in -

valid and even Miller

him self was obliged to

ad mit that fact.

Evolutionist

Magazine Earth


of a living thing is more complex than all of our man-made

technological products. Today, even in the most developed

laboratories of the world, a living cell cannot be produced by

bringing organic chemicals together.

The conditions required for the formation of a cell are too

great in quantity to be explained away by coincidences. The

probability of proteins, the building blocks of a cell, being syn-

thesized coincidentally, is 1 in 10950 for an average protein

made up of 500 amino acids. In mathematics, a probability

smaller than 1 over 1050 is considered to be impossible in prac-

tical terms.

The DNA molecule, which is located in the nucleus of a cell

and which stores genetic information, is a magnificent data-

bank. If the information coded in DNA were written down, it

would make a giant library consisting of an estimated 900 vol-

umes of encyclopedias consisting of 500 pages each.

A very interesting dilemma emerges at this point: DNA can

replicate itself only with the help of some specialized proteins

(enzymes). However, the synthesis of these enzymes can be re-

alized only by the information coded in DNA. As they both de-

pend on each other, they have to exist at the same time for

replication. This brings the scenario that life originated by itself

to a deadlock. Prof. Leslie Orgel, an evolutionist of repute from

the University of San Diego, California, confesses this fact in

the September 1994 issue of the Scientific American magazine:It is extremely improbable that proteins and nucleic

acids, both of which are structurally complex, arose

spontaneously in the same place at the same time. Yet it

also seems impossible to have one without the other. And so, at

first glance, one might have to conclude that life could never,

in fact, have originated by chemical means.109

214


215

No doubt, if it is impossible for life to have originated spon-

taneously as a result of blind coincidences, then it has to be ac-

cepted that life was "created." This fact explicitly invalidates

the theory of evolution, whose main purpose is to deny

Creation.

One of the facts nul li fy ing the the o ry of ev o lu tion is the in -

cred i bly com plex struc ture of life. The DNA mol e cule lo cat ed

in the nu cle us of cells of liv ing be ings is an ex am ple of this.

The DNA is a sort of da ta bank formed of the ar range ment of

four dif fer ent mol e cu les in dif fer ent se quen ces. This da ta bank

con tains the codes of all the phys i cal traits of that liv ing be -

ing. When the hu man DNA is put in to writ ing, it is cal cu lat ed

that this would re sult in an en cy clo pe dia made up of 900 vol -

umes. Unquestionably, such ex traor di na ry in for ma tion de fin i -

tive ly re futes the con cept of co in ci dence.


Imaginary Mechanism of Evolution

The second important point that negates Darwin's theory is

that both concepts put forward by the theory as "evolutionary

mechanisms" were understood to have, in reality, no evolu-

tionary power.

Darwin based his evolution allegation entirely on the mech-

anism of "natural selection." The importance he placed on this

mechanism was evident in the name of his book: The Origin of

Species, By Means of Natural Selection…

Natural selection holds that those living things that are

stronger and more suited to the natural conditions of their

habitats will survive in the struggle for life. For example, in a

deer herd under the threat of attack by wild animals, those that

can run faster will survive. Therefore, the deer herd will be

comprised of faster and stronger individuals. However, un-

questionably, this mechanism will not cause deer to evolve and

transform themselves into another living species, for instance,

horses.

Therefore, the mechanism of natural

selection has no evolutionary power.

216

Lamarck be lieved that gi raffes evolved from such

an i mals as an te lopes. In his view, the necks of

these grass-eat ing an i mals grad u al ly grew longer,

and they even tu al ly turned in to gi raffes. The laws

of in her it ance dis cov ered by Mendel in 1865

proved that it was im pos si ble for prop er ties ac -

quired dur ing life to be hand ed on to sub se quent

gen er a tions. Lamarck's gi raffe fairy tale was thus

con signed to the waste bin of his to ry.

Darwin was also aware of this fact and had to state this in his

book The Origin of Species:Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual

differences or variations occur.110

Lamarck's Impact

So, how could these "favorable

variations" occur? Darwin tried to

answer this question from the

standpoint of the primitive under-

standing of science at that time.

According to the French biologist

Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829),

who lived before Darwin, living

creatures passed on the traits they

acquired during their lifetime to

the next generation. He asserted

that these traits, which accumulat-

ed from one generation to another,

caused new species to be formed. For instance, he claimed that

giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they struggled to eat the

leaves of high trees, their necks were extended from generation

to generation.

Darwin also gave similar examples. In his book The Origin

of Species, for instance, he said that some bears going into wa-

ter to find food transformed themselves into whales over

time.111

However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor

Mendel (1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics,


217

Lamarck


which flourished in the twentieth century, utterly demolished

the legend that acquired traits were passed on to subsequent

generations. Thus, natural selection fell out of favor as an evo-

lutionary mechanism.

Neo-Darwinism and Mutations

In order to find a solution, Darwinists advanced the

"Modern Synthetic Theory," or as it is more commonly known,

Neo-Darwinism, at the end of the 1930s. Neo-Darwinism

added mutations, which are distortions formed in the genes of

living beings due to such external factors as radiation or repli-

cation errors, as the "cause of favorable variations" in addition

to natural mutation.

Today, the model that Darwinists espouse, despite their

own awareness of its scientific invalidity, is neo-Darwinism.

The theory maintains that millions of living beings formed as a

result of a process whereby numerous complex organs of these

organisms (e.g., ears, eyes, lungs, and wings) underwent "mu-

tations," that is, genetic disorders. Yet, there is an outright sci-

entific fact that totally undermines this theory: Mutations do

not cause living beings to develop; on the contrary, they are

always harmful.

The reason for this is very simple: DNA has a very complex

structure, and random effects can only harm it. The American

geneticist B. G. Ranganathan explains this as follows:First, genuine mutations are very rare in nature. Secondly,

most mutations are harmful since they are random, rather

than orderly changes in the structure of genes; any random

change in a highly ordered system will be for the worse, not

for the better. For example, if an earthquake were

218

to shake a highly ordered structure such as a building,

there would be a random change in the framework of

the building which, in all probability, would not be an im-

provement.112

Not surprisingly, no mutation example, which is useful, that

is, which is observed to develop the genetic code, has been ob-

served so far. All mutations have proved to be harmful. It was

understood that mutation, which is presented as an "evolution-

ary mechanism," is actually a genetic occurrence that harms liv-

ing things, and leaves them disabled. (The most common effect

of mutation on human beings is cancer.) Of course, a destruc-

tive mechanism cannot be an "evolutionary mechanism."

Natural selection, on the other hand, "can do nothing by itself,"

as Darwin also accepted. This fact shows us that there is no

"evolutionary mechanism" in nature. Since no evolutionary

mechanism exists, no such any imaginary process called "evo-

lution" could have taken place.


219

Since the be gin ning of the twen ti eth cen tu ry, ev o lu tion a ry bi ol o gists have

sought ex am ples of ben e fi cial mu ta tions by cre at ing mu tant flies. But these

ef forts have al ways re sult ed in sick and de formed crea tures. The top pic ture

shows the head of a nor mal fruit fly, and the pic ture on the left shows the

head of a fruit fly with legs com ing out of it, the re sult of mu ta tion.

mouth

eye

an ten naeleg


The Fossil Record: No Sign of

Intermediate Forms

The clearest evidence that the scenario suggested by the the-

ory of evolution did not take place is the fossil record.

According to the unscientific supposition of this theory, every

living species has sprung from a predecessor. A previously ex-

isting species turned into something else over time and all

species have come into being in this way. In other words, this

transformation proceeds gradually over millions of years.

Had this been the case, numerous intermediary species

should have existed and lived within this long transformation

period.

For instance, some half-fish/half-reptiles should have lived

in the past which had acquired some reptilian traits in addition

to the fish traits they already had. Or there should have existed

some reptile-birds, which acquired some bird traits in addition

to the reptilian traits they already had. Since these would be in

a transitional phase, they should be disabled, defective, crip-

pled living beings. Evolutionists refer to these imaginary crea-

tures, which they believe to have lived in the past, as "transi-

tional forms."

If such animals ever really existed, there should be mil-

lions and even billions of them in number and variety. More

importantly, the remains of these strange creatures should be

present in the fossil record. In The Origin of Species, Darwin

explained:If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking

most closely all of the species of the same group together must

assuredly have existed... Consequently, evidence of their

220

former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains.113

However, Darwin was well aware that no fossils of these

intermediate forms had yet been found. He regarded this as a

major difficulty for his theory. In one chapter of his book titled

"Difficulties on Theory," he wrote:Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly

fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable

transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion in-

stead of the species being, as we see them, well de-

fined?… But, as by this theory innumerable transitional

forms must have existed, why do we not find them em-

bedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?…

Why then is not every geological formation and every

stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly

does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and

this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which

can be urged against my theory.114

Darwin's Hopes Shattered

However, although evolutionists have been making strenu-

ous efforts to find fossils since the middle of the nineteenth cen-

tury all over the world, no transitional forms have yet been

uncovered. All of the fossils, contrary to the evolutionists' ex-

pectations, show that life appeared on Earth all of a sudden

and fully-formed.

One famous British paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits

this fact, even though he is an evolutionist:The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail,

whether at the level of orders or of species, we find – over and

over again – not gradual evolution, but the sudden ex-


221


LIVING FOSSILS REFUTE EVOLUTION

Crane Fly

Period: Cenozoic

Age, Eocene

Period

Age: 48-37 mil lion

years

Fossils are proof that ev o -

lu tion nev er hap pened. As

the fos sil record re veals,

liv ing things sud den ly ap -

peared to geth er with all the

char ac ter is tics they pos -

sess, and they nev er un der -

go the slight est change so

long as they re main in ex is -

tence. Fish have al ways ex -

ist ed as fish, in sects as in -

sects, and rep tiles as rep -

tiles. There is no sci en tif ic

va lid i ty to the claim that

spe cies emerged grad u al ly.

222

Sea Urchin

Period: Paleozoic Age,

Carboniferous Period

Age: 295 mil lion years

Sun Fish

Period:

Cenozoic Age,

Eocene Period

Age: 54-37 mil -

lion years

223

Starfish

Period: Paleozoic Age,

Ordovician Period

Age: 490-443 mil lion years

Sequoia Leaf

Period: Cenozoic Age,

Eocene Period


Cicada

Period:

Mesozoic Age,

Cretaceous

Period

Age: 125 mil lion

years

Birch Tree Leaf

Period: Cenozoic Age,

Eocene Period




224

The the o ry of ev o lu tion claims that liv ing spe cies grad u al ly evolved from

one an oth er. The fos sil record, how e ver, ex plic it ly fal si fies this claim. For

ex am ple, in the Cambrian pe ri od, some 550 mil lion years ago, tens of to -

tal ly dis tinct liv ing spe cies emerged sud den ly. These liv ing be ings de -

pict ed in the above pic ture have very com plex struc tures. This fact, re -

ferred to as the "Cambrian Explosion" in sci en tif ic lit er a ture is plain ev i -

dence of cre a tion.

plosion of one group at the expense of another.115

This means that in the fossil record, all living species sud-

denly emerge as fully formed, without any intermediate

forms in between. This is just the opposite of Darwin's as-

sumptions. Also, this is very strong evidence that all living

things are created. The only explanation of a living species

emerging suddenly and complete in every detail without any

evolutionary ancestor is that it was created. This fact is admit-

ted also by the widely known evolutionist biologist Douglas

Futuyma:

Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible ex-

planations for the origin of living things. Organisms either ap-

peared on the earth fully developed or they did not. If they did

not, they must have developed from pre-existing species by some

process of modification. If they did appear in a fully developed

state, they must indeed have been created by some omnipotent

intelligence.116

Fossils show that living beings emerged fully developed

and in a perfect state on the Earth. That means that "the origin

of species," contrary to Darwin's supposition, is not evolution,

but Creation.

The Tale of Human Evolution

The subject most often brought up by advocates of the theo-

ry of evolution is the subject of the origin of man. The

Darwinist claim holds that man evolved from so-called ape-like

creatures. During this alleged evolutionary process, which is

supposed to have started 4-5 million years ago, some "transi-

tional forms" between present-day man and his imaginary an-

cestors are supposed to have existed. According to this com-

pletely imaginary scenario, four basic "categories" are listed:

1. Australopithecus

2. Homo habilis

3. Homo erectus

4. Homo sapiens

Evolutionists call man's so-called first ape-like ancestors

Australopithecus, which means "South African ape." These liv-

ing beings are actually nothing but an old ape species that has

become extinct. Extensive research done on various


225


Australopithecus specimens by two world famous anatomists

from England and the USA, namely, Lord Solly Zuckerman

and Prof. Charles Oxnard, shows that these apes belonged to

an ordinary ape species that became extinct and bore no re-

semblance to humans.117

Evolutionists classify the next stage of human evolution as

"homo," that is "man." According to their claim, the living be-

ings in the Homo series are more developed than

Australopithecus. Evolutionists devise a fanciful evolution

scheme by arranging different fossils of

these creatures in a particular order.

This scheme is imaginary because it

has never been proved that there

is an evolutionary relation be-

tween these different class-

es. Ernst Mayr, one of the

twentieth century's most

important evolutionists,

contends in his book One

226

There are no fos sil re mains

that sup port the tale of hu man

ev o lu tion. On the con tra ry, the

fos sil record shows that there

is an in sur mount a ble bar ri er

be tween apes and men. In the

face of this truth, ev o lu tion ists

fixed their hopes on cer tain

draw ings and mod els. They

ran dom ly place masks on the

fos sil re mains and fab ri cate

im ag i nary half-ape, half-hu man

fa ces.

FALSEFALSE

Long Argument that "particularly historical [puzzles] such as

the origin of life or of Homo sapiens, are extremely difficult and

may even resist a final, satisfying explanation."118

By outlining the link chain as Australopithecus > Homo ha-

bilis > Homo erectus > Homo sapiens, evolutionists imply that

each of these species is one another's ancestor. However, recent

findings of paleoanthropologists have revealed that

Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus lived at dif-

ferent parts of the world at the same time.119

Moreover, a certain segment of humans classified as Homo

erectus have lived up until very modern times. Homo sapiens

neandarthalensis and Homo sapiens sapiens (present-day

man) co-existed in the same region.120

This situation apparently indicates the invalidity of the

claim that they are ancestors of one another. The late Stephen

Jay Gould explained this deadlock of the theory of evolution al-

though he was himself one of the leading advocates of evolu-

tion in the twentieth century:What has become of our ladder if there are three coexisting lin-

eages of hominids (A. africanus, the robust australopithecines,

and H. habilis), none clearly derived from another? Moreover,

none of the three display any evolutionary trends during their

tenure on earth.121

Put briefly, the scenario of human evolution, which is "up-

held" with the help of various drawings of some "half ape, half

human" creatures appearing in the media and course books,

that is, frankly, by means of propaganda, is nothing but a tale

with no scientific foundation.

Lord Solly Zuckerman, one of the most famous and respect-

ed scientists in the U.K., who carried out research on this

subject for years and studied Australopithecus


227


fossils for 15 years, finally concluded, despite being an evolu-

tionist himself, that there is, in fact, no such family tree

branching out from ape-like creatures to man.

Zuckerman also made an interesting "spectrum of science"

ranging from those he considered scientific to those he consid-

ered unscientific. According to Zuckerman's spectrum, the

most "scientific"—that is, depending on concrete data—fields

of science are chemistry and physics. After them come the bio-

logical sciences and then the social sciences. At the far end of

the spectrum, which is the part considered to be most "unsci-

entific," are "extra-sensory perception"—concepts such as

telepathy and sixth sense—and finally "human evolution."

Zuckerman explains his reasoning:We then move right off the register of objective truth into those

fields of presumed biological science, like extrasensory percep-

tion or the interpretation of man's fossil history, where to the

faithful [evolutionist] anything is possible – and where the ar-

dent believer [in evolution] is sometimes able to believe several

contradictory things at the same time.122

The tale of human evolution boils down to nothing but the

prejudiced interpretations of some fossils unearthed by certain

people, who blindly adhere to their theory.

Darwinian Formula!

Besides all the technical evidence we have dealt with so far,

let us now for once, examine what kind of a superstition the

evolutionists have with an example so simple as to be under-

stood even by children:The theory of evolution asserts that life is formed by chance.

According to this irrational claim, lifeless and uncon-

228

scious atoms came together to form the cell and then they some-

how formed other living things, including man. Let us think

about that. When we bring together the elements that are the

building-blocks of life such as carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen

and potassium, only a heap is formed. No matter what treat-

ments it undergoes, this atomic heap cannot form even a single

living being. If you like, let us formulate an "experiment" on this

subject and let us examine on the behalf of evolutionists what

they really claim without pronouncing loudly under the name

"Darwinian formula":

Let evolutionists put plenty of materials present in the com-

position of living things such as phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon,

oxygen, iron, and magnesium into big barrels. Moreover, let

them add in these barrels any material that does not exist un-

der normal conditions, but they think as necessary. Let them

add in this mixture as many amino acids and as many pro-

teins—a single one of which has a formation probability of 1 in

10950—as they like. Let them expose these mixtures to as much

heat and moisture as they like. Let them stir these with what-

ever technologically developed device they like. Let them put

the foremost scientists beside these barrels. Let these experts

wait in turn beside these barrels for billions, and even trillions

of years. Let them be free to use all kinds of conditions they be-

lieve to be necessary for a human's formation. No matter what

they do, they cannot produce from these barrels a human, say

a professor that examines his cell structure under the electron

microscope. They cannot produce giraffes, lions, bees, canaries,

horses, dolphins, roses, orchids, lilies, carnations, bananas, or-

anges, apples, dates, tomatoes, melons, watermelons, figs,

olives, grapes, peaches, peafowls, pheasants, multicolored

butterflies, or millions of other living beings such as


229


these. Indeed, they could not obtain even a single cell of any

one of them.

Briefly, unconscious atoms cannot form the cell by coming

together. They cannot take a new decision and divide this cell

into two, then take other decisions and create the professors

who first invent the electron microscope and then examine

their own cell structure under that microscope. Matter is an

unconscious, lifeless heap, and it comes to life with Allah's

superior creation.

The theory of evolution, which claims the opposite, is a total

fallacy completely contrary to reason. Thinking even a little bit

on the claims of evolutionists discloses this reality, just as in the

above example.

Technology in the Eye and the Ear

Another subject that remains unanswered by evolutionary

theory is the excellent quality of perception in the eye and the

ear.

Before passing on to the subject of the eye, let us briefly an-

swer the question of how we see. Light rays coming from an

object fall oppositely on the eye's retina. Here, these light rays

are transmitted into electric signals by cells and reach a tiny

spot at the back of the brain, the "center of vision." These elec-

tric signals are perceived in this center as an image after a se-

ries of processes. With this technical background, let us do

some thinking.

The brain is insulated from light. That means that its inside

is completely dark, and that no light reaches the place where

it is located. Thus, the "center of vision" is never

230

touched by light and may even be the darkest place you have

ever known. However, you observe a luminous, bright world

in this pitch darkness.

The image formed in the eye is so sharp and distinct that

even the technology of the twentieth century has not been

able to attain it. For instance, look at the book you are reading,

your hands with which you are holding it, and then lift your

head and look around you. Have you ever seen such a sharp

and distinct image as this one at any other place? Even the most

developed television screen produced by the greatest television

producer in the world cannot provide such a sharp image for

you. This is a three-dimensional, colored, and extremely sharp

image. For more than 100 years, thousands of engineers have

been trying to achieve this sharpness. Factories, huge premises

were established, much research has been done, plans and de-

signs have been made for this purpose. Again, look at a TV

screen and the book you hold in your hands. You will see that

there is a big difference in sharpness and distinction. Moreover,

the TV screen shows you a two-dimensional image, whereas

with your eyes, you watch a three-dimensional perspective

with depth.

For many years, tens of thousands of engineers have tried to

make a three-dimensional TV and achieve the vision quality of

the eye. Yes, they have made a three-dimensional television

system, but it is not possible to watch it without putting on spe-

cial 3-D glasses; moreover, it is only an artificial three-dimen-

sion. The background is more blurred, the foreground appears

like a paper setting. Never has it been possible to produce a

sharp and distinct vision like that of the eye. In both the cam-

era and the television, there is a loss of image quality.


231


Evolutionists claim that the mechanism producing this

sharp and distinct image has been formed by chance. Now, if

somebody told you that the television in your room was

formed as a result of chance, that all of its atoms just happened

to come together and make up this device that produces an im-

age, what would you think? How can atoms do what thou-

sands of people cannot?

If a device producing a more primitive image than the eye

could not have been formed by chance, then it is very evident

that the eye and the image seen by the eye could not have been

formed by chance. The same situation applies to the ear. The

outer ear picks up the available sounds by the auricle and di-

rects them to the middle ear, the middle ear transmits the

sound vibrations by intensifying them, and the inner ear sends

these vibrations to the brain by translating them into electric

signals. Just as with the eye, the act of hearing finalizes in the

center of hearing in the brain.

The situation in the eye is also true for the ear. That is, the

brain is insulated from sound just as it is from light. It does not

let any sound in. Therefore, no matter how noisy is the outside,

the inside of the brain is completely silent. Nevertheless, the

sharpest sounds are perceived in the brain. In your com-

pletely silent brain, you listen to symphonies, and

232

Compared to cam -

er as and sound re -

cord ing de vi ces, the

eye and ear are

much more com plex,

much more suc cess -

ful and pos sess far

su pe ri or fea tures to

these pro ducts of

high tech nol o gy.

hear all of the noises in a crowded place. However, were the

sound level in your brain measured by a precise device at that

moment, complete silence would be found to be prevailing

there.

As is the case with imagery, decades of effort have been

spent in trying to generate and reproduce sound that is faithful

to the original. The results of these efforts are sound recorders,

high-fidelity systems, and systems for sensing sound. Despite

all of this technology and the thousands of engineers and ex-

perts who have been working on this endeavor, no sound has

yet been obtained that has the same sharpness and clarity as the

sound perceived by the ear. Think of the highest-quality hi-fi

systems produced by the largest company in the music indus-

try. Even in these devices, when sound is recorded some of it is

lost; or when you turn on a hi-fi you always hear a hissing

sound before the music starts. However, the sounds that are the

products of the human body's technolo-

gy are extremely sharp and clear.

A human ear never perceives a

sound accompanied by a hiss-

ing sound or with atmospher-

ics as does a hi-fi; rather, it

perceives sound exactly as

it is, sharp and clear. This is

the way it has been since

the creation of man.

So far, no man-made visu-

al or recording apparatus has

been as sensitive and successful

in perceiving sensory data as


233


234

are the eye and the ear. However, as far as seeing and hearing

are concerned, a far greater truth lies beyond all this.

To Whom Does the Consciousness that

Sees and Hears within the Brain Belong?

Who watches an alluring world in the brain, listens to sym-

phonies and the twittering of birds, and smells the rose?

The stimulations coming from a person's eyes, ears, and

nose travel to the brain as electro-chemical nerve impulses. In

biology, physiology, and biochemistry books, you can find

many details about how this image forms in the brain.

However, you will never come across the most important fact:

Who perceives these electro-chemical nerve impulses as im-

ages, sounds, odors, and sensory events in the brain? There is

a consciousness in the brain that perceives all this without

feeling any need for an eye, an ear, and a nose. To whom does

this consciousness belong? Of course it does not belong to the

nerves, the fat layer, and neurons comprising the brain. This is

why Darwinist-materialists, who believe that everything is

comprised of matter, cannot answer these questions.

For this consciousness is the spirit created by Allah, which

needs neither the eye to watch the images nor the ear to hear

the sounds. Furthermore, it does not need the brain to think.

Everyone who reads this explicit and scientific fact should

ponder on Almighty Allah, and fear and seek refuge in Him,

for He squeezes the entire universe in a pitch-dark place of a

few cubic centimeters in a three-dimensional, colored, shad-

owy, and luminous form.

A Materialist Faith

The information we have presented so far shows us that the

theory of evolution is incompatible with scientific findings.

The theory's claim regarding the origin of life is inconsistent

with science, the evolutionary mechanisms it proposes have no

evolutionary power, and fossils demonstrate that the required

intermediate forms have never existed. So, it certainly follows

that the theory of evolution should be pushed aside as an un-

scientific idea. This is how many ideas, such as the Earth-cen-

tered universe model, have been taken out of the agenda of sci-

ence throughout history.

However, the theory of evolution is kept on the agenda of

science. Some people even try to represent criticisms directed

against it as an "attack on science." Why?

The reason is that this theory is an indispensable dogmatic

belief for some circles. These circles are blindly devoted to ma-

terialist philosophy and adopt Darwinism because it is the on-

ly materialist explanation that can be put forward to explain

the workings of nature.

Interestingly enough, they also confess this fact from time to

time. A well-known geneticist and an outspoken evolutionist,

Richard C. Lewontin from Harvard University, confesses that

he is "first and foremost a materialist and then a scientist":It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow

compel us accept a material explanation of the phenomenal

world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori

adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investi-

gation and a set of concepts that produce material explana-

tions, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mysti-


235


fying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute,

so we cannot allow a Divine [intervention]...123

These are explicit statements that Darwinism is a dogma

kept alive just for the sake of adherence to materialism. This

dogma maintains that there is no being save matter. Therefore,

it argues that inanimate, unconscious matter brought life into

being. It insists that millions of different living species (e.g.,

birds, fish, giraffes, tigers, insects, trees, flowers, whales, and

human beings) originated as a result of the interactions be-

tween matter such as pouring rain, lightning flashes, and so on,

out of inanimate matter. This is a precept contrary both to rea-

son and science. Yet Darwinists continue to ignorantly defend

it just so as not to acknowledge, in their own eyes, the evident

existence of Allah.

Anyone who does not look at the origin of living beings with

a materialist prejudice sees this evident truth: All living beings

are works of a Creator, Who is All-Powerful, All-Wise, and All-

Knowing. This Creator is Allah, Who created the whole uni-

verse from non-existence, in the most perfect form, and fash-

ioned all living beings.

The Theory of Evolution: The Most Potent

Spell in the World

Anyone free of prejudice and the influence of any particular

ideology, who uses only his or her reason and logic, will clear-

ly understand that belief in the theory of evolution, which

brings to mind the superstitions of societies with no knowledge

of science or civilization, is quite impossible.

As explained above, those who believe in the theo-

236

ry of evolution think that a few atoms and molecules thrown

into a huge vat could produce thinking, reasoning professors

and university students; such scientists as Einstein and Galileo;

such artists as Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Luciano

Pavarotti; as well as antelopes, lemon trees, and carnations.

Moreover, as the scientists and professors who believe in this

nonsense are educated people, it is quite justifiable to speak of

this theory as "the most potent spell in history." Never before

has any other belief or idea so taken away peoples' powers of

reason, refused to allow them to think intelligently and logical-

ly, and hidden the truth from them as if they had been blind-

folded. This is an even worse and unbelievable blindness than

the totem worship in some parts of Africa, the people of Saba

worshipping the Sun, the tribe of the Prophet Abraham (as)

worshipping idols they had made with their own hands, or

some among the people of the Prophet Moses (as) worshipping

the Golden Calf.

In fact, Allah has pointed to this lack of reason in the Qur'an.

In many verses, He reveals that some peoples' minds will be

closed and that they will be powerless to see the truth. Some of

these verses are as follows:As for those who do not believe, it makes no difference

to them whether you warn them or do not warn them,

they will not believe. Allah has sealed up their hearts and

hearing and over their eyes is a blindfold. They will have

a terrible punishment. (Surat al-Baqara, 6-7)

… They have hearts with which they do not understand.

They have eyes with which they do not see. They have

ears with which they do not hear. Such people are like

cattle. No, they are even further astray! They are the un-

aware. (Surat al-A‘raf, 179)


237


Even if We opened up to them a door into heaven, and

they spent the day ascending through it, they would on-

ly say: "Our eyesight is befuddled! Or rather we have

been put under a spell!" (Surat al-Hijr, 14-15)

Words cannot express just how astonishing it is that this

spell should hold such a wide community in thrall, keep peo-

ple from the truth, and not be broken for 150 years. It is under-

standable that one or a few people might believe in impossible

scenarios and claims full of stupidity and illogicality. However,

"magic" is the only possible explanation for people from all

over the world believing that unconscious and lifeless atoms

suddenly decided to come together and form a universe that

functions with a flawless system of organization, discipline,

reason, and consciousness; a planet named Earth with all of its

features so perfectly suited to life; and living things full of

countless complex systems.

In fact, the Qur'an relates the incident of the Prophet Moses

(as) and Pharaoh to show that some people who support atheis-

tic philosophies actually influence others by magic. When

Pharaoh was told about the true religion, he told the Prophet

Moses (as) to meet with his own magicians. When the Prophet

Moses (as) did so, he told them to demonstrate their abilities

first. The verses continue:He said: "You throw." And when they threw, they cast a

spell on the people's eyes and caused them to feel great

fear of them. They produced an extremely powerful mag-

ic. (Surat al-A‘raf, 116)

As we have seen, Pharaoh's magicians were able to deceive

everyone, apart from the Prophet Moses (as) and those who be-

lieved in him. However, his evidence broke the spell, or

"swallowed up what they had forged," as revealed in

238

the verse:We revealed to Moses: "Throw down your staff." And it

immediately swallowed up what they had forged. So the

Truth took place and what they did was shown to be

false. (Surat al-A‘raf, 117-118)

As we can see, when people realized that a spell had been

cast upon them and that what they saw was just an illusion,

Pharaoh's magicians lost all credibility. In the present day too,

unless those who, under the influence of a similar spell, believe

in these ridiculous claims under their scientific disguise and

spend their lives defending them, abandon their superstitious

beliefs, they also will be humiliated when the full truth emerges

and the spell is broken. In fact, world-renowned British writer

and philosopher Malcolm Muggeridge, who was an atheist de-

fending evolution for some 60 years, but who subsequently re-

alized the truth, reveals the position in which the theory of evo-

lution would find itself in the near future in these terms:I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially

the extent to which it's been applied , will be one of the great

jokes in the history books in the future. Posterity will mar-

vel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be ac-

cepted with the incredible credulity that it has.124

That future is not far off: On the contrary, people will soon

see that "chance" is not a deity, and will look back on the theo-

ry of evolution as the worst deceit and the most terrible spell

in the world. That spell is already rapidly beginning to be lift-

ed from the shoulders of people all over the world. Many peo-

ple who see its true face are wondering with amazement how

they could ever have been taken in by it.


239


240


241

1. Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 9, book 87, had ithno. 111

2. Sahih Al-Bukhari3. Al-Bukhari4. Al-Bukhari and al-Tirmidhi5. At-Tabarani6. Abu Nu'aym7. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Risale-i NurCollection, "The Letters: The Twenty-sixthLetter, The First Topic," www.ri sale-in -ur.com.tr/rnk/eng/words/15th_word.htm.8. "Mu'allaqat," www.bri tan ni -ca.com/eb/ar ti cle-9054111.9. Ahmet Cevdet Paşa, Muallim Mahir iz,Peygamber Efendimiz (sav) (Our Prophet[saas]) (Hediye Kitaplar), 55-56.10. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Risale-i NurCollection, "The Letters: The NineteenthLetter, Eighteenth Sign, Second Remark,"www.ri sale-in ur.com.tr/rnk/eng/let -ters/19let ter.html11. As-Suyuti, Tahdhib al-Khasa'is al-Nabawiyyah al-Kubra (The AwesomeCharacteristics of the Prophet [saas](Istanbul: Iz Publications, 2003), p.286. 12. Al-Tirmidhi, Shama'il al-Tirmidhi, tr.Muhammad Bin Abdur RahmanEbrahim (New Delhi: 2000), 12-1313. As-Suyuti, Tahdhib al-Khasa'is, 237.14.As-SuyutiTahdhib al-Khasa'is al-Nabawiyyah al-Kubra (The AwesomeCharacteristics of the Prophet [saas](Istanbul: Iz Publications, 2003), p.23815. Ibid., p. 237 16. Imam al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum-ud-din(Revival of the Sciences of the Deen), tr.Sitki Gulle (Istanbul: Huzur Publishings,1998), 795-96.17. Imam al-Ghazali, Ihya', tr. FazlulKarim, 2:252.18. Tafsir of Jalalayn, tr. Ibrahim Serdar[Istanbul: Yusuf Sensoy Fatih EnesPublishings, 1997], vol. 3, p.1432-1433

19. Afzalur Rahman, Encyclopaedia ofSeerah: Muhammad (saas) (Istanbul:

Inkilap Publishing, 1996), 162.

20. Imam Sa'id Hawa, Al-Asas fi al-Tafsir (The Basics of Qur'anicCommentary) (Istanbul: Samil Yayinevi,1991), 332.21. Omer Nasuhi Bilmen, Ku'ran-iKerim'in Turkçe Meali (Tafsir of theQur'an) (Istanbul: Bilmen Basim veYayinevi), 2:1101-02.22. Imam Ahmad, Musnad23. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir of Qur'an withHadiths (Istanbul: Cagri Publications,1996), 9:4623.24. Ibid., 4615.25. Ilyas Celebi, Itikadi Açıdan Uzak veYakın Gelecekle İlgili Haberler, Kitabevi,Istanbul, March 1996, 16126. Muslim27. Muslim28. Al-Bukhari29. Muslim30. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Risale-i NurCollection, "The Letters: The NineteenthLetter, Seventeenth Sign," www.ri sale-in -ur.com.tr/rnk/eng/let ters/19let ter.html.31. Ibid.32. Al-Bukhari and Muslim33. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 2, book 17, no. 126and Sahih Muslim34. Malik, Al-Muwatta', book 13, no.13.1.235. Al-Bukhari and Muslim36. As-Suyuti, Tahdhib al-Khasa'is, 84737. Ibn Kathir, The Virtues and NobleCharacter of the Prophet Muhammad (saas)(Istanbul: Celik Yayinevi, 1982), 325.38. Ibid., 316 and 327.39. Al-Bukhari and Muslim40. Al-Suyuti, Tahdhib al-Khasa'is, 851.41. Ibid., 854.42. Ibid., 856.43. Al-Serah Al-Nabaweyyah, Ibn Hesham,vol. 1, pp. 293-294.44. Encyclopedia of Seerah: Muhammad(saas), 3:104.45. Al-Suyuti, Tahdhib al-Khasa'is, 316.46. Al-Bukhari47. Shaykha Anne Khadeijah

Notes


242

Darwish and Shaykh AhmadDarwish, The Millennium Biography of

Muhammad (saas) The Prophet of Allah,www.Allah.com.48. Bilmen, Turkish Translation of theQur'an, 3:1270.49. Tafsir Ibn Kathir, abridged by SheikhMuhammad Nasib Ar-Rafa'i (London:Al-Firdous Ltd., 2002), 145-46; had ithfrom Musnad Ahmad, Sahih al-Bukhari:3653 and Sahih Muslim: 2381.50. Tafsir of Jalalayn, tr. Ibrahim Serdar[Istanbul: Yusuf Sensoy Fatih EnesPublishings, 1997], 2:670.51. Bilmen, Turkish Translation of theQur'an, 1:451.52. Sabuni, Safvetut Tefasir (Safawat al-Tafasir) [Ensar Nesriyat], 2:404.53. (Sahih Muslim: 523; Ibn Kathir, TafsirIbn Kathir, 115.)54. Said Havva, Al-Asas fi al-Tafsir[Istanbul: Samil Yayinevi, 1991], 2:44455. Tafsir al-Jalalayn, 1:18756. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 125-26.57. Muhammad Ali al-Sabuni, Tafsir al-Sabuni [Istanbul: Ensar Nesriyat, 1992],2:427. 58. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 10:40-4159. "Heraclius," http://en.wik i pe -dia.org/wiki/Heraclius.60. Warren Treadgold, A History of theByzantine State and Society (USA: StanfordUniversity Press, 1997), 287-99.61. "Heraclius 610-641," http://fstav.free -serv ers.com/em per ors/her a cli us.html.62. Treadgold, A History, 287-99.63. http://web.ge nie.it/uten ti/i/in an -na/live llo2-i/med i ter ra neo-1-i.htm;http://im pearls.blogs -pot.com/2003_12_07_im pearls_ar -chive.html; and http://en.wik i pe -dia.org/wiki/Heraclius.64. Dead Sea," World Book Encyclopedia,2003. Contributor: Bernard Reich, Ph.D.,Professor of Political Science and

International Affairs, GeorgeWashington University.

65. Al-Bukhari

66. Tafsir al-Jalalayn (Istanbul: FaithEnes Publishing, 1997), 3:1843.67. The "peo ple of knowl edge" say thatthe qir at is a sub di vi sion of a di nar or adir ham.68. Muslim69. "The Arab Conquest of Egypt,"www.na tion mas ter.com/en cy clo pe -dia/History-of-ear ly-Arab-Egypt. 70. Muslim71. "Chosroes II, Siroes, and ProphetMuhammad (628 CE)," www.cy ber is -tan.org/is lam ic/cho sroes.html.72. Tafsir of Imam al-Tabari73. Al-Tabari74. Al-Tabari75. Al-Tabari76. Salih Suruc, Kainatin EfendisiPeygamberimizin Hayatı (The Life of theProphet [saas]) (Istanbul: Yeni AsyaPublications, 1998), 225.77. "Chosroes II, Siroes, and ProphetMuhammad (628 CE)," www.cy ber is -tan.org/is lam ic/cho sroes.html.78. Suruc, Kainatın EfendisiPeygamberimizin Hayatı, 22579. As-Suyuti, Tahdhib al-Khasa'is, 696-700.80. Ibid., 688-89.81. Ibid., 689-91.82. Ibn al-Harith; Ibn Hajar al-'As qal ani, al-Matalib al-Aliyah 83. A good sound had ith nar rat ed in thetwo Musnads of the Imams Ahmad ibnHanbal and ad-Darimi.84. Ibid., 690.85. As-Suyuti, Tahdhib al-Khasa'is, 1115.86. Al-Bukhari87. Al-Tabari, Ahmad, Ibn Sa'd, al-Baghawi,and Ibn Mandah88. Ibid., 1120.89. Ibn Hanbal and al-Bayhaqi 90. Ibid., 1120.91. Ibid., 1121.92. Al-Bukhari93. Narrated from Anas by Ibn 'As a kirin Tarikh Dimashq94. Zayd ibn Arqam nar rat ed it,


243

and it is trans mit ted by at-Tabarani inal-Awsat, al-Bayhaqi in Dala'il al-

Nubuwwah, and al-Dhahabi in the Siyar95. Zayd ibn Thabit nar rat ed it, and it istrans mit ted by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir, 5:15996. Ahmad in his Musnad, al-Nasa'i in as-Sunan al-Kubra, Abu Nu'aym's Dala'il an-Nubuwwah, and al-Hakim97. At-Tabarani in al-Kabir and al Aw sat98. Al-Hakim, 3:139=1990 ed 3:155 99. Narrated from Umm Salamah by IbnAbi 'As im in Al-Ahad wa al-Mathani, al-Tabarani in al-Kabir, and al-Hakim100. Narrated from Suhaym, from Anasibn Malik by Abu Nu`aym in the Dala'iland al-Baghawi and Ibn as-Sakan in theirCompanion com pen di ums. Cf. Ibn Hajar,Isabah; al-Bukhari, Al-Tarikh al-Kabir; Al-Isti'ab; Al-Khasa'is al-Kubra101. Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-RasulBarzanji, Al-Isha'ah li Ashrat al-Sa'ah, 166.102. Ibid., 179. 103. Al-Tirmidhi104. Sidney Fox, Klaus Dose, MolecularEvolution and The Origin of Life, W. H.Freeman and Company, San Francisco,1972, p. 4.105. Alexander I. Oparin, Origin of Life,Dover Publications, NewYork, 1936, 1953(reprint), p. 196.106. "New Evidence on Evolution of EarlyAtmosphere and Life," Bulletin of theAmerican Meteorological Society, vol 63,November 1982, 1328-1330. 107. Stanley Miller, Molecular Evolution ofLife: Current Status of the Prebiotic Synthesisof Small Molecules, 1986, p. 7.108. Jeffrey Bada, Earth, February 1998, p.40.109. Leslie E. Orgel, "The Origin of Life onEarth," Scientific American, vol. 271,October 1994, p. 78.110. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Speciesby Means of Natural Selection, The Modern

Library, New York, p. 127.111. Charles Darwin, The Origin of

Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition,Harvard University Press, 1964,

p. 184.112. B. G. Ranganathan, Origins?,Pennsylvania: The Banner of TruthTrust, 1988, p. 7.113. Charles Darwin, The Origin ofSpecies: A Facsimile of the First Edition, p.179.114. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species,p. 172.115. Derek A. Ager, "The Nature of theFossil Record," Proceedings of the BritishGeological Association, vol 87, 1976, p. 133.116. Douglas J. Futuyma, Science on Trial,Pantheon Books, New York, 1983, p. 197.117. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The IvoryTower, Toplinger Publications, New York,1970, 75-14; Charles E. Oxnard, "The Placeof Australopithecines in HumanEvolution: Grounds for Doubt", Nature,vol 258, 389.118. "Could science be brought to an endby scientists' belief that they have finalanswers or by society's reluctance to paythe bills?" Scientific American, December1992, p. 20.119. Alan Walker, Science, vol. 207, 7March 1980, p. 1103; A. J. Kelso, PhysicalAntropology, 1st ed., J. B. Lipincott Co.,New York, 1970, p. 221; M. D. Leakey,Olduvai Gorge, vol. 3, CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge, 1971, p. 272.120. Jeffrey Kluger, "Not So Extinct AfterAll: The Primitive Homo Erectus MayHave Survived Long Enough To CoexistWith Modern Humans," Time, 23December 1996.121. S. J. Gould, Natural History, vol. 85,1976, p. 30.122. Solly Zuckerman, Beyond The IvoryTower, p. 19.123. Richard Lewontin, "The Demon-Haunted World," The New York Review ofBooks, January 9, 1997, p. 28.124. Malcolm Muggeridge, The End ofChristendom, Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1980, p. 43.

the miracles of our prophet (saas)

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