One of the greatest hardships to befall Muhammad ﷺ was the Battle of the Trench. In the year 627 CE, a coalition army of pagan Arabs, numbering 10,000 men
Ref: Ali al-Sallabi, Noble Life of The Prophet, p. 1358.
attacked the only Muslim city in the world at the time, Medina. This was a good opportunity for the enemies of Islam to wipe out Muslims from the face of the earth. The Muslims were outnumbered three to one, and for two whole weeks they were under siege. The Qur’an vividly describes the dire situation faced by
the Muslims: They massed against you from above and below; your eyes rolled [with fear], your hearts rose into your throats, and you thought [ill] thoughts of God. There the believers were sorely tested and deeply shaken.
Ref: Qur'an 33:10-11
Shortly before the battle commenced, whilst the Muslims were digging a trench around the city of Medina in preparation for the impending attack, when they were facing impossible odds and were staring in the face of certain defeat, Muhammad ﷺ made a bold prediction: Al-Bara said: On the Day of Al-Khandaq (the trench) there stood out a rock too immune for our spades to break up. We therefore went to see God’s Messenger for advice. He took the spade, and said: “In the Name of God” Then he struck it saying: “God is Most Great, I have been given the keys of Ash-Sham (Greater Syria). By God, I can see its red palaces at the moment;” on the second strike he said: “God is Most Great, I have been given Persia. By God, I can now see the white palace of Madain;” and for the third time he struck the rock saying: “In the Name of God,” shattering the rest of the rock, and he said: “God is Most Great, I have been given the keys of Yemen. By God, I can see the gates of San’a while I am in my place.”
Ref: Sunan Al-Kubra, Hadith 8858.
Muhammad made the astonishing claim that the Muslims would not only take the lands of Yemen and Greater Syria, which was under the occupation of the Roman empire, but that they would also defeat the mighty Persian empire, one of world’s great superpowers. In another prediction, Muhammad ﷺ even specified the exact Persian king who would be defeated, the king Kisra: The Messenger of God said, “I swear by the Being who controls my life! God shall bring this [i.e. Islam] to such completion that a veiled woman shall leave from Heera [a place in modern Iraq] all alone and perform Tawaf of the Ka’abah without the need of having someone accompany her. Without doubt, the treasures of Kisra bin Hurmuz shall also be conquered.” In astonishment, Adi bin Hatim said, “The treasures of Kisra bin Hurmuz?”
“Yes,” replied the Messenger of God, “The treasures of Kisra bin Hurmuz.’ ’ [138]
Ref: Musnad Aḥmad 4:257.
Notice the reaction of Adi bin Hatim, a companion of Muhammad ﷺ. He reacted with absolute astonishment about the prediction of the conquest of Persia. This is because such statements by Muhammad ﷺ were made at a time when no one could imagine that a small Muslim city state, under siege by the pagan Arabs, would reach such heights of power and strength. It’s important to appreciate just how large and powerful the empires of Rome and Persia were at the time. The Roman empire stretched from Europe to North Africa. The Persian empire was also large, with its capital Ctesiphon one of the biggest cities in the world. By comparison, the Muslims were dwarfed both in terms of numbers and territory. They were much less experienced in war and lacked the advanced weaponry and tactics of their opponents. Professor of Islamic History Carole Hillenbrand highlights the military superiority of the Persians over the Muslims: Much ink has been spilt on the phenomenon of the Islamic conquest, but few firm conclusions can be drawn…It seems unlikely that the Arabs possessed military superiority over their opponents. Certainly, they had no secret weapon, no new techniques. Indeed, in some military spheres they were inexperienced; they allegedly learned siege warfare, for example, from the Persians. They were also unfamiliar with how to fight naval engagements.
Ref: Carole Hillenbrand, Muhammad and the rise of Islam, The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol 1, p. 340.
Yet within just a decade of Muhammad’s death, all these events came true. They were witnessed by the very companions of Muhammad ﷺ who heard him make these prophecies. What is amazing is that after the death of Muhammad ﷺ, Muslims attacked both of these militantly superior imperial empires simultaneously. Even though the Romans and Persians were rivals and had been competing for territory for over a century before Muhammad ﷺ, because of their losses to the Muslims they joined forces and fought side by side against the Muslim army in a decisive battle at Firaz in modern day Iran. One hundred thousand Persians, Romans, and Christian Arabs fought against a less experienced, less equipped force of only twenty thousand Muslims
Ref: R. G Grant, 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History, p. 108.
Muslims defeated this coalition and went on to conquer all of Syria, Persia, and Yemen, just as Muhammad ﷺ foretold. What are the odds that the Muslims, who were small in number and lacked economic, military and political strength, could topple these superpowers of the world in such a short span of time? This is so improbable that it is like someone in our day and age making the claim that a small country, with a population of only a few tens of thousands of people and minimal economic and military strength, will topple the super powers of today such as the United States and Russia. The astonishing way that the Muslims defeated the superpowers captured the world by surprise, as historian Barnaby Rogerson explains: You have to remember, that the two great superpowers were the Byzantine empire [Eastern Roman empire] and Sassanid Persia, they were the dominant powers. If you’re putting it in a modern parlance it’s a bit like the Eskimos taking on the United States of America and Russia.
Ref: Al Jazeera documentary, “The Caliph”, Part 1. Accessed March 19th 2018:
No rational person would conceive of such a possibility, and if Muhammad ﷺ were guessing then he would have been risking his reputation as a Prophet by gambling on such unlikely predictions coming true. This sentiment is echoed by historians who cannot explain how Islam became such a dominant force so quickly. Professor of Byzantine studies Andrew Louth wrote: “The speed with which the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire succumbed to the Arabs remains to be explained
by historians”
Copied From Book: Forbidden Prophecy
