The Reports Of The Prophet’s Miracles Hold Certain Knowledge

Ibn Taymiyyah shows that the signs of the Prophet ﷺ are known with certainty because they were mass transmitted (tawatur) in the Ummah more widely than many rulings of Sharia.

Some of these signs are in the Quran, others were witnessed by large groups, and all were passed down generation after generation.

Every level of the Ummah transmitted them until they became widespread. Those who reported them were even more numerous than those who reported much of the Quran or rulings such as the nisab of zakah, the two prostrations of forgetfulness, or the times of prayer.

He says that the miracles were witnessed by multitudes, not individuals, which makes their transmission even stronger.

Examples of Mass Witnessing of Signs

• At al-Hudaybiyyah, 1,500 companions saw water gush from between the Prophet’s ﷺ fingers, and the dry well fill with water until the army drank.
• At Dhat al-Riqaa, the army saw a small amount of water fill a large bowl until all were satisfied.
• On return from Khaybar, the army witnessed two water skins fill all containers without depletion.
• At Khaybar, 1,500 men ate from a single sheep shank.
• At Tabuk, 30,000 men saw a spring increase in water and food suffice all on a leather mat.
• At the Trench, over 1,000 men ate from Jabir’s food prepared from one sa of barley and a young goat, with food left over.
• At Abu Talhah’s house, 80 men ate from small food until full.
• At another time, 300 men made wudu from a cup while water flowed from his fingers.
• At Zaynab’s wedding, 300 men ate from one basin of food.

These examples show entire armies and communities witnessing the signs.

Comparison to Rulings of Sharia

Certain rulings, such as the grandmother’s share of inheritance, the prohibition of marrying a woman with her aunt, or the zakah on crops, were only heard by limited groups, yet they are agreed upon as mutawatir and known necessarily in the religion.

If such rulings are accepted as mutawatir despite fewer witnesses, then the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ, which were seen by far greater numbers, are even more deserving to be accepted as mutawatir.

Mass Transmission and Motives to Report

Some object that strong motives are needed for people to transmit extraordinary events. Ibn Taymiyyah responds that motives to transmit the Prophet’s ﷺ signs were greater than motives to transmit other reports, whether about previous prophets or kings and dynasties.

He shows that:

• Reports of kings, caliphs, and battles are widely transmitted despite being less witnessed.
• Many Muslims do not even know the names of Umayyad or Abbasid rulers, or major battles like Ajnadayn, Marj al-Sufr, Fahl, al-Harrah, Marj Rahit, or the fitan of Ibn al-Ashath and Ibn al-Muhallab.
• Yet signs of the Prophet ﷺ are known by almost every Muslim, even the common people, more than these historical reports.

Famous Battles and Their Transmission

Even major events of the Prophet’s ﷺ life, like Badr, Uhud, the Trench, Khaybar, the Conquest of Makkah, Hunayn, and Ta’if, are mutawatir. However, many people confuse the order or details of these battles, even though their occurrence is undoubted.

The Quran itself confirms these events:

“وَلَقَدْ نَصَرَكُمُ اللَّهُ بِبَدْرٍ وَأَنتُمْ أَذِلَّةٌ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ”
“And Allah certainly helped you at Badr while you were humble. So be mindful of Allah that you may give thanks.” (Al Imran 123)

“وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ إِذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ فَلَمْ تُغْنِ عَنكُمْ شَيْئًا… ثُمَّ أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِ وَعَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ”
“And on the Day of Hunayn, when your great number pleased you but it did not avail you at all… Then Allah sent down His tranquility upon His Messenger and upon the believers…” (al-Tawba 25–26)

These battles are mutawatir just like the signs.

Comparison with Reports of Other Nations

Reports of prophets before, such as the destruction of Bayt al-Maqdis and the coming of Bukht Nasr, are known only among some, not universally. Allah said:

“وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فِي الْكِتَابِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ…”
“We decreed to the Children of Israel in the Book that you will surely cause corruption in the land twice…” (al-Isra 4–7)

Yet the Prophet’s ﷺ signs became more famous and more widespread than such reports.

Conclusion

Ibn Taymiyyah proves from this that:

1. The miracles and signs of the Prophet ﷺ are transmitted with stronger tawatur than many rulings of Sharia.
2. They were witnessed by large groups and passed down through every generation of the Ummah, more widely than Quranic verses and rulings.
3. Their fame among Muslims is greater than the fame of historical events, battles, and reports of kings or prophets before.
4. Therefore, knowledge of these signs is certain, and denying them is unreasonable.

The paths that show by which these reports yield certain knowledge.

These reports, some of them are in the Quran, and some are mass transmitted that both the common people and the learned know, such as water gushing from between his fingers, the increase of food, and the moaning of the palm trunk, and the like. Each one of these has been reported through mass transmission and has become widespread, and the ummah has transmitted them generation after generation, successor from predecessor.

There is no tier of the ummah except that these signs are transmitted in it, well known and widespread. Those who transmitted them are more than those who transmitted much of the Quran. Those who heard them and transmitted them from the ummah are more than those who heard and transmitted many verses of the Quran, and more than those who heard and transmitted that he prostrated two prostrations of forgetfulness in the prayer, and more than those who heard and transmitted the nisab of zakah and its obligations. Rather, the times of prayer and their numbers became well known by the continual practice upon them.

As for these signs, those who transmitted them are more than those who transmitted the times of the prayers, from the angle of specific reports. This is because many of the signs of the Messenger would occur in the presence of a great multitude of people, so they would witness those signs.

The people of al Hudaybiyyah, who were one thousand five hundred, witnessed water springing from between his fingers, and they witnessed abundant water appearing in the well of al Hudaybiyyah after they had drained it and left in it not a drop, then it increased until the army drank to sufficiency.

Likewise the army in the expedition of Dhat al Riqaa witnessed the small amount of water when Jabir poured it into the large bowl and it became full, then all the army filled from it. Likewise the army on their return from the expedition of Khaybar witnessed the two water skins with the woman, and they filled every container with them, and they drank while the skins were still full as they had been.

Likewise the people of Khaybar, who were one thousand five hundred, witnessed the food that was like the shank of a sheep and it satisfied the entire army. Likewise the great army, who were about thirty thousand, in Tabuk, witnessed the spring when its water had been little, then its water increased until it sufficed them, and they witnessed the food that they gathered on a leather mat, then they took from it until it sufficed them.

Likewise the people of the trench, who were more than a thousand, witnessed the abundance of food in the house of Jabir after it had been but a sa of barley and a young goat, so they all ate after hunger until they were full and a remainder was left over.

Likewise the eighty persons witnessed the abundance of food when they ate in the house of Abu Talhah. Likewise the three hundred witnessed the abundance of water when they made wudu from a cup while water was gushing from between his fingers until it sufficed them for wudu. Likewise in the wedding feast of Zaynab, they were three hundred, then they ate from food in a stone basin.

(Glossary notes: the aqilah are the agnates of a man, they are those who inherit a man in a case of kalalah when there is no father and no son. See Tartib al Qamus 3/279 and 236) (in italics).

These rulings like the grandmother’s one sixth, and his prohibition that a woman be married in addition to her paternal aunt and her maternal aunt, and his words, “On what the sky waters the due is one tenth, and on what is watered by lifting buckets and by camels the due is half a tenth,” and the like, only a group from the ummah heard them. (The meaning of firash here is the lawful spouse or the master. In al Nihayah 4/417, the shighar is a marriage in Jahiliyyah. It is that a man marries a woman on condition that he gives you another woman without a dowry. Some limited it to female relatives and said there is no shighar except that he marries you his female ward on condition that you marry him your female ward. See al Nihayah 4/417, entry shaʿara)

They are far fewer than those who witnessed his signs.

Yet the ummah agrees on transmitting those rulings, and these rulings are mass transmitted from him and are known by necessity from his religion.

If such matters have become mass transmitted in the ummah and the ummah agreed upon transmitting them, then how about that which was even more famous and clearer to those who witnessed it, and the knowledge of those who saw it was clearer than their knowledge of these rulings.

They transmitted those signs to those who were absent from them. So without doubt the mass transmission of these signs in the ummah must be greater and clearer.

For this reason you hardly find a Muslim except that he has known many of these signs and has heard them and transmitted them to others, unlike many of the rulings that are mass transmitted from him and whose transmission is agreed upon among the scholars. Many people do not know them and have not heard them.

If someone says, these are matters that motives and drives gather to transmit. If they existed, motives and drives would gather to transmit them. If that were so, they would be mass transmitted.

We say, and so it is, praise belongs to Allah, motives and drives did gather to transmit them more than motives and drives gathered to transmit most of the signs of the prophets before him, and more than motives and drives gathered to transmit the wondrous reports from the lives of kings and caliphs.

Whoever reflects upon the transmission of these signs will find their fame in every time and the spread of reports about them greater than the fame of what has been transmitted from the reports of the prophets and from the lives of kings and of dynasties, the kinds of reports that people usually have strong motives and drives to transmit. For a matter like this does not have to be mass transmitted with every single human group.

Most of what is mass transmitted within each nation regarding the states of those before them may not be heard by many from other nations, let alone be mass transmitted among them. Many nations who do not know the prophets may not have heard the names of the prophets nor their reports, let alone have those reports mass transmitted among them.

Most followers of the prophets do not have mass transmitted among them from the reports of kings and their lives what is mass transmitted among other people. Most Muslims have not even heard the names of the caliphs of Banu Umayyah and Banu al Abbas, nor the names of their viziers and deputies and commanders, nor of the wars that took place among them, nor do they know the great events of battle that occurred between Muslims and their enemies, such as the Day of Ajnadayn, (About Ajnadayn. It was in the year 15 AH between the Muslims led by Amr ibn al As and the Romans led by Artabon. There was no clear victory after intense fighting with many killed. Ajnadayn is a place in al Sham in Palestine in the district of Bayt Jibrin. See al Bidayah wa al Nihayah 7/154–155 and Marasid al Ittila 1/33) 

the Day of Marj al Sufr, (About Marj al Sufr. Marj is pasture land. The Day of Marj al Sufr was in 614 AH between the Muslims and the Franks. The Franks overcame and only a few from Baysan and around it escaped. The Franks plundered the lands from Baysan to Banias. They took many captive, killed, burned, and destroyed. Marj al Sufr is a district of Damascus. See Mukhtar al Sihah p. 620, al Kamil 9/314–315, Marasid al Ittila 3/1254)

and the Day of Fahl, (About Fahl. It is a place in the Ghawr, the Jordan Valley in al Sham, between Bayt al Maqdis and Damascus. A battle took place there between the Muslims led by Shurahbil ibn Hasanah and the Romans led by Saqlab ibn Mikhaq. Allah granted victory to the Muslims. They killed about eighty thousand Romans. It was in the year 13 AH. See Marasid al Ittila 3/1018 and 2/1104, and al Bidayah wa al Nihayah 7/520. In some copies there is an addition, the Day of al Yarmuk) 

and such as the Day of al Harrah, (About the Day of al Harrah. It was in 63 AH between the people of Madinah led by Abd Allah ibn Hanzalah al Ghasil, son of Abu Amir, and the people of al Sham led by Muslim, known as Musrif, ibn Uqbah. The people of Madinah were defeated. The city was given over to the soldiers for three days to plunder. Ten thousand seven hundred of the people of Madinah were killed. It is said one thousand women became pregnant in those days without husbands. See Tarikh al Umam wa al Muluk 5/480–496 and al Bidayah wa al Nihayah 8/217–221)

and the Day of Marj Rahit, and the tribulation of Ibn al Muhallab, (About Ibn al Muhallab. The tribulation was between Yazid ibn al Muhallab and Yazid ibn Abd al Malik. Yazid had been imprisoned by the order of Umar ibn Abd al Aziz and remained until he escaped in the illness of Umar. He gathered his supporters and attacked al Basrah and took it, then he faced the army of Yazid ibn Abd al Malik led by Maslamah ibn Abd al Malik. Ibn al Muhallab was defeated and killed. His brother al Mufaddal and those with him went to Wasit then to Kirman. That was in 102 AH. Maslamah pursued them and captured them and killed al Mufaddal and sent his head to Yazid in Damascus. See al Kamil 4/157–175)

and the tribulation of Ibn al Ashath, (About Ibn al Ashath. He is Abd al Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al Ashath. Al Hajjaj appointed him over the army sent against Ratbil, the king of the Turks. He prevailed and made peace, then his soldiers pledged to him the general leadership and removed al Hajjaj then Abd al Malik ibn Marwan. He took al Basrah, then al Hajjaj fought him for a long time and defeated him. He fled to Ratbil who honoured him, then betrayed him and killed him, and sent his head to al Hajjaj who paraded it in Iraq then al Sham then Egypt in 85 AH. See al Bidayah wa al Nihayah 9/31–54)

and the readers with al Hajjaj (About the battle of the readers with al Hajjaj. It was in 82 AH. It followed the tribulation of Ibn al Ashath and was under his leadership at a place called al Zawiyah. The readers nearly defeated al Hajjaj, then al Hajjaj prevailed and killed many from among the readers. Ibn al Ashath went back to al Kufah. See Tarikh al Umam wa al Muluk 6/342–343) 

and the war of Musab ibn al Zubayr with al Mukhtar ibn Abi Ubayd, (About Musab ibn al Zubayr, d. 72 AH. He is the son of al Zubayr ibn al Awwam al Qurashi al Asadi. He was the governor of the two Iraqs. Abu Isa and Abu Abd Allah were his kunyas. He was a horseman, brave, handsome, and comely, and shedding much blood. He was killed at the age of forty. See Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala 4/140–143, About his war with al Mukhtar. It was in 76 AH after al Mukhtar had taken al Kufah. Musab marched against him and they met. Al Mukhtar was defeated at Harura, then he fortified himself in the palace, then he came out and fought until he was killed. Then Musab killed all his supporters in execution, in line with public acceptance. See Tarikh al Umam wa al Muluk 6/93–116) 

and the tribulation of al Mansur with Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Hasan ibn Hasan in Madinah, (About al Mansur, d. 158 AH. He is Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al Hashimi al Abbasi. His mother was Salamah the Berber. He was born in 95 AH. He travelled widely, saw lands, and sought knowledge. He was called Abd Allah al Tawil before the caliphate, then Abu al Duwaynīq after it. He died near Makkah at the age of sixty four. See Siyar Aʿlam al Nubala 7/183–189 and Wafayat al Aʿyan 2/216–217) (About Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Hasan ibn Hasan rose in Madinah and fought the Abbasids and at first defeated them, then his companions dispersed from him and he was killed in Madinah in 145 AH. His head was sent to al Mansur. See al Kamil 5/2–11)

and with his brother Ibrahim in Basrah, (About Ibrahim, He is Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah ibn Hasan ibn Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib. He hid from al Mansur for five years then stood forth in Basrah in 145 AH. He was killed after his army was defeated by Humayd ibn Qahtabah in 145 AH in al Kufah at the age of forty eight. See al Kamil 5/15–19) 

and the bridge of Abu Ubayd, (Abu Ubayd is ibn Masʿud ibn Amr ibn Umayr ibn Awf al Thaqafi. He is the father of al Mukhtar and of Safiyyah the wife of Ibn Umar. He accepted Islam in the time of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Umar appointed him in the year 13 AH as commander over a large army that included a group from the people of Badr. The bridge is ascribed to him because he was the commander of the army in the battle that took place at the bridge. Abu Ubayd was killed that day as a martyr. The battle took place between al Hirah and al Qadisiyyah. It is also known as the Day of Qas al Natif and the Day of al Marwah. The Persian commander was Murad Nishah ibn Bahman. One thousand eight hundred people were martyred with him. The Muslims had cut a bridge there. When they fled they found the bridge cut. Al Muthanna ibn Harithah al Shaybani protected the people until the bridge was set up and those who were safe crossed. See Usd al Ghabah 5/205)

and the Day of al Yarmuk, (About the Day of al Yarmuk. It was in the year 13 AH. The Muslims were forty thousand under several commanders, then they agreed to put Khalid ibn al Walid in command. The Romans were led by Bahan. The Muslims won a great victory. One hundred twenty thousand Romans were struck down and three thousand Muslims. See Tarikh al Umam wa al Muluk 3/394–406)

and the Day of al Qadisiyyah. (About the Day of al Qadisiyyah. It was in 14 AH between the Muslims led by Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas and the Persians led by Rustam. Rustam was killed after three days of fighting. The Persian army was routed with a severe rout. See al Kamil 2/309–337) 

They do not know that the Muslims conquered Cyprus, nor that they raided Constantinople twice, once in the time of Muawiyah and once in the time of Banu Marwan. (About Banu Marwan. The ascription is to Marwan ibn al Hakam ibn Abi al As ibn Umayyah ibn Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf. See Jamharat Ansab al Arab p. 87) 

Most of the common people have not heard of Abu Muslim al Khurasani, d. 137 AH, the leader of the Abbasid summons, nor of Abd Allah ibn Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn al Abbas, d. 147 AH, nor what happened to them of wars with the armies of Marwan ibn Muhammad, d. 132 AH, the last of the Umayyad caliphs.

They have not heard of the entry of Abd al Rahman ibn Muawiyah ibn Hisham, known as al Dakhil, d. 172 AH, into al Andalus and what befell him there. Nor of the tribulation between the two sons of al Rashid, Harun al Rashid, d. 193 AH, namely Muhammad al Amin, d. 199 AH, and Abd Allah al Maʾmun, d. 218 AH. Yet these matters are mass transmitted among those versed in the lives of people and in histories. (About al Maʾmun, d. 218 AH. He is Abd Allah ibn Harun, Amir al Muʾminin, Abu al Abbas. He was born in 170 AH and died in 218 AH. He read knowledge in his youth and heard hadith and excelled in fiqh, Arabic, and the days of people. When he grew older he took interest in the sciences of the ancients and excelled in philosophy. That drew him to the statement that the Quran is created. He was one of the men of Banu al Abbas with resolution, firmness, knowledge, forbearance, opinion, cunning, courage, leadership, and generosity. See Wafayat al Aʿyan 2/135–139).

The appearance of these signs, which are the evidences and marks of prophethood, being famous among the ummah both its common folk and its learned in every time, is greater than the appearance of these mass transmitted historical reports. So these signs are more deserving to be deemed mass transmitted than those reports. The transmitters of these signs are from the learned.

The books of hadith, tafsir, maghazi, sira, usul, and fiqh in which these reports are found have more sound transmission by agreement of people of reason and knowledge than the free historical books.

Much of the reports in those histories are with broken chains, and in them there are lies that none can count but Allah, even if the root story might be mass transmitted. As for these signs that are famous in the ummah, many of their types are mass transmitted among the people of knowledge, and many of their individual cases are mass transmitted among the elite of the learned.

Rather, many of the jurists and theologians, or most of them, do not know the number of the military campaigns of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in which he fought his enemies.

These are famous events. Each one of them is mass transmitted with clear mass transmission among the people of knowledge. Such as the Day of Badr, the Day of Uhud, the Day of the Trench, the expedition of Banu al Mustaliq, the expedition of Khaybar, the conquest of Makkah, the Day of Hunayn, and the siege of al Taif.

Many of the people of knowledge, let alone the common people, even if they have heard these names or some of them, do not know which one was before the other. They do not know in which land each campaign took place. They do not know who the enemy was in it. They do not know how it was.

Most of the common people do not distinguish between Badr and Hunayn. One of them says, “the Day of Badr and Hunayn,” and they think it is one day and one campaign. They do not know that they are two campaigns between which there were about six years. Badr was in the second year after the Hijrah.

Hunayn was in the eighth year after the conquest of Makkah. Badr is a place between Makkah and Madinah, to the north of Makkah and to the south of Madinah. Hunayn is a valley near al Taif to the east of Makkah.

They were linked in name because Allah sent down the angels in both of them and supported by them His Prophet and the believers until they overcame their enemy, with the enemy being strong at Badr, and with most Muslims routed at the beginning of Hunayn.

Allah reminded of this in His Book in His words,

وَلَقَدْ نَصَرَكُمُ اللَّهُ بِبَدْرٍ وَأَنتُمْ أَذِلَّةٌ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ

“And Allah certainly helped you at Badr while you were humble. So be mindful of Allah that you may give thanks.” (Al Imran 123)

And His words,

وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ إِذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ فَلَمْ تُغْنِ عَنكُمْ شَيْئًا وَضَاقَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتْ ثُمَّ وَلَّيْتُمْ مُّدْبِرِينَ • ثُمَّ أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِ وَعَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَأَنزَلَ جُنُودًا لَّمْ تَرَوْهَا

“And on the Day of Hunayn, when your great number pleased you but it did not avail you at all, and the earth, for all its vastness, was straitened for you, then you turned back fleeing. Then Allah sent down His tranquility upon His Messenger and upon the believers, and He sent down troops you did not see…” (al Tawba 25–26)

Even some of the great foremost imams of fatwa who are famous, one of his companions said to him when he objected to him seeking knowledge of al sira, be quiet, or I will ask you in front of the people which one was before, Badr or Uhud, for I know you do not know it.

Yet it is from the mass transmitted matters in which the one who has the least familiarity with reports does not doubt that Uhud was after Badr. At Badr the Muslims prevailed over the disbelievers. On the Day of Uhud the disbelievers got the upper hand.

Many of the great scholars of the Muslims do not know what is mass transmitted among the People of the Book, and even among other Muslim scholars, such as the destruction of Bayt al Maqdis twice and the coming of Bukht Nasr to Bayt al Maqdis. Allah the Exalted said:

وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فِي الْكِتَابِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبِيرًا • فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولَاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَّنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلَالَ الدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَّفْعُولًا • ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَا لَكُمُ الْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَمْدَدْنَاكُم بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ أَكْثَرَ نَفِيرًا • إِنْ أَحْسَنتُمْ أَحْسَنتُمْ لِأَنفُسِكُمْ وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ الْآخِرَةِ لِيَسُوءُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَلِيَدْخُلُوا الْمَسْجِدَ كَمَا دَخَلُوهُ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَلِيُتَبِّرُوا مَا عَلَوْا تَتْبِيرًا

“We decreed to the Children of Israel in the Book that you will surely cause corruption in the land twice and you will surely reach great height.

So when the promise of the first of the two came, We sent against you servants of Ours with severe might, so they probed the homes, and it was a promise fulfilled.

Then We gave you back the turn against them and We reinforced you with wealth and sons and We made you more in manpower. If you do good, you do good for yourselves, and if you do evil, then for it.

So when the promise of the latter came, that they may disfigure your faces and that they enter the masjid just as they entered it the first time, and that they destroy utterly what they had dominated.” (al Isra 4–7)