Prophecies in the Hadith: Difference between revisions
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Muhammad didn't bring anything new. | Muhammad didn't bring anything new. And the prophecy is unverifiable / unfalsifiable. Because if sexually moral people get disease, then apologists can say "it's a test". And if sexually immoral people don't get disease, apologists can say "Allah is postponing the punishment to afterlife". | ||
==="Women naked, but dressed" (wearing revealing clothes)=== | ==="Women naked, but dressed" (wearing revealing clothes)=== | ||
Revision as of 16:00, 12 June 2020
This article looks at different categories of Muhammamd's prophecies with examples. Some of the prophecies are considered "signs of the Hour", which are events that are supposed to indicate that the Day of Judgement is coming.
Prophecies in this article are from the hadiths. Quranic prophecies have a separate article.
Predictions of what already happened before the hadiths were written
The hadith collections were written, often by Persian authors, many years after the death of Muhammad. So when the hadiths contain a prophecy about early Islamic history, it might be attributed to Muhamamd after the fact. This category also includes things that always happened, even before Islam (earthquakes, wars, people being dishonest...).
It's questionable whether "prophecies" in this category could be considered prophecies when they don't say anything new.
"The caliphate will last 30 years"
Sa'eed bin Jumhan narrated: "Safinah narrated to me, he said: 'The Messenger of Allah(s.a.w) said: "Al-Khilafah will be in my Ummah for thirty years, then there will be monarchy after that."' Then Safinah said to me: 'Count the Khilafah of Abu Bakr,' then he said: 'Count the Khilafah of 'Umar and the Khilafah of 'Uthman.' Then he said to me: 'Count the Khilafah of 'Ali."' He said: "So we found that they add up to thirty years." Sa'eed said: "I said to him: 'Banu Umaiyyah claim that the Khilafah is among them.' He said: 'Banu Az-Zarqa' lie, rather they are a monarchy, among the worst of monarchies."'
- The first caliphate lasted from 632-661, which is 29 years, not 30
- Tirmidhi, author of this hadith collection, was born in 824, more than 100 years after the end of the caliphate
- The hadith in it's text is in the context of discussion about previous caliphates
- The political system after the first caliphate, was still called a caliphate. There was some form of caliphate until the 20th century
"Earthquakes will increase"
It's a part of a big hadith as one of the signs of the end of the world:
There were always earthquakes, increasing and decreasing. There is a report that earthquake happened also during the life of Muhammad:
He [the Prophet (ﷺ)] prayed during an earthquake six bowings and four prostrations, and said, "This is the way the Prayer of the Signs (of Allah) is offered.
Earthquakes were also already predicted in the Bible:
When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
"My death" [Muhammad's]
Muhammad predicted that he will die. The prediction doesn't contain any specific information about his death:
I went to the Prophet (ﷺ) during the Ghazwa of Tabuk while he was sitting in a leather tent. He said, "Count six signs that indicate the approach of the Hour: my death, the conquest of Jerusalem, a plague that will afflict you (and kill you in great numbers) as the plague that afflicts sheep, the increase of wealth to such an extent that even if one is given one hundred Dinars, he will not be satisfied; then an affliction which no Arab house will escape, and then a truce between you and Bani Al-Asfar (i.e. the Byzantines) who will betray you and attack you under eighty flags. Under each flag will be twelve thousand soldiers.
All people that lived before Muhammad eventually died. He could observe dying of people around him. There's nothing special about predicting that he will eventually die too, just like all other human beings.
The context is that it will be a sign that the Hour is coming. But Muhammad died more than a thousand years ago and the Hour didn't come.
"Sexual immorality" (abominations)
It was narrated that ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ turned to us and said: ‘O Muhajirun, there are five things with which you will be tested, and I seek refuge with Allah lest you live to see them: Immorality never appears among a people to such an extent that they commit it openly, but plagues and diseases that were never known among the predecessors will spread among them. They do not cheat in weights and measures but they will be stricken with famine, severe calamity and the oppression of their rulers. They do not withhold the Zakah of their wealth, but rain will be withheld from the sky, and were it not for the animals, no rain would fall on them. They do not break their covenant with Allah and His Messenger, but Allah will enable their enemies to overpower them and take some of what is in their hands. Unless their leaders rule according to the Book of Allah and seek all good from that which Allah has revealed, Allah will cause them to fight one another.’”
Sexual immorality (or "abomination") was nothing new in the 7th century. The Old Testament mentions a story of a city where all people were homosexuals who wanted to rape angels, but Lot offered them his daughters instead:
He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them.
In the New Testament Jesus spoke to a woman who had many sexual partners:
“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
“I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
Although Islamic apologists try to portray "abominations" in today's world as some shocking new events that were predicted by Muhammad, these "abominations" happened long before Muhammad was born. There were also abominations happening in Muhammad's time:
Narrated `Aisha:
that the Prophet (ﷺ) married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old. Hisham said: I have been informed that `Aisha remained with the Prophet (ﷺ) for nine years (i.e. till his death).
Sexual perversions were nothing new for Muhammad.
And the plagues and diseases that are supposed to be punishments for the immoralities also happened throughout whole history. Plagues (pestilences) were already predicted in the Bible, hundereds of years before Muhammad:
When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
Muhammad didn't bring anything new. And the prophecy is unverifiable / unfalsifiable. Because if sexually moral people get disease, then apologists can say "it's a test". And if sexually immoral people don't get disease, apologists can say "Allah is postponing the punishment to afterlife".
"Women naked, but dressed" (wearing revealing clothes)
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) having said this:
Two are the types of the denizens of Hell whom I did not see: people having flogs like the tails of the ox with them and they would be beating people, and the women who would be dressed but appear to be naked, who would be inclined (to evil) and make their husbands incline towards it. Their heads would be like the humps of the bukht camel inclined to one side. They will not enter Paradise and they would not smell its odour whereas its odour would be smelt from such and such distance.
Some apologists present it as something new that happens in the 21st century and Muhamamd couldn't have guessed it.
This hadeeth is one of the miracles of Prophethood, for these two types of people have appeared, and they exist now, as al-Nawawi (may Allaah have mercy on him) said.
Al-Nawawi lived in the 13th century. So for hundreds of years, Islamic scholars keep saying that this is "exactly what happens now" as if women dressed attractively appeared for the first time in history.
Immodest women were already mentioned in the Old Testament, a thousand years before Muhammad:
I noticed among the young men, a youth who had no sense. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in. Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. (She is unruly and defiant, her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.) she took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: “Today I fulfilled my vows, and I have food from my fellowship offering at home. So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you! I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love!
"Men obey their wives"
The hadith is daif, but some apologists present it as if it was sahih:
Ali bin Abi Talib narrated that the Messenger of Allah(s.a.w) said: "When my Ummah does fifteen things, the afflictions will occur in it." It was said: "What are they O Messenger of Allah?" He said: "When Al-Maghnam (the spoils of war) are distributed (preferentially), trust is usurped, Zakah is a fine, a man obeys his wife and disobeys his mother, he is kind to his friend and abandons his father, voices are raised in the Masajid, the leader of the people is the most despicable among them, the most honored man is the one whose evil the people are afraid of, intoxicants are drunk, silk is worn (by males), there is a fascination for singing slave-girls and music, and the end of this Ummah curses its beginning. When that occurs, anticipate a red wind, collapsing of the earth, and transformation."
It was mentioned among negative things, that indicates that a woman being dominant in marriage is an evil thing. But not everyone at that time was as patriarchal:
So it was nothing new.
"Cheating in weights (scales)"
It was narrated that ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ turned to us and said: ‘O Muhajirun, there are five things with which you will be tested, and I seek refuge with Allah lest you live to see them: Immorality never appears among a people to such an extent that they commit it openly, but plagues and diseases that were never known among the predecessors will spread among them. They do not cheat in weights and measures but they will be stricken with famine, severe calamity and the oppression of their rulers. They do not withhold the Zakah of their wealth, but rain will be withheld from the sky, and were it not for the animals, no rain would fall on them. They do not break their covenant with Allah and His Messenger, but Allah will enable their enemies to overpower them and take some of what is in their hands. Unless their leaders rule according to the Book of Allah and seek all good from that which Allah has revealed, Allah will cause them to fight one another.’”
Cheating in weights is not a prediction of the future. It happened thousands of years before Islam and was mentioned as being prevalent even in the Old Testament:
Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day,” declares the Lord God. “Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence.” Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, saying: “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales
And famines that are supposedly a punishment for the cheating also happened throughout whole history.
"Usury" (riba)
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ أَنّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ يَأْتِي عَلَى النَّاسِ زَمَانٌ يَأْكُلُونَ فِيهِ الرِّبَا قِيلَ النَّاسُ كُلُّهُمْ قَالَ مَنْ لَمْ يَأْكُلْهُ مِنْهُمْ نَالَهُ مِنْ غُبَارِهِ
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “A time will come upon people in which they will consume usury.” It was said, “All of the people?” The Prophet said, “Whoever does not consume it will be affected by its dust.”
Usury (riba) was already widespread in the period before Islam, which Muslims call "jahilya":
Riba al-Jahiliyah means “the riba used during the age of ignorance and paganism.” It is also called riba al-nassee'aa (the riba that is constrained by a time limit and is time dependent). This type of riba was widely practiced by the pagan Arabs at the advent of Islam.
"Killing" [pointless killing]
Narrated `Abdullah and Abu Musa:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Near the establishment of the Hour there will be days during which Religious ignorance will spread, knowledge will be taken away (vanish) and there will be much Al-Harj, and Al- Harj means killing."
Killing was happening long before Islam. We can read in the Old Testament many texts about mass killing. For example:
Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
Pointless killing was also happening during Muhammad's time with Muhammad's approval:
Then they surrendered, and the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. Among them was the enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka`b b. Asad their chief. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.
Rejection of hadiths
Narrated Al-Miqdam ibn Ma'dikarib:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Beware! I have been given the Qur'an and something like it, yet the time is coming when a man replete on his couch will say: Keep to the Qur'an; what you find in it to be permissible treat as permissible, and what you find in it to be prohibited treat as prohibited. Beware! The domestic ass, beasts of prey with fangs, a find belonging to confederate, unless its owner does not want it, are not permissible to you If anyone comes to some people, they must entertain him, but if they do not, he has a right to mulct them to an amount equivalent to his entertainment.
The idea that only the Quran is the word of god and Muhamamad is just a man and therefore he might be wrong was nothing new during the time of Muhammad. The idea existed during is life:
Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As:
I used to write everything which I heard from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I intended (by it) to memorise it. The Quraysh prohibited me saying: Do you write everything that you hear from him while the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) is a human being: he speaks in anger and pleasure? So I stopped writing, and mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He signalled with his finger to him mouth and said: Write, by Him in Whose hand my soul lies, only right comes out from it.
Although Muhammad didn't agree that he might be wrong, the opinion existed, so it was easy to "predict".
"Ignorance"
Narrated `Abdullah and Abu Musa:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Near the establishment of the Hour there will be days during which Religious ignorance will spread, knowledge will be taken away (vanish) and there will be much Al-Harj, and Al- Harj means killing."- In Islam, the period before Muhammad's career is called jahilya (ignorance). So even according to Islam, this already happened before Islam.
- The hadith says only jahl, which is just "ignorance", but in context of Islam, when Muhammad says "knowledge" it means "knowledge of Muhamamd's claims and commands" and when Islam says "ignorance" it means "ignorance of Muhammad's claims and commands"
- Muhammad probably noticed that Jews don't fully follow the law of Moses, so he could predict that Muslims won't follow his laws based on this experience.
"Building tall buildings"
..and when you see barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds competing in constructing tall buildings
- There are currently people who compete in constructing tall skyscrapers (as apologists like to point out), but we don't see barefoot, naked destitute shepherds building them.
- The Bible contained a story of the Tower of Babel, Egyptians built pyramids long before Islam.. So the desire to build tall buildings was nothing new.
And the hadith doesn't say skyscrapers, it only says "tall" and "tall" is relative. There might have been people in the 7th century building buildings that could be considered tall in that time. Read what medieval Islamic scholar Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani wrote:
يتطاول الناس في البنيان وهي من العلامات التي وقعت عن قرب في زمن النبوة
"The people are [competing in] building tall buildings" - and that's from the signs which happened close at the time of the prophethood
"Breaking the convenant with god makes enemies overpower them"
... They do not break their covenant with Allah and His Messenger, but Allah will enable their enemies to overpower them and take some of what is in their hands. Unless their leaders rule according to the Book of Allah and seek all good from that which Allah has revealed, Allah will cause them to fight one another.’”
This was nothing new in the 7th century. It's an old Jewish tradition. It was mentioned in the Old Testament, more than a thousand years before Muhammad.
Punishment for Disobedience
“‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.
And the prophecy is unfalsifiable. If believers did follow god's laws and were overpowered by their enemies anyway, they could say that "it's a test". And if they didn't follow god's laws, but weren't overpowered by their enemies as a punishment, it might be because god is letting them be misguided, but is planning to punish them in the afterlife.
A man passes by a grave and wants to be dead too
وَحَتَّى يَمُرَّ الرَّجُلُ بِقَبْرِ الرَّجُلِ فَيَقُولُ يَا لَيْتَنِي مَكَانَهُ
... till a man when passing by a grave of someone will say, 'Would that I were in his place...
A desire to be dead was nothing new in the 7th century. The Old Testament already mentioned it:
"Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life."
"The leader of a people will be the worst of them"
Apologists who mention this prophecy usually hide the fact that the hadith is weak (daif).
Ali bin Abi Talib narrated that the Messenger of Allah(s.a.w) said: "When my Ummah does fifteen things, the afflictions will occur in it." It was said: "What are they O Messenger of Allah?" He said: "When Al-Maghnam (the spoils of war) are distributed (preferentially), trust is usurped, Zakah is a fine, a man obeys his wife and disobeys his mother, he is kind to his friend and abandons his father, voices are raised in the Masajid, the leader of the people is the most despicable among them, the most honored man is the one whose evil the people are afraid of, intoxicants are drunk, silk is worn (by males), there is a fascination for singing slave-girls and music, and the end of this Ummah curses its beginning. When that occurs, anticipate a red wind, collapsing of the earth, and transformation."
It was nothing new that the leader of a people can be more evil than them. And it already happened during the time of Muhammad:
The men were morally reluctant to rape married women, but their leader (Muhammad) "revealed" to them that it's ok.
Predictions of the future after the hadiths
In this category are hadiths that don't talk about what already happened before the prophecies were written.
Predictions of opposites from the usual
This is a special category, because it doesn't seem to be a prediction, but rather a statement that the opposite of what was considered granted at that time will happen. For example mountains were considered solid (not moving), so a prophecy says that mountains will be moving. These predictions could be made mechanically just by saying the opposite of what currently happens. So even if they somehow came true, there would still be an alternative explanation for how the prophecy was made.
"Mountains will move"
This hadith is da'eef (thanks to Ufayr bin Ma'daan in the chain), but some Islamic apologists still like to use it and present it as if it was sahih:
لا تقومُ الساعةُ حتى تزولَ الجبالُ عن أماكِنِها وتَرَوْنَ الأمورَ العظامَ التي لم تَكُونوا تَرَوْنَها
The Hour will not begin until the mountains are moved from their places and you see great calamities which you have never seen before.
Mountains were considered as not moving, so a prophecy could be make simply by saying that the opposite of what usually happens will happen.
Predictions that didn't come true
In this category are predictions that didn't come true. Some of them (like coming of the Dajjal) are not falsifiable, since they could still happen in the future. While others couldn't happen even in the future.
"Rising of the Sun from its setting place"
We were sitting in the shade of the chamber of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) discussing (something) and when we mentioned the last hour, our voices rose high. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: The last hour will not come or happen until there appear ten signs before it : the rising of the sun in its place of setting, the coming forth of the beast, the coming forth of Gog and Magog, the Dajjal (Antichrist), (the descent of) Jesus son of Mary, the smoke, and three collapses of the earth: one in the west, one in the east, and one in the Arabian Peninsula. The last of that will be the emergence of a fire from Yemen, from the lowest part of Aden, and drive mankind to their place of assembly.
This prophecy is definitely wrong, because it assumes that the Sun moves around the Earth (which was a common misconception among 7th century primitive people).
Stones and trees say to Muslims: "here is a Jew behind me; come and kill him"
The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.
Stones and trees don't talk and psychologically healthy people would consider it a miracle if they talked. But for Muhammad it wasn't something special, he was "hearing" voices of non-living objects even before he started "hearing" the voice of god:
"Time will pass more quickly"
لا تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى يَتَقَارَبَ الزَّمَانُ ، فَتَكُونَ السَّنَةُ كَالشَّهْرِ ، وَيَكُونَ الشَّهْرُ كَالْجُمُعَةِ ، وَتَكُونَ الْجُمُعَةُ كَالْيَوْمِ ، وَيَكُونَ الْيَوْمُ كَالسَّاعَةِ ، وَتَكُونَ السَّاعَةُ كَاحْتِرَاقِ السَّعَفَةِ
The Hour will not begin until time passes quickly, so a year will be like a month, and a month will be like a week, and a week will be like a day, and a day will be like an hour, and an hour will be like the burning of a braid of palm leaves.
Islamic scholars don't even know what the prophecy means:
The scholars differed concerning the meaning of the phrase taqaarub al-zamaan (time passing more quickly). There are many views, the strongest of which is:
That the phrase taqaarub al-zamaan (time passing quickly) may be interpreted literally or metaphorically.
Time is running by the speed of 1 hour per hour, 1 day per day, 1 month per month etc. So it's literally not happening.
Wine, musical instruments and singing girls will turn Muslims into monkeys and pigs
It was narrated from Abu Malik Ash’ari that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “People among my nation will drink wine, calling it by another name, and musical instruments will be played for them and singing girls (will sing for them). Allah will cause the earth to swallow them up, and will turn them into monkeys and pigs.”
Although some Muslims drank wine, used musical instruments and listened to singing girls, they were never turned into monkeys and pigs.
Gender ratio will be 50 women to 1 men
Notice that the hadith assumes patriarchy and that more women than men is mentioned among negative things which indicates that existence of more woman than men is evil:
I will narrate to you a Hadith and none other than I will tell you about after it. I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying: From among the portents of the Hour are (the following): -1. Religious knowledge will decrease (by the death of religious learned men). -2. Religious ignorance will prevail. -3. There will be prevalence of open illegal sexual intercourse. -4. Women will increase in number and men will decrease in number so much so that fifty women will be looked after by one man.
There was never demographically a ratio of 50 women : 1 man.
Underwhelming predictions that came true
In this category are predictions that came true, but weren't hard to predict.
"You shall conquer Constantinople"
This hadith is considered da'eef by Albani, but sahih by Dhahabi:
لتفتحن القسطنطينية، فلنعم الأمير أميرها، ولنعم الجيش ذلك الجيش
Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will her leader be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!
Muhammad himself was waging wars, so it was expected that Muslims after his death would continue conquering. Muhammad conquered Arabia and Constantinople wasn't that far away. This wasn't a hard prediction. Also it's not time-specific. So even if it didn't happen, Muslims could still think it would happen in the future. And there are Muslims today who believe that this prediction doesn't refer to the conquest in 15th century, but to a conquest that will happen when the mahdi comes.
Overwhelming predictions that came true
In this category are supposed to be detailed, accurate, verifiable, fulfilled predictions of the future that would be hard to predict in the time they were written. This category is empty.