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The Prophecies of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: Proofs of Prophethood Series (Updated)

Published: April 9, 2018 • Updated: November 4, 2024

Author: Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Updated: September 12, 2023

  • September 12, 2023 Substantial revisions have been made to this paper in order to align with our newly published e-book The Final Prophet: Proofs for the Prophethood of Muhammad.

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For more on this topic, see Proofs of Prophethood

To download the new e-book, The Final Prophet: Proofs for the Prophethood of Muhammad, click here.
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Grantor of Mercy
Some of the greatest and most convincing testimonies to the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ are the numerous occasions on which he correctly predicted future events. Only one to whom God had granted access to the realm of the unseen could have, time and again, accurately foretold the future. This paper will seek to capture some of these predictions—all derived from Qur’anic verses and authentic hadith—and how each one of them came to pass, just as he ﷺ predicted.
Al-Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ (d. 1149) says, “This genre of hadith(s) is a bottomless ocean and an unending stream. They are one of his miracles which are undeniably established, transmitted to us by tawātur (abundant concurrence), due to their many narrators and the concordance of their meanings, all corroborating the fact that he ﷺ was privy to [some of] the unseen.”
 In this paper, we will take a dive into this ocean, exploring some of its wonders.

1. The Byzantines will rebound

From a desolate corner of the earth that had been largely unaffected by the power struggles of the world’s superpowers, the Qur’an boldly foretold the most unexpected events that would transpire between Persia and Byzantium in a few short years. “The Byzantines have been defeated. In the nearest land. But they, after their defeat, will overcome. Within three to nine years.”
 From 613-619, the Byzantines were decimated by the Persian Empire, losing the territories of Antioch, then Damascus, then Armenia, then their most cherished Jerusalem, then Chalcedon, and finally Egypt. In his book, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon says,
At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, no prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since the first twelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the empire.
Everyone saw Byzantium as being on its deathbed. Hence, opponents of the Prophet ﷺ like Ubayy ibn Khalaf mocked this “preposterous” foretelling in the Qur’an.
 However, not long after, Heraclius led the Byzantine Crusade like a dagger into the heart of the Persian Empire, fulfilling the amazing prophecy six to eight years after it was made.
The verses that immediately follow this prediction say, “The decision of the matter, before and after [these events], is only with Allah. And on that Day, the believers (i.e., Muslims) will rejoice in the victory of Allah.”
 Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalūsī (d. 1344) lists in al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ four reasons for this rejoicing, one of them being that the miraculous prophecy unfolding would further validate the Muslims’ belief in his prophethood. Another reason, which involves another prophecy, is that the Muslims would at that time find themselves celebrating their own victory: a long-awaited triumph against the Meccan oppressors in the Battle of Badr that happened in 624 as well.
 It suddenly becomes quite clear why God seals this chapter of the Qur’an (Sūrat al-Rūm) by saying, “So be patient. Indeed, the promise of Allah is truth. And let them not disquiet you who are not certain [in faith].”
Watch the Biblical Prophecies of the coming of the Prophet ﷺ below:

 

2. The abode of Abū Lahab

In the moments following the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ first public call to Islam, his own uncle, Abū Lahab, scoffed at and chastised him. In his defense, God immediately revealed, “May the hands of Abū Lahab be ruined, and ruined is he. His wealth will not avail him nor that which he gained. He will burn in a Fire of [blazing] flame.”
 It is astonishing that for the next nine years of Abū Lahab’s life, despite hearing these verses being recited, his pride prevented him from taking them as an opportunity to discredit the Qur’an. Had Abū Lahab simply converted, even disingenuously, that would have brought into serious question the truth of this Revelation. Of course, He who revealed this knew Abū Lahab would never do so.
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3. The globalization of Islam

Amidst the fiercest persecution and abuse that the Muslims faced in the earliest Meccan period, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would stand without wavering and convey to his followers God’s promise of Islam spreading all over the world. Tamīm al-Dārī (rA) reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“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.”

 

In another narration, reported by Thawbān (rA),

“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.”

 

The fact that these predictions were made at a time when Muslims were a powerless handful, and Islam was expected to be buried in its cradle, is nothing short of miraculous. At that point, presuming that the faith would even survive would have been considered by most to be a pipedream. That Islam would not just survive, but grow to thrive globally, was at that point inconceivable. We now find mosques on every inhabited continent, and even in remote places like Alaska and Hawaii. This truly complicates the argument that this hadith could have been fabricated after Islam had spread throughout the Mediterranean and Central Asia, considering it has spread so much farther since then. Millions of Muslims now reside in lands that were unknown when these prophecies were first made, such as the Americas and Australia, and Islam is on track to becoming by 2070 the religion with the most adherents on the planet.
 It is no longer difficult to imagine Europe organically becoming majority Muslim in another century. Islam has already grown remarkably there, with the mayor of London currently being a Muslim, and the Pew Research Center noting that Sweden could become 30% Muslim by 2050.
 In all this is a clear indication of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Islam inevitably becoming a leading global religion.
Explore the full infographic, The Prophecies of Muhammad ﷺ

4. Undeterred by time or distance

Regarding the night prior to the Battle of Badr, ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (rA) said, “The Prophet ﷺ showed us where those [enemies] at Badr would die. He would place his hand somewhere on the ground and say, ‘This is where so-and-so will die tomorrow, by God’s will, and this is where so-and-so will die.’ I swear by the One who sent him with the Truth, none of them fell anywhere other than exactly where the Prophet’s hand had touched.”
Anas ibn Mālik (rA) reported that, as the Battle of Mu’tah was taking place in Jordan, the Prophet ﷺ informed the people in Madinah of the martyrdom of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, Ja‘far ibn Abī Ṭālib, and ‘Abdullāh ibn Rawāḥah. Even though they were 600 miles away, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Zayd took the flag [as commander] and was killed, then Ja‘far took the flag and was killed, then Ibn Rawāḥah took the flag and was killed.” Anas describes that as the Prophet ﷺ was telling them this, “his eyes were shedding tears.” He ﷺ continued, “Then the flag was taken by one of God’s swords [Khālid ibn al-Walīd], and Allah made him victorious.”
 That army eventually returned to Madinah, with eyewitness accounts that matched exactly what the Prophet ﷺ had described.
Abū Ḥumayd al-Sā‘idī (rA) said, “When we reached Tabūk, the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘There will be a strong wind tonight and so no one should stand and whoever has a camel should fasten it.’ We fastened our camels, and then a strong wind did in fact blow at night, and a man stood up and was consequently blown away to a mountain called Ṭay’.”
Sahl ibn Sa‘d (rA) reports that as the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions returned to camp after a day of battle, he overheard people celebrating the valor of a man “who vanquished every enemy that faced him; none outdid him today.” To the shock of those present, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Rather, he will be in the Hellfire.” One man said, “I will shadow him,” and closely followed him at every turn. Soon thereafter, this man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “I testify that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah!” He ﷺ said, “Why [do you say] that?” He said, “The people were astounded when you said this man would be in the Hellfire, so I followed him until he was badly wounded and sought to hasten his death. He placed the handle of his sword on the ground and its tip between his chest, then leaned on it and killed himself.” Explaining that this mortal sin was an indicator of prior insincerity undetected by others, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“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

During the Battle of Tabūk, the Prophet ﷺ said to ‘Awf ibn Mālik (rA),

“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.”

Jerusalem was conquered five years after his death ﷺ, in the year 15 AH, followed by the plague of ‘Amwās in 18 AH which took the lives of many Companions. An unprecedented surplus of wealth was experienced during the caliphate of ‘Uthmān (rA), 23 AH, as a result of conquests on every front. As for the tribulation that would spare no Arab home, this took place following the assassination of ‘Uthmān, 37 AH, for it resulted in much dissent and disorder. As for the truce and scourge of the Byzantines, traditional scholars seem to agree that this is a prophecy about the end times.

6. Counting the conquests

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ foretold a multitude of Muslim conquests, including those of Rome, Persia, Egypt, Yemen, India, and Constantinople. None of these prophecies were described with equivocation, but rather with an air of absolute certainty.
Al-Barā’ ibn ‘Āzib (rA) reports that while digging the trench outside Madinah to repel an approaching army, a massive boulder obstructed them and no ax could break it. With time running out, and with people’s fears and hunger growing, the Prophet ﷺ walked over and picked up the ax. He said, “Bismillāh (In God’s name),” and hammered the boulder, reducing a chunk of it to rubble. He said, “Allāhu Akbar (God is Great)! I have been given the keys to Shām; I can see its red palaces at this very moment.” Then he shattered another chunk and said, “Allāhu Akbar! I have been given the keys to Persia; I can see Madain’s white palace.” Then he shattered the last chunk and said, “Allāhu Akbar! I have been given the keys to Yemen. By Allah, I can see the Gates of Sanaa at this very moment from here.”
Regarding Egypt, he ﷺ took its conquest for granted, knowing his Lord’s promise was true. Abū Dharr (rA) narrated: The Prophet ﷺ said:

“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].”

The Prophet ﷺ accurately spoke in the second person here, foretelling that none other than his personal Companions would conquer Egypt. Then he ﷺ instructed them to honor their peace treaty with the Egyptians and reminded them that their grandmother (Hagar; the mother of Ishmael) was from this land. In this same narration, Abū Dharr (rA) adds, “I witnessed ‘Abdul-Raḥmān ibn Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasanah and his brother, Rabī‘ah, disputing over the place of a brick, so I departed [from Egypt].”
Regarding Constantinople, presently called Istanbul, the Prophet ﷺ said that it would become a Muslim land nearly a millennium prior to that happening. ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr (rA) reports that, as they were once sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and writing, he ﷺ was asked, “Which city will be liberated first; Constantinople or Rome?” He said, “The city of Heraclius will be liberated first,”
 meaning Constantinople. An entire 800 years later, this great feat was accomplished by the Ottoman sultan, Muhammad al-Fātiḥ. In another hadith, “Constantinople will certainly be liberated, and how excellent a leader will its leader be, and how excellent an army that army will be.”
 Some scholars hold that this second hadith may refer to a second liberation of Constantinople which was also prophesied but has not yet taken place.

7. Security will prevail

‘Adī ibn Ḥātim (rA) narrates that prior to accepting Islam, “As I was with the Prophet ﷺ, a man came to him complaining of poverty, and then another came to him complaining of highway robbery. He ﷺ said, ‘O ‘Adī, have you seen al-Ḥīrah [in Iraq]?’ I said, ‘No, but I have been told about it.’ He said, ‘If you live long enough, you will see a woman travel on camel from al-Ḥīrah till she circles the Ka‘bah not fearing anyone but Allah.’ I said to myself, ‘Where then would the bandits of Ṭay’ be, who have pillaged these lands?’ He ﷺ continued, ‘And if you live long enough, the treasures of Chosroes, the son of Hurmuz, will be conquered.’ I said, ‘Chosroes, the son of Hurmuz?’ He confirmed, ‘[Yes], Chosroes, the son of Hurmuz. And if you live long enough, you will see a man walking out, hand filled with gold or silver, seeking someone to accept it but he will not find anyone to accept it.’ Later in his life, ‘Adī said, ‘I have in fact seen a woman travel on camel from al-Ḥīrah till she circled the Ka‘bah while not fearing anyone but Allah, and I was among those who conquered the treasures of Chosroes, the son of Hurmuz. And if you live long enough, you will see what the Prophet ﷺ—Abūl Qāsim—said regarding a man walking out, hand filled…’”
 Muslim historians document that the inability to find someone eligible to accept charity took place during the reign of the ‘Abbāsid caliph, ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz (d. 720).

8. The last emperors

When the Quraysh tribe embraced Islam, they feared being blocked from their trade routes to Shām and Iraq, since these territories were under Byzantine and Sassanid rule and both had rejected the call to Islam. Jābir ibn Samurah (rA) reports the Prophet ﷺ addressing this concern by reassuring Quraysh that those empires would soon vanish from both regions. He said,

“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.”

Imam al-Shāfi‘ī and al-Khaṭṭābī (d. 988) explained that this meant there would never be another Caesar in Greater Syria, nor any other Chosroes in Iraq (Sassanid Persia). Indeed, the final Chosroes who rose to power during the Prophet’s ﷺ life was Yazdegerd III (d. 651), and he indeed became the 38th and final king of the Sassanid Empire. The final Caesar during the Prophet’s ﷺ life was Heraclius (d. 641), and Byzantium did in fact collapse and lose Christendom’s holiest site of Jerusalem during his reign. After those individuals, neither empire maintained any presence in those two regions.

9. A whisper in his daughter’s ear

‘Āishah (rA) narrates, “As the Prophet ﷺ lay on his deathbed, with all of his wives present, his daughter Fāṭimah (rA) came forward, walking just as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would walk. He ﷺ received her, saying, ‘Welcome, my dear daughter.’ He then sat her down beside him and uttered a secret to her which caused Fāṭimah to weep. He then uttered another secret to her, making her laugh. I asked her what made her cry, but she said, ‘I would never disclose the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ secret.’ I had never seen a joy and grief so closely as I saw on that day, so I said to her when she wept, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ privileges you with his words, and not us, and then you weep?’ I asked her again what he said, but she responded, ‘I would never disclose the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ secret.’ When he ﷺ died, I asked her again, and she said he told her, ‘Gabriel used to review the Qur’an with me one time each year, and he reviewed it twice with me this year. I can only understand from this that my time has arrived, and you will be the first of my family to catch up with me.’ Fāṭimah said, ‘I cried at this, and so he discreetly said to me, ‘Are you not pleased to be the queen of the believers [in Paradise]?’ And that is what caused me to laugh.’”
 Imam al-Nawawī (d. 1277) points out that this is actually two prophecies in one. The first is that he ﷺ foretold that this sickness, and not any other illness before it, was a harbinger that his time had come, and that the young Fāṭimah—in her early twenties at that time—would die before any other member of his family.

10. The longest arm

‘Āishah (rA) also narrates that when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was presented with the question, “Which of your wives will be reunited with you first [in the hereafter]?” he ﷺ responded, “The fastest of you in catching up with me will be the one with the longest arm among you.” Due to that statement, ‘Āishah (rA) reports that his wives used to speculate, and even measure against the wall, which wife had the longest arm. Sawadah bint Zam‘ah (rA) was the tallest of them, but when Zaynab bint Jaḥsh (rA) died first, they realized “longest arm” meant most charitable. ‘Āishah (rA) says, “Zaynab had the longest arm among us, because she used to work with her hands and donate from her earnings.”

11. The martyrdom of ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān

Abū Mūsā al-Ash‘arī (rA) said, “I was with the Prophet ﷺ in one of the gardens in Madinah, then a man came and requested that the door be opened. The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Open it for him, and give him the glad tidings of Paradise.’ I opened for him, and it turned out to be Abū Bakr, so I gave him the glad tidings of what the Prophet ﷺ had said. He praised Allah, and later another man came and requested that the door be opened. The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Open it for him, and give him the glad tidings of Paradise.’ I opened for him, and it turned out to be ‘Umar, so I gave him the glad tidings of what the Prophet ﷺ had said. He praised Allah, and later another man came and requested that the door be opened. He ﷺ said, ‘Open it for him, and give him the glad tidings of Paradise due to a calamity that befalls him.’ It turned out to be ‘Uthmān, so I informed him of what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had said. He praised Allah, and then he said, ‘Allah is sought for help.’”
 In another narration, Anas ibn Mālik (rA) reported that when the Prophet ﷺ ascended Mount Uḥud along with Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthmān, the mountain shook beneath them. The Prophet ﷺ tapped it with his foot and said, “Be firm, Uḥud, for upon you are none other than a Prophet, a ṣiddīq, and two martyrs.”
 Both ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān attained martyrdom by being assassinated during their respective caliphates. With ‘Uthmān in particular, the Prophet ﷺ gave further details: “O ‘Uthmān, Allah—the Mighty and Majestic—may garb you in a shirt. If the hypocrites demand that you remove it, do not remove it until you meet me.”
 It was this very accusation, that ‘Uthmān was unfit to “wear that shirt” (i.e., don the caliphate), that the mobs repeated before laying siege to and then storming his house and killing him.

12. Inevitable infighting

Sa‘d ibn Abī Waqqāṣ (rA) narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ once visited the mosque of Banū Mu‘āwiyah. “He ﷺ entered, performed two units of prayer, which we prayed with him, and then he invoked his Lord for a long time. Then, he ﷺ turned to us and said,

‘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.’”

 

In another narration,

“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

Abū Rāfi‘ (rA) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said to ‘Alī, “There will be an issue between you and ‘Āishah.” He said, “Me, O Messenger of Allah?!” He said, “Yes.” He said, “Me?!” He said, “Yes.” He said, “Then, in that case, I would be the worst person ever.” He said, “No. But when this occurs, return her to her safe quarters.”
 Just prior to her clash with ‘Alī (rA), when ‘Āishah (rA) heard dogs barking near Basra at a place called Ḥaw’ab, she said, “Perhaps I must return home, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to us (his wives), ‘Which one of you will be barked at by the dogs of Ḥaw’ab?’”
 Hopeful that her presence would effect a resolution, and that this was only a prophecy and not a prohibition, ‘Āishah (rA) decided not to abort her journey.

14. The fate of ‘Ammār

Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī (rA) narrated that, as the Muslims were building the mosque in Madinah, ‘Ammār ibn Yāsir (rA) would carry two bricks at a time while others lifted one. When the Prophet ﷺ saw him, he began wiping the dust off ‘Ammār with his hands and said, “Woe to ‘Ammār, who will be killed by the transgressing party! He will be inviting them to Paradise, and they will be inviting him to the Fire.” To that, ‘Ammār replied, “We seek refuge with Allah from the trials.”
 Three decades after that prophecy, when the Battle of Ṣiffīn took place, ‘Ammār was killed by the army of Shām who transgressed against the Muslim ruler, ‘Alī, while seeking to avenge the murdered caliph, ‘Uthmān. Interestingly, the army of Shām did not claim that this hadith had been fabricated, but rather argued that those who called him to fight were the “transgressing party” ultimately responsible for his death. This substantiates that forging hadith was unfathomable by the Companions, and thus, they did not question the authenticity of the prophecy and only differed on how to interpret it. Finally, moments before the Battle of Ṣiffīn, some milk was passed to ‘Ammār (rA) which caused him to smile. He said, “The Prophet ﷺ told me that the last thing I would drink before dying would be some milk.”
 Then he rose to meet the promise of his Prophet ﷺ and fought until his death.

15. ‘Alī suppressing the Khārijites

In another foretelling of this turbulent period, Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī (rA) narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “A dissenting faction will splinter at a time of disunity between the Muslims, and they will be fought by the more correct of the two parties.”
 Again, it was the army of Kufa (led by ‘Alī), not Shām (led by Mu‘āwiyah), who fought the Khārijite rebels at Nahrawān in 37 AH, making them the “more correct” and non-transgressing party. Regarding the roots of the Khārijites, the Prophet ﷺ was once accused by a hypocrite known as Dhul Khuwayṣirah of inequity. The Prophet ﷺ told those seeking to punish this man for his insult,

“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.”

The narrator, Abū Sa‘īd (rA), adds, “I testify that I heard this hadith directly from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I testify that ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib fought them, and that I was with him. He instructed us to search for this man. He was eventually found and brought to ‘Alī, and I saw that that man appeared exactly as the Prophet ﷺ had described him.”

16. Repairing the rift

Abū Bakrah al-Thaqafī (rA) narrated that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ brought his grandson al-Ḥasan (rA) out one day and ascended with him to the pulpit. Then, he ﷺ said, “This son of mine is a chief, and perhaps Allah will use him to reconcile between two factions of Muslims.”
 In truth, al-Ḥasan singlehandedly mended a long and tragic split between the Muslims of Kufa and those of Shām upon becoming caliph, by abdicating his caliphate to Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān (rA). In doing so, he unified two great factions of believers and allowed the progress of Islam to regain its momentum for decades. The Prophet ﷺ also foretold that, at this precise point, the Muslim nation would transition from a caliphate to a monarchy. “The caliphate will be for thirty years, then there will be a monarchy after that.”
 Abū Bakr ruled for approximately two years, then ‘Umar for ten, then ‘Uthmān for twelve, then ‘Alī for five, before al-Ḥasan within months abdicated it to Mu‘āwiyah who founded the Omayyad dynasty. Ibn al-‘Arabī (d. 1148) says, “And the promise of the Truthful ﷺ came to pass… [the period of the caliphate] neither exceeded nor fell short a day, so glory be to the All-Encompassing; there is no other Lord but He.”

17. Cycling back to virtue is promised

In an explicit hadith about the forms of governance the Muslim nation would experience, Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (rA) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Prophethood will remain amongst you for as long as Allah wishes. Then Allah will remove it whenever He wishes to remove it, and there will be a caliphate upon the prophetic methodology. It will last for as long as Allah wishes it to last, then Allah will remove it whenever He wishes to remove it. Then there will be an abiding dynasty, and it will remain for as long as Allah wishes it to remain. Then Allah will remove it whenever He wishes to remove it. Then there will be an enforced monarchy, and it will remain for as long as Allah wishes it to remain. Then He will remove it whenever He wishes to remove it, and then there will be a caliphate upon the prophetic methodology.”

18. Asmā’ sends a tyrant home

For confronting the tyranny of al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, ‘Abdullāh ibn al-Zubayr (rA) was crucified in front of the Sacred House in Mecca, and his body was thrown into the graveyard of the Jews. Then al-Ḥajjāj marched to his mother’s house, ‘Asmā’ bint Abī Bakr (rA), the Prophet’s ﷺ sister-in-law. He said to her, “What do you think of what I have just done to the enemy of Allah?” referring to her son, ‘Abdullāh ibn al-Zubayr. Though al-Ḥajjāj was trying to strike fear in her heart, lest a person of her position inspire more rebellion, this was a woman strengthened by a prophecy she had heard directly from the Prophet’s ﷺ lips. Her response was, “I think you have destroyed his worldly life by destroying your own afterlife… The Messenger of Allah ﷺ has certainly told us that emerging from Thaqīf would be a liar and a murderer. The liar we have seen, and as far as the murderer is concerned, I have no doubt that you are him.” Without saying a single word, al-Ḥajjāj rose and exited in disgrace.
 Hadith commentators agree that the liar from Thaqīf was al-Mukhtār ibn Abī ‘Ubayd, who claimed prophethood.

19. Umm Ḥarām’s date with destiny

Umm Ḥarām bint Malḥān (rA) heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “The first army from my nation to ride the sea have guaranteed themselves [Paradise].” Umm Ḥarām said, “O Messenger of Allah, will I be among them?” He said, “You will be among them.” Later, he ﷺ said, “The first army from my nation to march in battle to the City of Caesar (Constantinople) will be forgiven.” She said, “Will I be among them, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “No.”
 During the reign of Mu‘āwiyah (rA), Umm Ḥarām rode in the first Muslim naval fleet, accompanying her husband, and died upon falling off her mount in enemy lands.
 Imam al-Ṭabarānī and others report that the whereabouts of her gravesite on Cyprus Island were known.
 Ibn Ḥajar said,

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

Just as the Qur’an describes Jesus telling others about the secrets they concealed in the depths of their homes,
 it was common for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to address the inner thoughts of those he interacted with. For instance, Wābiṣah ibn Ma‘bad (rA) narrated: I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he said, “You came to ask about righteousness and sin?” I said, “Yes.” He ﷺ closed his hand, tapped my chest, and said, “Consult your heart. Consult your heart. Consult your heart. Sin is what discomforts your soul and wavers in your chest, even if the people continue to advise you otherwise.”
 Similarly, ‘Āishah (rA), the Prophet’s wife, reports that he ﷺ once told her, “You will either tell me, or the Most Subtle, the Most Acquainted, will inform me… Did you think that Allah and His Messenger would shortchange you?” She responded, “Whatever people conceal, Allah knows... Yes, indeed.”
 Imam al-Nawawī comments that all the manuscripts attribute “Yes, indeed” to ‘Āishah (rA). In other words, it was not an inquiry which the Prophet ﷺ responded to in the affirmative, so it was as if she was agreeing with herself about the reality she had just attested to.

21. An unforgettable sermon

Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (rA) and ‘Amr ibn Akhṭab (rA) report that the Prophet ﷺ once delivered a sermon from dawn until sunset, in which he mentioned all the major events that would take place between then and the Day of Resurrection. Ḥudhayfah (rA) says that he sometimes forgot parts of it, until he saw those events unfold before his very eyes.

22. The emergence of selective textualism

Miqdām ibn Ma‘d Karib (rA) reports that the Prophet ﷺ said,

“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.”

 

To this day, there continue to arise different groups of people who attempt to delegitimize the Sunnah (prophetic tradition) in order to avoid the definitive interpretations it provides of the Qur’an.

23. A horrific wildfire

Abū Hurayrah (rA) narrates that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said,

“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).”

As scholars such as Ibn Ḥajar, Ibn Kathīr, and al-Nawawī all confirm, this enormous fire erupted in the city of Madinah on Friday, 5th of Jumādah Thāni, 654 AH, and lasted for an entire month. The great historian, Abū Shāmah, experienced it firsthand and documented much of its details, including its visibility from hundreds of miles away, and how the Madinans sought refuge in the Prophet’s Mosque and collectively repented from the vices they had been engaging in. Historical records seem to indicate that this was a volcanic eruption, and the lava fields around Madinah remain observable today.

24. Prosperity and hedonism before the end times

Abū Hurayrah (rA) reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“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.”

While acknowledging earlier manifestations of this prophecy about unprecedented affluence, current lifestyles in today’s “first world” illustrate that they live in greater luxury than 99.9% of recorded human history. Even those financially struggling enjoy recliners at home that are cozier than any ancient king’s royal throne, and climate controls on their walls, and access to modes of transport that have turned an excruciating month-long journey into a few entertaining hours. Perhaps even more intriguing is the Prophet ﷺ mentioning the agricultural transformation of Arabia in the same context as the surplus of wealth. Fourteen centuries ago, the extensive irrigation methods recently invented through modern technology were inconceivable. We are the very first generations privileged to witness this geological phenomenon.
 Furthermore, a related miracle here is the Prophet’s ﷺ awareness that Arabia once contained meadows and rivers. The petrified mud of Arabia’s “Empty Quarter” is replete with hippopotamus teeth, buffalo bones, and clam shells fossilized thousands of years ago.
Explore the full infographic, The Prophecies of Muhammad ﷺ 

25. Competing in materialism

Regarding how material prosperity will be a sign of the end times, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “And if you see the barefoot, naked shepherds of camels competing in the construction of high-rise buildings, then this is from among the signs of the Hour.”
 Is it not remarkable to witness the arid desert regions of the Gulf States, as impoverished as they were a century ago, develop two of the world’s three tallest “skyscraper” buildings today?
In a similar hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The Hour will not commence before people boast of their mosques.” Ibn ‘Abbās (rA), the narrator, added, “You will ornament your mosques just as the Jews and Christians did with their temples.”
 This intense competition will involve mistreatment of others, and thus we find parallel prophecies of hedonism and exploitation in the prophetic tradition as well. In the hadith of al-Miswar ibn Makhramah (rA), he ﷺ said, “By Allah, I do not fear poverty overtaking you, but I fear that you will have abundant wealth at your disposal like the nations before you, causing you to compete in it as they competed in it, and then it destroys you as it destroyed them.”

26. The unavoidability of ribā (interest)

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ also foretold that ribā, which is one of the most unethical and exploitative transactions, would become inescapable. Abū Hurayrah (rA) reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “A time will come over the people when they will consume ribā.” They asked him, “All of them?” He said, “Whoever does not consume it will still be reached by its dust.”
 Whether for purchasing a property or vehicle, or simply for developing credit in today’s world, interest-bearing clauses have permeated every dimension of contemporary financial dealings. There is also the sheer amount of interest in modern banking that entangles us all. For instance, the deposits in our checking accounts are loaned out by the bank to make more money for itself, and the bonuses we receive on credit card rewards are partly funded by the interest paid by other customers. Also, the government consistently runs a deficit, which is in turn paid for with debts, meaning that the government services we utilize, even just driving on a highway, are thus paid for by interest. This prophecy astounds a person further when they recall that the absolute prohibition of interest already existed in medieval Christianity, and so the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ must have seen beyond this presumed safeguard against the extreme proliferation of interest in the world.

27. An increase in brutality and killing

When greed causes people to see other people’s wealth as violable, seeing their lives that way is simply the next step. Thus, the Prophet ﷺ said,

“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.”

The past century has seen atrocities in modern warfare, cycles of genocide, abusive policing, and senseless violence at large, that are incomparable anywhere in human history and all traceable to selfish interests. Only Allah knows whether this is that prophecy manifesting, or simply a precursor to eras of even worse senseless violence which the Prophet ﷺ also foretold.
Abū Hurayrah (rA) narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “By the One in whose hand is my soul, this world will not end until a day comes when the killer has no idea why he killed, nor the killed why he was killed.” It was said, “How will that be?” He said, “Chaos.”
 In another hadith, “The Hour will not commence until knowledge is removed, earthquakes become frequent, time narrows, turmoil surfaces, and anarchy increases—namely killing, lots of killing.”
 As for knowledge becoming scarce, one can ask themselves what the average “believer” knows about their religion, and what mayhem people often have to navigate on the internet when searching for basic facts, due to personalized algorithms that confirm each of our biases, bury unwelcome truths, and subject us to targeted marketing campaigns. As for the narrowing of time, today’s ubiquity of entertainment and consumerism has “time flying” between the gadgets and devices that are engineered to distract. As for the carnage, again, the twentieth century has been the bloodiest in human history even without the recent and ongoing nightmares in Latin America, neocolonial Africa, the Balkans, Middle East, and China; World War I alone claimed the lives of 65 million people and World War II another 72 million.

28. The plunge into immorality

Abū Hurayrah (rA) narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said that there will emerge in the future “women who are clothed yet naked, walking with an enticing gait, with something on their heads that looks like the humps of camels, leaning to one side. They will never enter Paradise or even smell its fragrance, although its fragrance can be detected from such and such a distance.”
 Is it not remarkable how he not only foretold their provocative dress, but even predicted women’s hairstyles? The Prophet ﷺ also stated that even Muslim communities would participate in some of these trends. “There will be in the end of my nation men who ride chariots who are in reality pseudo-men; they will drop off their women, at the gates of the mosques, who are clothed and yet naked. Upon their heads will be the likes of a lean camel’s hump.”
 While this occurred in the past as well, as al-Nawawī asserts about his own premodern society, it is even less difficult now to find a Muslim man who is protective of what brand of “chariot” he rides and its “horse-power” but not protective of his women and their revealing attire in public.
‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (rA) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ also predicted the consequences of a hypersexualized popular culture; “And fornication never becomes prevalent among a people, to the degree that they practice it openly, except that epidemics become rampant among them which had never before existed in their ancestors.”
 The link between sexual permissiveness and sexually transmitted diseases is not something any sensible person in our times can deny. Perhaps the unhinged pursuit of sexual gratification without liability is behind this next prophecy as well; “A woman will one day be taken and have her abdomen cut open, then what is inside her womb will be taken and discarded, out of fear of having children.”
 According to an extensive survey published in Guttmacher Institute Journal, the “fear of dramatic life changes” is by far the most common reason for abortions today, with more than half of those surveyed citing single motherhood as the reason for that fear.
 Another remarkable presumption in this hadith is that, one day, removing a fetus from the womb will be without much risk to the mother. This has only been possible recently in human history and would have been extremely dangerous in the recent past. For this reason, a Cesarean section was usually not performed in history except on a dead or dying mother.
Finally, ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr (rA) narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The Hour will not commence until people mate in the streets just as donkeys mate.” I asked, “Will that really happen?” He said, “Yes, it most certainly will happen.”
 Though this was stated as one of the last signs before the Day of Judgment, following major apocalyptic events, many of our modern cultures are clearly moving towards that degree of shamelessness, if not experiencing it already.

29. Muslims becoming easy prey

The Prophet ﷺ also prophesied that carnal pursuits would not only infect his nation but would be the cause of their downfall and devastation. Thawbān (rA) reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The nations will soon invite one another to devour you, just as diners are invited to a dish.” It was said, “Will it be because of our small number on that day?” He said, “No, rather you will be many on that day, but you will be weightless foam, like the foam on the river. And Allah will remove the fear of you from the hearts of your enemies and will cast weakness into your hearts.” Someone said, “O Messenger of Allah, what will this weakness be?” He said, “The love of this world, and the hatred of death.”
 It is incredible how one century ago, King Leopold of Belgium very famously referred to his colonial ambitions as “this magnificent African cake,” which the European powers carved at will during the Berlin Conference of 1884. A person can easily find the many political cartoons of that day conceptualizing this conference in food terms, almost exactly like the hadith above had stated.
Cartoon depicting Leopold II and other imperial powers at the Berlin Conference 1884. (Artist: Francois Marechal)
This was in part due to King Leopold’s metaphor, but also because the attendees were only there to formalize the divisions of Africa, fully confident that the large and resourceful continent could not hold its weight in any meaningful resistance to their ravenous greed and imperial appetite.
Reinforcing this point, Anas ibn Mālik (rA) narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Once my nation considers five things permissible, then destruction will befall them: when cursing one another appears, wine is drunk, silk is worn, musical instruments are played, and men suffice themselves with men and women suffice themselves with women.”
 Certainly, Muslims today are not insulated from the ideologies that accept same-sex acts. This is even imaginable for a practicing, mosque-attending Muslim, if they allow their religiosity to be reduced to a cultural identity, as the Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith narrated by ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr (rA), “An age will surely come when people gather and pray in the mosques, while there is not a single believer amongst them.”

30. The immortality of his nation

In a multitude of reports, the Prophet ﷺ declared, “There will never cease to be a group from my nation victorious upon the truth, unharmed by those who will oppose them, until Allah’s decree comes to pass.”
 So many religions have come and gone, and yet he ﷺ boldly expressed that despite all the corruption and moral degradation, true believers in Islam will endure. Even when the adversity involved in preserving Islam will be tantamount to “grasping onto a burning coal,”
 Muslims will always exist who value their faith over their lives, and hence the Prophet ﷺ further described them in another hadith by saying, “The Hour will not commence until a man passes by the grave of his brother and says, ‘I wish I were in his place.’”
 Ibn Baṭṭāl (d. 1057) explains that this will not be due to any suicidal ideation, but rather an anxiety that the prevalent evils and the strength of their adversaries may cost them their religion.

31. Never thought you would speak

Abū Sa’īd al-Khudrī (rA) reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “By the One in whose hand is my soul, the Hour will not commence until predators speak to people, and until the tip of a man’s whip and the straps on his sandals speak to him, and his thigh informs him of what occurred with his family after he left.”
 One can only imagine how difficult these statements were for a seventh-century desert dweller to process, but the incredible strides in electricity and electronics since then have made such possibilities mundane for most people. In TIME’s Best Inventions of 2002, a Japanese toy-maker is showcased for creating a dog translator; a device on its collar that interprets its yelps, growls, and whines into phrases such as “I can’t stand it,” “How boring,” and “I am lonely.”
 In November of 2006, The New York Times published an article entitled “These Shoes Are Made for Talking,” hailing a new age of futuristic sports training.
 In January of 2010, a security camera app was released that transformed the smart-phones on our hips and in our pockets into windows into our homes.
 Another example is our ability to video chat with family members from afar. Perhaps these are what the Prophet ﷺ intended, or perhaps other phenomena that we have yet to experience.
For the sake of brevity, we will settle for this set of verified prophecies of God’s final prophet, Muhammad ﷺ. It is noteworthy, however, that although the Prophet ﷺ described so many portents of the end times, he never specified an exact date or time. Rather, he would on multiple occasions recite to people the likes of these verses from the Qur’an: “Say, [O Muhammad], ‘None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen except Allah, and they do not perceive when they will be resurrected.’”
 Someone can argue that this too constitutes another prophecy, namely that every specific prediction about when the Final Hour will be—which countless people have made throughout history—will be mistaken. Any fair-minded person who considers the staggering number of these prophecies, and reflects that we ourselves 50 years ago could never have predicted the events he ﷺ predicted, must be impressed by them. Given the number and precision of these prophecies, they must be seen for what they are: overwhelmingly convincing proofs of his prophethood ﷺ.
 

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).

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