in his whip. One night he set out before dawn on horseback; when he reached the graveyard he nodded off and said, “I saw every inhabitant of a grave sitting upon his grave. They said, ‘This is Muṭarrif coming for Friday.’ I asked them, ‘Do you know among you the day of Friday?’ They answered, ‘Yes, and we also know what the birds say on it.’ I said, ‘What do the birds say?’ They replied, ‘Lord, grant safety, grant safety; it is a blessed day.’” (1)

As for his—upon him be peace—supplication against them for the Flood, which some say was a sweeping death, and for the signs that followed, the years of drought and barrenness: these were only so that they might return to obeying him and desist from opposing him, but it did nothing except increase them in grievous rebellion. Allah the Exalted said:

“We showed them no sign but that it was greater than the one that preceded it; yet We seized them with punishment so that they might return. (48) They said, ‘O sorcerer! Call upon your Lord for us by the covenant He has made with you; we shall surely accept guidance.’” [43:48–49]

And He said:

“They said, ‘Whatever sign you may bring us to bewitch us thereby, we will never believe in you.’ (132) So We sent upon them the flood, the locusts, the lice, the frogs and the blood—signs expounded in detail—yet they waxed proud and were a criminal people. (133) When the scourge fell upon them they said, ‘O Moses, pray to your Lord for us by the covenant He has made with you. If you lift this scourge from us, we will surely believe in you and will surely send with you the Children of Israel.’ (134) But when We removed the scourge from them for a term they were bound to reach, they broke their word. (135) So We exacted vengeance on them and drowned them in the sea, because they had rejected Our signs and were heedless of them.” [7:132–136]

Likewise, when the people of Quraysh persisted in their defiance, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ invoked seven years of drought upon them like the seven of Joseph. They were afflicted until they ate whatever they could find, and one of them would look toward the sky and see something like smoke between himself and it from hunger.

Ibn Masʿūd explained Allah’s statement, “So watch for the Day when the sky will bring forth manifest smoke” [44:10] as referring to that famine, as al-Bukhārī narrated from him in several places of his Ṣaḥīḥ. (2)

They then sought his intercession—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—by virtue of their kinship with him, for he had been sent as a mercy and compassion. He prayed for them; the affliction ceased, the punishment was lifted, and they revived after having been on the brink of destruction.

As for the splitting of the sea for Moses (upon him be peace) when Allah, exalted is He, commanded him—once the two hosts faced each other—to strike the sea with his staff, whereupon it parted and each side rose like a towering mountain, that was a tremendous, dazzling miracle and an unassailable, overwhelming proof. We have discussed it at length in the Tafsīr and in the Stories of the Prophets section of this book. (3)

When he ﷺ pointed with his noble hand toward the moon in the sky and it split into two halves—exactly as Quraysh had asked of him while they were sitting with him on the night of the full moon—that was an even greater sign, a more auspicious indication, the clearest evidence and the most brilliant proof of his prophethood and his standing with Allah.