Section: Intangible Proofs
Among the intangible proofs are his ﷺ pristine manners, his perfect disposition, his courage and forbearance, his generosity and detachment from the world, his contentment and self-sacrifice, his gracious companionship, his truthfulness and trustworthiness, his piety and worship, and the nobility of his lineage. Equally telling are the purity of his birth, his upbringing, and the environment in which he was raised—points we have already discussed at length in their proper places.
Most striking, too, is what our teacher, the eminent scholar Abū al-ʿAbbās Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—set down in his book refuting the various sects among Christians, Jews, and their counterparts from the People of the Book and others. At the close of that work he enumerated the proofs of prophethood, following excellent, sound, and fruitful lines of reasoning in eloquent language that compels the assent of anyone who reflects upon it.
At the end of the aforementioned book he wrote:
“Section: The Prophet’s ﷺ life, his character, his words, and his deeds are among his signs—that is, among the evidences of his prophethood. His Sacred Law is among his signs, his community is among his signs, their religion is among his signs, and the extraordinary favors shown to the righteous of his community are among his signs. This becomes plain when one studies his biography from the moment he was born until he was commissioned, and from the time he was commissioned until he passed away, and when one contemplates his lineage, his homeland, and his ancestry in full.”
For he was of the noblest lineage on earth, descending from the pure line of Abraham, in whose progeny Allah placed prophethood and scripture; after Abraham no prophet appeared except from his descendants. Allah granted Abraham two sons—Ishmael and Isaac—both mentioned in the Torah, which also foretold what would come from the line of Ishmael. Of Ishmael’s descendants none fulfilled what earlier revelations had promised except him, and Abraham prayed that a Messenger from among them be raised up.
Thus the Messenger ﷺ was of Quraysh, the elect of Abraham’s children; within Quraysh he belonged to Banū Hāshim, the elect of Quraysh; and he hailed from Mecca, the Mother of Cities, the land of the Sacred House that Abraham built and summoned humanity to visit. That House has been the object of pilgrimage since Abraham’s time and is lauded in the scriptures of the Prophets in the finest terms.
He ﷺ enjoyed the most perfect upbringing and nurture. He was ever known for truthfulness, benevolence, justice, noble character, and abstention from lewdness, oppression, and every blameworthy trait—attested to by all who knew him before his prophethood and by both those who believed in him and those who disbelieved thereafter. Nothing blameworthy was ever known of him—not in word, deed, or temperament. Never was a lie attributed to him, nor any act of injustice or indecency.
His physical appearance ﷺ was among the finest and most complete, gathering together every attractive quality that indicates perfection. He was unlettered, born among an unlettered people; neither he nor they possessed the knowledge found among the People of the Book of the Torah and the Gospel. He had read none of mankind’s sciences, nor sat with those who possessed them, and he made no claim to prophethood until Allah perfected for him forty years of life—whereupon he brought forth a matter more wondrous than all else.