Some Extraordinary Facts About the Prophet's Life

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The Prophet's Unique Birth

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born circumcised and with his umbilical cord already cut off even though all male children in Islam have to be circumscribed after their birth and umbilical cord of all children born is severed after their birth. This is one of the signs of the honor he was given by his Lord as narrated in authentic hadith literature.[1]  He was born in the spring season, in month of April, the most temperate month of the year, the month everyone is looking forward to the flowers and greenery. It is a fact that green is the color that affects us and nourishes the eye and Prophet's favorite color was green. He was born on Monday because according to authentic hadith it was on that day that Allah created vegetation and greenery.[2] It is due to this wisdom why his dome where he rests has been painted green.

Beautiful characteristics surrounding prophet's upbringing

In Islam every name has a relation to its meaning. ‘Muhammad’ means ‘The one in whom are found praiseworthy characteristics’. Beautiful praiseworthy characteristics carried him, conceived him, gave birth to him and nourished him. Such as his father, Abdullah which means 'A True Servant of Allah' carried him in his loins. Amina (r.a) which means ‘Trustworthy, Honest, Safe and Secure’ conceived him and gave birth to him. The wet nurses Halima whose name means ‘Gentleness’ and Thuwayba whose name means ‘Deserving of God’s reward’ fed him and raised him. Amazingly none of the names associated with his conception and upbringing have any influence of paganism, idolatry or ignorance, even though it was quite active in the society and reflected even in some people's names. Moreover, it is a fact that these beautiful characteristics were displayed in his behavior throughout his life.

Married older woman despite being young

His first marriage was to a woman much older than he was. At the time of their marriage, she was 40 years old and he was a young 25 year old. The young men at his time would only marry women who are younger than they are and never an older woman. During his almost 25 years marriage with Khadijah he never married any other woman. It was after he started openly preaching in the society and after Khadijah's death, all later marriages took place, which means it was not him but Allah ﷺ choosing his marriage partners, a fact also confirmed by the Quran: "It is not allowed to you to take women afterwards, nor that you should change them for other wives, though their beauty be pleasing to you.”[3]

He suffered loss of his children

He fathered seven children, which included three boys and four girls. Six of them died during his life. He buried six of them with his own hands except for the youngest daughter Fatimah (alaihi salaam) who passed away after his death.

People called him As Sadiq (The Truthful) & Al Ameen (The Honest)

His prophet hood initiated at 40 years of age and that was when he received his first Quranic revelation yet throughout his 40 years of life the Makkan society called him not by his real name ‘Muhammad’ but by the titles As Sadiq (The Truthful) and Al Ameen (The Honest) as he was known for truthfulness, honesty and piety. Not only did he never commit sins after declaring Prophet hood but he never committed before either and even his enemies bore witness to this fact as narrated in authentic hadith literature. It is also narrated that many times one would find him humorous but he never told a lie even while joking!

His opponents called his miracles 'magic' but never denied them

His opponents witnessed his miracles yet never rejected their happening, but instead called them 'magic' and 'sorcery' which means they did accept their taking place but refused to accept them as miracles from Allah ﷻ. His greatest miracle he said was the Quran which contains a total of six thousand something verses yet the book contains not a single word or sentence that is his! All words of the Quran belong to Allah ﷻ. 

Uniqueness of his prophetic claim

At the time when he claimed Prophet hood there were others claimants to Prophet hood in Arabia as well and for whom he warned that they were false prophets. Interestingly it is recorded that they too made the claim that Prophet Muhammad was false. Today the world does not even know their names while entire world knows Muhammad ﷺ which proves the truth of his claim and falsifies the claims of his contemporaries. The false prophets were Al Aswad Al Ansi in Yemen who died in a battle, Tulayhah ibn Khuwaylid Al-Asadi was defeated and accepted Islam, Musalimah Al Kadhaab (The Liar) was killed in a battle, Sajjah bint Al Harith was a Christian and after her defeat became Muslim.

The hadith collection

All words and actions of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ were collected in hadith books and each hadith has a chain of narrators that go directly to him. This process of collection is a science of knowledge regarding his words and actions, which no other nation on earth has of their Prophet or leader. Such as Christians do not have this knowledge of Jesus, Jews do not have of their Prophets; Buddhists do not have such recordings of Buddha and neither does Hindus or anyone else.

Prophet's physical description 

Last but not least the most important fact that due to this hadith literature Muslims have an exact description of their Prophet which no other nation on the face of this earth has of their Prophet and this fact can easily be realized by reading description of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and comparing it with the description, if available, of Jesus (alaihi salaam), Moses (alaihi salaam), Noah (alaihi salaam), Adam (alaihi salaam) or any other famous historical personality you can think of such as Buddha or Zoroaster or Confucius. That is primarily why we see that the followers of pre-Islamic prophets or personalities resort to images or sculpture depictions to preserve their appearance in the memory of the masses. 


References:
[1] al-Mawahib al-laduniyya bi al-minah al-Muhammadiyya (The Divinely-Granted Gifts in the Form of the Muhammadan Grants), Part One, The Creation of His Sacred Body - Translated by Shaykh Gibril Haddad – As-Sunnah Foundation of America.
[2] Sahih Muslim Book 39, Hadith 6707
[3] Al Quran 33:52

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