The Prophecies of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: Proofs of Prophethood Series (Updated)
Published: April 9, 2018 • Updated: August 12, 2024
Author: Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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For more on this topic, see Proofs of Prophethood
1. The Byzantines will rebound
2. The abode of Abū Lahab
3. The globalization of Islam
“This matter will certainly reach every place touched by the night and day. Allah will not leave a house of mud or even fur except that He will cause this religion to enter it, by which the honorable will be honored, and the disgraceful will be disgraced. Allah will honor the honorable with Islam and He will disgrace the disgraceful with unbelief.”
“Indeed, Allah gathered up the earth for me so that I saw its east and its west, and the dominion of my nation will indeed reach what was gathered up for me.”
4. Undeterred by time or distance
“Certainly, a man may perform the deeds of the people of Paradise, in terms of what is apparent to the people, while in reality he is among the people of the Hellfire. And a man may perform the deeds of the people of Hellfire, in terms of what is apparent to the people, while in reality he is among the people of Paradise.”
5. Six in sequence
“Count six signs before the Hour: my death, the conquest of Jerusalem, two mortal plagues that will take you [in great numbers] as the plague of sheep [depletes them], then wealth will be in such surplus that a man will be given a hundred gold coins and still be unsatisfied, then there will be a tribulation that will not leave an Arab home without entering it, then there will be a truce between you [the Muslims] and Banū al-Aṣfar (the Byzantines) that they will betray, and march against you under eighty flags, and under each flag will be twelve thousand soldiers.”
6. Counting the conquests
“You will certainly conquer Egypt, a land in which [a currency called] al-qīrāṭ is customary. When you conquer it, be gracious to its people, for they are entitled to a covenant and [the right of] family bonds. And when you see two men disputing over the place of a brick, then leave [Egypt].”
7. Security will prevail
8. The last emperors
“When Chosroes dies, there will be no Chosroes after him. And when Caesar dies, there will be no Caesar after him. And I swear by the One in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, their treasures will be spent in the path of God.”
9. A whisper in his daughter’s ear
10. The longest arm
11. The martyrdom of ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān
12. Inevitable infighting
‘I asked my Lord for three things; He granted me two and withheld one. I asked my Lord not to destroy my nation with a widespread famine, and He granted me that, and I asked Him that He not exterminate my nation by drowning, and He granted me that. And I asked Him that He not let their aggression be against one another, but He withheld that from me.’”
“Indeed, Allah has gathered the earth for me until I saw its east and its west, and the kingdom of my nation will reach whatever of it has been gathered up for me. And I have been given the two treasures; the red and white (gold and silver). And I asked my Lord that He not destroy it with a widespread famine, and that He not empower against them an external enemy that will annihilate them. My Lord said, ‘O Muhammad, when I decree a matter, it cannot be repelled. I have granted you, for your nation, that I do not destroy them with a widespread famine, and that I do not empower against them an external enemy that annihilates them—even if those from every corner of the earth unite against them. However, they will ultimately kill one another, and enslave one another.’ Once the sword is drawn within my nation, it will not be removed from them until the Day of Resurrection.”
13. Tensions in the Prophet’s household
14. The fate of ‘Ammār
15. ‘Alī suppressing the Khārijites
“Leave him be. He will certainly have fellows who will cause you to belittle your own prayer when compared to their prayer, and his fasting compared to their fasting. They will recite the Qur’an, but it will not pass beyond their throats [to their hearts]. They will exit the religion as an arrow passes through a game animal, whereby one would look at the arrowhead and not see any traces on it; one would look at the binding which fastens the arrowhead to the rod and not see any traces on it; one would look at the rod itself and not see any traces on it; one would look at the feathers and not see any traces on them. It would go straight through the bowels and the blood. Their sign will be a black man whose limbs will appear like a woman’s breasts, or like a disfigured lump of flesh. They will emerge at a time when the people are disunited.”
16. Repairing the rift
17. Cycling back to virtue is promised
18. Asmā’ sends a tyrant home
19. Umm Ḥarām’s date with destiny
This contains multiple prophecies by the Prophet ﷺ of what would take place, and it all occurred just as he said, and hence is considered among the signs of his prophethood. Of them is that his nation would remain after him, and that among them are those who would be strong, formidable, and a consequential force against the enemy, and that they would conquer territories until the army rides the sea, and that Umm Ḥarām would live until that time, and that she would be with that army that rode the sea, and that she would not live to see the second military campaign [to Constantinople].
20. Preempting the questioner
21. An unforgettable sermon
22. The emergence of selective textualism
“Indeed, I have been given the Qur’an and something similar to it along with it. But soon there will be a time when a man will be reclining on his couch with a full stomach, and he will say, ‘You should only adhere to this Qur’an. What you find it deeming permissible, consider it permissible, and what you find it deeming forbidden, consider it forbidden.’ But indeed, whatever the Messenger of Allah forbids is like what Allah forbids.”
23. A horrific wildfire
“The Hour will not take place until a fire emerges from the lands of Ḥijāz (central Arabia) that illuminates the necks of camels in Bosra (Syria).”
24. Prosperity and hedonism before the end times
“The Hour will not commence before wealth becomes abundant and overflowing, to the point that a man brings out the charity due on his wealth and cannot find anyone to accept it from him, and to the point that Arabia’s lands will revert back to being meadows and rivers.”
25. Competing in materialism
26. The unavoidability of ribā (interest)
27. An increase in brutality and killing
“Beware of oppression, for oppression will result in darknesses on the Day of Judgment. And beware of greed, for greed is what destroyed those before you; it drove them to spill each other’s blood and violate each other’s sanctity.”
28. The plunge into immorality
29. Muslims becoming easy prey
30. The immortality of his nation
31. Never thought you would speak
Notes
1 Al-Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ ibn Mūsá and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Shumunnī, al-Shifā bi-taʻrīf ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafá (Amman: Dār al-Fikr, 1988), 1:335–36.
2 Qur’an 30:2–4 (Saheeh International Translation).
3 Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volume the Fourth (London: Electric Book Co, 2001), chap. XLVI, 479.
4 Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Aẓīm (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1998), 6:270.
5 Touraj Daryaee, Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (London: I.B. Tauris, 2012), 33.
6 Qur’an 30:4–5 (Muhsin Khan Translation).
7 Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-muḥīt fī al-tafsīr (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1992), 8:375.
8 Qur’an 30:60 (Saheeh International Translation).
9 Qur’an 111:1–3 (Saheeh International Translation).
10 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 28:154, no. 16957; authenticated by al-Arnā’ūṭ in the comments and al-Albānī in Silsilat al-aḥādīth al-ṣaḥīḥah (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Ma‘ārif, 1996), 1:32, no. 3.
11 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2215, no. 2889.
12 “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010–2050,” Pew Research Center, April 2, 2015.
13 “Europe’s Growing Muslim Population,” Pew Research Center, November 29, 2017.
14 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 3:1403, no. 1779.
15 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 2:72, no. 1246.
16 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 2:125, no. 1481.
17 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:37, no. 2898; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 1:106, no. 112.
18 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:101, no. 3176.
19 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 30:625, no. 18694; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī in Fatḥ al-Bārī (Beirut: Dār al-Maʻrifah, 1959), 7:397.
20 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:1970, no. 2543.
21 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 11:224–25, no. 6645; authenticated by al-Albānī in al-Silsilah al-ṣaḥīḥah, 1:33, no. 4.
22 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 31:287, no. 18957; authenticated elsewhere by al-Ḥākim, and al-Dhahabī concurred, though it was deemed weak here by al-Arna’ūṭ in the comments.
23 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:197, no. 3595.
24 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:203, no. 3618; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2237, no. 2919.
25 Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī, 6:626; Muḥammad ibn ʻAbdul-Raḥmān al- Mubārakfūrī, Tuḥfat al-aḥwadhī bi-sharḥ Jāmiʻ al-Tirmidhī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah, 1990), 6:383, no. 221.
26 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 6:10, no. 4433; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:1904, no. 2450.
27 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 2:110, no. 1420; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:1907, no. 2452.
28 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 5:13, no. 3693; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:1867, no. 2403.
29 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 5:9, no. 3675.
30 Al-Tirmidhī, Sunan al-Tirmidhī, 6:69, no. 3705.
31 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2216, no. 2890.
32 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2215, no. 2889.
33 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 45:175, no. 27197; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to Ibn Ḥajar in Fatḥ al-Bārī, 13:55.
34 Ibn Ḥibbān, Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, 15:126, no. 6732; authenticated by al-Arna’ūṭ and al-Albānī in the comments.
35 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 1:97, no. 337. ‘Ammār (rA) was “invited by them to the Fire” because he rightfully believed that standing by the Muslim ruler was mandatory, and hence abandoning ‘Alī would have been sinful rebellion. As for those who sincerely believed otherwise, the official Sunni position is that they were mistaken while pursuing the truth and therefore not sinful. Some scholars, like Ibn Baṭṭāl, held that “they will be inviting him to the Fire” does not refer to the other army, but rather to the Khārijites to whom ‘Alī sent ‘Ammār as an ambassador and negotiator. They were also the same rebels who provoked the army of ‘Alī to eventually raise arms against them at Ṣiffīn.
36 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 31:178, no. 18883; authenticated by al-Arna’ūṭ in the comments.
37 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 2:745, no. 1064.
38 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:200, no. 3610; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 2:744, no. 1064.
39 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:204, no. 3629.
40 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 31:178, no. 18883; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to al-Arna’ūṭ in the comments.
41 Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-‘Arabī, Aḥkām al-Qurʼān (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmīyah, 2003), 4:152.
42 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 30:355, no. 18406; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to al-Arna’ūṭ in the comments.
43 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:1971, no. 2545.
44 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:42, no. 2924.
45 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 9:34, no. 7002; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 3:1518, no. 1912.
46 Al-Ṭabarānī, al-Mu‘jam al-kabīr, 25:130, no. 316; Abū Nuʻaym, Ḥilyat al-awliyā’ (City: Publisher, year), 2:62.
47 Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī, 11:77.
48 Qur’an 3:49.
49 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 29:533, no. 18006; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to al-Nawawī in al-Arba‘īn al-Nawawīyah, no. 27.
50 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 2:669, no. 974.
51 Yaḥyá ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Beirut: Dār Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-‘Arabī, 1972), 7:44.
52 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 8:123, no. 6604; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2216, no. 2891.
53 Al-Tirmidhī, Sunan al-Tirmidhī, 4:335, no. 2664.
54 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 9:58, no. 7118; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2227, no. 2902.
55 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 2:701, no. 157.
56 “NASA Sees Fields of Green Spring Up in Saudi Arabia,” Nasa, accessed February 2, 2021.
57 Arthur Clark and Michael Grimsdale, “Lakes of the Rub’ al-Khali,” Saudi Aramco World 40, no. 3 (May/June 1989).
58 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 1:36, no. 8.
59 Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abī Dāwūd, 1:122, no. 448; authenticated by al-Albānī in the comments.
60 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:96, no. 3138; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2273, no. 2961.
61 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, 16:258, no. 10410; authenticated by Aḥmad Shākir in ‘Umdat al-tafsīr ‘an Ibn Kathīr (Egypt: Dār al-Wafā’, 2005), 1:332.
62 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:1996, no. 2578.
63 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2231, no. 2908.
64 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 2:33, no. 1036; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2057, no. 157.
65 Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 3:1680, no. 2128.
66 Ibn Ḥibbān, Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, 14:64, no. 5753; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to al-Albānī in al-Silsilah al- ṣaḥīḥah, 6:411, no. 2683.
67 Ibn Mājah, Sunan Ibn Mājah, 2:1332, no. 4019; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to al-Albānī in the comments.
68 Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, al-Muṣannaf (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, 2004), 7:469, no. 37297; authenticated by ʻIṣām Mūsá Hādī in Kitāb ṣaḥīḥ ashrāṭ al-sā‘ah (Amman: al-Dār al-ʻUthmānīyah, 2003), 83.
69 Lawrence B. Finer, et al. “Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives,” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 37, no. 3 (2005): 110–18.
70 Ibn Ḥibbān, Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, 14:64, no. 5753; authenticated by al-Albānī in the comments.
71 Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abī Dāwūd, 4:111, no. 4297; authenticated by al-Albāni in the comments.
72 Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, Shu‘ab al-īmān (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 2003), 7:328, no. 5084; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ al-targhīb wal-tarhīb (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʻārif, 2000), 2:608, no. 2386. While these prohibitions appear absolute here, scholars have qualified them considering their cumulative read of other prophetic traditions. For instance, the prohibition of silk here is qualified by being applicable to men only, and in significant amounts, and in the absence of necessity. Similarly, scholars generally consider striking the tambourine an exception to the prohibition of musical instruments, at least on occasion, and some widen the concession further.
73 Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, al-Īmān (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1983), 1:40, no. 101; authenticated by al-Albānī in the comments.
74 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 4:207, no. 3641; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 3:1023, no. 1920.
75 Al-Tirmidhī, Sunan al-Tirmidhī, 4:96, no. 2260.
76 Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 9:58, no. 7115; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 4:2231, no. 157.
77 Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī, 13:75.
78 Al-Tirmidhī, Sunan al-Tirmidhī, 4:46, no. 2181; authenticated by al-Tirmidhī in the comments.
79 “Best Inventions of 2002: Dog Translator,” Time Magazine.
80 Matt Villano, “These Shoes Are Made for Talking,” New York Times, November 1, 2006.
81 David Dahlquist, “Security Cam App Turns iPhone into a Security Camera,” Macworld, January 7, 2010.
82 Qur’an 27:65 (Saheeh International Translation).