Muhammad (SAAS): The Only Prophet with
Distinct Record
17 September 2012
By Saeed Qureshi
(Note: All the years quoted in this article are in
Christian calendar- C.E. or B.C.E.)
All the known religions and their founders of the past
do not have clear-cut chronological facts and figures
about their lives and missions. It is only the prophet
of Islam who has the unsurpassed distinction of his
life properly chronicled and recorded. All the phases
encompassing his birth to his final departure from the
transitory earthly abode have been meticulously and
distinctly preserved.
The times periods and years relating to the ancient
apostles starting from Adam to Solomon and afterwards
are ambiguous and lack credibility. These years are
simply approximate that in a roundabout manner
describe the periods in which these apostles of God
existed. This assertion in no way negates their
divinity or their being the messengers of God in
various eras.
The Biblical or history-based religions are three
i.e., Judaism, Christianity and Islam. From among the
litany of the mythical religions, the Hinduism,
Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism, Confucianism, stand on top.
The ancient mythical religions and their dogmas come
to be known from one generation to another by word of
mouth or from writing on the stone tablets or columns.
As such these religions suffered from distortions,
exaggerations and a kind of mythical stuff that mostly
are hard to believe.
The principal reason for such a lacuna was the absence
of a workable or credible system for recording the
chronological data and securing the utterances,
sayings and sermons of the sages, saints and prophets
of the bygone ages delivered to their respective
communities. As such these religions belong to an age
when the techniques of preserving the history of the
world or religions were yet not discovered.
The New Testament was historically written by
different authors at different times after the
ascension of Jesus to heavens. The period of writing
the New Testament is reckoned to be between 35 to 85
years after Jesus' ascension. With regard to the
contents of the Bible both in the old and the New
Testament, there are grave variations in the editions
published in various stages and times. The authors of
the four gospels, Mathew, Johan, Luke and Mark differ
with each other on a whole range of episodes and
events concerning Jesus Christ. Jesus did not dictate
his speeches, sermons and conversations, nor did these
scribes take notes for securing his utterances and
messages.
The myriad of different texts of the Bible and the
variation in narration by authors bear the testimony
that the gospels lacked the actual utterances of the
Jesus. It could at best be described the life account
of an apostle or prophet of God with broader events
but not in the actual sequence as he lived and
delivered his divine discourses According to a
research scholar on religions, Dr. Abdul Hye, there
were 103 clear contractions in the Bible.
From the primitive manuscripts of the Bible to the
latest one known as "King James Version" (KJV)
compiled and published in 1611, a staggering number of
fifty thousand grammatical and descriptive errors have
been corrected or redrafted. The KJV has dropped 7
books that were part of the Bible for roughly almost
three thousand years. The Protestants do not believe
in these 7 discarded books. If such a hug number of
books are excluded as apocrypha, then one can imagine
how fictitious this stuff could that was believed by
the Christians for almost 16 hundred years.
As we all know that there are a total of 66 books that
constitute the two parts of the Bible commonly known
as the old and the New Testament. The Hebrew or the
old treatment consists of 39 chapters or books and the
New Testament comprises 27 chapters. These two
sections were written by some 40 men in the course of
1600 years that is from 1513(B.C.E.) to 98(A.C.).
There are only fables and narrations concerning kings,
rulers, battles or the messages of the apostles
covering several centuries written by a diversity of
authors who were not even present during the
occurrence of those incidents. These writings are
devoid of clear-cut chronological order.
The Hindu religion does not have a founder, ‘definite
creed, priestly hierarchy or governing agency"
(Mankind's Search for God) It historically starts from
the writing of the Vedas some 900 years before the
Jesus Christ (B.C.E.). The Vedas were later augmented
and supplemented by Brahmanas, Upanishads and Puranas.
It would be utterly impossible to justify or figure
out if the 330 million gods in the Hindu mythology
actually exist or not? It is also difficult to
apportion definite periods or times during which these
volumes were written and by whom these were written.
As for the founder of Buddhism there is no evidence or
account of his life and religious doctrine that was
scribed during his life time. All that we know about
him are the canonical texts that have no historical
evidence about their time of writings and their
authors. There is a mention of the convening of
council by 500 monks after the death of Buddha to
deliberate about the authentic teachings of the master
i.e., Siddhartha Gautama. So the Buddhist canonical
material as uttered from the mouth of Gautama was not
recorded in his life time but was compiled much later
by others.
The Shinto and Tao and Confucianism religions too are
embodiments of obscurity and are unclear about the
exact time and periods of their apostles. Taoism is
believed to be founded by philosopher Lao-Tzu some six
centuries before the Jesus Christ. Little is known
about him except that after his retirement from the
royal service he wrote a brief treatise of 5000 words
at the request of some custom officer of those
primitive times.
After writing the book he departed and was seen or
heard no more. The researchers however are skeptical
about this story. But one thing is quite clear that
Lao-Tzu has been obscure and least known among the
founders of religious or faith based creeds. The gist
of the Taoism is to "shun the society and return to
the nature"
The life story of the great philosopher of the East
Confucius is more elaborate as compared to Lao. Both
these sages belonged to the same period of Chou
dynasty; torn and weakened by a long period of wars
and chaos. A part of the life account of Confucius
looks to be more mythical than reality. He is
described to be a great teacher. His lectures and
sayings are saved in nine books by his disciples who
travelled with him during his tours. This is one sage
or the founder of creed and a moral code, whose
writings are preserved but still not in a
chronological format and without mention of any
specific time periods.
Let us now turn our attention to the prophet of Islam.
He is the most watched, observed, revered, adored and
chronicled prophet in the history. He was born in 570
and died in 632.In between this period his revelations
sayings, commandment, decrees, decisions, tenets and
events were recorded and memorized by those who
observed and remained with him in praying, during
hardships, preaching, in battles, social interaction
or in traveling.
As stated in the foregoing, the scriptures and holy
books of the other leading religions such as Bible
were written over a time frame of several centuries by
other authors after the death of Jesus Christ.
However, the holy book of the Muslims, Qur'an was
preserved by prophet Muhammad himself for all the 23
years during which he was receiving the revelations.
Since he himself was unlettered, his method of
preserving the divine messages and directions were to
recite them before the Muslim faithful, compatriots,
family members and others who would commit these to
memory and keep it alive by repeated recitations.
Later these would be written on shoulder blades of
camel or sheep, palm leaves, wood, parchments and
dried skins.
Apart from his revelations his social utterances,
normal conversations, sermons and decisions are
composed in the form of Hadith. Every period of his
life starting from the childhood, to his upbringing,
his adolescence, his youth, his marriages, his
business tours, his meditations in the cave Hira and
the divine mission to peach Islam are meticulously
preserved, arranged and tabulated in a chronological
order.
It was during the first Caliph Hazarat Abu Bakr's
caliphate that Qur'an was collected from written and
memorized sources and the task of their assembly in
shape of a book was initiated. However it was during
the caliphate of the third caliph Hazrat Usman
(Othman) that it was complied in the form of a proper
book. A good number of copies of this original edition
of Quran were made and sent to various destinations
within the Muslim territories.
When Hazrat Usman was murdered in 656, he was reading
the same edition of Qur'an that was compiled under his
guidance and circulated to other places. The copy of
that specific Qur'an is preserved in the Topkapi
museum in Istanbul (Turkey) and in Tashkent
(Uzbekistan). The Qur'an from that period to the
present is the exact copy of that original edition
formulated during the third caliph Hazrat Osman's
period.
From his birth in 570 to his first marriage with
Hazrat Khadija in 595, to his fist revelation in 610,
preaching in public from 613 onwards, to sending of
persecuted Muslims to Abyssinia in 615 are the events
that are indelible facts of history. His crusades, his
meeting during the Hajj with a batch of Medina
pilgrims in 620 migration from Mecca to Medina in 622,
stay in Medina and the "Battle of Trenches in 627,
conquering Mecca in 630, his demise in 632 are various
phases of his glorious life that were witnessed by
countless Muslims and non-Muslims alike of those times
and are clearly narrated in history with the dates and
months and even timings.
When he passed away he was buried in the same room
where he lived after migrating to Medina. The tomb
erected on his grave stands from day one and is
visited round the year by countless Muslims from all
over the world. That is a continuous evidence of his
presence till death in Medina and therefore is
irrefutable.
The graves or tombs of other ancient prophets do not
denote any period and did not survive in their in
their original shape during the course time. The
floods, natural disasters and ravages of invaders did
not leave the original forms of their resting places
in holy cities like Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and Cairo,
among others Damascus. During his invasion of Baghdad
in 1258, the Mongol invader Hilaku Khan demolished
every building in Baghdad and inundated the city by
diverting the river Euphrates to the city.
In contrast, the loving and caring way, the tomb of
Hazrat Muhammad with its shining green minaret has
been kept intact and well maintained for fourteen
centuries speaks for the imperishable glory of a
prophet who is as immortal after his death as he was
held in extreme love and unbounded reverence by
Muslims during his life time. As a model of personal
piety and immaculate moral character, his life is
shining like a diamond and serves ever as a beacon of
divine light for the humanity.
The sustained revelations of the Muslims' holy book
Quran for 23 years and later its compilation done by
prophet himself and later by his two successors also
undeniably testify to the fact that it was not the
work of later day scribes or writers. It is a
truthful, genuine and authentic chronological
production by prophet himself and by those who were
witnesses to its being revealed, memorized, written
and distributed.
Prophet Muhammad appeared as God's messenger in an era
that was not as primitive as compared to those eras of
early messengers and apostles. The age of Prophet
Muhammad was considerably advanced and developed. The
time distance between Jesus Christ and Muhammad is 570
years. In between there was no prophet that could lay
claim of prophet-hood. In these 570 years the world
had progressed considerably.
The two main Biblical religions namely Judaism and
Christianity are in fact the forerunners of Islam.
Islam acknowledges and owns these religions as the
precursors of Islam. However, with the advent of
Islam, the outdated, obsolete teachings or unwanted
dogmas contained in those scriptures were edited,
updated and refined by the founder of the Islam.
In fact Islam, as the legend goes, starts from Prophet
Adam and assumes the finality with the last prophet of
Islam as declared by him in Mecca in 630 C.E, in his
last sermon during the pilgrimage. On that occasion he
declared before a mammoth assemblage of pilgrims that
the religion Islam stood completed today. The prophets
and apostles mentioned in the Old Testament (the
Hebrew Scriptures) and the New Testament (the Greek
scriptures) are also the prophets of Islam. Yet the
Prophet Muhammad enjoys the exclusive distinction of
being the final messenger of God in the line of
prophets that came before him from time to time.
It is therefore, foregone that the life of Prophet
Muhammad is not mired in obscurity, mythical ambiguity
and hollow projections. It has been candidly
self–revealing, carefully and diligently chronicled by
his colleagues, contemporary historians and by those
who came in subsequent times. As such it is truthful
and pristine.
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