Proof of Prophethood - Ustadh Aqeel Mahmood

Opening Supplications

O you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you who believe, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul, and created from it a wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah, about whom you ask, and the wombs. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who believe, fear Allah, and say the righteous word. It will amend your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great triumph.

The Story of the Muezzin

There was once an old man who was the muezzin of the village that he lived in. And this old man was well known and was respected amongst the people. Every single salah he would go up onto the roof of the masjid and he would make the adhan, calling the people for the prayer.

One day this muezzin, he made his way up to give the adhan just like he would for every single salah. And before he was about to give the adhan, he saw a beautiful woman. And when he saw this beautiful woman, Shaytan came to him and told him he needed to have this woman. So he left without giving the adhan. He went back down and he went to this house where he saw this woman.

And he called out to this woman. And this woman opened the door and she saw him and she recognized him — he was well known. She said, "What do you want? Why are you here?" He said, "I saw you and now I want you." And the woman, this Christian woman, said, "You are a Muslim and you are the muezzin. And I am a Christian woman. We can't marry each other because I am a Christian. I'm not going to marry someone who isn't a Christian." So this Muslim righteous man who was the muezzin of the village said to her, "I'll leave Islam for you. I testify that Isa is God himself. Now will you marry me?"

So she took him into her house. And now she thought to herself, "This man is in my hands. I can play with him. I can do whatever I want to him. He's under my control." There was pork on the table in her house. So she says to this man, "I don't believe that you're a Christian until you eat that pork on that table over there." So this man, this former muezzin, he goes and he starts to eat from the pork — he's never tasted pork in his life — for this woman.

The woman then seduces him further and she takes him up the stairs. And there's alcohol upstairs, there's wine upstairs. And she says to him, "Drink some alcohol to prove to me that you're not a Muslim anymore." And so he starts to drink the alcohol, this wine that he's never ever drunk before in his life. And because he's never drunk it before, he starts to become intoxicated even with that small amount that he drank. And when he becomes intoxicated, he loses his balance. And when he loses his balance, he trips over and he falls down the stairs. And because of this fall, he dies — after eating pork, after drinking wine, after having left Islam.

Because of all the commotion and the screaming, the people gathered to this house. And they looked inside and they saw their muezzin — one of their respected people, one of the elders of their community — dead on the floor in this Christian house. And so they looked at this woman and they said, "Why is he in your house? What did you do to him?" And she said, "I haven't done anything. He himself came into this house, he left Islam, he ate pork, he drank wine, and he wanted to marry me." And they couldn't believe this. How could this be possible — one of their most respected people?

So they went up to this man and they smelled his breath. And they could smell the pork. They could smell the stench of the alcohol on his breath. And they realized that this woman was telling the truth. When it came to burying this man, they realized that this man wasn't even a Muslim anymore. So they couldn't bury him with the other Muslims. When they buried him, they buried him far away from the Muslim graveyard, far away from the Muslims. And this man who was so well respected, so loved — the muezzin calling out to the prayer and to the worship of Allah — he died as an apostate, as a murtad, someone who left the fold of Islam.

The Lesson: Guidance Belongs to Allah Alone

Brothers and sisters, one of the lessons we can learn from this story is that it is Allah who guides us. And if it wasn't for the sake of Allah, we wouldn't be here today.

Whomsoever Allah guides, no one can misguide.

The Messenger of Allah, عليه الصلاة والسلام, he would always make du'a. He would always supplicate to Allah. He would always say:

"O Turner of the hearts, keep my heart firm on Your religion."

Today many Muslims — Muslims themselves — have a crisis of faith. They are always questioning things about Islam. They have doubts. And many Muslims leave the fold of Islam because of these doubts that they have. And from these doubts, brothers and sisters, is the doubt concerning our beloved Messenger Muhammad, صلى الله عليه وسلم — and whether or not he was really a prophet and a messenger of Allah.

They question: How do we know? How do we really know that he truly was a Messenger of Allah? What proof is there to show us that he was a prophet and a messenger of Allah? And today I want to go through some questions which people sometimes have with regards to whether or not the Messenger of Allah truly was the Messenger of Allah, عليه الصلاة والسلام.

Was the Prophet a Liar?

Sometimes people question and say: How do we know that this man who claimed to be a prophet wasn't someone who was lying? How do we know he wasn't a liar? How do we know he wasn't just claiming to be a prophet?

Al-Sadiq Al-Amin: The Truthful, The Trustworthy

The Messenger of Allah, عليه الصلاة والسلام, before Islam — before he even became a prophet and a messenger, before revelation was sent down to him — the people of his own city, from the city of Mecca, themselves bore witness to the truthfulness of the Messenger of Allah. They gave him a nickname. And they used to call him الصَّادِق الأَمِين — Al-Sadiq Al-Amin — the truthful one, the trustworthy one.

And when someone gives somebody else a nickname, it's very rare that even today you give someone a nickname like "the truthful one." Many people give people lots of different kinds of nicknames. But it's very, very rare to find someone who is actually known as Al-Sadiq Al-Amin — as the trustworthy one, the truthful one. Yet our Messenger, عليه الصلاة والسلام, even before Islam, was known as the truthful one, the trustworthy one. This was what he was known by — and he was known by this even by those who didn't believe in Allah, those who used to worship idols. They would still affirm that the Messenger of Allah was someone who was truthful and trustworthy, someone who always spoke the truth, someone who never ever lied.

A Liar Does Not Wait Until He Is Forty

Also, when we talk about this false claim of him lying — when a person lies, he can sometimes become known as a liar. Yet when someone is known to be trustworthy, it's very difficult for that person, and for other people, to consider him to be a liar when he says something at such a late age. The Messenger of Allah, عليه الصلاة والسلام, was the age of 40 when he started calling people to Islam, when he started calling people to the worship of Allah.

Now it doesn't make any sense for someone who was a liar — someone who would lie, maybe even a pathological liar who would always make lies — to all of a sudden start to lie at the age of 40 years old, whereas before that he was never ever known to make a lie. Normally it is people who are young — children, teenagers, young men — who are in the habit of lying. When someone reaches the age of 40 years old and then people claim he's a liar, it doesn't make any sense. Especially if he was known before this as someone who was trustworthy, someone who was always truthful, and someone who never ever lied.

His Story Never Changed

It doesn't make any sense. And even then, if the Messenger of Allah was lying, the person who lies will always have inconsistencies with regards to the things he is saying, if he says them over and over again. You know, when someone has committed a crime and they interrogate him, there are always holes in his story — the more questions you ask. Yet the Messenger of Allah, عليه الصلاة والسلام, never ever changed his story. It was always:

It was always the belief of Tawheed — worshipping Allah and believing that he was the Messenger of Allah, عليه الصلاة والسلام. His story never ever changed. And the one who always lies, the one who has a habit of lying, will always change his story and there will always be inconsistencies with regards to the things he is saying. The Messenger of Allah, عليه الصلاة والسلام, was someone who was truthful before Islam and someone who was truthful after Islam, and he never ever changed his story.

What Would He Have Gained by Lying?

And also we need to question — why would he lie? What would be the purpose behind him lying? Some say that he made this lie so that he would have status amongst the people, so that he would be respected amongst the people. But if we look at history and we look at his life, we will see that he was someone who was more respected amongst the people before he called people to Islam than he was after he started to call people to Islam. People loved him. They gave him that nickname of being the trustworthy one. They respected him.

When he came to the Haram, when he came into the presence of those who were quarreling about who was going to place the Black Stone back onto the Ka'bah, they chose him — and they were happy to choose him — to decide how it was going to be done. The Messenger of Allah, عليه الصلاة والسلام, when he started to call people to Islam, you know what his situation became.

Surah Al-A'la — Second Jumu'ah Khutbah

Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High, Who created and proportioned, Who measured and guided, and Who brought forth the pasture, and made it as a dark-coloured stubble. We will make you recite, so do not forget, except what Allah wills. He knows what is open and what is hidden. And We will make it easy for you. So remember, if the remembrance benefits. He who fears will remember, and the most wretched will avoid it — he who will burn in the greatest Fire, then he will neither die therein nor live. He who purifies himself will be successful, and he will remember the name of his Lord, and he will pray. Indeed, you prefer the life of this world, and the Hereafter is better and more lasting. Indeed, this is in the earlier scriptures — the scriptures of Ibrahim and Musa.