Like those mentioned above, many predictions which the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) gave concerning the Unseen have been recorded in the six best-known, authentic books of Hadith, together with the chains of the narrators. As for the occurrences related in this work, they are definite to the degree of ‘consensus in meaning,’ being related in Bukhari and Muslim, which are accepted by the scholars as the most authentic sources after the Qur’an, and in the other collections like Tirmidhi, Nasa’i, Abu Da’ud, Mustadrak al-Hakim, Musnad al-Ahmad b. Hanbal, and Dala’il al-Bayhaqi.
Now, unthinking denier! Do not shrug these off, saying, “Muhammad the Arabian was clever!” Because the accurate predictions of Muhammad (UWBP) concerning the Unseen cannot be explained except in either of the following two ways: you will either suppose that this blessed person had such piercing vision and expansive genius that he saw and knew the past and the future and all the world; beheld the East, the West, and the whole universe; and discovered what happened in the past and what will happen in the future. Such a quality is not to be found in a human being, but if it was to be, it would certainly be a wonder, a gift, bestowed on him by the Creator of the world, which would itself be the greatest of miracles. Or you will believe this blessed person to be an official and a student of One under whose disposal and observation everything stands, under whose command are all ages and all the species and realms of beings in the cosmos, in whose great ledger is recorded everything, so that He may show and communicate them to his student whenever He wishes. Thus, Muhammad the Arabian (Upon whom be blessings and peace) instructs others as he himself is instructed by the Lord of Pre-Eternity.
It is related in an authentic narration that when the Prophet (UWBP) appointed Khalid b. al-Walid to fight against Ukaydir, the head of the Dumat al-Jandal, he informed Khalid that he would find Ukaydir on a wild ox hunt,1 and that he would be captured without resistance. Khalid captured Ukaydir in exactly this way.
According to an authentic narration, when the Quraysh hung up on the wall of the Ka‘ba a leaf on which were written words against the Bani Hashim, the Prophet (UWBP) said to them: “Worms have eaten the leaf, except the parts bearing the names of God.”2 They examined the leaf to find it in the same condition as had been described.
Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, i, 344; al-Khafaji, Sharh al-Shifa’, iii, 218; ‘Ali al-Qari, Sharh al-Shifa’, i, 704; Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma’ad, v, 538-9; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, iv, 519; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya, iv, 30.
.Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, i, 345; al-Khafaji, Sharh al-Shifa’, iii, 720; ‘Ali al-Qari, Sharh al-Shifa’, i, 706; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya, iii, 96-7; Ibn Hisham, Sirat al-Nabi, i, 371.