Surah Al-Qasas, Ayah 47

Proof of the Prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ

Allah points out the proof of the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ, whereby he told others about matters of the past, and spoke about them as if he were hearing and seeing them for himself. But he was an illiterate man who could not read books, and he grew up among a people who knew nothing of such things. Similarly, Allah told him about Maryam and her story, as Allah said:

وَمَا كُنتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ يُلْقُون أَقْلَـمَهُمْ أَيُّهُمْ يَكْفُلُ مَرْيَمَ وَمَا كُنتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ يَخْتَصِمُونَ

(You were not with them, when they cast lots with their pens as to which of them should be charged with the care of Maryam; nor were you with them when they disputed) (3:44), meaning, `you were not present then, but Allah has revealed this to you.' Similarly, Allah told him about Nuh and his people, and how He saved Nuh and drowned his people, then He said:

لِتُنذِرَ‌ قَوْمًا مَّا أَتَاهُم مِّن نَّذِيرٍ‌ ( so that you warn a people to whom no warner has come before - 28:46). The expression ` a people' is purported here for the Arabs, who are the progeny of Sayyidna Ismail (علیہ السلام) . No prophet was sent to this ` people' after Sayyidna Ismail علیہ السلام until the Holy Prophet ﷺ was sent. The same subject will follow in Surah Yasin. But this verse is not in conflict with the other verse إِن مِّنْ أُمَّةٍ إِلَّا خَلَا فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ‌ (There is no community, but there has come a warner among them - 35:24). What the present verse means here is that there was no prophet in ` this people' for a long time after Ismail . But after the arrival of the Holy Prophet ﷺ this void was filled up.

With the help of the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad described the events of Moses’ life in full detail, as if he were standing there on the spot at that very time and seeing and hearing everything, though the fact is that he was born in Makkah two thousand years after Moses. This is clear proof that the contents of the Quran are the words of God, because no human being can have the ability to make such statements on his own. In the times of the Prophet Muhammad there were no books such as we have today. At that time an account of Moses’ achievements were to be found in some non-Arabic books of the Jews, a few copies of which were preserved in Jewish temples, these were definitely beyond the reach of the Prophet Muhammad. Moreover, there are significant differences in many statements contained in the Quran and the Jewish books and academic assessment shows that the Quranic version is the more accurate. For example, according to the Quran, the Egyptian’s death at the hands of Moses had occurred accidentally, whereas the Bible says of Moses: ‘And he looked this way and that way and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.’ (Exodus: 2:12.) It is very obvious that it is the Quranic statement, and not the statement of the Torah, which is in consonance with the holy and righteous personality of Moses. Then, how is it that the Prophet Muhammad was able to present in the Quran the incidents of Moses’ life so correctly without any apparent help? There could be no reply to this question except that the All Knowing God (He, who knows the past and the unseen future) had revealed these facts to him through His divine revelation.