About Zayd b. Suwahan, he said: “One of his limbs will precede him to Paradise.”1 In the Battle of Nihawand, one of his hands was martyred and in effect reached heaven first.
The incidents we have so far mentioned concerning predictions relating to the Unseen comprise only one out of his ten different kinds of miracle. Yet of this kind alone, we have not even mentioned one tenth. In addition to what is mentioned here, four general kinds of miracle concerning predictions of the Unseen have been described briefly in the Twenty-Fifth Word, which is about the miraculousness of the Qur’an. Now consider the kinds mentioned here together with the four extensive sorts communicated from the Unseen by the tongue of the Qur’an, you will see what conclusive, indisputable, sound, brilliant, and firm proof of his messengership they form. Indeed, anyone whose heart and mind are not corrupted will of a surety believe that Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) was the Messenger of a Glorious One who is the Creator of all things, the One All-Knowing of the Unseen, and received knowledge from Him.
We will give in this Sign a few examples from among the Prophet’s (UWBP) miracles that relate to his effecting increase in food and that are definite to the degree of ‘consensus in meaning.’ But before going into the subject, some introductory comments will be appropriate.
Introduction: Each of the following examples of miracles is narrated, as authentic, through various – sometimes as many as sixteen – chains of transmission. Most of them occurred in the presence of large assemblies, and were narrated by many truthful persons of good repute from among those present. For example, from among seventy men who partook of four handfuls of food and were filled,2 one relates the incident and the others do not contradict him. Their silence thus indicates their confirmation. For if in that era of truth and truthfulness the Companions, who were lovers of the truth and earnest and honest, had witnessed even the tiniest lie, they would have rejected and denied it. But the incidents we will be citing were narrated by many, and the others who witnessed them remained silent. Thus, each of these incidents has the certainty of ‘consensus in meaning.’
Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, i, 343; ‘Ali al-Qari, Sharh al-Shifa’, i, 702; al-Khafaji, Sharh al-Shifa’, iii, 214; al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id, ix, 398; al-‘Asqalani, al-Matalib al-‘Aliya, iv, 91, no: 4047.
Bukhari, Manaqib, 25; Muslim, Ashriba, 142; Tirmidhi, Manaqib, 6; Ibn Maja, At’ima, 47; Muwatta’, Sifat al-Nabi, 19.