From Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Every prophet was given signs by which people believed, yet what I have been given is only a revelation that Allah has sent down to me; therefore I hope to have the greatest number of followers on the Day of Resurrection.”(1)

What this means is that every prophet received extraordinary marvels that ought to bring to faith all who possess insight and sound reason, though not those mired in obstinacy and misery. As for what I have been granted—that is, the bulk, the most tremendous and resplendent of it—it is the Qur’an which Allah revealed to him. It neither perishes nor disappears as the miracles of earlier prophets did when their days ended; theirs can no longer be witnessed and are known only through mass or solitary reports. By contrast, the Glorious Qur’an is a continuous, mutawātir miracle transmitted from him, enduring after him and audible to anyone who lends an attentive ear while present.

In the section on the Prophet’s distinctive qualities we have already mentioned what sets the Messenger of Allah ﷺ apart from his brother-prophets, as is authentically reported in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stated:

“I have been given five things that were not granted to anyone before me: I have been helped by awe for a distance of one month’s travel; the earth has been made for me a place of prayer and a means of purification, so wherever a man of my community finds the time for prayer, let him pray; spoils of war have been made lawful for me, whereas they were never lawful for anyone before me; I have been granted intercession; and while each prophet was sent only to his own people, I have been sent to all mankind.”(2)

We have already discussed this and similar traditions earlier in sufficient detail—praise be to Allah.

More than one scholar has remarked that every miracle granted to any prophet is, in reality, a miracle for their seal, Muḥammad ﷺ, because each of them foretold his mission and commanded their followers to obey him, as Allah the Exalted says:

“And [recall] when Allah took the covenant of the prophets: ‘Whatever I give you of Scripture and wisdom, then there comes to you a messenger confirming what you have—you must believe in him and support him.’ He said, ‘Do you affirm and accept My binding word on that?’ They said, ‘We affirm.’ He said, ‘Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses. Whoever then turns away after that—those are the defiantly disobedient.’” (Āl ʿImrān 81–82)

Al-Bukhārī and others relate from Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—that he said: “Allah did not send any prophet without first taking from him the covenant and pledge that, if Muḥammad were sent during his lifetime, he would believe in him, follow him, and support him; and He likewise commanded that prophet to take the same pledge from his nation: that, should Muḥammad be sent while they were alive, they would believe in him and support him.”(3)

Several scholars have further stated that the extraordinary gifts bestowed upon the friends of Allah (awliyā’) are themselves miracles of the prophets, for a saint attains such favors only by the blessing of following his prophet and through the reward of his faith in that prophet.

What prompted me to compose this chapter is that I came across a work on the Prophet’s birth which its author had abridged from the Sīrah of Imām Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār and other sources—namely, our shaykh, the eminent scholar, the Shaykh of Islam, Kamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Maʿālī Muḥammad ibn…