Muhammad (SAW) Fraud or Messenger of God

Muhammad (SAW): Fraud or Messenger of God?

Dr. Yasir Qadhi

Opening

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

"Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and seek His help and forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our souls and the bad consequences of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomever Allah misguides, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah alone, without any partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger."

Introduction: The Crux of Islamic Identity

This topic that I'm going to be speaking about is a topic that really goes to the very crux of being a Muslim and giving da'wah to non-Muslims. It goes to the very core of our Islamic identity.

Our entire religion is based upon this one premise that this man that came to this earth, lived in Mecca, died in Medina. Muhammad ibn Abdullah صلى الله عليه وسلم al-Hashimi al-Qurashi al-Arabi was the final prophet and the messenger that Allah azawajal sent for all of mankind. So this topic is not a trivial topic.

Upon it is based our Iman. Upon it is based our Jannah and Nahr. Upon it is based our entire system of life. And upon it as well is based our giving da'wah to others who do not believe in our faith.

A Disclaimer About Da'wah

And before I begin, a little bit of a disclaimer. Many Muslims, and I was one of them when I was a young teenager. Many Muslims naively think that the truth of Islam is so simple and so self-evident that the whole world will convert if they just hear Islam for five minutes. We think if we give da'wah, we go knocking on doors, hand a pamphlet out:

"Khalas! People are just gonna come and come and embrace Islam."

The truth of Islam is self-evident only to those who are seeking the truth. That is the big underlying thing that you have to do. The truth of Islam is self-evident only to those who want to see the truth. If you close your eyes and block yourself, you cannot see the sun.

No matter how bright it is, if you don't wanna see it, you will not see it. And we as Muslims need to understand that by and large most of mankind is very comfortable following the culture and the mores and the customs of their society, of their parents, of their heritage.

Examples from the Seerah

All you need to do is to read the seerah or the biography of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Look at the people who converted in his lifetime. Some of them converted immediately. Others took very end to convert and some never converted at all. Look at our Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم seerah.

Instant Converts

Look at people who converted instantaneously. People like Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم praised Abu Bakr and he said, "Every one of you, when I presented Islam to him, he hesitated before accepting it except for Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr was the only one who embraced it without hesitation." Why? Because of the purity of his soul. Because of the innocence of his heart, he knew Islam to be true.

Look as well at Salman al-Farisi, Salman the Persian. We all know the story of Salman the Persian. If we don't, just a very brief summary. Salman was born as a Zoroastrian and he grew up the son of the priest of the Zoroastrian faith. And eventually he saw a Christian monk in his land, he converted to Christianity. And the version of Christianity he followed was not the mainstream version.

It was one of the now they're gone versions. And this Christian priest told him that there shall come a Prophet and there will be signs, go find this Prophet. So Salman al-Farisi was looking for this Prophet. And all of the signs that the priest gave him were found in our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. So he embraced Islam. So he was searching for the truth, then he embraces Islam.

Look at Abu Dharr al-Ghifari. Abu Dharr al-Ghifari tells us the hadith in Sahih Muslim, he says, "When everybody was worshipping idols in the days of Jahiliyyah, I knew this was wrong. And I knew that idolatry was not correct. And I had abandoned idolatry from my people. Then I heard of a man preaching

monotheism. So I told my brother who's going to Mecca, go find out for this man what is he preaching." Then he embraced Islam. (Sahih Muslim 2473)

So look, he's searching for the truth, then when he sees Islam, he embraces it. All of these stories and more.

The Story of Abdullah ibn Salam

Famous hadith, the story of Abdullah ibn Salam, the chief rabbi of Medina, Abdullah ibn Salam. Abdullah ibn Salam, when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم comes to Medina, and Abdullah ibn Salam is a genuine Jewish worshipper. He believes and he is sincere in his faith. When he sees, what is the famous hadith, memorize this hadith, it's so beautiful.

He says, "I went out to see this man, and as soon as I saw his face:

"I knew that the face of this man was not the face of a liar. This man is a true man." And then he opened his mouth and he spoke.

And he said, this is the first hadith he ever said in Medina, the first sermon he ever gave in Medina, our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, the first sermon he gave in Medina. That, it is called the hadith of Salam, that our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

"O people, feed the poor, and pray at night, and give the salam to people, spread the salam, spread peace and spread salam, you shall enter Jannah in peace, you shall enter Jannah in salam."

And this hadith is called hadith of Salam, narrated by Abdullah ibn Salam, and it talks about spreading salam, and that Jannah being salam, and entering it with salam.

So Abdullah ibn Salam, he was a pure Jewish worshipper of God. And when he saw the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, it clicked the personalities clicked, the purity clicked. Then when he heard this beautiful message, "O people, feed the hungry, feed the poor, O people, spread peace, O people, pray at night when everybody else is sleeping, then you shall enter the paradise with peace."

Then he knew the message to be true. So the person was true, the message was true, he converted instantaneously. These are instant converts.

Those Who Never Converted

How about the opposite end? Well, you had those who never converted. You even had those who knew the truth, but still did not convert. And the best example for this is Abu Talib.

Abu Talib, the uncle of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Abu Talib, this is really interesting, believed that Islam is true. He knew that his nephew was a Prophet of Allah, but he did not convert. Why? The pride, the heritage that he believed in, was more beloved to him than the God who created him.

His culture, his status, his lineage. "I am the son of Abdul Muttalib, the greatest Arab who had ever lived in that century." All of Arabia knew Abdul Muttalib.

Abdul Muttalib was the most prestigious, the most famed, the most illustrious, the most noble of all of the Arabs, not just of the Quraysh. And lo and behold, Abu Talib is his son, his heir to the throne, his heir to that power, to that privilege. He cannot give up the lineage, the heritage, that his father is known for.

So his father was more beloved to him, his lineage was more beloved to him, his heritage was more beloved to him than the truth, even though he knew the truth of Islam.

The Story of Ikrimah

There are other examples as well. One of the most interesting examples is that of Ikrimah. Ikrimah, the son of Abu Jahl. You all know Abu Jahl, the Fir'aun of this Ummah. Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم called him the Fir'aun of my Ummah, the Pharaoh of my Ummah is Abu Jahl.

Abu Jahl, of course he died a pagan. His son Ikrimah eventually converts to Islam. And his conversion story illustrates for us a very interesting fact. What is that fact? Many of the people of the Quraysh believed in idolatry, sincerely believed in idolatry. Many of the people of the Quraysh genuinely believed that their gods, these statues, these things shaped like a falcon, shaped like half a man and half a lion. One of their gods is half a man, half a lion.

Another god is this and that. These things that they had carved with their own hands, many of the Quraysh, many of them genuinely believed them to be gods besides Allah. And the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is in their midst.

They know him, they see him, but they still believe these gods to be true. The story of Ikrimah proves this, that when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم conquered Mecca, Ikrimah was one of the few people that would not be forgiven and he knew this. So he fled.

He went into self-imposed exile. And he went to the oceans trying to flee to the neighboring land of Abyssinia. And in that ship an incident happened. And that incident was the captain of the ship, they were all pagans, they were all idol worshippers. They entered into a storm in the middle of the night. And the ship, you know those old ships of those days, they're not very big magnificent ships, they're small little dinghies.

And the ship is tossing and turning, and the waves are crashing, and the captain told them, "People of the ship, I cannot do anything now. This storm that is coming will surely destroy us. Unless all of us sincerely pray to Allah, and He gives us a miracle. For by Allah, you and I both know at this time, none of our gods is going to help us other than Allah."

Now, who is saying this? The captain of the ship, who is a pagan. Who is he saying this to? Ikrimah and all of the other people on the ship.

Ikrimah, who's narrating the story, Ikrimah said, "That's when it clicked. That if my gods cannot help me when I need them, why should I worship those gods when I don't need them? These gods cannot help me, why should I worship them? Only Allah can help me, I should worship Him."

So Ikrimah said that, "O Allah, if you save me, I promise I will accept your religion and go to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, and I will find him to be forgiving and merciful."

And that's exactly what happened. That Allah saved him, and Ikrimah lived up to his promise, and he went back to Mecca, and he embraced Islam, and he died a shaheed fighting against the Romans in a future battle.

The Reality of Human Nature

The point being, what does this story tell us? Ikrimah was sincerely idolatrous. He believed in the idols. Now, do you really think, if our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم was not able to convince his own kith and kin, all of them, his own tribesmen, he's preaching 23 years. Do you really think that me and you, we stand 5 minutes in front of somebody, and we present some evidence, says, "khalas, everything will be open, that it will all embrace Islam?" No.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

"The bulk of mankind, no matter how much you desire them to, they will not be guided." Why will they not be guided? Because they are content living their lifestyles. They're not thinking about the higher truth. They're content living animalistic lifestyles. Allah says in the Qur'an, that they're living like animals, meaning they don't have a purpose. Because animals don't have a purpose, other than feeding their belly, taking care of their desires, there's no purpose in life.

Conditions for Accepting Truth

So, before I even begin, I have 10 points about proving the prophet of Islam is a prophet. These points will only benefit the one who wants to hear them, i.e. the one who has an open mind, the one who has an inquisitive heart, the one who's searching for the truth. Don't expect, you go and you preach and teach, and you knock on doors, and you stand in the bazaars and hand out flyers.

Don't expect the majority of people to simply embrace, no matter how true Islam is, that truth must be willing to be received. The person must have certain conditions. What are those conditions? Well, one ayah will summarize all of these conditions.

Write this ayah down, Surah Saba verse 46. This one ayah summarizes all of the conditions the non-Muslim must have before he accepts the truth. Allah says in the Qur'an:

Allah is saying, "Say to them, Ya Rasulullah, I am only challenging you with one thing. I'm advising you with one thing." So, the first thing we need to do, we have to tell them, think outside the box. Don't accept status quo.

Think, advise them, admonish them, challenge them intellectually. So we need to prod. We need to prod them. Don't just accept status quo. Are you sure your religion is the truth? Your culture is the best? Think about what other religions say. Think about what other prophets say.

So the prophet is told, tell them this. What then does he say?

أَن تَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ "You stand up for the sake of Allah."

So this is the second condition. By standing up here, there is this connotation of being active, of researching, of doing your job. Don't just sit lazy on your behind and live your life as if there's no tomorrow, as if there's no hereafter, as if there's no death. Stand up, go out, research.

أَن تَقُومُوا Show some activity. You need to show the activity, not me. I am here to tell you, but if you're not interested, you're not going to accept it. So you need to be willing.

أَن تَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ Number three, stand up for the sake of Allah, for the sake of God. Don't search for the truth to please me, to please you. No, search for the truth for the sake of your Creator.

Be sincere to your Creator, not to me and not to your culture.

أَن تَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ

So we need to remind them that look, this is not a joke, this is life and death. This is more important than life and death. Your being on this earth, your existence, what is the purpose of it? Find out for the sake of God.

أَن تَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ

So Allah is saying, you remind them for the sake of their Creator. So, number one, you remind them. Number two, to stand up and do research. Number three, sincerely.

Then what?

مَثْنَى وَفُرَادَى

مَشْى means in twos and فُرَادَى means in ones. This means you stand up and you research by yourself and in groups. You discuss and contemplate in your own mind and talking to others. In twos مَثْنَى وَفْرَادَى and threes and groups and also in ones.

Meaning what? Make others involved in this discussion. Go to your friends, go to your peers, go to other people of other faiths and bounce your ideas off of them. Don't be all alone here.

Stand up for the sake of Allah and discuss these issues, one and in twos.

ثُمَّ تَتَفَكَّرُوا

ثُمَّ تَتَفَكَّرُوا

This is the final condition. Then you think again. So we began with thinking, we end with thinking.

Then you think, you contemplate, you reason out. So the person that you're giving da'wah to, he must take the initiative to reason. You cannot sit in his or stand in his shoes. You cannot do the thinking for him. He needs to do that thinking.

So you tell him, your job, my dear brother in humanity, my dear sister in humanity, your job if you're not a Muslim, is to think about the purpose of life for the sake of God. Think about it in yourselves and in discussion groups. Think about it and continue to think.

ثُمَّ تَتَفَكَّرُوا

Continue to think. What do you think about?

مَا بِصَاحِبِكُم مِّن جِنَّةٍ

"This companion of yours, the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, this man, he is not a crazy mad man, he's not a lunatic, he is a messenger of God."

Everything hinges on belief in this man. If you believe in this man, everything else follows. And that is why, interestingly enough, our kalima:

لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ

No doubt لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ is the more important of the two, that Allah has to be worshipped. But مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ الله actually precedes لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ in terms of it happening.

Meaning, you must believe in the Prophet, then you will say the kalima. Think about it. How else will you say the kalima? Because you believe in the Prophet.

Even though لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ comes first مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ happens first. And that's what the topic is today.

Proving مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم

Ten Points Proving Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is a Prophet

So I have 10 points here. And again, for those of you that are taking notes, it's good that you just take some general notes down. So that inshaAllah it can benefit you in your talks and in your conversations with others. And inshaAllah ourselves, our iman as well is helped.

Point 1: The Miracles of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم

Point number one, evidence number one. This is the one that Muslims like to quote the most. And it deals with the miracles of the Prophet.

And yesterday I mentioned that, for example Imam al-Bayhaqi, that famous scholar of hadith. He has an 11 volume book about the miracles of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Many other scholars have written entire books about the miracles of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم

Now these miracles are all true, we believe in them. But in my humble opinion, the miracles narrated from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم should not form the number one thing we say to non-Muslims.

This is something that helps more with Muslims. Why? Because in the end of the day, as we said yesterday, all of the miracles that happened with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, who was there to see them? The sahaba. We believe the sahaba.

But the non-Muslim is not going to believe the sahaba. The non-Muslim will say, "Oh well, there are many false people that have their miracles as well."

So in my humble opinion, the issue of all of the miracles of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم I believe in them. But these are not da'wah tools except for one miracle. And that is the eternal miracle. And that is the miracle of the Qur'an.

Quranic Verse and Hadith Verification - Claude

Who was never exposed to the intricacies of the Bible and the other cultures of the world. And Allah mentions this in the Qur'an. Allah says, challenging the Quraysh to think:

"Can't you see I lived a whole life before you? You see who I was before the revelation and after the revelation."

Allah says in the Qur'an:

"Neither were you a writer, nor were you a poet. You didn't used to do these type of things before. You never used to recite, nor did you write books."

You weren't an author, you weren't a poet, you weren't a noble laureate. How then did this revelation come? To somebody who never once versified one poem. Never once did he write one line of poetry because he wasn't a poet.

Yet for him to bring forth this book, completely out of nowhere. Where did this come from? And Allah continually calls him (النَّبِيَّ الْأُمِّيَّ - al-nabiy al-ummiyy) (Quran 7:157), the unlettered, the uneducated prophet. And this shows us a very interesting point.

Some of us, we feel a little bit embarrassed like, why is Allah describing the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) as uneducated? Because in our times, being uneducated is a negative, it's a slur, "he's not educated, he's not literate." Why is Allah describing our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) with a word that generally speaking is not positive (النَّبِيَّ الْأُمِّيَّ - al-nabiy al-ummiyy)? And (أُمِّيَّ - ummiyy) means he doesn't have an education, he doesn't have literacy, he cannot read and write.

The response is very simple. Education is something we do to learn the truth. And therefore we go to school, we study reading and writing, we read books, we go to education, get a bachelor's, master's, PhD. We want to learn the truth. Now, imagine if you have access to the truth from Allah directly. Why do you need to learn to read and write? Why do you need to learn the education of men? When you have Allah telling you directly what you need to know, then all of the education of men becomes meaningless.

So for our Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and only for him, to be uneducated and illiterate becomes the height of praise. Because he doesn't need human education when Allah is educating him. So the fact that our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is (النَّبِيَّ الْأُمِّيَّ - al-nabiy al-ummiyy).

Jeffrey's Book on Foreign Vocabulary in the Qur'an

And there's many books written about this. I remember once when I was doing my PhD from Yale. So there was a book, a very famous book by author Jeffrey called "The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an." And it is honestly a very scholarly book. It's really mind-boggling. It's a huge thick tome. And it's all of the foreign words in the Qur'an. This word is from Aramaic, this word is from Hebrew, this word is from Sanskrit, this word is from Ethiopian, Habashi, all of these different languages. Now of course, author Jeffrey is a non-Muslim orientalist.

What is the point of him writing this book? He wants to illustrate, what are the possible sources that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) learnt the Qur'an from. So he talks about Sanskrit, he talks about Persian, he talks about Roman, he talks about this and that. So there are different words that have non-Arabic origins. And the Arabs took them, and they Arabicized them. For example, even we have words in English that originated from Latin. And from the Latin, they also went into Arabic.

So the same word in Latin is found in English and is found in Arabic. And so there are Qur'anic words that might somewhat be English as well, if you understand what I'm saying. Because English comes from Latin.

For example, the word history. The word history, Allah says in the Qur'an:

Asatir, history, or stories, right? The way that asatir is used in Arabic is more like story we use in English, right? So asatir and history. And other words as well, there are many parallels, cave and kahaf and others. So the point being that justice and qistas, the word justice is from Latin, justus. And from the Latin, the Arabs took it and said qistas.

I'm going to my tangent here. Author Jeffrey wrote this book to illustrate possible sources for the Qur'an. Where did the process of study from? And I commented on this paper in one of my papers I presented in college. And I said, for author Jeffrey to assume that an unlettered, uneducated, illiterate Bedouin shepherd in the middle of the Arabian desert had access to all of these encyclopedias of these different nationalities and different languages and different cultures, you're already assuming him to be superhuman.

How else would he get access to all of this? You're trying to find the human link, but you are doing something that even the most advanced academic does not have access to 20 different languages, to so many different cultures, to so many different myths. How could this man (صلى الله عليه وسلم) cut off from the civilizations of the world in the middle of the desert, uneducated and illiterate, come forth with this book of the Qur'an? And this is what I myself critiqued one of the points of author Jeffrey with. So this is the second point, his educational background.

Point 3: His Moral Characteristics

The third point, his moral characteristics, his morality. It is well known that our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was so respected and loved amongst the Quraysh, that they had nicknamed him the honest one, the truthful one. And he never in his life abused anybody.

He never in his life told one lie. And the more powerful he became, the more simple and humble he remained. Towards the end of his life (صلى الله عليه وسلم) he controlled all of Arabia.

And that power that he had, did not corrupt him. His morality shines through in every single incident that we read. His compassion, his mercy, his tenderness, how he dealt with his enemies.

Not once did he slip up in a way that anyone of us could do. We in this world we know, power corrupts. Look at our politicians. Look at the rich people. Look at their lifestyles. Muslim or non-Muslim, I'm not criticizing any one culture.

Power corrupts. Money corrupts. Fame corrupts. This is the reality. Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) had all of them. And he remained in his pure moral state.

This is humanly impossible for a person not to be touched, even just once in his life, twice in his life, to feel that power in his head, to feel that fame, to feel that fortune. So the morality, the akhlaaq that our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) exhibited throughout his entire life.

Point 4: The Simplicity of His Living

Point number four, off of the morality. Point number four, the simplicity of his living. The humbleness of his interactions. We all know that our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) lived the simplest of lives.

We all know the story of Umar, when he visited the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) once and he saw that he didn't even have a mattress on his bed. That he had what we would call bamboo sticks. They weren't bamboo, they were from the date palm leaves.

Bamboo sticks if you like. That the mattress, you know we have on top of the frame, we have the thick mattress, this thick. Imagine sleeping on the frame. That is what our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) had. On the floor, just a frame, a wooden frame. And when he stood up to meet Umar, he could see the marks of that frame on his back.

And Umar began to cry. And he said, "Ya Rasulullah, O Messenger of Allah, God has blessed the Caesars and the Persians of Rome with so much finery. Why can't you get some of that for your own life?" And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) criticized him and said, "Aren't you happy that Allah has given them this world and He has left the next for us? Aren't you happy that we have the next all for ourselves?"

We all know as Aisha says, that never in his life did the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) eat two full meals a day. (Bukhari 5059)

We ask Allah's forgiveness because we have fallen short of that ideal. We have fallen far short of that ideal. Never in his life did he eat two full meals a day.

Why? Did he not have food? No. Every time he had surplus food, "give it to this person, give it to that person, give it to the poor." We all know when he died, he had seven silver coins the night that he died. Silver coin. You know how much a silver coin cost? A silver coin would be maybe five dollars. I don't know how many, 30 krona or something. A silver coin is very cheap, it's not gold. Silver is like five dollars in our

times, a coin. He had seven silver coins, not a single gold coin.

And he saw this in his hand and he began to cry. And he said, "What will I answer Allah if I were to meet him with these seven coins in my possession. Give these to the poor."

So the night he passed away, he passed away penniless. Not a single silver or gold coin to his name. Now what man can possibly be the ruler of an empire and still live in this manner? Even his wife, (صلى الله عليه وسلم) our mothers of the believers, and they are the best women, they found it difficult.

And we all know the story of the seerah. If you don't know, I'll quickly tell you, that there was one incident, when they began to complain, "we're not gonna live like this, we want luxurious houses, we want this." Well, not luxurious, astaghfirullah, take that back.

"We want better houses, let me not use the word luxurious. We want bigger houses, we want bigger, you know, better furniture. We don't wanna live like this."

What did our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) do? The Qur'an came down. It's in Surah Al-Ahzab. The Qur'an is there to this day. And Allah says to the wives, Allah is speaking to the wives, that look, if you want this world, come and I will give you as much as you want, and then I will depart from you. You can live your separate lives, I'll divorce you, meaning. But if you want Allah and His messenger, then that is what you will get if you remain.

He did it now, wallahi, those people who are married, brothers who are married, they know this. It's easy to sacrifice on you, but on your wife and on your loved ones, that is very difficult to tell them to live simple lifestyles. You can avoid the luxury, but to demand from your family that they too give the surplus to the poor, that is very difficult to do.

And this is what our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) did. And this is consistent. Never in his life was he corrupted by that fame and power.

No matter what you want to say about him, he lived the moral life, the humble life, the simple life. That's the fourth point.

Point 5: No Worldly Motivation

The fifth point, again, basing it off of the previous ones, when you look at his life, when you look at his seerah, you look at his biography, there is no possible worldly motivation for his message.

Why would he want to do what he did? When he was offered everything and he turned it down, what was his motivation? Why would he preach the message that he preached? Why would he be so persistent? You cannot doubt his sincerity, even if you doubt his message. You cannot doubt he genuinely believed in what he was preaching.

In the Quraysh time, you all know the story, that the Quraysh came to him, and they bribed him. They said, "if you want as much money as you want, we'll give it to you. You want to be a leader, we'll elect you our chieftain, over Abu Lahab and Abu Talib, your uncle. You'll become our chieftain.

You want any woman in the tribe, you tell us her name, we will make sure she marries you. Just be quiet. Stop preaching the message."

And what did he say that famous statement that all of us have memorized? "Oh my uncle, if they were to give me the power of the sun and the moon," this is an expression in Arabic, and it basically means, "if they were to give me all humanly power, if they were to give me the power of the sun in the right hand, and the moon in my left hand, even then I would not give up the preaching that I'm doing."

Why? What motivation does he have to be persecuted, to be ridiculed, to be threatened until blood is flowing down. What motivation does he have when it's not fame, because he's infamous at this point of time in Makkah.

It's not fortune because he's offered money, he turns it down. Why is he preaching this message? Wallahi, you cannot doubt the motivation, the sincerity, the absence of any worldly motivation for the message that he is preaching, his lifestyle, even his prayer.

And this goes back to this point as well, that Aisha, we learn in the hadith, that Aisharadiallahu anha, in the middle of the night, she misses the Prophet, where is he? She feels angry, jealous, maybe he's gone to another wife's house, and she feels jealous.

She runs out, and lo and behold, she finds the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) prostrating in the masjid, in front of Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala, all alone in the dark of the masjid. And Aisha says that, "Ya Rasulullah, you are

in one valley, I'm in another valley," meaning, "my thoughts were somewhere totally else, and here you are worshipping your Lord." In the middle of the night, freezing cold, and he's in the masjid praying.

Why? Nobody's gonna see him. He doesn't know Aisha's gonna come into the masjid. What does this show us? The sincerity.

Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) never once stopped his regular tahajjud that night, praying hours and hours. Allah says in the Qur'an, "we know that you pray two-thirds of the night, and sometimes one-third, and sometimes one-half of it." (Quran 73:20)

Aisha says, "O Messenger of Allah, why do you pray so much when your Lord has already forgiven you? You're the Prophet." (Bukhari 4837)

And he says to her, "shouldn't I be thankful that my Lord has blessed me in this manner? Shouldn't I be thankful for what Allah has given me?" How can you doubt his sincerity on all aspects that he has done?

Point 6: The Message He Came With

Point number six. Point number six. The message that he comes with. The creed, and the beliefs, and the laws. He and he alone is preaching monotheism in an idolatrous land. Why would he preach monotheism? What has he to gain when his whole culture is steeped in idolatry?

He and he alone, the earliest Quranic revelations, the earliest Quranic revelations are what? Feed the hungry and poor. Take care of the orphans.

"They're giving their food to those who need it." The earliest Quranic revelations, how can you bury your female daughters alive?

Why would a man be so opposed to idolatry, to paganism, to immorality? What is the message he's preaching here? What is his motivation? And what beautiful message.

Where is this message coming from? When we look at his theology, we look at the laws, we look at the beliefs that he's telling his followers to believe in, his messages truly are bizarre for the time and culture and people.

Unprecedented Belief in Human Equality

Let me give you a number of examples. Number one, the unprecedented belief that is not found in any major figure, intellectual figure or philosopher before his time as explicitly as it is found in our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). The belief that all mankind is equal in the eyes of God, independent of race, of culture, of ethnicity, of language, all of these are irrelevant in the eyes of Allah.

"The one who is the closest to Allah is the one who has the most God consciousness." At a time when everybody, the Romans, the Persians, the Africans, the Arabs, they all believed in racism, their race is the best. Everybody, this is ingrained in their culture.

We are the best, everybody else is beneath us. And here comes our Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and a fundamental tenet of Islam is what? There is no superiority of the Arab over the non-Arab, of the white over the black. All of us are from Adam, and Adam was created from dust.

This message which now humanity has grudgingly accepted, even though deep down inside as we know, there's still hesitancy to accept this, as we know. They will say that nobody is racist, but in the end of the day, many societies are racist, especially towards people of different colors, and different religions, such as us for example. But still, openly everybody acknowledges all of humanity should be equal.

At least as far as I know, this is the accepted belief of the majority of mankind, other than the extremist groups. Now, who was the first person to say this? Who was the first philosopher, thinker, intellectual in the history of humanity to be as explicit? Wallahi, nobody exists before our Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

And why? Why? What is his lineage? Do you understand who he is? He is the grandson of Abdul Muttalib. His father Abdullah is the most beloved child to Abdul Muttalib.

His grandfather is the most prestigious Arab. This is like, you have a king here, suppose the crown prince says, "oh, we should abolish the monarchy." Imagine, the one person who has the most to lose becomes

the one who's the most opposed to the idea.

This is what our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is doing. He is coming with the highest lineage imaginable. His grandfather is the supreme chieftain of the Arabs. If anybody has a worthy lineage, it is him. What does he say? "It doesn't matter who your father or mother is, it matters what you do in your life." Why?

Why would he be preaching this? Again, you look at the law, the theology, you look at his message.

Women's Rights in Islam

And also, a lot of modern critics talk about women in Islam and what not. Wallahi, people who criticize the status of women in Islam, read and research before you open your mouth. Look at the status of women in Arabia before our Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) came.

They were treated worse than animals. They were quite literally like property. And when our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) came, there's no reason for him to do this. There's no reason for him to mention in so many khutbahs, so many lectures, the very last speech of his life, the Hajjatul Wada, when he's preaching to a hundred thousand people, there's an entire paragraph about women's rights. Why?

Why is he telling them, "treat them with care and honor. Remember that God has given you charge over them, and God will question you about them."

This is in the last sermon. He gave women inheritance. He told them this, he guaranteed them that. So many rights. And now you have the critics come and criticize, and they are ignorant of how pre-Islamic Arabia was, and what post-Islamic Arabia became. Subhanallah, why would he do that? Why would his message emphasize women? What is that gonna benefit him?

Why would he emphasize the treatment of the lowly class, the prisoners of war, giving food to the orphans? Why? Because this is a message from God. It's not a message from a man. So this is point number six. The creed, the beliefs, the laws, all of these are many points in one.

Point 7: Universal Love and Respect

Point number seven. People of all backgrounds believed in him and loved him. All socioeconomic statuses, all ethnicities, men and women, Arab and non-Arab.

No other person in the history of humanity has had such a diverse group of followers who loved him, who loved their founder or their figure so much as the Muslims love their Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Our love for the

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It is shameful to them. Proud for us, don't misquote me. We are more insulted. "How dare you insult Jesus Christ like that with this provocative image, with that blasphemous movie. Have you no shame, have you no respect?" But what does that show? We have genuine love and respect for the prophets of God. Their own civilizations and cultures have lost that respect.

Shameful. Shameful wallahi. This man is a man of God, he's a prophet of God. And even if you don't believe in him, respect the people that do believe in him. This is about their own prophets. How about our own prophet as well?

So the point being, that genuine love and respect that exists, it is a miracle from Allah.

How is it a miracle from Allah? Because Allah Azzawajal has told us in the Quran:

"Your rank, we have exalted it to the highest of the high. We will take care of your honor." And what has Allah done? The ummah loves our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) more than anything else of this world.

Everybody, Arab and non-Arab, man and woman, whatever their ethnicity and race, and that type of love is unparalleled and unprecedented. And look at even from the seerah, when the delegation from the Quraysh came to visit him, and in Hudaybiyyah, and they saw how the sahaba, the companions respected the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) they came back and they said, "we have been in the palaces of the Caesar of Rome, of the Khusro of Persia, and their followers did not respect their kings as much as the followers of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) respected Muhammad."

Where did that come from? Without even the harshness and the armies of the Rome, without even the might of the Persians, genuine love and respect is a miracle from Allah.

Point 8: Wherever Islam Went, It Remained

Point number eight. And this is an interesting point. And you won't hear it from too many other people. Point number eight. Wherever love of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) went and whenever it entered the heart of somebody, it remained. When Islam spread, and people converted and believed in the Prophet, once the armies left, the people remained believers in the Prophet.

Wherever Islam spread in the world, it remained, except where militarily it was killed or excommunicated or kicked out, such as in Andalusia, Spain. Otherwise, wherever Islam went, and the love of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) went, the people genuinely embraced that love, and they remained and retained that love.

Unlike any other civilization in the world, when a foreign invader comes and invades your land with a different religion, a different culture, a different philosophy, as soon as you can get rid of them, you get rid of them.

If I'm not mistaken, the same thing happened in your own land as well. Were you not invaded by... I don't wanna make a mistake here, but wasn't some neighboring countries invaded you, you invaded back, you want your freedom, right? Nobody likes to be invaded by a foreign army. Nobody likes that a different culture come supreme over his own culture.

It has happened in the past. Hellenistic culture, Alexander the Great, he went half the globe, but as soon as Alexander died, the people rejected Hellenism. Genghis Khan, the Mongols, the Mongols conquered almost half of the known world.

But where is their culture now? It's gone. Because as soon as Genghis Khan died, as soon as the Mongols left or they were thrown out, the people rejected their culture. How about Islam? How about love of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)?

Wherever people fell in love with this man (صلى الله عليه وسلم) that love became more important to them than their own previous cultures and their own religious heritage.

What is this show? Let me give you an example of my own ethnicity and culture. My parents both are born in India. And as we all know, India is the bastion of Hinduism.

And at some point in our lives, I don't know how many generations ago, no doubt our ancestors were Hindu. But what happened? An Arab came by the name of Muhammad ibn Qasim. And he invaded the land of Sindh, which is Pakistan now, what we call Pakistan.

And a small community of Muslims remained there and has been there for over 13 centuries and a half. Now, Muhammad ibn Qasim came from a different religion, different ethnicity, different culture. How do

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the Muslims of India and the Muslims of Pakistan look to Muhammad ibn Qasim? As a liberator and not as a conqueror.

You cannot brainwash a people like this. We thank Allah, I thank Allah, that Muhammad ibn Qasim came and saved my ancestors from idolatry. He becomes a hero, a legend.

And the same goes for every land that is Muslim. Egypt, who came to Egypt? Amr ibn al-'As. Amr ibn al- 'As is viewed as a liberator, as a conqueror.

Who came to Palestine? To others. Khalid ibn Waleed, others. These people are viewed as being living legends. They become the heroes. Where do you find a Pakistani taking pride in the idol worship of his great-great ancestors? Where do you find an Egyptian saying, "oh, I wish we still worship the pharaoh and the pyramids?" You don't find this. We thank Allah so many generations later that somebody introduced us to this man Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

That love, it is not created on this earth. It comes from up there.

Point 9: The Miraculous Spread of Islam

Point number 9. The message of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). The success of its spreading. So point number 8 was it remained. Point number 9, how quickly it spread.

The miraculous expansion of Islam. Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) began persecuted alone in the city of Makkah. His own kith and kin tried to assassinate him multiple times.

This is around 600 CE. In barely a century, unprecedented in human history. You will not find any parallel in human history. In barely a century, the religion of this man (صلى الله عليه وسلم) it spreads from the borders of China to the very ends of Africa and has even reached Europe. Andalusia begins its conquering in 711. Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) dies in 622.

And 632. And already in less than a hundred years, Islam is knocking on the doors of Europe. And wherever you see now, this religion has spread.

Within 20 years of the Prophet's (صلى الله عليه وسلم) death, the Roman Empire is carved in half. Within 15 years of his death, the greatest civilization in the world at that time, the Persian civilization. The Romans have been fighting the Persians for 350 years.

The Romans have been fighting the Persians for 350 years. And they never won. Fully and completely. Less than 15 years after the death of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), there is no more Persian Empire. It's gone. It's erased from the map.

There is no more Sassanid Kingdom. Where? How? Why? I swear by Allah, to this day, academics are not fully sure how that happened. They're wondering, they're scratching their heads.

This mighty civilization. Now they try to blame it on this and that and whatnot. But in the end of the day, the Romans could not do it. And this quite literally, people that were not trained in the arts of war, new civilization out of nowhere comes in and invades the Sassanid Kingdom.

And lo and behold, it crumbles. Why does it crumble? Well, we know why it crumbled.

Because when the Sassanid Emperor sent a letter to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and, excuse me, when the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) sent a letter to him, what did he do? Who can tell me? What did the Emperor do? What did the Persian Emperor do to the letter of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)? Tell me. He tore it up. He tore it up in front of the messenger.

In front of the messenger of the messenger, meaning the sahabi. He tore it up from the companion. And that arrogance, what did our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) say? "Just as he tore my letter up, Allah will tear his kingdom up."

Barely 15 years after he uttered those words, the entire kingdom of the Sassanids, to this day now, you still find their structures. Beautiful, magnificent. Five times taller than this building we are in.

Magnificent pillars in the middle of the desert. You see the civilization they had. The power, the brute force. You see everything. How was it gone? Where did it go? Well, when you show arrogance to Allah and His messenger, Allah will deal with you in this manner.

So, the quick spread of Islam, and the ease by which, really like one third or one half of the world at the time, was basically embracing Islam.

Point 10: Every Aspect of His Biography

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And the final point that we'll mention, is each and every aspect of his biography (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Every detail. In other words, point number 10 isn't a point. It is everything. Everything that emanates from our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Every incident, every life anecdote, every battle, every peace, every hadith that you find, will tell you that this man was true.

One of our famous scholars of Islam, Ibn Hazm, who was from Andalus. Ibn Hazm said, that if Allah did not give any miracle to prove the truth of Islam, other than the miracle of the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), the seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) that would have been enough of a miracle to prove that the Prophet was a true Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). He's not even in need of any miracles.

Any unbiased researcher who studies his life, reads his biography, must come to the conclusion that this man truly was sincere, was a messenger from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, was someone who was sent with that divine message and revelation.

Conclusion

To conclude this talk, my dear brothers and sisters, as I said, the truth of Islam is self-evident, but only to those who want to open their eyes. The truth of Islam is brighter than the light of day, but only for those who are willing to acknowledge that brightness.

If somebody wants to cover up his eyes, somebody wants to cover his heart, then no matter what you do, that person has chosen to be blind, and you will never be able to guide him, unless Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wills.

The Qur'an's Defense of the Prophet

And one final point, my dear brothers and sisters, the Qur'an itself defends our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and what is truly amazing is that every single imaginable criticism that humanity has ever seen against our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)"he's a liar, he took from other people, he's a fabricator, he's a magician, he's a sorcerer, he's a really good poet, he's a madman." Whatever modern people can criticize the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) with guess what? The Qur'an has already answered that challenge explicitly.

In the last 14 and a half centuries, nobody has come forth with a criticism that is outside of what the Qur'an itself has challenged directly. All of these criticisms are on a simple list, and Allah has answered explicitly about madman and sorcerer and magician. How can he be a madman when his whole lifestyle, his whole life is a life of intelligence, of wisdom? How can he be a sorcerer when nothing shows this? How can he be a poet when there was nothing that demonstrates poetry? And the Qur'an is not like poetry, and on and on and on.

Even when it comes to criticizing our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), no one can bring forth something original. The Qur'an has already dealt with that criticism.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us true followers of the greatest human being and the best Prophet to ever walk on the face of this earth. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continue to bless us to be in the ummah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala resurrect us with our Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in the day of judgment. Jazakumullahu khayran.

Q&A Session

Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Question 1: Did the Prophet Fabricate Islam to Get Women?

Question: Bismillah. The question is, how do we know that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) did not fabricate Islam to get women?

Answer: Honestly, the questioner, I believe, needs to read the biography of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in even a cursory detail. Because the question would not emanate from somebody who studies the biography of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

Firstly, to be very honest, there must be much easier ways of getting women than what he had to do. Think about it. I mean seriously. For 23 years just to get women.

Secondly, what are you saying that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) wanted women? Well, his whole lifestyle is against that. For his youth, throughout his young days, and when the sexuality of a man is at its peak, our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) lived a chaste and modest life. He never touched a woman in his life. When

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everybody was out fornicating and drinking, we know from our sources and the people of Makkah who opposed him knew this, that he lived a decent, dignified life.

And he was even too shy to propose to his first wife Khadija, who was older than him and a double divorcee, twice divorced. Khadija was the one who fell in love with him and proposed to him. He was even too modest and shy to propose to him.

And the reason why Khadija fell in love with him was number one, his honesty, and number two, his chastity and modesty. Because when he would go to Khadija to collect his wages, his eyes would be on the ground. He didn't even look at her out of modesty, out of chastity, his eyes were on the ground.

And this made Khadija feel this is a decent, a dignified man. And as long as Khadija remained alive, our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) remained solely the only wife that he ever had when Khadija was alive. And Khadija passed away and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is now 53 years old.

53 years old. Then he (صلى الله عليه وسلم) begins to marry other women. And each one of these women, they are not the most beautiful or the most gorgeous or whatnot. But every one of them, there is a legitimate reason that one of them is the daughter of the captured chieftain. And by marrying her, all of the tribe is freed. Over 700 people, and that is Juwayriya bint al-Harith.

Juwayriya bint al-Harith, when he married Juwayriya, and she was the daughter of the chieftain of the Banu Mustaliq tribe, the entire tribe was freed because they said how can we have the in-laws of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) as our prisoners of war. So they released the whole tribe.

Also he married the daughters of Abu Bakr and Umar to solidify the bonds with them. He gave his own daughters to Uthman and Ali, so on and so forth. How can you think that a 53-year-old man would do all that he's done just for 8 or 9 women? This is really not a very reasonable conclusion.

And also all of them are divorcees and widows, all of them without exception, other than one and that is Aisha. Otherwise, every wife that he married, some of them had children and he's taking care of them, a number of them, two of them, they had husbands who passed away or left in Abyssinia. They had nobody to take care of them. When the community was small, he proposed to them from Medina.

They were alone in Abyssinia. Nobody to take care of them. Completely isolated, he goes, "I'll take care of you, come and I will marry you."

So two of them came from Abyssinia in this regard. And that's why I said, anybody who studies the basic seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), this is not a question that could come when you know the circumstances and you know how old he was when he took on multiple wives and you know the background and history of these wives and Allah knows best.

Question 2: Did He Come to Islam for Fame?

Question: JazakAllah khair, Shaikh. The next question is, how do we know that the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) did not come to Islam to become famous, to have fame, remembered in history?

Answer: So again, we say here that if he wanted fame and fortune, the Quraish already promised him fame and fortune for giving up the message. The Quraish already gave him that promise, whatever you want, you shall get it. Fame and fortune was not on his agenda for over 20 years of his life.

It's not even a possibility. He's being assassinated, he's being ridiculed. You don't get famous by going against society. You do not become famous by preaching a message that is not palatable. His message is not a message of fame. He is not bringing fame and glory to the Arabs.

He's telling the Quraish and his own people, "O Quraish, you are no way more special than any other tribe." How is that the path to fame and lineage?

He is attempted, assassinated at least 5 times in his life. The people of Ta'if reject him, ridicule him, pelt him with stones. What fame is this? There is no fame. The fact that he was given fame is a blessing from Allah and a prediction from Allah. It is not something that at any time he could ever have imagined would happen.

Quite the contrary, most of the Meccan revelations is telling him, that turn the other cheek, Allah will take care of your detractors. He is being persecuted physically, emotionally. The Quran continues to mention that we know that your heart is at pain because of what they say. We know that their accusations hurt you. He's a human being. We know that you feel pain.

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So there is no fame on the agenda. It's not even a possibility. And when fame comes, he doesn't embrace that fame. And quite the contrary, he turns away from it. When he enters Mecca as the conqueror and the greatest victory of his life is the conquest of Mecca. He finally comes back to Mecca as the conqueror of Месса.

How does he come into Mecca? Riding in fancy clothes and with a fancy turban in his head cocked up like any conqueror would do? No. He's riding his same camel that he has at home and he's wearing his simple clothes and the sahaba, the companions say that his head was bowed so low in thanking Allah that his head was touching the back of the camel out of gratefulness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What fame is there in all of this? He did not intend fame.

But Allah blessed him with fame because he deserved it, not because he intended or desired it. And Allah knows best.

Question 3: How Do We Know He Was a Prophet and Not Just Sincere?

Question: JazakAllah khair shaikh. As a non-Muslim, even if you accept that Muhammad was a sincere man and that he really wanted good for the society, how does that prove that he was a prophet? Can't it be that he wanted moral reform and he found Islam as a way to get that moral reform? So the question is that how do we really know he's a prophet? All that this proves is sincerity.

Answer: And actually your point is somewhat valid, not fully valid. Yes, it is true that much of what I said proves his sincerity, his humility, his modesty and whatnot. But at the same time, not all of those points deal only with sincerity.

The love that others have for him is not something any man can control. The way that Islam stays in societies, the love of this man stays in every civilization and culture. This is not something you can predict and control.

The message that he came with, and that's another point, why would he want reform in every single area of theology and ethics and law? Look around you. When there is an organization, it's concentrating on one issue.

You have, I don't know your causes in Norway. In America we have people, PETA, the people for the ethical treatment of animals. They want better animal rights. We have those who are championing for workers conditions. We have those who are championing for this. We have those who are championing for race equality.

You don't find anybody championing all causes simultaneously because that really is very difficult, if not impossible. It's only the prophets of God who want to challenge everything. So, the bottom line, why? Why would he want to do all of this? What is he gaining? You say he wanted reform.

Why would he want reform in areas that don't seem any point of reforming? Where did he get these notions of reform? Why would a man in 6th century Arabia say all men are equal? Where would that come from? This notion is a very, very, very modern notion. It's not something that mankind even thought about in the Middle Ages, in the Dark Ages. It was understood, my culture and my race is the best.

The reform that he came with is so comprehensive, it is so universal, it is so perfect, it cannot emanate from the mind of a human being. This is how we will respond to this question and Allah knows best.

Question 4: What if He Believed He Was Getting Revelation But Was Crazy?

Question: JazakAllah khair, shaykh. The next question is, even if we know that Muhammad was sincere, how do we know he was not believing? Meaning, he believes that he is getting a revelation from God, and he is really sincere, but he is really crazy.

Answer: So, this is a point that some non-Muslim academics believe. Now, as you probably know, I have studied in the Western academia, I have my PhD from a non-Muslim university, so I read a lot about what others say about our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

By and large, the medieval theories that used to exist that our Prophet (صلى

Question 5: The Story of Aisha's Marriage

Question: The next question is, what is the story behind the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) marrying Aisha?

Answer: So, the question is a very common one, and that is that many people, non-Muslims, and sometimes even Muslims are perturbed that how come Aisha, our mother, was married at a very young age.

And frankly, this is a question that people who study anthropology and intelligent researchers that are non-Muslim never bring up. Because what is happening here is that we are taking our cultural mores, our cultural norms, and then back projecting them onto the Arabian society.

You see, the age of marriage is something that has no normative, no standard age. And cultures and ethnicities throughout the centuries had different ages of marriage. Shakespeare wrote his famous Romeo and Juliet. Do you know that the first actors that played Romeo and Juliet were how old? 15 and 14 years old.

The boy was 15, the girl was 14. For Shakespeare's time, now if we had a Romeo and Juliet play, the content and the love scenes and the romance, we would project it onto an 18 or 19 and a 19 or 17-year-old. We would say, "oh, this is a young man and a young woman."

In our age, in 2014, Romeo and Juliet we think of like a 19-year-old with his 17-year-old sweetheart or 18-year-old sweetheart. That's our version. Well, when Shakespeare wrote the play, it was for a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old.

Only 500 years ago. In that age and time, people matured faster. They were not treated like little kids in the bodies of adults. Adolescents didn't exist in that regard. When you became a young man or woman, biologically mature, you were treated like a young man and a woman. And therefore, culture changes.

In America, 100 years ago, young ladies would get married regularly at the age of 13 and 14. That is why until very recently, literally like a few decades ago, in some states including my own state of Tennessee where I currently live, the law said that you have to be 14 years old to get married. Recently they changed that, updated that.

But when the laws were written 100 years ago, what was the age they put for marriage? 14. Now you tell me, today, if somebody marries a 14-year-old, he's gonna go to jail. But their own grandmothers and grandfathers, forget their own, let me be totally blunt here.

My grandmother, may AllahAzza wa Jal bless her with Jannah, she's passed away, she's the only grandparent I ever met of mine. My grandmother in rural India, back in the 1920s, she got married at the age of 13. My grandmother.

And I knew her as a very righteous, as a very good Muslim lady. She never complained, or she was irritated her whole life. "My father married me when I was 13." She had a great grandfather, that's my grandfather's great husband. She had lots of children. That was the cultural norms.

Why are you defending Aisha when Aisha was the happiest wife in the whole world? Who are you to get irritated when Aisha herself was the luckiest, most fortunate woman in the whole world? She wasn't complaining. She wasn't feeling anything bad. So in that day and age, puberty, intellectual maturity, in the hot Arabian climate, in the desert life, young children age faster.

Because you have to take on responsibilities. So Aisha's age, in her time, would be our equivalent of whatever, 16, 17. And I have no doubt, that if things proceed in another 100 years, it will be illegal to marry 18 or 17 year old.

And I have no doubt. Because we're progressing or whatever, regressing in that regard, the minimum marriage age will be rising. As it has risen in the last 600 years.

This is a human fact. This is an undeniable fact. Western culture itself, has continued to raise the age of marriage.

So, for us to now criticize, Arabian culture 14 centuries ago, you begin with criticizing your own grandmother and grandfather, and your own ancestors of the middle ages. That is really not very rational thing to do. Different time, different culture, different place.

Bottom line, the worst enemies of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in his lifetime, they tried everything to smear him. They did not find it problematic that, he married Aisha. It was a norm of the culture.

And it wasn't a problem at all, in their society and culture. Even his worst enemies, not a single comment, because this is the norm. Aisha herself is a happy wife.

She is a loving wife. She has so many hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). She clearly has not been traumatized. Why are you guys 14 centuries later, so traumatized? So, think about it, and be a little bit more mature, little bit more anthropological, little bit more historical.

There is absolutely nothing wrong. And all Muslims, don't apologize for the truth, and don't distort the truth. There are Muslims that try to deny this. "Oh, he didn't marry Aisha as a young girl." Ya akhi, look, that's not the way forward. We don't lie for the sake of our religion.

Astaghfirullah. We have the truth. We're not gonna cover up the truth, if people find it embarrassing. This is the reality. Deal with it. Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) married a young girl, and it was fine for the time. I am not saying we need to resurrect this age in our time, because times have changed. And there's no problem in our time. My own Shaykh, Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen rahimallah ta'ala, he was of the opinion, that we should have a minimal age of marriage, you know, 15, 16, whatever.

He didn't specify an age, but he said, yes, we should have a minimal age that society now is used to and accustomed to. That's not a problem. But for us to find something worthy of criticism, that's different culture, different time, different place.

Question 6: Why Follow Muhammad Instead of Jesus?

Question: Next question. As a question, I may accept that all the good things you said about Muhammad, but all these good things also apply to Jesus. So why should I even follow Muhammad when I have Jesus?

Answer: Of course they apply in Jesus. They apply in all of the Prophets of God. Of course they apply in Jesus and Moses and Noah and Abraham. How could they not? They're all Prophets.

And if Jesus were here on earth, he would tell you to follow the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). That's why you should follow him. Because the message of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is complementary to the message of Jesus. Jesus came with a true message.

Most of his followers distorted it. Most of his followers went to different path. But the message of Jesus, the life of Jesus is a miracle. And it is in conformity with the miracle of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

If you see the same signs in Jesus, and you should, when you recognize them in Muhammad, you should be the first person to accept him as a Prophet as well. Because the same signs exist in every single Prophet. No one but a Prophet can have all of these signs.

So when you say you see them in Jesus, I say, of course you see them in Jesus. If you didn't see them in Jesus, that would be the problem. I see them in Jesus, and I'm a Muslim.

Because Jesus Christ himself was a submitter to Allah. He was a Muslim. He did not preach the trinity or the redemption. He taught us to worship him alone. And that is what Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) taught us.

And lastly, Jesus Christ clearly predicted the coming of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). This is what we believe.

And the point is, even if you do not believe he predicted this, if you see the signs of truthfulness in this man, and the message of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) matches up with the original message of Jesus, then once again, this is another point you can add. How did the message of an Arabian illiterate Bedouin match up with that of a Jewish reformer from Galilee? How could they match up and there were 600 years between them? Where could these signs all match up? Other than the fact the source is the same, the originator is the same, the creator is the same, the revealer is the same.

When Allah, when the same God of Jesus is the God of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم)then obviously you will find the same message and the same characteristics in the both of them.

And Allah knows best.

Question 7: Eclipse During Ibrahim's Death as Proof

Question: We will take the last one now before we take a break. And it just says, can you please elaborate more about the son of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)Ibrahim dying and the eclipse happening. Is that a proof of his prophethood?

Answer: So again, obviously this is just a very short lecture. And for those who are interested, I do encourage you to listen to my seerah lectures that are online on YouTube. You will find them on YouTube. And you will find them on my channel, youtube.com forward slash Yasir Qadi. And I have around 80 lectures and I'm still doing it as we go. The next one's gonna be on this Wednesday.

It is insha Allah, with humbleness and modesty, it is the most exhaustive and thorough dealing of the seerah in the English language. You will not find anything that is more thorough, insha Allah than this. And it's still ongoing, I hope to go to at least a hundred or a hundred twenty episodes or so.

The sharia has allowed a spectrum. This is the point, Islamic law, it allows a spectrum. In societies and cultures where younger marriages happen and it's common, let it happen.

In modern times, I will be the first person to say that an 11 year old in modern Arabia or Yemen or Pakistan is not ready for marriage. I'll be the first to say this. I'll be the first to say, we need to have laws that are in place that the young lady is now mentally capable of being a married lady.

She's physically capable. No problem. But for our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) it's a different time, different place. Everybody's used to it. Aisha herself is prepared for it. So who are we to get in the middle of their issue that they didn't even have any issue about?

And Allahazza wa jalla knows best.

And you will find many many many evidences of the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم),the miracles of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in this regard. And one of them being, no doubt, the incident of Ibrahim, the death of his son, clearly demonstrates that he was sincere.

And the story goes as follows that, the Prophet's son Ibrahim, he named him after his ancestor Ibrahim, Abraham. The Prophet's son Ibrahim died at the age of around a year and a half. And our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was very grieved, and he was crying. And the companions rarely saw him cry.

But he was crying in public, and his son had died. And the same afternoon, a few hours after the death of Ibrahim, there was a eclipse. And the entire sun was covered up.

So the people began to say, "even the heavens are weeping for the death of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) Even the skies are shedding tears. Even the sun has blocked its rays because of the death of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)."

Now, he could have just remained silent because after all, why not? Here's another proof of his message, right? Had he been a false Prophet, he would have remained silent. But he's a true Prophet, and he has to speak the truth.

So what does he do? He, on the day that his son dies, calls the people to give a lecture. Imagine, you're grieving, your son has just died, but this cannot go on. He calls all the people to the masjid, and he praises Allah, and thanks Him for all that He has given him, even though he has lost his son.

Thanks Him for everything else. And he says, "even the sun, Allah has taken it, and you know best, O Allah, what you are doing." And then he says, "verily the sun and the moon are of the miracles of Allah.

(Bukhari 1059, Muslim 911)

"And they do not eclipse because of the birth or the death of any human being. Not because my son has died. That just so happens, they happen to eclipse. It has nothing to do with anything on this earth."

Now, you think about it. Think about this. Especially I address the Christians in the audience, and the non-Muslims in the audience. Why? Like what is the possible motivation for negating the miracle of an eclipse on the day of your greatest human tragedy, the loss of a son? It is because he is speaking the truth. It is because the truth is more beloved to him than his own fame and ego.

People should know that the eclipse of the sun and moon, natural phenomenon, have nothing to do with the birth and death of any human being. And so he negated this false rumor, even though he didn't even start it. He didn't have to say anything.

But a true prophet must speak the truth regardless of the consequences. And yes, it can be used to prove the miracle and the sincerity of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Jazakumullahu khayran.

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.