Seventh Sign.Part4

F i f t e e n t h  E x a m p l e : Exact scholars, and foremost Tirmidhi and Imam Bayhaqi, related through a sound chain of authorities from Abu Hurayra that Abu Hurayra said: “During one expedition that of Tabuk according to another narration the army went hungry. God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) asked: ‘Is there nothing?’ I said: ‘I have one or two dates in my saddle-bag.’-According to another narration, it was fifteen. He said: ‘Bring them here!’ I took them to him, and he plunged his hand into them and took a handful. He put them into a dish, and offered a supplication for their increase. Then he called the men in groups of ten and they all ate of them. Then he said: ‘Take what you brought, hold it, and do not turn it upside down.’ I put my hand in the bag; there were in my hands as many dates as I had brought. Later, during the lifetime of the Prophet (PBUH), and those of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthman, I ate of those dates.” It is narrated through another chain of transmission:

“I gave several loads of those dates to be used ‘in God’s way.’ Later the bag containing the dates was plundered when ‘Uthman was assassinated.”

Abu Hurayra was a constant and important student and disciple among the People of the Bench, the sacred school and tekke of the Teacher of the Universe, the Pride of the World (PBUH). In addition, the Prophet had prayed for his strength of memory. The miracle of plenty he reported which occurred in a large gathering like the expedition of Tabuk, should therefore be as sound and certain as the word of a whole army.

S i x t e e n t h  E x a m p l e : Foremost Bukhari, and the accurate books relate, through an authentic narration, that once Abu Hurayra was hungry, so he followed the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) into his house. There they saw that a cup of milk had been brought as a gift. God’s Messenger said to him: “Call all the People of the Bench!” Abu Hurayra relates: “I said to myself, I could drink all the milk myself, as I was most in need of it. But since it was God’s Messenger’s order, I fetched the People of the Bench, who numbered more than a hundred. God’s Messenger told me to offer milk to them. I gave the cup to each one by one, and each drank until satisfied. At the end, the Messenger told me, ‘The rest is for me and you.’ As I drank, God’s Messenger kept telling me to drink more, until I said, ‘I swear by the Glorious One who sent you with the truth that I am too full to drink any more.’ Then God’s Messenger drank the rest, invoking the name of God and offering Him thanks.”

May it be a blessing for him a hundred thousand times!

This indubitable, manifest miracle, as pure and sweet as milk itself, is related by all Six Books with their sound narrations, and foremost Bukhari, who committed to memory five hundred thousand Hadiths. Moreover, it is narrated by a celebrated, loyal, and brilliant student of the Prophet’s blessed school of the Bench, Abu Hurayra, who also cited as witness rather, represented all the other students of the Bench. Therefore, not to regard such a report as having the certainty of ‘consensus,’ either one’s heart should be corrupted, or one’s brain, destroyed! Is it ever possible that such a truthful person as Abu Hurayra, who devoted all his life to the Prophet’s Hadiths and to religion, and who heard and himself transmitted the Hadith, “Whoever knowingly tells a lie concerning me should prepare for a seat in Hell-fire,” should have related an unfounded incident or saying that would have made him the target of the contradiction of the People of the Bench, and that would have caused doubt concerning the value and soundness of all the other Hadiths he had memorized? God forbid!

“O our Sustainer! For the sake of the blessings You bestowed on Your Most Noble Messenger, bestow the blessings of abundance on the favours with which You have provided us!”

An Important Point: It is wellknown that when assembled together, weak things become strong. Fine threads are twisted, and they become a strong rope; strong ropes are wound together, and no one can break them. In this Sign, we have shown from among fifteen different kinds of miracles only one, that related to the blessings of increase and plenty, and the sixteen examples we have given constitute barely a fifteenth of this one kind. However, each of the examples mentioned is a proof on its own, with enough strength to prove prophethood. Even if some of them supposing the impossible were to be regarded as weak, they could still not properly be called such, since whatever is united with the strong also becomes strong.

When considered together, the sixteen examples given above constitute a great and strong miracle through the strength of definite, indisputable ‘consensus in meaning.’ And, when this miracle is joined by fourteen other miracles of plenty that have not been mentioned, it manifests a supreme miracle which is as unbreakable as a collection of strong ropes. Now add this supreme miracle to the fourteen other kinds of miracle, and see what a definite, decisive and irrefutable proof they provide for the prophethood of Muhammad (PBUH)!

Thus, the pillar of Muhammad’s prophethood, formed by such a collection, has the strength of a mountain. Now you have understood how unreasonable it is to regard as unstable and liable to fall that lofty, firm heaven, due to doubts arising from lack of understanding in particular matters and examples. Certainly those miracles concerning increase and plenty show that Muhammad the Arabian (Upon whom be blessings and peace) was the beloved official and honoured servant of One All-Compassionate and Munificent Who creates all sustenance and provides all beings with it, for contrary to His practice, He sent him banquets of different varieties of food out of nothing, from the pure Unseen.

It is well-known that the Arabian Peninsula is a place where water and agriculture are scarce. For this reason, its people, and particularly the Companions in the early days of Islam, suffered want and scarcity. They were also frequently afflicted with thirst. Due to this, the important of the manifest miracles of Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) concerned food and water. Rather than being miracles proving his claim to prophethood, these wonders were on account of need and like Divine gifts, dominical bounty, and banquets of the Most Merciful One for His Most Noble Messenger. For those who saw the miracles had already assented to his prophethood.

However, as the miracles took place, their belief increased and became more luminous.