It is written in the third chapter of the
second section of the book Ghadâ-ul-mulâhazât, which was written
by a priest: “This chapter covers the explanation of the curious fact that
Muhammad’s religion appeared amongst the heathens of Arabia instead of rising
in the horizon of Christianity as Christianity had spread among the Israelites.
All the worlds are the property of Allâhu ta’âlâ, and we do not doubt that He
can dispense of His property as He wills. All His divine deeds come about through
some causes full of divine wisdom. As a requirement of His divine wisdom, He
first sent down the canon of Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ as a preparation for the
spiritual and complementary religion of hadrat Mesîh (the Messiah). It takes a
little reflection to realize how compatible it is with divine wisdom that Műsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ appeared at the expected place and time and established his
church, i.e. his community, on fundamentals capable of this (preparatory role).
By the same token, if abrogation of Christianity had been the will of Allâhu
ta’âlâ, the tree of perfection to be planted in its place should have emerged
from the root of Christianity, that is, at a place geared to yield a new
religion, which is the involuntary conclusion both from the syllogistic point
of view and as a requirement of the natural course of events. But the person
who established Islam was not born in a Christian country, nor did he arise
from the Israelites. On the contrary, as is shown clearly in historical
documents, he emerged from among the nescient Arabs, who had filled
Kâ’ba-i-mu’azzama with nearly three hundred idols. It is a fact, especially
known by people cognizant of the Arabic history, that when Hadrat Muhammad
‘alaihis-salâtu was-salâm’ declared his prophethood and began to publicize his religion the Meccans were not
disposed to accept the so-called religion. They opposed his prophethood, objected to his teachings, and
continuously insulted him, so much so that had it not been for the powerful
support of Abű Tâlib and his dynasty and his personal talents, which were
reinforced by the consequent tribal rivalry and zeal which he
adroitly exploited to attain his goal, the so-called religion would have been
impaired by the aggression of its adversaries, thus perishing in its budding
period yet. The using of so many material agencies and worldly means at liberty
for the promotion of the new so-called religion, i.e. Islam, is a vigorous
proof of the fact that Islamic religion is not so spiritual as the Christian
religion and that Arabia was not ready for its emerging yet. If Islam had been
a spiritual religion and Arabia had been ready to receive it, it would have
spread quietly and peacefully without recourse to worldly media, like the
spreading of Christianity.
Since it would have been possible to send the
most perfect and the highest religion at once for the spiritual guidance of the
pagans and the ignorant, why didn’t Allâhu ta’âlâ the most compassionate of the
merciful send Islam instead of Christianity six hundred years before or instead
of Judaism two thousand years before that; why didn’t He send Islam before
them? What was the reason for such a long postponement? Muslims can infer from
this proof of ours whether their religion is a true one sent by Allâhu ta’âlâ.”
In summary, this writing of Ghadâ-ul-mulâhazât
contains three claims:
First: The reason for the virtue and
superiority of Christianity, the religion of Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’, is that it
emerged among the Israelites, who had had religious education before and were
ready to embrace it, versus Islam, the religion of Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ
alaihi wasallam’, which emerged among pagans who had not had any religious
education and were not ready to receive it.
Second: While Christianity spread mildly in
peace, Islam’s spreading was through violence, force and worldly means.
Third: It is possible for Allâhu ta’âlâ to
send a Prophet and He is the most
merciful of the merciful; so it would have been incompatible with His justice
not to send a religion superior to the others, i.e. Islam, before the others.
THEIR FIRST
CLAIM: “Îsâ’s
‘alaihis-salâm emerging from a tribe with previous religious education, and
Muhammad’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ emerging in a tribe without previous religious
education.”
ANSWER:
These assertions of theirs are
answerable in various ways.
The sons of Israel
were fit to receive the heavenly rules taught
by Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’, and they had had the experience of obeying
canonical rules before. And yet eighty-two people believed and followed Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’
throughout his life. On the other hand, Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ called the
heathen Arabs, who had not had any canonical or religious education and
therefore were not inclined to accept any religion, to a new religion, i.e.
Islam, which was entirely contrary to the religion of their fathers and
grandfathers and ran counter to their sensuous desires and flavours. From the
time when Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ alaihi wasallam’ declared his prophethood to his death, more than a hundred and twenty-four
thousand sahâbas accepted his invitation and became Muslims willingly. We refer
it to the wisdom of our readers to decide whether superiority belongs to
Christinatiy or Islam. It is true that Abű Tâlib did his best to protect and
guard our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’. But this protection and assistance of his did not contribute
considerably or as much as it is believed to have done to the spreading and
promotion of Islam. This protection of his was not because he believed in our Prophet’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ religion. It
was because he was his relation and lest he would be killed or tormented. For
Abű Tâlib was one of the unbelievers. At that time some of the Ashâb-i-kirâm
‘alaihimur-ridwân’ could not endure the polytheists’ persecution and migrated
to Abyssinia. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ and the Ashâb-i-kirâm remained confined in Mekka for three years,
being prohibited from all sorts of correspondence. Allâhu ta’âlâ commanded our Prophet twice to call his kith and kin together and
to invite them to Islam. The two hundred and fourteenth âyat (verse) of the
Shu’arâ sűra (chapter) purports: “Warn your close relations of the torment of Allâhu ta’âlâ.” To carry out the command of this âyat-i-kerîmâ, Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wasallam’ invited his relations to become Muslims. [When Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ convened his relations he stated: “Believe and obey Allâhu ta’âlâ and save
yourselves from His torment. Or else your being my relations will do you no
good.”] None of them believed. In fact, his paternal
uncle Abű Lahab and Abű Lahab’s wife the wood-carrier went so far in their
harassing and tormenting Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ that they and
some notables of the Qoureish went to Abű Tâlib to complain about him; they
requested him to give up protecting Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’.
Upon this Abű Tâlib called Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ and advised
him to
give up the business of inviting people to the Islamic religion.
It is an established fact testified with this proof and hundreds of other
similar proofs that Abű Tâlib’s protection, [contrary to the assertion of the
protestant priest], did not cause Islam’s acceptance by the Qoureish tribe.
Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ arose in a tribe not
liable to believe him and was sent as a Prophet to them, whereas Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ had emerged among the
Israelites, who had been expecting a Prophet. Like the other Prophets
‘alaihimus-salâm’, Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ suffered many troubles and afflictions
caused by the Jews. But the enemies of Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’
perished when that Serwer (Rasűlullah) was alive yet, and the blessed Prophet left this transient world and honoured the
eternal hereafter with his presence as he was in his bed in Âisha’s
‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ anhâ’ home in Medina-i-munawwara.
It is written in the four Gospels existing today that when Îsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ was caught, members of a tribe who had had religious education
and were ready to receive the new religion, i.e. Peter and the other apostles,
were so thoroughly preoccupied in their own troubles that they immediately
decamped, leaving Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’, and that the same night Peter, who was
the closest Apostle of Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’, swore and denied to know Îsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ with curses before the predicted rooster crow.
Abű Bekr as-Siddîq ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ was one
of the Ashâb-i-kirâm ‘alaihimur-ridwân’ who were living in pagan tribes not
ready to accept a religion [and without any previous religious education] but
accepted Islam and were honoured with the blessed suhba of Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’. During the hijra he accompanied Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ in the cave. [Lest Rasűlullah should get hurt, he
tore his waistcoat and plugged the snake nests with the pieces. There was no
piece left for the last hole, so he closed it with his foot. The snake bit his
foot. He neither pulled his foot back nor made the slightest murmur. When a
tear coming out of his eyes dropped on Rasűlullah’s blessed face, Rasűlullah
woke up, and put his blessed spittle on Abű Bakr’s ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ foot. The
wound healed as a mu’jiza.] He dispensed all his property for Islam. Later, he
fought against the apostate Arabs and brought them to Islam.
’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’, the first day he
became a Muslim, placed himself in front of the Ashâb-i-kirâm and fearlessly
announced his becoming a Muslim despite the persecutions and oppressions of the
Meccan polytheists. There were great
conquests throughout the period of his caliphate. Islam spread far
and wide. And in justice no other commander, no other evenhanded person
equalled him. These facts are written in history books.
And Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ sacrificed himself
for our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ by lying in his bed on the night of his hijra. In a number of combats
he acted up to his given nickname, (the Lion of Allah).
As for ’Uthmân-i-zin-nűreyn ‘radiy-Allâhu
anh’; he was one of the richest Meccans. All the property he had he spent for
the reinforcement of Islam. [We shall mention only the amount he gave in the
Ghazzâ (Holy War) of Tabuk here: Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ encouraged the Ashâb-i-kirâm to
donate for the Holy War of Tabuk in the mosque. ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’
stood up and said: “O Rasűlallah! I undertake to donate a hundred camels
together with their back-cloths and pack-saddles.” Rasűlullah went on with his
encouragement. ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ stood up again and said: “O
Rasűlallah! I undertake to give another hundred camels together with their
back-cloths and pack-saddles.” Rasűlullah said as he alighted from the mimbar
(pulpit in a mosque): “Uthmân shall not be called to account for what he will do from now
on.” As he went on encouraging the Ashâb-i-kirâm,
’Uthmân “radiy-Allâhu anh’ said: “O Rasűlallah! I undertake to give another
hundred camels together with their back-cloths and pack-saddles for the sake of
Allah.” Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ declared: “There is the Paradise for the person who has equipped the army of
Tabuk!” Upon this ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ brought
a thousand golds and poured them on Rasűlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’
lap. Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ invoked: “O my Allah! I am pleased with ’Uthmân.
May you be pleased with him too!” ’Uthmân
‘radiy-Allâhu anh” equipped half of the army of Tabuk (Sunan-i-Dârakutnî:
4-198).[1] ’Uthmân-i-zin-nűreyn “radiy-Allâhu anh’ donated nine hundred and
fifty camels and fifty horses together with their harnesses to this army,
provided their cavalry accoutrements, and in addition sent them a thousand
dinârs or seven rukyas of golds. All the other Ashâb-i-kirâm Guzîn
‘radiy-Allâhu anhum ajma’în’ never hesitated to sacrifice their lives and
property upon each commandment of our Master Rasűlullah. Islam’s superiority
over Christianity, and the
---------------------------------
[1] Alî Dâra
Kutnî passed away in Baghdad in 385 [A.D. 995].
difference between the believers of these two religions and
between the people who saw these two Prophets, is as visible as the sun.
As for our Prophet’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ arising from amongst the Arabs,
who were the descendants of Ismâ’îl (Eshmael) ‘alaihis-salâm’, instead of
emerging among the Israelites; there is many a use, virtue and superiority in
this fact.
First: Allâhu ta’âlâ sent an angel to hadrat
Hâjar (Hagar) and gave her the good news: “O Hâjar, I have brought you the good
news from Allâhu ta’âlâ that your son Ismâ’îl shall own a great ummat and your
offspring shall be superior to that of Sâra (Sarah).” It was this promise of
Allâhu ta’âlâ that manifested itself on Muhammad Mustafâ ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’, who was a descendant of Ismâ’îl ‘alaihis-salâm’. Allâhu ta’âlâ,
while nominating many of the descendants of hadrat Sâra as Prophets, sent only Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ out of the offspring of Ismâ’îl ‘alaihis-salâm’, thus fulfilling His
promise. Doesn’t this signfiy the virtue and superiority of our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’? The priest who
is the author of Mîzân-ul-haqq distorts this good news by
interpreting it that “the gist of this (promise) was giving Hagar the good news
concerning the [heathen] rich Arabs.” If a zealous and pious Christian is told:
“Your offspring will be rich men, but they will be magians and idolaters,” will
he be pleased with this news, will he be happy? [Of course not. He will be
sorry.] Likewise, it would mean that Allâhu ta’âlâ gave hadrat Hâjar the news
that she would have polytheistic descendants instead of consoling her (May
Allâhu ta’âlâ protect us from such belief).
Furthermore, the passage about the good news
does not contain the phrase (rich Arabs). But it expresses that the descendants
of Ismâ’îl ‘alaihis-salâm’ shall be a great ummat and they shall be dominant
over the Israelites. It is quite obvious that before the rising of Islam there
was no event on the part of the Arabs significant enough to overpower the
Israelites and that the real crunch came with Islam.
Second: The Israelite Prophets had been learning and teaching the rules in
the Torah (Pentateuch) and Zabűr (the holy book revealed to Hadrat Dâwűd) until
the advent of Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’. If Muhammad ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’
had been of the Israelite descent, there is no doubt he would have been
slandered as having learned the Qur’ân al-kerîm and all the heavenly teachings from the Israelite scholars. Our
master Rasűlullah, who
is the highest of Prophets, always
lived in his tribe, never went away even for a short while, never learned even
a letter from anyone, never held a pen in his blessed hand, and there were no
Jews or Christians in the blessed city of Mekka. Despite this fact, in Mîzân-ul-haqq and other books of theirs, priests profess that our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ learned from a
monk named Bahîrâ or from some notable Christians when he honoured Damascus
with his blessed presence for trade. In actual fact, our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ was twelve
years old when he went to Damascus with his paternal uncle Abű Tâlib. All books
of Siyer (biographies of our Prophet) report this
fact unanimously. And his conversation with the monk Bahîrâ took only a few
hours, Bahîrâ, after looking at our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ carefully, realized that he was the
would be Prophet of the latest time.
Then he said to Abű Tâlib: “If the notables of Christians and Jews sense that
this child is the Messenger of Allah, they may attempt to kill him.” Upon this
warning of the monk’s, Abű Tâlib took his advice, sold his merchandise in Busrâ
and in its neighborhood, and returned to Mekka-i-mukarrama. As for the monk who
is said to have taught to our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wasallam’; wouldn’t he just as soon announce his own prophethood instead of teaching so much knowledge to
our Prophet? Moreover, from what rich source had
the so-called teacher Bahîrâ acquired all this endless lot of knowledge which
emerged in our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’? For the knowledge that Allâhu ta’âlâ communicated to Rasűlullah
‘sall-allâhu alaihi wasallam’ did not only cover the Bible and the Torah but
also contained numerous pieces of information that did not exist in them.
Consisting of more than six thousand âyats (verses), the Qur’ân al-kerîm covers many rules and ma’rifat
(spiritual information). Moreover, the pieces of information and ma’rifat
uttered through Rasűlullah’s blessed language; i.e. seven hundred thousand hadîth-i-sherîfs concerning sunnat, wâjib, mustahab,
mendűb, nahy, mekrűh, and other narratives are recorded, narrated and published
by the ’ulamâ of hadîth. Imâm-i-Nesâî[1] ‘rahmatullâhi
aleyh’ confirms this: “I had compiled seven hundred and fifty thousand hadîth-i
sherîfs. But fifty thousand of them were from unsound sources, so I left them
out, and recorded seven hundred thousand of them.” As for the existing copies
of the Pentateuch and the Bible, which are the
---------------------------------
[1] Nesâi
Ahmad passed away in Ramleh in 303 [A.D. 915].
-103-
word of Allah according to Jews and Christians; if you leave aside
the episodes and bring together all the verses concerning the commandments,
prohibitions and other religious precepts, the number will not reach seven
hundred all in all. We shall explain this fact in detail in the chapter about Qur’ân al-kerîm and Today’s Gospels. We wonder what kind
of knowledge Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ learned, and from which of the Christian
monks? Is it possible to make an ocean from a small pool? This signifies the
following fact: this slander is brought against Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ despite the fact that there were no monks in his tribe; the kinds of
slanders that would have been brought against him had he been sent among the
Israelites are beyond imagination. It is for this reason that Allâhu ta’âlâ,
who is wâjib-ul-wujűd, protected His most beloved one by not sending him among
the Sons of Israel.
Third: A retrospection into the history of
today’s existing peoples and a meticulous observation of their traditions,
customs and deeds will show that the Arabs, even when they were nomadic
Bedouins, had superior and high qualities and habits such as patriotism,
nationalism, hospitality, charity, bravery, heroism, cleanliness, nobility of
pedigree; generosity, goodness, modesty, and love of freedom. Is there another
race to equal the Arabs in these qualities and in such merits as intelligence,
eloquence and rhetoric? It is written throughout the Torah what a bad character
the Israelites have. It is a plain fact that they are the worst race. Which of
these cases would be better for our master the Fakhr-i-kâinat ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wasallam’; to come from the most virtuous, the highest of races, or from
the Israelites [Jews]? The Israelites attained the blessings of Allâhu ta’âlâ
and were superior to other nations as long as they obeyed their Prophets and acted upon the canonical laws of Műsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’. But later, when they betrayed their Prophets ‘alaihimus-salâm’ and killed most of them,
they were degraded and became the most ignoble, the basest people. This fact is
known by Christians as well. On account of Îsâ’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ malediction,
they shall lead a detestable, abhorrent and base way of life and are doomed to
an everlasting life of disgrace. Now, what an astonishingly contradictory
objection it would be to say, “If Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ were the highest of Prophets, he would have descended from these
Israelites who shall never be rescued from this state of ignominy and
contemptibility.” The second âyat (verse) of Hashr sűra purports: “O you owners of
reason! Learn what you do not know by
inference from what you have been taught.”
Fourth: Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ was sent as the Prophet among the Israelites through various
miracles, and some of his blessed statements comprised the figurative elements
of his time’s current language; so the priests that came some time later, being
unable to interpret his symbolic expressions, established a system of creed
called Trinity, that is, believing in three gods, which could never be accepted
by anyone with common sense and which had existed in the ancient Indian cults
and in Plato’s philosophy. On the other hand, those kinds of our master
Rasűlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ teachings that are called
mutashâbihât (symbolic, parabolical, ambiguous teachings), which include
âyat-i-kerîmas, hadîth-i-sherîfs and other
teachings, are explained at length in books of tafsîr and hadîth, which report
also that such teachings contain countless other ultimate and subtle divine
denotations, connotations, nuances, and inner essential meanings. [Mutashâbihât
are those âyat-i-kerîmas and hadîth-i-sherîfs with occult, hidden meanings whose façade meanings do not agree
with the established meanings of the popular types of narratives and which
therefore need to be interpreted.] Their number is very much larger than those
in the teachings of Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’. If our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ had been chosen and sent from among
the Israelites, they would have altogether denied the divinity of Allâhu
ta’âlâ, saying, “There is no God but hadrat Muhammad.” Who on earth will doubt
this?
THEIR SECOND CLAIM: The second assertion
put forward in Ghadâ-ul-mulâhazat is that “While
Christianity spread gently through kindness, Islam spread by violence, force,
and by giving wordly advantages.”
ANSWER: This assertion of theirs is, like the
others, false, groundless, as follows:
First: It is a fact declared in the Bible and
confirmed by Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ that Christianity was not a religion other
than Judaism, but it was a complementary of Judaism. The only difference was
that it (Christianity) did not command jihâd-i-fî-sebî-l-illâh (Holy War only for
the sake of Allah). Absence of jihâd in Christianity is a proof of its
deficiency, rather than proving its superiority. To assert that a religion that
spreads through physical means [violence, force, power] is not a true religion
would mean to confess that Christianity, before any other religion, is a false
one.
-105-
Second: If a religion’s spreading by physical
media is to be asserted as a proof for its falsity, it will be necessary to
take a look at the methods resorted to for the spreading of Christianity. Take
the following examples: As Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ invited the people to his
religion, he hid himself for fear of a probable assassination on the part of
his adversaries; he advised that his miracle be kept in secret; he ordered his
Apostles not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah; he advised his disciples
that anyone without a sword should buy himself a sword even if it would cost
him his clothes; he ordered them to pay tax as a sign of homage to the pagan
Romans; many wars broke out and millions of people were killed because of the
controversies among the Christian sects after Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’; popes caused
a number of revolutions and conflicts in Europe; millions of innocent people
were massacred by Christians in the events of Templier and Saint Bartholomew
and during the tribunals of inquisition; in the continent of America and in the
other lately discovered islands, the turbulences instigated by missionaries
caused millions of people to be put to the sword; when you read about these
events and many other similar events in history books, how can you claim that
Christianity spread gently through kindness without resorting to physical
means, that is, to force, violence, power, or worldly advantages? The
cruelties, massacres and savageries exercised during the crusading expeditions,
which continued in eight waves for 174 years, from 489 [A.D. 1096] to 669 [A.D.
1270], could not be tallied. The crusaders burned and demolished all the places
they went by, including Istanbul, which was the capital city of the Byzantine
Greek Empire, their co-religionists. Michaud, a Christian who wrote a book of
five volumes about the crusading expeditions, says: “In 492 [H. 1099] the
crusaders managed to enter Jerusalem. When they entered the city they jugulated
seventy thousand (70,000) Muslims and Jews. They cruelly killed even the Muslim
women and children who had sheltered in mosques. Blood flowed through the
streets. Corpses blocked the roads. The crusaders were so savagely ferocious
that they jugulated the Jews they came across on the banks of the Rhine in
Germany.” These facts are written by Christian historians, who are their own
men. When Christians routed the Andalusian Omeyyeds[1] in 898 [A.D. 1492] and entered Qurtuba (Cordova),
---------------------------------
[1] The Andalusian Islamic State was founded in 139 [A.D. 756], and demolished in 898.
-106-
they attacked the Qurtuba mosque first. They entered this
beautiful, magnificent mosque on horseback. They pitilessly jugulated the
Muslims who had taken refuge in the mosque. So much so that blood poured out
through the doors of the mosque. They massacred the Jews in the same manner.
The barbarous Spaniards Christianized all the Muslims and Jews at the point of
the sword. Those who managed to escape took sanctuary in the Ottoman country.
The Jews living in Turkey today are their grandchildren. After annihilating all
the Muslims and Jews in Spain, Ferdinand the Spanish king bragged of his
victory and said, “There are neither any Muslims nor any unbelievers left in
Spain.” Here is the Christianity that is said to have spread through tenderness
and kindness and here are the cruelties of Christians who claim to be tender
and affable!
The cruelties inflicted by the Christian sects
upon one another are no less in severity. But the most notorious cruelties are
the persecutions exercised by Christians over Jewry, who are praised by the
priestly author of the book Ghadâ-ul-mulâhazât on account of their
familiarity with the canonical laws.
It is written as follows in the twenty-seventh
page of the book Keshf-ul-âsâr wa fî qisâs-i-enbiyâ-i benî Isrâîl, which was written by priest Dr. Alex
Keith, translated into Persian by priest Merik, and published in 1261 [A.D.
1846] in Evenborough: “Three hundred years before the Hegira, Constantine the
Great ordered that the ears of all the Jews be cut off and persecuted them by
deportations and banishments.”
It is written in the twenty-eighth page: “In
Spain the Jews were oppressed to choose one of the following three
alternatives:
a) Accepting Christianity;
b) Imprisonment for those who refused
Christianity;
c) Deportation if none of these two choices
are taken. Similar methods were used in France. Thus Jews travelled from one
country to another. At that time there was no home for them, neither in Europe
nor in Asia.”
And in the twenty-ninth page: “Because
Catholics reckoned Jews as unbelievers, they persecuted them. The most notable
priests came together and took some decisions:
1 — If a Christian defends a Jew, he has made
an error. He is to be excommunicated. That is, he must be excluded from
Christianity.
2 — Jews are not to be assigned any official
duties in any
-107-
3 — No one can eat or cooperate with Jews.
4 — Children born among the Jews shall be
raised by the Christians. The oppressiveness of this article is obvious.” In
the thirty-second page: “When the Portuguese caught Jews, they threw them into
fire and burned them. When they did so, their men and women came together and
celebrated the events. Their women danced, sprang and jumped with happiness.”
It is written as follows in the book
Siyar-ul-muteqaddimîn, which was written by priests: “In the Christian year
379, Gratinaus the Roman emperor, after consulting with his commanders, ordered
the Christianization of all the Jews in his country. Accordingly, those who
refused Christianity were to be killed.” These writings belong to eminent
Christian priests.
The torments inficted upon Protestants by
Catholics and vice versa are no less cruel than the ones related above.
It is written as follows in the fifteenth and
sixteenth pages of the thirteenth fascicle of an Arabic book which was
published in thirteen fascicles in Beirut in 1265 [A.D. 1849]: “The Roman
church inflicted numerous persecutions, torments and massacres upon
Protestants. The witnesses to prove this fact are in the European countries. In
Europe, more than 230,000 people were burnt alive because they did not believe
in the pope though they believed Jesus and made the Holy Bible their guide in
belief and worship. Likewise, thousands of them were either put to the sword or
annihilated in prisons or through various tortures such as disjointing their
bones or extracting their teeth or nails with pincers. Only on the day of
Marirsu Lemavus thirty thousand people were killed in France.
The massacre of Saint Bartholomew and many
other massacres that would take a long time to relate are the witnesses of the
cruelties Catholics inflicted upon Protestants. Sixty-five thousand Protestants
were killed in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Catholic priests publicize this
event as something to take pride in. Henry IV, who came to the throne of France
in 1011 [A.D. 1593], stopped the massacre of Protestants. The bigoted Catholics
who did not like this had Henry IV killed. In 1087 [A.D. 1675] the persecutions
and massacres were resumed. Fifty thousand families fled from their country to escape
death.
The Protestants were no less cruel to the
Catholics than the Catholics were to them. It is written as follows in the
forty-first
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and forty-second pages of a book which was translated into Urdu
from English by a British Catholic priest named Thomas and was published with
the title Mir’ât-us-sidq in 1267 [A.D. 1851], and which was widely sold in India:
“The Protestants first usurped 645 monasteries, 90 schools, 2376 churches and
110 hospitals from their Catholic owners and sold them very cheaply, dividing
the money among themselves. They evicted thousands of the poor residents into
the streets, leaving them destitute.” It is written in its forty-fifth page:
“The Protestants’ grudge and hostility reached the dead lying in their graves
with equal savagery. Exhuming the corpses, they tormented them and robbed them
of their shrouds.” In the forty-eighth and forty-ninth pages: “Also the
libraries disappeared among the other property usurped from the Catholics. Cyl
Birl’s doleful account of these libraries is as follows: The Protestants
plundered the books they found in the libraries. They burned the books to cook
on them, cleaned their candlesticks and shoes with them. They sold some of the
books to herbalists and soap makers. They gave most of them to bookbinders
overseas. They were not only fifty or a hundred books. They amounted to
countless shiploads. They were annihilated in such a manner as to consternate
the foreign nations. I saw a merchant buy two libraries, each for twenty
rupees. After these cruelties, they robbed the treasuries of churches, leaving
them in bare walls only. They thought they were doing something good.” In the
fifty-second and later pages: “Now we shall relate the cruelties that the
Protestants have done so far: In order to torture the Catholics, the
Protestants passed hundreds of laws far from justice, mercy and ethics. The
following are some of them:
“1 — A Catholic cannot inherit his/her
parents’ property.
“2 — No Catholic past the age of eighteen can
buy property, unless he accepts the Protestant sect.
“3 — No Catholic can set up a business for him
or herself.
“4 — No Catholic can be a tutor (in any branch
of knowledge). He who opposes this shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life.
“5 — The Catholics shall pay double the taxes.
“6 — Any Catholic priest who conducts a
(religious) rite shall pay a fine of 330 sterlings. If a lay Catholic does this
he shall be fined 700 sterlings plus one year’s imprisonment.
“7 — If a Catholic
sends his son abroad for education, he and
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his son shall be killed. His property and livestock shall be
confiscated.
“8 — No Catholic can be employed in the Civil
Service.
“9 — If any Catholic does not attend Sunday
masses or other religious celebrations in a Protestant church he shall be fined
200 sterlings monthly and shall be dismissed from society.
“10 — If a Catholic goes five miles away from
London he shall be fined 100 sterlings.”
It is written in pages sixty-one through
sixty-six: “With the command of Queen Elizabeth most of the Catholic monks and
other clergymen were taken out on ships and thrown into the sea. Then the
soldiers of Elizabeth came to Ireland to Protestantize the Catholics. The
soldiers demolished the Catholic churches. Whereever they came across a
Catholic priest they killed him immediately. They burned towns. They destroyed
crops and animals. But they treated non-Catholics well. Then, in 1052 [A.D.
1643-44], the parliament sent forth men to a number of cities to expropriate
all the property and land belonging to the Catholics. These cruelties inflicted
upon the Catholics went on till the time of king James I. In his time these
cruelties became less severe. But the Protestants were angry with him. In 1194
[1780] forty-four thousand Protestants petitioned to the king for the
maintenance of the laws concerning the Catholics so that they could go on
tormenting them through the parliamentary power as before. But the king turned
down their proposal. Upon this some hundred thousand Protestants came together
in London and burned the Catholic churches. They devastated the districts where
the Catholics lived. They started conflagrations at thirty-six different
places. This vandalism lasted for six days. Then the king passed another law in
1791, giving the Catholics the rights they have been enjoying ever since.”
It is written as follows in the seventy-third
and seventy-fourth pages: “You probably have not heard about the event of
Cortiraskuln in Ireland. The stories telling about his doings in Ireland are
true. Every year the Protestants collected two hundred and fifty rupees and the
rentals of various places and with this money bought the children of poor
Catholics. They sent these children away to live with Protestants in other
places so that they would not recognize their parents (on returning to their
hometowns). When they grew up, they were sent back home and did not recognize
their parents, brothers and sisters, as a result of which they sometimes
married their brothers, sisters, and even
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[The most inhuman, the most ferocious of the
cruelties inflicted upon Muslims by Christians were done by the British in
India.
Allâma Fadl-i-Haqq Khayr-âbâdî, one of the
greatest Islamic ’ulamâ in India, says in his book As-sawrat-ul-Hindiyya (The Indian Revolution), which is explained by Mawlânâ Ghulâm Mihr Alî in the 1384 [A.D.
1964] Indian edition of its commentary Al-yawâqit-ul-mihriyya:
In 1008 [A.D. 1600] the British first received
the permission of Ekber Shâh to open business places in the Calcutta city of
India. In the time of Shâh-i-Âlam they bought land in Calcutta. They brought
military forces to protect their land. Upon curing Sultan Ferrűh Sîr Shâh in
1126 [A.D. 1714], they were given this right all over India. In the time of
Shâh-i-Âlam-i-thânî they invaded Delhi, took control of the administration, and
began to exercise cruelty. In 1274 [A.D. 1858] the Wahhabis in India said that
Bahâdýr Shâh II, who was a Sunnî, a Hanafî, and a Sufî in fact, was a bid’at
holder and a disbeliever. With their help, which was reinforced by the support
of Hindu unbelievers and the treacherous vizier Ahsanullah Khan, the British
army entered Delhi. They raided homes and shops and plundered goods and money.
Even women and children were put to the sword. The people could not find water
to drink. The very old Bahâdýr Shâh II, who had taken refuge in the tomb of
Humâyűn Shâh, was taken towards the fortress together with his household with
their hands and feet fastened. On the way the Patriarch Hudson had the three
sons of the Shâh undressed, leaving them in underwears, and then martyred them
by shooting them in their chests. He drank their blood. He had their bodies
hung at the entrance of the fortress. The following day he took their heads to
the British commander Henry Bernard. Then, boiling the heads in water, he made
a soup and sent it to the Shâh and his wife. Being extremely hungry, they (the
Shâh and spouse) immediately put the meat into their mouths. But they could not
chew it, nor could they swallow it. They took it out and left it on the soil,
though they did not know what sort of meat it was. The traitor named Hudson
said, “Why don’t you eat it? It is very delicious soup. I had it made from the
flesh of your sons.” Then they banished the Shâh, his wife and close relations
to the city of Rangon and had them put in dungeons. The Sultân passed away in
the dungeon in 1279. They martyred three thousand Muslims by shooting and
twenty-seven
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thousand by slaughtering in Delhi. Only those who fled at night
managed to survive. The Christians massacred countless Muslims in other towns
and villages, too. They ruined historical works of art. Peerless, invaluable
pieces of ornamental goods and jewelry were loaded on ships and sent to London.
Allâma Fadl-i-Haqq was martyred in his dungeon on the island of Endoman by the
British in 1278 [A.D. 1861].
In 1400 [A.D. 1979] Russians invaded
Afghanistan and began to destroy the Islamic works of art and martyr the
Muslims. They first shot to martyrdom the great ’âlim and Walî Ibrâhîm
Mujaddidî together with his hundred and twenty-one disciples, his wife and
daughters. This savage and ignoble attack, too, was caused by the British. For
in 1945 the German commander Hitler, who had routed the Russian armies and was
about to enter Moscow, cried to England and America through the radio: “I admit
the defeat. I shall surrender to you. Let me go on with my war against Russia,
rout the Russian army and remove the nuisance of communism from the earth.”
Churchill, the British prime minister, refused this proposition. They persisted
in helping the Russians and did not enter Berlin before the arrival of the
Russians. They caused Russians to be a pestilence over the world.
Abdurrashîd Ibrâhîm Efendi states as follows
at one place of the chapter called “Hostility of the British against Islam” in
the second volume of his Turkish book Âlam-i-Ýslâm (The Islamic World), which
was published in Istanbul in 1328 [A.D. 1910]: “Extirpation of
Khilâfat-i-Islâmiyya (the Islamic Caliphate) is the primary British goal. Their
causing the Crimean war and helping the Turks there was a stratagem to destroy
the Caliphate. The Paris Treaty divulges this stratagem clearly. [They state
their enmity overtly in the secret articles of the Lausanne Peace Treaty in
1923.] All the disasters the Turks have undergone so far, whatsoever the cover,
have come from the British. The British policy is based on the annihilation of
Islam. The reason for this policy is their being afraid of Islam. In order to
deceive Muslims, they use saleable consciences, and introduce these people as
Islamic scholars or heroes. In short, Islam’s biggest enemy is the British.”
For those who desire more detailed information
about the treacheries and murders carried on by the British on various dates in
various parts of the world, especially those which were done against Muslims
and the Islamic religion; we recommend that they read the book Jinâyât-ul-Ýngiliz (The Murders by the
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British) by Es-Sayyîd Muhammad Habîb Ubeydî Beg, which was
published in Beirut in 1334 [A.D. 1916].
Bryan William Jennings, an American lawyer and
politician, was a renowned writer and lecturer, and at the same time was a U.S.
Congressman between 1913-1915. He died in 1925. He gives detailed information
about the British enmity against Islam and their barbarisms and cruelties in
his book (The British
Dominion in India).
The British sent their own men to their
colonies whom they had been tyrannizing. These men started, so to speak, the
movement of independence and in appearance broke their right of independence
away from the British. They always used men of this sort for invading their
colonies morally and inwardly while giving them their independence materially
and outwardly. In other words, they imposed these men, whom they trained or
bought for their own purposes, as leaders or saviors to such countries. And the
inoffensive people of these countries, without even having time to consider the
matter to sense the British lie, delivered their younger generations to the
awful methods of propaganda. These countries had national anthems and flags.
But morally and spiritually they were never independent. They had parliaments,
prime ministers, ministers. But they never had authorities.][1]
We have mentioned only a few of the cruelties
of Christians here. These are only a few examples of the barbarisms and
savageries of Christians, who are said to have had a religious background and
who claim to believe in the advice of Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’: “If someone slaps
you on one cheek, offer him your other cheek.” We do not presume that the
priest who wrote the book Ghadâ-ul-mulâhazât is too ignorant to
know about these cruelties and savageries. Thinking Muslims unaware of these
historical events, he pretends not to know of them in order to reinforce his
assertion.
Third: If the spreading of a religion were
possible only through physical media, that is, by violence, force and power,
the whole world would have been Christianized by now and there would be no Jews
left after all these combats, barbarisms and massacres.
Fourth: The jihâd-i-fîsebîl-illâh commanded by
Islam does not mean to compel (others) to become Muslim by the sword. Jihâd
---------------------------------
[1] Please also see the book Confessions of A British Spy, which is available from Hakîkat Kitâbevi, Fatih-Istanbul-Turkey.
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means to announce and spread the kalima-i-tawhîd all over the
world and to reveal the superiority and the merits of the true religion of
Allâhu ta’âlâ to the other religions. This jihâd is done by teaching and
advising first. That is, it is stated that Islam is the true religion
commanding all sorts of happiness, justice, freedom, and human rights. Those
non-Muslims who admit this are given the right of citizenship and enjoy all
sorts of freedom enjoyed by the Muslims. War is opened to those obstinate states
and tyrannical dictators who turn down this invitation. If they lose the war,
the former invitation is repeated once more. That is, they are invited to
accept Islam. If they accept it they become free like the other Muslims. If
they refuse they are proposed to pay the income tax called jizya. Those who
accept to pay the jizya are called zimmî. They can by no means be forced to
change their religion. [The old, the invalid, the women and children, the poor,
the clergy are not liable to the jizya.] They are completely free as to their
religious duties, rites and ceremonies, and their property, lives, chastity and
honour are, like the property, lives, chastity and honour of Muslims, protected
by the state. Muslims and non-Muslims are held equal in all sorts of rights.
THEIR THIRD ASSERTION: The third assertion
put forward by the priests is that “Though it would have been possible for
Allâhu ta’âlâ to send down a Prophet without any preparatory canonical education, Allâhu ta’âlâ, who
is the most compassionate of the merciful, (is said to have) sent such an
exalted religion (as Islam) not before the religions of Jesus and Moses; this
is paradoxical with His justice.”
ANSWER: These words of the priests are
answerable in various ways.
One of them is this: Allâhu ta’âlâ has
infinite power. For Him there is no difference between creating the seven
layers of the earth and the heavens and creating an ant, [a cell, an atom].
Nothing is beyond the creative power of Allâhu ta’âlâ, except having a partner,
which is impossible. [May Allâhu ta’âlâ protect us from such a belief!] If, as
they assert, it were impossible to send a Prophet without any preparations, this would be another mu’jiza of
Rasűlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ in addition to his other mu’jizas
(miracles). For the number of all the Israelites who believed Îsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ was eighty-two by the time of his ascension to heaven though
they were ready to accept a new religion and had been expecting a Prophet who would be their savior. On the other hand,
our Master Fakhr-i-kâinât ‘alaihi
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efdalut-tahiyyât’, before his decease, had already guided to îmân
(belief in the true religion) more than a hundred and twenty-four thousand of
the Arabs, who had had no religious education whatsoever and therefore were not
ready to receive a new religion; this means to make the impossible possible,
and is therefore a mu’jiza. Also, their statement that ‘it is incompatible with
the mercy, compassion and justice of Allâhu ta’âlâ not to send the better and
superior one before” is contrary to all sorts of reason. For the Christian
creed is as follows: “The reason why Jesus was killed after various insults and
then burned for three days in Hell was because all people, including all Prophets, were smeared with the original sin
committed by Âdam ‘alaihis-salâm’ and hadrat Hawwâ in Paradise, and therefore
Allâhu ta’âlâ willed to forgive them by shedding the blood of His beloved son
(may Allah protect us from such belief).” Now we ask them: since Îsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’ is, according to Christian creed, the son of Allah, or perhaps
the same as He (may Allah protect us from this belief), would it not have been
better if he had been sent immediately after Âdam ‘alaihis-salâm’, so that the
whole lot of these Prophets and so many
innocent people would not have gone to Hell? It is a rule of protocol among
rulers and presidents that the one with the highest rank position arrives last.
It is a social custom that in big speeches the most important part is mentioned
finally. The same rule applies in everything. For instance, skillful artists
have their novices rough out the layouts of their works first and then finish
their works by doing the final, important and delicate parts of their works
themselves. This procedure is natural. Then, it is more suitable with the
divine law of causation of Allâhu ta’âlâ who is the absolutely wise Creator to
send the Sayyid-al-mursalîn ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’, the most superior,
the highest of Prophets, as the last Prophet, thus bringing His religion to perfection.
The book Ghadâ-ul-mulâhazat, again, makes the
following comment concerning the matter whether Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ had mu’jizas (miracles), in the fourth chapter of the second section:
“Jesus and Moses displayed various miracles in order to prove to the people
that they were Messengers sent down by Allah. Had it not been for such a
touchstone as this to distinguish between the true and the false, many
mendacious and immodest liars would have dared to profess being Prophets. And there would not be a gauge to test
whether Allâhu ta’âlâ had given His Word to a person, whether He had chosen him
as His
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Prophet. Therefore, if you
test Muhammad’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ claim for prophethood by rubbing it against this touchstone, you will see that it
is not so firm or so proven as the claims of Moses and Jesus ‘alaihimas-salâm’!
“Even if we believe the testimonies of
historians and the scholars of siyar and suppose that Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’
displayed many miracles to prove his prophethood, we will not be convinced. For when we compare the wonderful,
extraordinary events that they ascribe to their Prophet with the miracles of Jesus Christ and other Prophets, it is too difficult to believe that the
so-called wonderful events are from Allah, on account of the discrepancies and
similarities among them. Let us take the following examples: With the command
of Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ a tree left its place and walked towards him and a
voice from its middle part said: Esh-hadu an lâ ilâha ill-Allah wa esh-hadu anna Muhammadan abduhu
wa Rasűluhu, thus bearing witness to his Prophethood; animals, mountains, stones and even a
bunch of dates expressed the word of testimony we have given above; whatever
clothes he put on, whether they were shorter or longer (than his size in
appearance), suited him perfectly; now, is it possible not to doubt when we
hear such events? For these events are imaginary. They are obviously contrary
to the proofs and signs put forward by all the past Prophets.” In short, at the end of all this long,
roundabout writing of his, the priest means to say that our master the Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ did not have
miracles although other Prophets had
miracles.
ANSWER: It should be known well that one of
the methods used by priests to mislead all Christians against Islam has been
the slander that Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ did not show any
miracles. (May Allâhu ta’âlâ protect us against believing them!) These lies are
answered convincingly and by definite proofs in the books Izhâr-ul-haqq and Shams-ul-haqîqa. Various answers are given to each of
their questions. These priests pretend not to have seen these books and not to
have heard of these answers. To be more precise, because they do not have any
proofs sound enough to rebut the answers and evidences put forward to them,
they ignore them as if they were unaware of them and repeat their former
objections and lies in their books Mîzân-ul-haqq, Miftâh-ul-esrâr, Ghadâ-ul-mulâhazât, and other books full of lies and slanders which they published
as against Muslims. These books of theirs bear their evil intentions of
deceiving the ignorant and spoiling their belief by changing the
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titles of the books they wrote before. Yet we have considered it
appropriate to write a few of the answers given to the missionaries in the
books Iz-hâr-ul-haqq and Shams-ul-haqîqa, which we have mentioned above:
All Prophets ‘alaihimus-salâm’,
as a witness for the authenticity of their prophethood they were appointed, put forward as miracles some
extraordinary, preternatural, superhuman events that were at the same time
valued and accepted by the people they were appointed to (as Messengers). It is
written in books of Siyar that the number of miracles that occured through Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ was more than three thousand. The existence of
these miracles, which are stated in Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs and which
were narrated by those who saw and heard them, thus reaching us by passing
through generations, is beyond the reach of any sort of doubt. We shall explain
some of these miracles (mu’jizas) in two different categories:
THE FIRST CATEGORY: This category
contains the miracles that occured through Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ on past and future events.
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ related episodes about
the past Prophets. Without reading
the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament or learning from anyone,
he gave information about the past peoples that had perished thousands of years
before and whose signs had already disappeared. As a matter of fact, it is
written in the fourth paragraph of the first chapter of the fifth section of
the book Izhâr-ul-haqq: “Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ related the episode of
Nűh ‘alaihis-salâm’. This mu’jiza is mentioned in Qur’ân al-kerîm. The forty-ninth âyat of Hűd sűra
purports: ‘This narrative of Nűh’s (Noah) ‘alaihis-salâm’ is one of the ghayb (unknown) pieces of information which we reveal (wahy) to you [through Jebrâîl]. Until now, neither you nor your tribe
knew about it.’ But some differences between the Qur’ân al-kerîm and the past (heavenly) books are
explained in the second chapter of the fifth section of the book
Izhâr-ul-haqq. Qur’ân al-kerîm contains
many unknown narratives about past tribes.” The third paragraph of the first
chapter of the fifth section of the same book quotes twenty-two of the
narratives given in Qur’ân al-kerîm:
1 — The two hundred and fourteenth âyat of the
Baqara sűra purports: “O Believers! Do you expect to enter Paradise right away? You have
not undergone the despair experienced by the
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beloved ones of Allah before you. I sent
vehement poverty, ailment, hunger and affliction upon them. They were so badly
worried by the afflictions they were suffering that the Prophet and his believers were saying: When will help come from
Allâhu ta’âlâ? Be careful, be on the alert, for the help of Allâhu ta’âlâ is
soon to come.” The help promised in this âyat-i kerîma
includes Muslims in general; and the help promised soon came about. Islam
spread first in Arabia and then all over the world.
2 — Before the Holy War of Badr, Allâhu ta’âlâ
gave the good news of victory to the Ashâb-i-kirâm and declared in the
forty-fifth âyat of Qamer sűra: “They will soon be routed, run away and turn their backs (to the battlefield).” Exactly as it was declared, the Qoureish
tribe were routed and destroyed at Badr.
3 — As is purported in the first, second,
third and fourth âyats of Rűm sűra, Allâhu ta’âlâ declares: “The Rűm were beaten [by the Iranians] at the closest place [to the Arabs, in
the vicinity of Damascus]. Three to nine years after the defeat, they will beat their
enemies [the Iranians] here. Beating or being beaten, [be it known that], is within the command of Allâhu ta’âlâ in the beginning and in
the end. The Believers will be pleased at the victory of the Rűm over the
Iranians.” The fact on which the mufassîrs
(interpreters of Qur’ân al-kerîm) and the
’ulamâ of Siyar agree as to the interpretation of these âyats is as follows: It
is predicted that the Rűm will beat the Iranians after being beaten. And
everything occurred exactly as it was predicted. In fact, when this
âyat-i-kerîma descended, Ubayy bin Halef, one of the outstanding disbelievers
of Qoureish, denied it. In the conversation he had with Abű Bakr ‘radiy-Allâhu
anh’, he affronted him and insisted on refusing that the other side would win.
Upon this they made a contract to wait for three years and then for the losing
party to give fifteen female camels to the party whose prediction came true.
Abű Bakr as-Siddîq ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ came to Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ and submitted the matter. Rasűlullah ‘sall-allâhu alaihi wasallam’
stated that the word (bid’)[1] in the
âyat-i-kerîma included the numbers from three to nine and ordered him to go to
him (the bettor) and increase both the duration of time and the number of
camels. Upon this, Abű Bakr ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ renewed the contract they had
made, prolonging the duration to nine years and augmenting the number of camels
to one hundred. In the
---------------------------------
[1] [Bad’].
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seventh year of the Hegira, the news about the Rűm’s victory over
Iran reached them at Hudaybiyya. But Ubayy bin Halef had been killed with a
spear which Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ picked from the ground and
threw at him. So Abű Bakr-i Siddîq ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ took the mentioned
hundred camels from his inheritors. [Obeying our Prophet’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ command, he distributed the
hundred camels to the poor.]
As for the other mu’jizât-i-nabawiyya (the Prophet’s miracles) on the information about the
ghayb (unknown), which are reported in hadîth-i-sherîfs; they are countless. We shall give a few examples:
In the beginning of the call to Islam some of
the Ashâb-i-kirâm migrated to Abyssinia because of the polytheists’
persecutions. Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ and those of the
Ashâb-i-kirâm who remained in Mekka-i-mukarrama were deprived of all sorts of
social activities such as buying and selling, visiting or talking to people
other than Muslims for three years. The polytheists of Qoureish had written a
contract announcing these decisions of theirs and posted it on the
Kâ’ba-i-muazzama. Allâhu ta’âlâ, the omnipotent, sent a wood-boring maggot
called arza unto that notice. The maggot ate up all the written part except
the phrase Bismikallâhumma (=in the name of
Allâhu ta’âlâ). Allâhu ta’âlâ let our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ know of this event through
Jibrîl-i-emîn (the Archangel Gabriel). And our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ in his turn related it to his uncle
Abű Tâlib. The following day Abű Tâlib went to the notables of polytheists and
said, “Muhammad’s God told him so. If what he said is true, cancel this
prohibition and do not prevent them from going around and seeing other people
like before. If he didn’t tell the truth, I shall no longer protect him.” The
notables of Qoureish accepted this. They all came together and made for the
Kâ’ba. They took the contract down from the Kâ’ba, opened it up, and saw that,
as Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ had said, all the written parts had
been eaten up, with the exception of the phrase, Bismikallâhumma.
AN EXPLANATION:
[Dost Muhammad Qandihârî,[1] a great Islamic scholar in India, states in his twenty-ninth
letter: “The polytheists of Qoureish used to write the phrase Bismikallâhumma at beginning
---------------------------------
[1] Muhammad
Qandihârî passed away in 1284 [A.D. 1868].
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of their letters. In the early years of Islam, our Master the Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ followed the
Qoureishi custom and had the phrase Bismikallâhumma written at the head
of his letters. Later, upon the revelation of the âyat of Bismillah, he had the phrase Bismillâh written as the starting phrase of his
letters. Afterwards, when the âyat-i-karîma containing the word Rahmân
descended, he had the phrase Bismillâh-er-rahmân written. Finally,
when the phrase Bismillâh-er-rahmân-er-rahîm descended with the
sűra of Naml, he began to have this phrase written. As a matter of fact, the
letter he sent to the Byzantine Greek emperor Heraclius with (his private
messenger) Dihya-i-Kelebî began with Bismillâh-er-rahmân-er-rahîm. It is sunna to begin a letter with this phrase of Basmala even
if it is written to a disbeliever. In the peace of Hudaybiyya, he ordered
hadrat Alî to write Bismillâh-er-rahmân-er-rahîm. Suhayl, the Qoureishi
representative, said, “We don’t know what Bismillâh-er-rahmân-er-rahîm is.
Write Bismikallâhumma.” As it is seen, since Âdam ‘alaihis-salâm’, Allâhu
ta’âlâ had taught His name as (ALLAH) to all Prophets, and even disbelievers had used this name.]
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’
stated, “The fortress
of Hayber will be conquered with Alî bin Ebî Tâlib.” So did it happen. Also, he predicted the conquests of Iran and
Byzantium by stating, “Muslims will share the treasures of Ajam (Iran) and Rűm (Byzantium) and the Iranian girls will serve them.”
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’
stated, “My Umma will
part into seventy-three groups. All of them will go to Hell. Only one of them
will be saved.” He also stated, “ The Ajams will beat the Muslims once
or twice, the Iranian state (Sassanians) will be annihilated.” And he stated, “Many Rűm (Byzantine Greek) generations will prevail. As each of
them perish, those in the following era, that is, the next generation will take
their place.” All these events took place as Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ had predicted.
The east and the west were rolled up and shown
to him. He predicted that his Umma would possess the places that were within
his sight and that his religion would spread over those places. So Islam spread
in the east and west, exactly as he had predicted. [In fact, there is no
country where Islam has not been heard of in today’s free world.]
He stated, “As long as ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ lives, fitna (instigation) will not arise among Muslims.” So the
Ummat-i-Muhammad (Muslims) lived in safety till the end of the caliphate
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of ’Umar ’radiy-Allâhu anh’, as he had predicted. Later
instigations began to break out.
Again, Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ predicted that Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ will descend form the heaven, that
Mahdî ‘alaihir-rahma’ will appear, and that Dajjâl also will appear.
He predicted that ’Uthmân-i-zin-nűrayn
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ would be martyred while reading Qur’ân al-kerîm, and that Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ would
be wounded with the stroke of Ibn Muljam’s sword and would be martyred. As a
matter of fact, whenever Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ saw Ibn Muljam, he would show
his head and say, “When are you going to make this bleed all over?” Ibn Muljam
would commit himself to the protection of Allâhu ta’âlâ from this, and would
request, “Since such a base and evil deed has been predicted by our Prophet, o Alî, then you kill me. I don’t want to be
the cause of this atrocity and be accursed till the end of the world.” Alî
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ would answer, “One cannot be punished before murder. You
will be retaliated after the action.” So all these events took place exactly.
In the the Holy War of Hendek (Trench), he
said to Ammâr bin Yâsir ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’, “You will be killed by bâghîs (rebels).” Later, he (Ammâr bin Yâsir) was martyred in Siffîn by
those people who were on the side of Muâwiyya ‘radiy-Allâhu anh.’
He said about Berâ bin Mâlik ‘radiy-Allâhu
anh’: “Some people that
have dishevelled hair and who are repelled from doors are so (valuable) that if they stated something on oath Allâhu ta’âlâ would create
it to confirm them. Berâ bin Malik is one of them.” In the war of Ahwâz the Muslim soldiers besieged the fortress of
Tuster for six months and fought for eighty days in front of its gate. Lots of
people died in both sides. This statement of Rasűlullah’s was known among the
Ashâb-i-kirâm ‘alaihimur-ridwân’. So they gathered around Berâ bin Mâlik
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ and begged him to swear that the fortress would be
conquered. Upon this, Berâ bin Mâlik ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ swore both the conquest
of the fortress and his own martyrdom. That day he attained the rank of
martyrdom. And the same night the fortress was conquered, so the Muslims
attained victory with the help of Allâhu ta’âlâ.
One day Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ slept in Umm-i-Hirâm’s ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’ house. When he woke up he
was smiling. She asked, “O Rasűlullah, why are you smiling?” Rasűlullah said, “I saw some of my Umma getting on board
ships
and going out for Holy War against
disbelievers.” Umm-i-Hirâm said, “O Rasűlallah! Pray for me
so that I may be one of them!” Rasűlullah said, “O my Allah! Make her one of them!” It came about as Rasűlullah predicted. In the time of hadrat
Muâwiyya, Umm-i-Hirâm and her husband joined others getting on ships and sailed
to Cyprus for jihâd. There she fell down from a horse and attained martyrdom
‘radiy-Allâhu anhumâ’.
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’
stated about his blessed daughter, Fâtimâ ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’: “Of my Ahl-i-bayt, you will be the first
to meet me (in the next world).” Six months after his
honouring the next world, Fâtima, our mother, ‘radiy-Allâhu anha’, honoured the
next world with her presence.
He predicted that Abű Zer-i-Ghifârî
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ would pass away alone at a solitary place. It happened
exactly so. [He passed away lonely as he was at a place called Rabaza. Only his
daughter and his wife were with him. Shortly after his death Abdullah ibn
Mes’űd and some other high persons arrived. They washed, laid out, and shrouded
his corpse ‘radiy-Allâhu anhum ejmaîn’.]
He said to Surâqa bin Mâlik ‘radiy-Allâhu
anh’, one of the Ashâb-i-kirâm: “How will you be when you put on the Chosroes’ bracelets?” Years later, during the caliphate of ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’,
the riches that were gained by the conquest of Iran were brought to
Medîna-i-munawwara. Among the gains were the Chosroes’ fur coat and bracelets.
Dividing the gains, ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ gave the Chosroes’ bracelets to
Surâqa ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’. Surâqa put the bracelets on his arm. Being too wide,
they went up to his elbow. He remembered what Rasűlullah had said years before,
and wept.
Lots of actual miracles came about from
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’. Since the capacity of this book is
not convenient for a detailed account of these miracles, we will mention a few
of them:
1 — The event of Mi’râj (Ascent to Heaven), which took place
both physically and spiritually, and as he (the Prophet) was awake. The disbelievers of Qoureish did not believe this
miracle. And some Muslims, being weak both in faith and in mind, fell into the
mischief of doubt and confirmed only after asking Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ various questions and getting their answers. Those who want to know
what the disbelievers’ questions and their answers were may consult to the book Izhâr-ul-haqq. If Mi’râj had happened only spiritually,
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there would be no reason to deny it. For the soul travels between
the east and the west in an instant when asleep. If a person’s dream takes
place in exactly the same way, it may be admitted as true; it cannot be denied.
Mi’râj happened both spiritually and
physically. Allâhu ta’âlâ is capable to speedily move anything He wishes. For
this reason, those wise people who believe in Mi’râj and those who narrate it
can by no means be censured. Yes, Mi’râj is incompatible with the normal course
of events. But all miracles are incomptatible with the normal course of events.
Ibn Sînâ,[1] a notable philosopher, proves by reasonable evidences the
possibility of this miracle, which is contrary to the normal course of events,
and describes its occurrence in his book Shifâ. Those who have doubts may consult to
the book. [Principles of (Islamic) belief should be learned not from philosophy
books, but from the books of the ’ulamâ of Ahl as-sunna.]
Furthermore, bodily ascent to heaven is not
impossible according to the people of the book, either. For it is written in
the twenty-fourth verse of the fifth chapter of Genesis and in the first verse
of the second chapter of the second book of Kings of the Holy Bible that Ehnűh
(E’noch), Elia and Elijah (E-li’jah and E-li’sha) ‘alaihimus-salâm’ physically
ascended to heaven. And it is written in the nineteenth verse of the sixteenth
chapter of the Gospel of Mark: “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he
was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.” (Mark: 16-19)
It is written in the second verse of the twelfth chapter of the epistle written
to Corinthians by Paul: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago,
(whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell:
God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.” (I Corinthians: 12-2)
As is seen, Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ also was taken up to heaven (mi’râj).
2 — The miracle of Shaqq-i-qamer, the splitting of
the moon, which is related in Qur’ân al-kerîm. In this respect, the objections of the deniers, i.e. the
Christian priests, are written at length in the books of Izhâr-ul-haqq and As’ila-i-hikamiyya.
3 — The miracle of Remy-i-turâb. In the Holy War of
Bedr, the number of the Ashâb-i-kirâm ‘alaihimur-ridwan’ was one-fourth that
of the polytheists. At a vehement time of the combat,
---------------------------------
[1] Ibn Sînâ (Avicenna) Husayn passed away in Hemedân in 428 [A.D. 1037].
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as the polytheists augmented their offensive, Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ put his blessed head on the ground in prostration
under the trellis and invoked (Allah) for victory and said: “O my exalted Allah! If you do not lead
these handful of Muslims to victory, no one will be left on the earth to
promulgate Thine unity.” Then he kept silent for a while.
Presently signs of joy appeared in his blessed eyes, and he informed Abű
Bakr-i-Siddîq ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’, who was with him and who had been his
companion in the cave, that he had been given the good news of victory and the
aid of Allâhu ta’âlâ. He left the trellis, honoured the battle field with his
presence and, taking a handful of sand from the ground, threw it towards the
polytheist soldiers. Each grain of sand went to an enemy soldier’s eye like a
lightning of disaster and utter defeat, and they were destroyed without any
apparent reason. The seventeenth âyat-i-kerîma of the Enfâl sűra descended to
describe this miracle. The meaning of the âyat-i-kerîma was: “What you threw to the disbelievers
was not thrown by you. They were thrown by Allâhu ta’âlâ.” This âyat-i-kerîma was recited in all the native and foreign
languages. None of the polytheists attempted to say, “No such soil came to my
eye.” Perhaps they thought it was magic. (May Allâhu ta’âlâ protect us against
such belief.)
4 — The miracle of water gushing out from
between Rasűlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ fingers at various places.
Several hundred Sahâbîs drank from that water and quenched their thirst. On the
day of Hudaybiyya, the number of the Ashâb-i-kirâm that were there and drank
that blessed water was more than a thousand. In addition, they filled their
water-bottles. This miracle was seen at the market of Medîna, at the Holy War
of Buwat, at the Holy War of Tabuk, and at many other places. In fact, at
Hudaybiyya the water poured from his blessed fingers like pouring from
fountains. After the thirsty ones drank, the water sufficed even their animals.
These facts are narrated unanimously by very trustworthy ’ulamâ of Siyer
through very sound documents.
5 — The miracle of Berekât-i-taâm. Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ gave a woman and her husband a quarter bushel of
barley. Their guests and children ate from it for a long time but could not
finish it.
Once, he fed a thousand people with a piece of
barley bread and a young goat, and the amount of the food did not decrease at
all.
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Once, a hundred and eighty people ate from a
piece of bread, and the bread became even bigger.
Once, he fed a hundred and thirty people with
a piece of bread and a cooked lamb. The remainder was loaded on a camel and
taken away.
He satiated an Abyssinian with a few dates.
This miracle took place a number of times.
He fed those who were with him, all his
household, and all his relations with one portion of food.
6 — The miracle of Teksîr-i-derâhim, i.e. increasing
the amount of money. Selmân-i-Fârisî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ was the slave of a Jew.
When he was honoured with Islam, his Jewish owner said he would be emancipated
from slavery on condition that he would plant three hundred date saplings, they
would give fruits, and he would give him (the Jew) 1600 dirhams (drachm) of
gold.
[The Ashâb-i-kirâm ‘alaihimur-ridwân’ helped
Selmân ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ in digging the holes for the saplings. When the holes
were dug, our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ honoured the place with his presence and] planted the three hundred
saplings resolved upon with his blessed hands. All of them came to maturity in
a year and began to yield fruits. [One of the saplings had been planted by
’Umar-ul-Fârűq ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’. The sapling did not give any fruits. When
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ replanted it with his blessed hands,
it gave fruits at once.]
He gave Selmân ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ a gold that
was the size of an egg and which had been gained in a Holy War. Selmân-i-Fârisî
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ said to Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’, “This is
too small to weigh sixteen hundred dirhams.” He (Rasűlullah) took the gold in
his blessed hands and gave it back, and said, “Take this to your owner.” When his owner weighed it, it was exactly the weight (decided
upon); so Selmân-i-Fârisî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ joined the free Muslims.
7 — The miracle of Teksîr-i-berekât. Abű Hurayra
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ relates: “We were starving in a Holy War. Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ said, ‘Is there anything?” I said, ‘Yes, o
Rasűlallah! I have some dates in my bag.” He said, “Bring them to me.” When I took them to
him he put his blessed hand into my bag, took out a handful of dates, placed
them on a handkerchief which he laid on the ground, and prayed for bereket
(abundance). The Ashâb-i-kirâm ‘alaihimur-ridwân’ being there came and ate
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dates. They were fully fed. Then he said to me: ‘O Abâ Hurayra! Take a handful of the
dates on this handkerchief and put them in your foodbag.’ I took a handful and put them in my bag. The dates in my bag were
never finished. We both ate and offered to others from them during the
life-time of Rasűlullah ‘sall-allâhu alaihi wasallam’ and later, during the
caliphates of Abű Bakr, ’Umar and ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu anhum’. They were still
not finished. When ’Uthmân-i-Zinnűrayn was martyred during his caliphate, my
foodbag was stolen.”
Many other similar miracles occurred through
our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’. Books
mention miracles like these about other Prophets, too. It is written in the fourteenth chapter of the second book
of Kings of the Old Testament [and in the seventeenth chapter of the first book
of Kings, beginning with the tenth verse] that some of these miracles occurred
through Elijah ‘alaihis-salâm’. A similar miracle occurred through Îsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’; it is written in all the Gospels that he fed four or five
thousand people with a few pieces of bread and fish. [Matthew, chapter 14,
verse 15. Mark, chapter 6, verse 35 and onward.]
8 — The miracle of Selâm and Shahâdat-i-ashjâr. When a nomad Arab
asked Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ for a miracle, he (Rasűlullah)
summoned a tree by the road. The tree pulled up its roots and shuffled towards
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’; when it came in front of him it
testified to his prophethood and then went
back to its place.
And once a date tree also bore witness to the prophethood of our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ and resumed its place.
[There was a date-stump in the Masjîd-i-Nebewî
in the blessed city of Medîna. Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ made
his hutbas (speeches) leaning on the stump. When a minber (pulpit used in a
mosque) was made for him, he stopped going to the Hannâna.] This date stump
began to moan with the loss of Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’. That
is, a voice of crying was coming from the stump. All the assembly heard it.
When our Master the Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wasallam’ got down from the new minber and hugged Hannâna, the voice
stopped. He (Rasűlullah) stated, “If I did not hug it, it would cry with the loss of me till the end
of the world.”
9 — The idols in the Kâ’ba-i-muazzama fell
face downwards when he made a signal with his blessed finger. There were three
hundred and sixty idols (statues) erected in the Kâ’ba. When the blessed city
of Mekka was conquered and Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu
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alaihi wasallam’ entered Harem-i-sherîf, he pointed to them one by
one with a date branch in his blessed hand and at the same time recited the
eighty-first âyat of Isrâ sűra, which purported: “When the right came, the wrong disappeared, it was gone.” The idols fell on their faces. [Most of the idols were tightly
fixed to the ground by lead and tin poured into holes made in the rock.]
10 — The miracles of Ihyâ-i-Mewtâ, redd-i-ayn and keshf-i-basar. One day a nomad Arab came to
Rasűlullah ‘sall-allâhu alaihi wasallam.’ Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’ invited him to Islam. The nomad said that his neighbor’s daughter had
died, that he loved her very much, and that he would become a Muslim if he
(Rasűlullah) resuscitated her. [Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ said, “Show me the girl’s grave.” They went together to the grave.] When they were by the grave,
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ called the girl by her name. A voice
said from the grave: “Yes, sir,” and the girl came out of the grave. Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ asked her, “Would you like to come back to the world?” The girl answered, “No, o Rasűlallah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi
wasallam’. I swear by the name of Allah that I feel more comfortable here than
I did when I was in my parents’ home. A Muslim will be better off in the next
world than he is in this world. So I will not come back.” Then she went back
into her grave.
Jâbir bin Abdullah ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ cooked a
sheep. Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ and the Ashâb-i-kirâm
‘alaihimur-ridwân’ ate it together. He said, “Do not break the bones.” He put the
bones together, put his blessed hands on them and prayed. Allâhu ta’âlâ
resuscitated the sheep. And the sheep went away wagging its tail. [These and
other miracles of our Prophet are written
in detail in Mawâhib-i-ledunniyya by
Imâm-i-Qastalânî; in Shifâ-i-sherîf by Qâdî Iyâd; in Hasâis-un-nabî, by
Imâm-i-Suyűtî; and in Shawâhid-un-nubuwwa by Mawlânâ
Abdurrahmân Jâmî[1] ‘rahmatullahi
alaihim ajmaîn’.]
In the Holy War of Uhud one of the eyes of Abű
Qatâda ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ came out and fell on his cheek. They took him to
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’. He placed his eye in its socket with
his blessed hand and said: “O my Allah! Make his eye beautiful!” This eye was now more beautiful and keener in sight than the
other. [One of Abű Qatâda’s grandsons came to the caliph ’Umar bin Abd-ul-azîz.
When he asked who he was, he
---------------------------------
[1] Molla
Jâmî passed away in Hirat in 989 [A.D. 1492].
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recited a couplet saying that he was the grandson of the person
whose eye Rasűlullah had restored with his blessed hand. Upon hearing the
couplet, the caliph respected him highly and gave him presents.]
One day a man whose both eyes were blind came
up and said: “O Rasűlallah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’. Pray for me so that
my eyes will open.” Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ said to him: “Make a faultless ablution. Then say this
prayer: O my Allah! I beg Thee. I ask of Thee through Thine beloved Prophet Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’. O my most beloved Prophet, hadrat Muhammad! I beg my Allah through you. I want Him
to accept my prayer for your sake. Make this exalted Prophet my intercessor! Accept my prayer for his sake.” This person made an ablution and said this prayer for the opening
of his eyes. His eyes were immediately opened. [Muslims have always said this
prayer and obtained their wishes.]
There was an old man whose eyes had become too
white to see clearly. When he (Rasűlullah) breathed to his eyes with his
blessed breath, his eyes immediately healed, so that he could see for himself.
Iyâs bin Seleme says: in the Holy War of
Hayber Rasűlullah sent me to call Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’. Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu
anh’ had an eye sore. Holding his hand, I took him with difficulty. He
(Rasűlullah) spat on his blessed finger and put it on Alî’s ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’
eyes. Handing him the flag, he sent him to fight at the gate of Hayber. Hadrat
Alî unhinged the door, which they had not been able to open for a long time,
and the Ashâb-i-kirâm entered the fortress. Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ never had
an eye sore again the rest of his life.
They brought him (Rasűlullah) a child that was
dumb and insane. Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ made an ablution, and
they made the child drink the remaining water. The child immediately healed,
began to talk, and became sane.
Muhammad bin Hâtib says: When I was a small
boy boiling water was poured on me. My body was scalded. My father took me to
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’. He put his spittle on the scalded
parts with his blessed hands and prayed. The scalds immediately healed.
The inner part of Shurahbil-il-Ju’fî’s
‘radiy-Allahu anh’ hand was swollen, and this case hindered him from holding
his sword or the halter of his animal. He petitioned to Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu
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alaihi wasallam’. Rasűlullah massaged his palm with his blessed
hand. He raised his hand, and there was not a sign of the swelling left.
Enes bin Mâlik ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ is reported
to have related the following event: My mother said to Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wasallam’: “O Rasűlallah! Enes is your servant. Ask a blessing on him.”
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ supplicated: “O my Allah! Make his property plentiful and his children
numerous. Make his lifetime long. Forgive him his sins.” In the process of time there was an increase in his property. His
trees and vines yielded fruits every year. He had more than a hundred children.
He lived a hundred and ten years. [Towards the end of his life he said: O my
Allah! You have accepted and given me three of the blessings which Your Most
Beloved One asked for me! I wonder what will become of the fourth one, the
forgiving of my sins? Upon this he heard a voice that said: “I have accepted
the fourth one, too. Do not worry about it.”]
He (Rasűlullah) sent a letter of invitation to
Islam to Husraw, the Persian King. Husraw tore the letter to pieces and
martyred the messenger. When the Messenger of Allah ‘alaihis-salâm’ heard this
he was very sorry, and prayed as follows: “O my Allah! Tear his sovereignty to pieces as he has torn
my letter!” Rasűlullah was still living when Husraw was
stabbed to pieces by his son Shîrawayh. During the caliphate of ’Umar
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’, Muslims conquered all the Persian land, and Husraw’s
descendants and sovereignty perished completely.
[Esma binti Abű Bekr ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’
stated: “Whenever we washed the blessed robe worn by Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wasallam’, we gave the water left to ailing people, and they
recovered.”]
If the priestly author of the book Ghadâ-ul-mulâhazât meant some wonderful events that were seen on Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ as he was only a child and which have not been
transmitted through sahîh (technically acceptable) narrations, we might be
silent. [For, one of the stipulations for a mu’jiza (miracle of a Prophet) is that it must happen after the Prophet has disclosed his prophethood. Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ spoke in the cradle;
when he asked for dates from a dry tree, dates came into his hand; as Rasűlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ was a child, his chest was incised and his heart
was taken out, washed and purified; there was always a cloud over his blessed
head for shade; stones and trees saluted him: these and other such
extraordinary events,
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which happened before his prophethood and was publicized, were not mu’jizas. They were karâmats
(miracles that happen on people who are loved by Allâhu ta’âlâ and yet who are
not prophets). They are called Irhâs (beginnings). They are intended to confirm the prophethood. These miracles may happen on the Awliyâ (people loved by
Allâhu ta’âlâ), too. Prophets are never
inferior to the Awliyâ, nor even before they are informed with their prophethood. Karâmats are seen on them. The mu’jiza
takes place a short time after the declaration of prophethood. For instance, if (the Prophet) says such and such an event will happen in a
month and if the event does happen, it is a mu’jiza. But it is not necessary to
believe his prophethood before the
happening of the event. Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’, showed
thousands of mu’jizas after the declaration of his prophethood.]
Some of his miracles of this kind, such as the
pouring of water from his blessed fingers, the moaning of the date-stump in the
mosque, the idols’ falling down on the floor upon his beckoning, his curing the
blind, his curing many kinds of illnesses, took place in the presence of
thousands of Sahâbîs, were transmitted from generation to generation, were
spread and heard everywhere, and their veracity was taken for certain. These
miracles of Rasűlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ have reached the highest
degree of tawâtur. [Tawâtur is a narrative that is told unanimously by those
who are the most reliable people of their times and who can by no means agree
on a lie, and which therefore forms a piece of absolute knowledge.] For
instance, such facts as the bravery of Alî bin Ebî Talîb ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ and
the generosity of Hâtem-i-Tâî have become widespread and known in the forms of
tawâtur; no one, therefore, could deny them. Christianity, on the other hand,
has been founded on a narrative told by only one person, i.e. it is the
personal account of either Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John. The pieces of
information which they gave about themselves and the times they lived in teem
with suppositions and doubts, and they mostly contradict one another. None of
the four Gospels would be accepted as documentary knowledge if they were
scrutinized according to the rules of the knowledge of Usűl-i-hadîth which the scholars of Hadîth have laid as conditions to be fulfilled by every individual hadîth-i-sherîf narrated for being accepted. [The conditions which Muslims observe in narrating Rasűlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ hadîths are very stringent. Since there is no authenticity of narration in the existing Gospels, they cannot
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be compared with hadîths with respect to authenticity. Christian
priests also have virtually admitted this fact by publishing a number of books
proving that the Bible has been defiled by way of implantation, mutilation or
miscopying.] As a matter of fact, if such miracles as curing the born blind,
healing the skin disease called leprosy, and enlivening the dead, which
occurred through Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’, were not verified by Qur’ân al-kerîm, no Christian would ever be able to
prove that they actually occurred.
In an attempt to deny the miracles of
Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’, priests put forward the ninetieth and
ninety-first âyats of Isrâ sűra as a proof, which purport:
“We shall not believe you unless you make a spring well up for us
in this place [Mekka]. Or you should have date orchards and vineyards amidst
which you make rivers flow, [said the inimical polytheists when
they were thwarted by the eloquence and grandeur of Qur’ân al-kerîm and the miracles that they saw
clearly].” While this proof foils their own purpose, they still claim to prove
that Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’ did not show any miracles. And
this, in its turn, is never compatible with reason or justice. [In fact, in the
âyats that we mention and which the (priests) offer as documents, the
polytheists ask for more and more miracles because they have felt amazed,
disqualified and incapacitated upon seeing the various miracles, especially
that of Qur’ân al-kerîm. This case
reveals the priests’ mendacity, let alone supporting their thesis.] It is so
strange that while there is no certain or even dependable information as to the
real authors or dates of the epistles appended to the four Gospels, and despite
the apparent oddities and contradictions in the narratives written in the
Biblical copies kept by Christians, they still accept each of their verses as a
principle of creed. On the other hand, not even a single letter of Qur’ân al-kerîm has been smeared with interpolation
for twelve hundred [now fourteen hundred] years; the da’îf hadîths, and the
fabled ones have been distinguished from one another by way of scientific and
authentic documentation; each of the narratives in the Islamic religion has
been proved through numerous evidences; and yet they (the priests mentioned
above) insist on protesting the believers (of Qur’ân al-kerîm).
[Those who wish to become informed on the
miracles of Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wasallam’; we recommend that they
read the (Turkish) book Herkese Lâzým Olan Îmân and also the
(English) book Why Did They Become Muslims?]
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