﷽

Muhammed ﷺ is a prophet of God, as he claimed to be. Since such a claim needs to be established with certainty, all of the premises used throughout will be supported by mass transmission.

Muhammed ﷺ’s prophethood can be argued for using the following syllogism:

• • If a claimant to prophethood is aided by a negation of nomic necessity, then he is a true prophet.
  • Muhammed ﷺ is a claimant to prophet who was aided by a negation of nomic necessity.
  • Therefore, Muhammed ﷺ is a true prophet.

The first premise was proven in a previous article. In summary: it is true because God is the creator of normalcy. So His aiding a claimant to prophethood by negating normalcy for him, signals His support for this claimant. More on this here.

As for the second premise, then we offer two proofs for it. The first is the inability of the pagans to address the Quranic challenge, and this is a negation of nomic necessity. The second is that Muhammed ﷺ was aided with many extra-Quranic miracles, such as accurately prophesying future events, the multiplication of food and water, and the instantaneous healing of wounds and diseases, and all of these are negations of nomic necessity. More on those two proofs below.

The Quranic Challenge

The Quran challenged Muhammed’s opponents, the pagan Arabs, to disprove his prophethood by getting together and producing a chapter that rivals the eloquence of any of its chapters:

وَإِن كُنتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ مِّمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِّن مِّثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاءَكُم مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
And if you doubt about what We have revealed to Our slave, then produce a chapter like it, and call upon your supporters other than Allah, if you are truthful^[1].

The inability of the pagans to address this challenge is a negation of nomic necessity. This is because the pagans were expert poets and rhetoricians, so it is nomically necessary for them to have been able to meet the Quranic challenge.

As for proving that the pagans were unable to address the challenge, then it is given the fact that they were heavily invested in destroying Islam, resorted to taking extreme risks to do so, and yet they failed in their objective. The pagans imprisoned, tortured, and killed many of the early Muslims. They even engaged in wars against Prophet Muhammed ﷺ and his community. Wars where those pagans spent much time, much money, and risked their very lives in order to stop the spread of Islam.

Given the above, we deduce the following: if the pagan Arabs were able to address the Quranic challenge, and given their extreme desire to destroy Islam, they would have spared themselves the time, money, and the risk of death in battle, and they would have simply cooperated with one another in order to produce a text which rivaled the Quran literarily. But they did not, and Islam ultimately prevailed. Thus, the pagan Arabs were unable to address the Quranic challenge, when it was nomically necessary for them to have been able to do so. And since Muhammed ﷺ was a claimant to prophethood who was aided by this negation of nomic necessity, then Muhammed ﷺ is a true prophet of God.

Extra-Quranic Miracles

Prophet Muhammed ﷺ was also aided by many other miracles. Including the multiplication of food and water, accurately prophesying future events, and the instantaneous healing of wounds and diseases. We will give examples for each of the above:

Example of water multiplication: Prophet Muhammed’s companion, Anas Ibn Malik, reports:

رَأَيْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَحَانَتْ صَلاَةُ العَصْرِ، فَالْتَمَسَ النَّاسُ الوَضُوءَ فَلَمْ يَجِدُوهُ، فَأُتِيَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ بِوَضُوءٍ، فَوَضَعَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فِي ذَلِكَ الإِنَاءِ يَدَهُ، وَأَمَرَ النَّاسَ أَنْ يَتَوَضَّئُوا مِنْهُ قَالَ: فَرَأَيْتُ المَاءَ يَنْبُعُ مِنْ تَحْتِ أَصَابِعِهِ حَتَّى تَوَضَّئُوا مِنْ عِنْدِ آخِرِهِمْ
I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when it was time for ‘Asr prayers. The people searched for water to perform ablution with, but could not find it. So a pot of water was brought to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He put his hand inside of it, and commanded all the people to perform ablution with the water from this pot. He [Anas Ibn Malik] then said: I saw water springing forth from beneath his fingers, until every last person had performed ablution.^[2]

Similar miracles were witnessed by other companions of the Prophet, including Abdullah Ibn Mas’ud^[3], ’Imran B. Al-Husayn^[4], and ‘Ubadah B. Al-Samit^[5].

Example of a prophesy: Muhammed ﷺ prophesied:

تَقْتُلُ عَمَّارًا الْفِئَةُ الْبَاغِيَةُ
Amar will be killed by the rebellious group.^[6]

This prophesy by Prophet Muhammed ﷺ foretells that a specific individual, ‘Amar Ibn Yasir, will live to see a rebellion against the Islamic state, and that ‘Amar will be on the side of the state, such that ‘Amar will then be killed by those rebels. And as the Prophet foretold, ‘Amar was indeed killed by a group of rebels in the battle of Sifin, twenty-seven years after Prophet Muhammed’s passing.

This same prophesy was reported from Prophet Muhammed ﷺ by many of his companions, including Umm Salama^[7],  Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudari^[8], and Abu Hurayra^[9].

Example of a healing miracle: Prophet Muhammed’s companion, Salamah B. Al-Akwa’, reports:

هَذِهِ ضَرْبَةٌ أَصَابَتْنِي يَوْمَ خَيْبَرَ، فَقَالَ النَّاسُ: أُصِيبَ سَلَمَةُ، فَأَتَيْتُ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَنَفَثَ فِيهِ ثَلاَثَ نَفَثَاتٍ، فَمَا اشْتَكَيْتُهَا حَتَّى السَّاعَةِ
This injury [referring to a scar on his leg] was sustained during the battle of Khaibar. The people then said: “Salamah was injured!” So I went to the Prophet ﷺ, and he blew into my injury three times, and it never hurt me since.^[10]

Other healing miracles occurring at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ were reported by many of his other companions. Including Sahl Ibn Sa’d^[11], Al-Bara’ B. ‘Aazib^[12], and Umm Jundub^[13].

In totality, there are hundreds upon hundreds of reports relating the miracles the Prophet ﷺ was aided with^[14]. And while each of those narrations is probabilistic evidence for Muhammed’s prophethood^[15], when taken collectively, all those reports form decisive and mass transmitted proof for his prophethood^[16].

The Life of Prophet Muhammed ﷺ

In addition to being supported with miracles, the prophethood of Muhammed ﷺ can also be established by considering his life.

Either Prophet Muhammed ﷺ was sincere, or he was a liar. “Sincere” meaning: he truly believed that he was recieving revelation from God. “Liar” meaning: he knew that he was not receiving revelation from God, and deliberately lied by claiming that he was.

Prophet Muhammed’s ﷺ being a deliberate liar is false, which means he must have been sincere. We know he could not have been a liar, because we know that Prophet Muhammed suffered through persecution in Mecca without compromising his religion. He also risked his life in fighting many wars to defend the cause of Islam. And he lived humbly, spending all his wealth to serve the religion. This is not behavior that is characteristic of a liar. As such, we can only conclude that Muhammed ﷺ was, at the very least, personally convinced that he was a prophet.

Given Muhammed’s ﷺ sincerity: either he was a true prophet, or he was madman. “True prophet” meaning: He truly believed to have been communicating with God, and he actually was communicating with God. “Madman” meaning: He truly believed to have been communicating with God, but he actually was not communicating with God. In other words, he was a madman who was just hearing voices in his head. A man who thought himself a prophet when he actually wasn’t.

Prophet Muhammed’s ﷺ being a madman is certainly false, so he must have been a true prophet. We know Prophet Muhammed ﷺ was not a madman, because we know that he was an exceedingly successful individual. To assume he was successful because of his madness (i.e. because of the voices in his head) is especially ludicrous. Muhammed ﷺ started out his life as an orphan without anything, and ended his life as ruler over all of Arabia. He was a military genius, diplomat, and the leader of a successful nation. His companions were able to, thanks to his leadership and example, conquer the two super powers of the world at the time (the Sassanids, and the Byzantines).

It is inconceivable that someone as successful as Muhammed ﷺ was a madman. It is especially inconceivable that such a man was successful because of his madness. Therefore, we can only conclude that he truly was a prophet of God.

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[1] Quran 2:23

[2] Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith 169.

[3] Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith 3579.

[4] Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith 344.

[5] Sahih Muslim, Hadith 3013.

[6] Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2916.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith 447.

[9] Sunan Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3800.

[10] Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith 4206.

[11] Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith 3009.

[12] Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith 4039.

[13] Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 3532.

[14] Imam Al-Bayhaqi gathered many narrations pertaining to the miracles and prophetic qualities of Muhammed ﷺ, and compiled them into a seven volume work called “the Evidences of Prophethood” (Dala’il Al-Nubuwa). All in all, this collection by Al-Bayhaqi contains over a thousand reports pertaining to Prophet Muhammed’s ﷺ miracles.

[15] Probabilistic evidence: evidence that makes a thing more likely than it would have been without this evidence.

In of themselves, each of those reports is only probabilistic evidence for Muhammed’s ﷺ prophethood. This is because they are singular narrations, and mass transmission is the condition for certainty.

[16] Since each of those reports is probabilistic evidence for the same thing (Muhammed’s ﷺ prophethood), they together form mass transmitted proof for his prophethood.