—the spate of the flood recoiled before you (1), the swift mounts veered off course (2), raising their fore-legs in awe and fear; the armies moved on in the gleam of your arrows and the flash of your meteors, subduing the land and crushing the nations, for you appeared to deliver your community and to rescue the legacy of your forefathers (3).

Whoever seeks to deflect this glad-tidings from Muhammad is like one who tries to hide the sun in broad daylight or cover the oceans. How could he manage that when the text endows him with traits that pinpoint his very person and dispel every doubt for the bewildered? Indeed, his name is stated twice, so that dawn breaks clear for anyone with two eyes. It also tells of the might of his nation, how death marches before them, and how birds of prey follow in their wake. This prophecy fits none but Muhammad ﷺ; it is suited to him alone and can descend upon no one else. Whoever attempts to turn it away from him is like one who strives to divert great rivers from their beds or hold them back from their destined course. Far indeed is what the falsifiers and deniers hope to achieve, while Allah refuses but to perfect His light, though the disbelievers may hate it.

Who, then, is the one whose own praise—and whose community’s praise of Allah in their prayers, their sermons, after every prayer, in prosperity and adversity, at all times—has filled the earth, so that Allah named them, even before they arose, al-ḥammādīn (the incessant praisers)?

And who is the one whose face shone as though the sun and the moon coursed within it, radiating light and brilliance?

He accustomed the birds to habits they trusted … so they follow him on every journey (4).