…he said, “Allah has never sent a prophet without first exacting from him the covenant that, should Muhammad be commissioned while that prophet is still alive, he will assuredly believe in him, follow him, and come to his aid—and He further ordered each prophet to take the same pledge from his nation: that if Muhammad is sent during their lifetimes they will likewise believe in him and follow him.
All the prophets heralded his coming, the last of them to do so being Jesus son of Mary, the final prophet of the Children of Israel. The rabbis, monks, and soothsayers likewise foretold him, as we have already explained at length.
On the Night of the Ascension he was carried up from one heaven to the next: he greeted Idrīs (peace be upon him) in the fourth heaven, passed beyond him to the fifth and then the sixth, where he greeted Moses; then he went on to the seventh, greeting Abraham the Close Friend by the Frequented House. He rose still higher, to a level where he heard the creaking of the pens, came to the Lote-Tree of the Furthest Limit, and beheld Paradise, Hell, and other mighty signs. He led the prophets in prayer; the intimate angels of every heaven escorted him; and Riḍwān, keeper of the gardens, as well as Mālik, keeper of the Fire, greeted him. Such is the honour, the elevation, the ennoblement, the proclamation, the precedence, the exaltation, and the majesty. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him and upon all the prophets of Allah together.
As for the exaltation of his name among later generations: his religion remains, abrogating every other, and it shall never itself be abrogated—throughout all eternity until the Day of Judgment. A band of his community will always stand manifest upon the truth, unaffected by those who forsake or oppose them, until the Hour is established.
Five times each day, from every high place on earth, the call rings out: “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah; I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” In the same way, every preacher who mounts the pulpit must of necessity mention him in his sermon. How excellent are the words of Ḥassān:
Resplendent—upon him is the seal of prophethood,
From Allah, witnessed, shining clear for all to see.
God has joined the Prophet’s name to His own—
Whenever the muʾadhdhin in the five calls declares, “I bear witness….”
He fashioned for him a name derived from His own to exalt him:
The Lord of the Throne is al-Maḥmūd (the Praised), and this is Muḥammad (the Praised One).
Al-Ṣarṣarī (1) said:
The obligatory adhān is not valid
Unless his sweet name, welcome to the tongue, is uttered.
He also said:
Do you not see that our adhān is invalid,
And so too our prescribed prayer, if we do not repeat his name in both?”}