and his name is Ahmad. Through him I shall guide after misguidance, bestow knowledge after ignorance, increase after scarcity, unite after division, and bring into harmony hearts that were at odds, inclinations that were scattered, and nations that were diverse. I will make his community the best of communities; they are the shepherds of the sun. Blessed are those hearts. (1)

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā also related, on the authority of ʿUthmān b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, that a Christian from the people of Syria once arrived in Mecca. He passed by a group of women who had gathered on one of their festival days while their husbands were away on business and said, “O women of Taymāʾ, a Prophet named Ahmad will appear among you. Let any woman who can manage to become his wife do so.” Khadīja remembered what he said.

ʿAbd al-Munʿim b. Idrīs, reporting from his father, from Wahb, said—concerning the story of David and among what Allah revealed to him in the Psalms: “O David, after you there shall come a Prophet named Ahmad and Muhammad, truthful and eminent. I shall never be angry with him, nor will he ever anger Me. Before he could anger Me I forgave him (2) whatever sins he had committed and whatever would come thereafter. His community is a community shown mercy: I have granted them in supererogatory works the like of what I granted the Prophets, and I have laid upon them the obligatory duties I laid upon the Prophets and Messengers, so that they will come to Me on the Day of Resurrection and their light will be like the light of the Prophets. That is because I obliged them to perform ablution (wuḍūʾ) before every prayer, just as I obliged the Prophets before them; I ordered them to take the ritual bath (ghusl) after major impurity as I ordered the Prophets before them; I commanded them to perform the pilgrimage as I commanded the Prophets before them; and I commanded them to strive in My path as I commanded the Messengers before them.

O David, I have preferred Muhammad and his nation over all nations; I have given them six—