[Section: Six Principal Paths for Reaching Certainty about the Prophethood of Muhammad, peace be upon him]

Concerning the ways by which it is demonstrated that these reports convey sure knowledge.

Some of these reports are contained in the Quran itself, while others are mass-transmitted (mutawātir) and known alike to the common folk and to scholars: water springing from between his fingers; the multiplication of food; the moaning of the palm-trunk; and similar events. Each of these matters is supported by numerous, mutually corroborating reports that have spread far and wide. The ummah has passed them down generation after generation, later Muslims receiving them from earlier ones. There is no stratum of the community in which these signs are not transmitted, famous, and widely circulated; in fact, they are narrated by more people than those who relate many passages of the Quran. More members of the ummah have heard and transmitted these signs than have transmitted a large number of Quranic verses, or have reported that he, peace be upon him, performed the two prostrations of forgetfulness in prayer, or have conveyed the legal thresholds and obligations of zakāh—indeed, even the fixed times and rakʿahs of the daily prayers are chiefly widespread because of continual practical observance.

In contrast, these prophetic signs have been reported by more transmitters than those who have related the prayer times when one considers the specific, identified reports. This is because many of the Messenger’s signs occurred in the presence of vast assemblies, who beheld the miracles with their own eyes—just as the people of al-Ḥudaybiyyah, one thousand five hundred in number, witnessed water gush from between his fingers and the sudden appearance of abundant water