Asahh al-Basha'ir fi Mab'ath Sayyid al-Awa'il wal-Awakhir
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
Asahh al-Basha'ir fi Mab'ath Sayyid al-Awa'il wal-Awakhir (The Soundest Glad Tidings Regarding the Advent of the Master of the First and the Last) is a critical scholarly treatise by the Syrian Islamic scholar and man of letters Muhammad al-Majdhub (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE), examining pre-Islamic prophecies and historical reports concerning the advent of the Prophet Muhammad .
Background and Purpose
The treatise was prompted by daily radio addresses given by Shaykh Ali al-Tantawi prior to the afternoon prayer . In answering a listener's inquiry about reports foretelling the Prophet's advent, al-Tantawi explicitly denied such traditions, arguing that the Prophet possessed no prior awareness of his future prophetic office .
While al-Majdhub agreed with the need to reject weak or fabricated historical narratives, he argued that a wholesale denial of all prophecies was scientifically untenable . He composed the treatise while affiliated with the College of Da'wah and Usul al-Din at the Islamic University of Madinah to articulate a balanced methodology between uncritical acceptance and unwarranted rejection of these reports .
Critical Analysis of Dubious Narratives
Al-Majdhub begins by subjecting widespread biographical narratives to historical and textual criticism:
- The Account of Bahira the Monk: The story claims that the Christian monk Bahira recognized the twelve-year-old Muhammad through physical signs, the prostration of trees and stones, and the seal of prophethood, and subsequently warned Abu Talib to protect him . Al-Majdhub points out severe historical discrepancies, such as the ending where Abu Bakr supposedly dispatched Bilal with the Prophet—despite Abu Bakr being younger than the Prophet at the time and Bilal being an enslaved youth under Umayyah ibn Khalaf—as well as the use of late vocabulary such as ka'k (cake/pastry) . He cites reservations expressed by hadith authorities including Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Kathir, al-Dhahabi (as cited by al-Zurqani), and al-Bayhaqi regarding its transmission by Qurad Abu Nuh .
- The Commercial Journey and Early Glad Tidings: Al-Majdhub critically reviews the reports that Maysarah witnessed miraculous cloud shading and angelic protection during the trade expedition to Syria, and that Khadijah bint Khuwaylid consulted Waraqah ibn Nawfal fifteen years before the revelation . He demonstrates that Qur'anic texts such as مَا كُنْتَ تَدْرِي مَا الْكِتَابُ وَلا الإِيمَانُ ("You did not know what the Book was, nor what was faith") [al-Shura: 52] and authentic narrations in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim establish that both Muhammad and Khadijah were completely unaware of his future prophethood until the sudden arrival of revelation at Cave Hira .
- Poetic Interpolation: Examining the verses attributed to Waraqah, al-Majdhub conducts a stylistic analysis, demonstrating that the verse mentioning the monk was later inserted into the poem, and that Waraqah's verses were actually composed following the initial revelation rather than before Khadijah's marriage .
- Origins of Extraneous Traditions: Al-Majdhub suggests that some later narrators and copyists—particularly early converts from the People of the Book—introduced miraculous motifs (such as the star over Yathrib announcing the birth of Ahmad) to mirror biblical stories like the Star of Bethlehem in the Gospel of Matthew .
Authentic Prophecies and Scriptural Foretellings
In the second part of the work, al-Majdhub details the glad tidings that are authenticated through scriptural and sound historical channels :
- The Divine Covenant and Biblical Mentions: The author cites the Qur'anic covenant taken from earlier prophets to believe in and support the final messenger (Al 'Imran: 81) and descriptions found in the Torah and Gospel (al-A'raf: 157, al-Saff: 6) . He discusses references to the Paraclete in the Gospel of John, citing the Italian orientalist Carlo Alfonso Nallino's observation to Shaykh Abd al-Wahhab al-Najjar that the Greek term carries connotations of extensive praise (al-kathir al-hamd) .
- Historical Testimonies: Al-Majdhub points to the anticipation of a coming prophet widely held by the Jewish community in Yathrib before Islam (al-Baqarah: 89) and the authentic journey of Salman al-Farsi, who obtained descriptions of the Prophet's characteristics from the Bishop of Amorium .
- Ancient Traditions: He references discussions of prophecies in Persian and Indian heritage addressed by Muslim scholars such as Ibn Hazm, al-Shahrastani, Ibn Taymiyyah, Rahmatullah al-Kairanawi (al-Dihlawi), Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad in Matali' al-Anwar, and research by Diya' al-Rahman al-A'zami on Hindu scriptures .
- The Prophecy of Isaiah: The treatise concludes with an exposition of Isaiah chapter 35 from the Old Testament, interpreting its poetic depiction of the flourishing wilderness and the sacred highway as an early prophecy of Islam's advent in the Arabian Peninsula .
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