Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was the final prophet sent from God. There are many signs of his truthfulness. This section shall give evidence that Prophet Muhammad is a prophet sent from God with the message of Islam.
State of Arabia before Islam
The best description of the result of the call of Prophet Muhammad is what Jaafar ibn Abi Taleb, one of his disciples, said when he was asked by the Negus of Abyssinia about Islam. He said:
“O King, we were a people in a state of ignorance and immorality, worshipping idols and eating the flesh of dead animals, committing all sorts of abomination and shameful deeds. Breaking the ties of kinship, treating guests badly and the strong among us exploited the weak.”
Call of Prophet Muhammad
So here Jaafar is telling about how Arabia was living in a corrupt and unjust state. Then he talks about Prophet Muhammad ﷺ saying:
“We remained in this state until Allah sent us a Prophet, one of our own people whose lineage, truthfulness, trustworthiness and integrity were well-known to us. He called us to worship Allah alone and to renounce the stones and the idols which we and our ancestors used to worship besides Allah.”
“He commanded us to speak the truth, to honor our promises, to be kind to our relations, to be helpful to our neighbors, to cease all forbidden acts, to abstain from bloodshed, to avoid obscenities and false witness, not to consume orphan’s properties by combining them with ours nor slander chaste women.”
The normal consequence for this call is that many people began to believe in Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and his call was highly accepted by many people. But at the same time, those who had interest to leave the current situation as it is began to fight him. They began to spread rumors on him that he is a magician. They said that he came to disturb the community, create unrest by his calls and that he is rebelling against the traditions of the society. Then they began to torture him and his followers by different means of torture. But still the people believing in him were still increasing.
Did Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Invent Islam for Leadership or Money?
When the people believing in Prophet Muhammad ﷺ kept on increasing, the leaders who opposed him gave an appealing offer to stop his call:
“If you want money, we shall give you money. If you want to be a king, we shall make you our king. If you want women, we shall give you women.”
If Prophet Muhammad ﷺ wanted money or authority through his people, would he reject this appealing offer? The case is that he rejected this offer, because he wasn’t interested in any of them. He came to save people from polytheism and from Hell not to have money or power or whatever pleases people in this life.
Another Arab tribe gave him another appealing offer:
“We shall help you against your people, who fought you, and we will make you our leader and you can spread Islam the way you want on condition that we shall succeed you after you die.”
If Prophet Muhammad ﷺ really wanted authority and leadership through his call, he won’t have been concerned with what shall happen after his death. But the answer of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was clear:
“The whole affair is in the hands of Allah who shall give power to whom He likes“.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ refused all the offers that may give him advantage and authority in this world on the expense of the call to Islam. He stood against tortures, rumors and intimidation and never lost his trust in God because he didn’t seek any advantage in this world. He was only seeking the pleasure of God.
Although Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was the leader of the whole Arabia before his death and he could have lived a very wealthy life, his life was very simple. His wife Aisha (May Allah be pleased with her) reported:
When Messenger of Allah ﷺ died, his armor was mortgaged with a Jew for some barley.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was Keen on Saving People
The aim of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was to save all people from Hell. He wasn’t only calling people who shall give him authority or who can help him, but he called the weak and the poor. He called even people who were dying and whom he knows they won’t help him at all, but he just wanted to save them from Hell before they die. Also it is noticed that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ didn’t force him on Islam when he was serving him. This is Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and this is his call.
A young man from among the Jews used to serve the Messenger of Allahﷺ. The boy became sick, and the Prophet ﷺ came to visit him when he was on his deathbed. He called him to Islam, and the boy looked at his father, who was standing by his head. His father said, “Listen to Abul Qaasim (Prophet Muhammad ﷺ).”. So the boy became Muslim, then he died. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came away from him saying, “Praise be to Allah who has saved him from the Hellfire.” (Ahmad)
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s life can’t be told that briefly in a single page, since it’s really a life full of events. When someone reads about Muhammad ﷺ, he shall love him and appreciate him. This is a pdf format for the book “This is Muhammad”. It can be downloaded here.
This post is also available in: French Spanish
