Seventeenth Sign

After the Qur’an, the greatest miracle of God’s Noble Messenger(Upon whom be blessings and peace) was his own self. That is, the elevated moral virtues brought together in his person which as friend and foe agreed, every aspect of which were of the very highest level. A hero of the greatest bravery, ‘Ali, said again and again: “Whenever the fighting grew fierce, we would take refuge behind God’s Messenger.” Like this, his was the highest and unattainable degree in all praiseworthy qualities.

For this greatest miracle, we refer readers to the Shifa’ al-Sharif of Qadi Iyad, the learned scholar of the Maghrib, for he described and proved beautifully this miracle of praiseworthy moral qualities.A further great miracle of Muhammad (PBUH) which is verified by friend and foe alike is his illustrious Shari‘a, the like of which neither came before it nor will come after it. For a partial explanation of it, we refer readers to all the thirty-three Words, thirty-three Letters, thirty-one Flashes, and thirteen Rays which we have written.Among his greatest miracles, a certain one, the many reports of which are unanimous, is the Splitting of the Moon.

This miracle is related through many chains of transmission from many of the leading Companions like Ibn Mas‘ud, Ibn ‘Abbas, Ibn ‘Umar, ‘Ali, Anas, and Hudhayfa. In addition, the Qur’an announced this supreme miracle to the whole world with the verse:The Hour is nigh, and the moon split.The obdurate idolators of the Quraysh at that time could not deny what this verse states; they could only declare that it was “magic.” That is to say, the unbelievers also confirmed the splitting of the moon as certain. For this supreme miracle, we refer readers to the Addendum of the Thirty-First Word.

Furthermore, just as the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) showed the inhabitants of the earth the miracle of the Splitting of the Moon, so too he showed the inhabitants of the heavens his supreme miracle of the Ascension. Referring that greatest miracle to the Treatise on the Ascension, the Thirty-First Word, which demonstrates with decisive proofs -even to deniers- how luminous, exalted, and true a miracle it was, we shall mention here only his journey to Jerusalem, the preliminary part of the miracle of the Ascension. For it was a miracle too that when asked by the Quraysh the following morning, he provided them with a description of the Masjid al-Aqsa. It was as follows:

The morning after the night of the Ascension, he informed the Quraysh about the Ascension. They dismissed it as false, and said: “If you really went to the Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, then describe to us its doors, walls, and condition.”

God’s Noble Messenger later said: “I was annoyed by their question and denial in a way that I had never been annoyed before. Suddenly, God Almighty lifted the veil between me and the Masjid al-Aqsa and showed it to me; I looked at it, and saw and described it.” Then the Quraysh understood that he was giving the correct and complete description.

The Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) also told them: “During the journey, I saw one of your caravans. It will arrive here tomorrow at such-and-such a time.” They waited for the caravan. It was delayed for an hour, so in order that the Messenger’s prediction should be right, the sun was arrested for an hour, as is confirmed by those who investigated the event. That is to say, in order to prove what he said to be right, the earth stopped its journeying, its duty, for an hour, and that immobility was shown as the sun being arrested in its motion.

Thus, the mighty earth abandoned its duty in order to confirm a single statement of Muhammad the Arabian (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and the mighty sun witnessed it. And so you may understand how unfortunate are those who do not affirm him nor obey his commands, and how fortunate are those who affirm him and say: “We have heard and we obey!”; so offer praise and thanks to God for Islam and belief!