Unseen knowledge given to our Prophet (saas)

Only Almighty Allah knows the unseen things about the past and the future that are beyond the capacity of human senses to perceive. Everything that happens in all the worlds of the universe is controlled by Allah and contained in His knowledge. The miracle of unseen knowledge was vouchsafed to our Prophet (saas) to the extent that Allah willed. Allah told our Prophet (saas) about events hidden in the past that no one else knew and about things that would happen in the future, and he revealed this knowledge to his companions and all his people.

It is Allah Who created time and taught the concept of it to the people. He is exalted above time and not limited by it, He knows all secrets and He can reveal the secret things hidden in his Presence to any of His messengers according to His will.  Those to whom He has given secret knowledge can, by His will, tell about things past and the yet to come; they see the inner face of events and know their various consequences.

Allah tells us in the Qur’an that He has given some of the unseen knowledge hidden in His Presence to some messengers:

He is the Knower of the Unseen, and does not divulge His Unseen to anyone–except a Messenger with whom He is well pleased, and then He posts sentinels before him and behind him, so that He may know that they have indeed transmitted the Messages of their Lord. (Surat al-Jinn, 26-27)

Our Prophet Muhammad (saas) was a messenger special to Allah to whom He gave much secret knowledge from His Presence. Our Prophet (saas) knew things that happened in the past unknown to anyone else and learned from Allah many things that were going to occur in the future. Allah reveals this in the Qur’an:

This is news of the Unseen which We reveal to you. You were not with them when they decided what to do and devised their scheme.’ (Surah Yusuf, 102)

OUR PROPHET’S (saas) MIRACULOUS UNSEEN KNOWLEDGE

Our Prophet’s (saas) ability to know unseen things did not come from himself. But he revealed these things to those around him in accordance to Allah’s will. All-knowing Allah revealed this knowledge to His messenger which pointed to events that happened in the past or that were with certainty about to occur in the future. This shows that all the knowledge our Prophet (saas) revealed was a miracle. Several times throughout his life, our Prophet (saas) delivered information that could only be known by Allah’s revelation. He was given knowledge e about the past, the present and the future and this was a proof that he was a true prophet. The Qur’an describes many details of the divine knowledge given to Muhammad (saas) together with his devotion and submission to Allah:

Say: ‘I possess no power to help or harm myself, except as Allah wills. If I had had knowledge of the Unseen, I would have sought to gain much good and no evil would have touched me. I am only a warner and a bringer of good news to people who believe.’ (Surat al-A‘raf, 188)

As a result of the revelations given to Allah’s holy Prophet Muhammad (saas) both personally and through the verses of the Qur’an, he gained knowledge about the past, present and future. According to Allah’s will, he had knowledge about many matters that no one else could know. Because of this knowledge, he could announce victory to Muslims in dire straits by which he was able to bolster their zeal. The occurrence in sequence of each of these events predicted by our Prophet (saas) was miraculous. 

There are many events predicted by our Prophet (saas) 1400 years ago that are coming true today. Many scholars of the Hadiths such as Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Thirmidhi, Nasai, Ibn Majah, witness to the fact that secret knowledge revealed by our Prophet (saas) in the Hadiths is true. They attest to the miracle that all the secret knowledge revealed by our Prophet (saas) has come true and continues to come true.

False Accusations Against Our Prophet (saas) Despite The Miracle of His Unseen Knowledge

From the time our Prophet (saas) started to communicate what is revealed to him in the Qur’an to the people around him, unbelievers accused this blessed personage of not telling the truth. They approached every piece of information brought by him with suspicion and were unwilling to believe in him. However, our Prophet (saas) was a personage whose honesty and credibility could easily be understood just by looking at his face and way of living. Although he was a person who was unanimously qualified as “Al-amin” (reliable) throughout his life and addressed with this epithet, some people insisted on saying lies not to comply with the right path to which he called.

In their savage attacks on our Prophet (saas), deniers reject the possibility that a person can tell the truth every moment of his life. They say that an individual cannot live his life speaking the truth every moment until his death. But our Prophet (saas) was a devout and self-sacrificing man who prayed day and night; he was patient and his moral rectitude was an example to the whole world. He entered battle with great courage and fought in the front ranks. Even faced with the threat of death, he continued to proclaim the truth.

Our Prophet (saas) always practiced the moral teachings of the Qur’an impeccably and was an example for all believers. Our blessed Prophet (saas) taught generosity and gave liberally of all he had; he offered his life and his possessions to gain the favor of Allah. He taught patience, self-sacrifice, true love and friendship and lived these moral qualities in the best possible way. Also, he urged people to be merciful and forgiving and he practiced these virtues with singular determination. The unbelievers that accused our Prophet (saas) should have considered following:

It does not belong to the power of human nature to perpetuate a lie throughout a lifetime. It is not possible for a person to be a liar and live his life consistently in accordance with thousands of non-conflicting verses. And why would a liar persist in such an attitude until the end of his life? And why would people put their lives at risk in order to show the right path to the Hereafter?

And is it possible for everything a liar says to be the vehicle of such great wisdom? Is it possible for everything he has said to be perfect from the aspect of eternity; to be possessed of a certain numerical code; for everything he has said throughout 23 years to be in an eternal, mathematical and scientific harmony? Is it possible for all he has said to contain the wisdom to answer all the questions concerning social life to which people’s consciences seek the answer? It is certain that a liar cannot avoid detection when one day his words do not hold together. However, everything our Prophet (saas) said has come true and both Muslims and deniers have witnessed that truth.

Undoubtedly, every miracle given to every prophet is important. But the fact that masses of people witnessed the miracles of our Prophet (saas) make him different from other prophets. For example, when ‘Isa (as) raised a person to life or cured a sick person, it was only the people standing around who witnessed the miracles. And it was only Pharaoh, his people and the children of Israel that witnessed the miracles of Musa (as). (Only Allah knows the whole truth).  When our Prophet (saas) predicted a victorious war, the number of people who witnessed the battle was much greater. Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people saw these miracles happen.

 Here are some of the announcements of our Prophet (saas) that qualify as miracles:

The Victory over Byzantine Empire

One of the future predictions in the Qur’an comes immediately at the beginning of Surat ar-Rum. In these verses it is announced that the Byzantine Empire has suffered defeat but that a short time later it would again be victorious: 

Alif Lam Mim. The Romans have been defeated in the lowest land, but after their defeat they will themselves be victorious in a few years’ time. The affair is Allah’s from beginning to end. On that day, the believers will rejoice. (Surat ar-Rum, 1-4)

These verses were sent down in 620 A.D., 7 years after the Christian Byzantines suffered a major defeat by the pagan Persians in 613-614 A.D.  The verses tell us that the Byzantines were going to be victorious very soon. However, at that time, the Byzantines had experienced such serious losses that it seemed impossible for them even to survive, not to mention winning another victory. The Persians defeated the Byzantines at Antioch in 613 A.D. and went on to take Damascus, Cilicia, Tarsus, Armenia and Jerusalem. It was especially the loss of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher that dealt the greatest blow to the Byzantines. 1

At that time it was not the Persians but the Avars, Slavs and Lombards that were the most serious threat to the Byzantines. The Avars came up to the very gates of Constantinople. In order to supply the armies, the Byzantine emperor Heracleius had the gold, silver and precious ornaments from the churches melted down and turned into money. When this proved insufficient, he even melted down the bronze statues to make coins. Many governors revolted against the Heracleius and the empire came close to disintegration. The former Byzantine possessions of Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Armenia were occupied by the pagan Persians. 2

In short, everything pointed to the destruction of the Byzantine Empire. But exactly at that time, the first verses of Surat ar-Rum were revealed saying that, before 9 years had passed, the Byzantines would again be victorious. The Arab hypocrites thought that this victory announced in the Qur’an would never happen.

But, as with everything predicted in the Qur’an, this too was inevitable. In 622 A.D., Heracleius invaded Armenia and won several battles against the Persians.3  In December 627 A.D., there was a major battle between the Byzantines and the Persians near Baghdad, 50 km east the Tigris River by the ruins of Nineveh. The Byzantines defeated the Persians and a few months later the Persians were forced to sign a treaty restoring the occupied lands to the Byzantines. 4

The Byzantine victory in 630 A.D. and the defeat of the Persian emperor, Chosrov II, meant that Jerusalem was returned to Heracleius and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher came back under Christian control. 5

So, as Allah said in the Qur’an and our Prophet (saas) proclaimed to the people, the Byzantine victory happened miraculously within that predicted 3-9 year period.

Another miracle of these verses is that facts of geography were given that no one could have known at that time.

Verse 3 of Surat ar-Rum says that the Byzantines were defeated at the the lowest land. The Arabic for this is edna el-ard, which can also mean a nearby place.  But this translation is not a literal rendering of the original; it is metaphorical. The Arabic word edna is the superlative form of deni (low) and means lowest. Ard means Earth.  So, edna el-ard means the lowest place on Earth.

Some commentators, thinking that this place is close to the Arabs, translate the phrase as closest.  But the basic meaning of the word points to a geological fact that no one could known at the time the Qur’an was revealed: the lowest place on Earth is the area of the Dead Sea where the Byzantines were defeated in 613 A.D. And, as we said before, the hardest blow for the Christians was the loss of Jerusalem, close to the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea, at 399 meters below sea-level, is the lowest point on Earth. 6

What is remarkable here is that the level of the Dead Sea could only be determined with the use of modern measuring equipment.  Previously no one could know that the Dead Sea was the lowest place on Earth.  But this area is described in the Qur’an as the lowest land on Earth.  This is another proof that the Qur’an is the word of Allah; and it is a miracle that Allah granted this knowledge to His Prophet.

The defeat of Mecca

Allah has confirmed His Messenger’s vision with truth: ‘You will enter the Sacred Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) in safety, Allah willing, shaving your heads and cutting your hair without any fear.’ He knew what you did not know and ordained, in place of this, an imminent victory. (Surat al-Fath, 27)

While our Prophet (saas) was in Medina, he had a dream: he saw believers safely entering the The Sacred Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) and circling the Kaaba. He revealed this good news to the believers.  It was good news because the believers who had left Mecca for Medina had not been allowed to return.

As an encouragement, Allah revealed verse 27 of Surat al-Fath to our Prophet (saas).  He said the dream was true and, according to His will, believers could return to Mecca. Indeed, later as the dream had foretold, after the Treaty of Hudaybiya and the subsequent defeat of Mecca, Muslims entered the Sacred Mosque in peace. So the glad tidings inspired in our Prophet (saas) by Allah came true.

Buhari relates a story of Ibn-i Abbas concerning the defeat of Mecca:

İbnu Abbas said that in the verse, “He Who has imposed the Qur’an upon you will most certainly bring you back home again” (Surat al-Qasas, 85), what is meant with the word home here is Macca.”7

It is important to note here that verse 27 of Surat al-Fath mentions another victory before the defeat of Mecca. As the verse foretold, before they captured Mecca, Muslims took the Hayber Castle that had been a Jewish possession.8  The famous Jelaleyn interprets the verse of Surat al-Fath as follows:

“…Allah made the dream He showed his Prophet (saas) come true. In the year the Hudaybiya was signed, before going to expedition, the Prophet (saas) saw in his dream himself and his people safely entering Mecca with shaved heads and informed his people about this [good news]which made his people pleased. He set out together with his people but unbelievers averted them in Hudaybiya. Some of the hypocrites raised suspicions of this. This is the time when this verse was revealed. “InshaAllah you will enter Masjid al-Haram safely, with no fear whatsoever, with shaved heads, (or some of you) with shortened hair. But in terms of peace, for your benefit, Allah knew what you did not know and before entering Mecca, granted a conquest. This was the conquest of Haybar. And the next year the dream came true.”  9

In the eighth year of the Migration, our Prophet (saas) entered Mecca and conquered it. But when he delivered this good news to the believers, it did not appear likely to happen. Conditions seemed to be in favor of an opposite outcome; the hypocrites seemed determined to keep the believers from entering Mecca. This caused those who had sickness in their hearts to doubt the words of the Prophet (saas). But our Prophet (saas) trusted in Allah and was not moved by what people said; he believed in what Allah had told him and revealed it to the people. The fact that this secret revelation from our Lord came to pass is a miracle witnessed by millions of people.