…has slain your master this very night.” They noted the date, and when they investigated they learned that Allah had set Chosroes at the mercy of his own son, who killed him. The two envoys accepted Islam, as did the deputy of Yemen, and this was the means by which Yemen came under the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (1).

As for his ﷺ foretelling of future events from the unseen, they are exceedingly numerous, as has already been set forth in detail; they will appear again in the historical narratives, each one unfolding exactly as it occurred.

Ibn Ḥāmid, drawing a parallel with the striving of Jesus (may Allah have mercy on them), mentioned the striving of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; and, in comparison with the renunciation of Jesus (may Allah have mercy on them), he cited the Prophet’s ﷺ refusal of the treasures of the earth when they were presented to him and he declined them, saying, “I go hungry one day and eat my fill another.” (2)

He had thirteen wives, and a month—indeed two months—would pass over them with no fire or lamp lit in their houses; they lived on nothing but the two black things, dates and water. At times he tied a stone to his stomach from hunger, and they never ate their fill of wheat bread for three consecutive nights. His mattress was a leather skin stuffed with palm-fiber; he would hobble the ewe and milk it himself, mend his own garment, and stitch his sandal with his noble hand ﷺ. He ﷺ died while his coat of mail was held in pledge with a Jew for food he had bought for his family. Yet how often did he prefer others to himself and his household, giving away thousands upon thousands, with camels, sheep, spoils, and gifts to the poor, the needy, widows, orphans, captives, and the destitute.

Abu Nuʿaym, by way of comparison with the angels’ glad tidings to Mary the Truthful concerning the birth of Jesus, related what Āminah, the mother of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, was given as glad tidings in her dream when she conceived him, namely that she was told, “You have conceived the master of this community, so name him Muhammad.” We have already set this out in detail in the section on his birth.

Here the ḥāfiẓ Abu Nuʿaym has also recorded a lengthy and rare hadith about the Prophet’s birth; we wish to cite it so that the conclusion will mirror the beginning. In Allah is our help, upon Him we rely, and to Him belongs all praise.

He said: Sulaimān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bābulī narrated to us; Abu Bakr ibn Abī Maryam informed us, from Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Anṣārī, from his father, who said:

Ibn ʿAbbās said: Among the signs of the conception of Muhammad ﷺ was that every beast owned by Quraysh spoke that night, saying, “By the Lord of the Kaʿbah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has been conceived; he is the security of the world and a lamp for its people.” No female soothsayer remained in Quraysh, nor in any tribe of the Arabs, without finding herself cut off from her familiar; the knowledge of the diviners was taken from them. Every throne of the world’s kings was found overturned, the king struck dumb, unable to speak that day. The beasts of the East fled to the beasts of the West bearing the glad tidings, and the creatures of the seas likewise heralded one another. In every month a proclamation was made on earth and a proclamation in the heavens: “Rejoice! The time has drawn near for Abū al-Qāsim to come forth to the earth, blessed and full of benediction.” He remained in his mother’s womb a full nine months, during which she suffered no pain, gas, colic, nor any of the complaints that befall pregnant women, and his father ʿAbd Allāh died while he was…