164. Prophet Muhammad^pbuh Seen Over The Centuries. Part one

 

 

Here are some visions of Prophet Muhammad^pbuh, over the centuries, all in dreams, narrated by the persons themselves, all except one, in the books written by their own hands. Therefore, the authenticity of the dreams is above board, except, if the writers were lying. The readers have to decide for themselves.

 

1. Readers of my blogs are familiar with Shahab. I have mentioned him in various blogs (9, 64-66). He was a mystic. He wrote his autobiography, ‘Shahabnama’, and the dream is mentioned in the book.

Shahab was a boy of about fourteen when he had this dream. He dreamt that he was in a vast desert. He was running in sand, which was coming to his knees. He could not breathe due to running. When he could not run anymore, he started crawling on his knees. Soon he could not even crawl on his knees. Still he crawled with his trunk. He got very tired and short of breath. There was severe pain in his chest. Suddenly his hands caught a corner of a prayer rug. The rug was spread under a date tree, and on it the Holy Prophet Muhammad^pbuh was sitting. He smiled at him.

At that very moment he woke up. It was the bitterly cold month of February. Despite the cold, his whole body was inundated with perspiration. His throat was dry like a bone and breath was coming in and out like a bellow. There was severe pain in both sides of his chest. The pain in the chest remained for the rest of his life.

He sat in the bed dazed. Then he started weeping. His weeping woke his mother. “Did you have a bad dream, child?”

“Yes, I had a strange dream” he replied.

She took deep breaths to smell the air in the room.

“I have told you so many times not to use fragrant oil in your hair at night, but you don’t listen to me. Off course with fragrant oil one gets bad dreams.”

“I have not used any oil”. And then he quickly told his mother his dream.

Mother also started crying. Both mother and son wept silently, at the profound grace that had fallen on him.

The room was redolent with fragrance.

 

2. The writer of the book, named Ghazi Ahmed, (1) had a dream when he was a fourteen years old Hindu boy, living in a village in rural Pakistan, in 1938. The village had Muslims and Hindu inhabitants. Hindus were only a quarter of the total village population, but owned most of the land and were richer than the Muslims. The school boys used to discuss about the merits of Hinduism and Islam. The author happened to read a book in which Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism was compared. Religious ideas started swirling in his head. His one Muslim friend took him to a pious Muslim scholar. He told the scholar that he had been praying everyday to God and reciting his Hindu rosary. The pious man was very pleased to hear his religious inclinations. He said the God of Hindus and Muslims is the same. “I am not asking you to convert to Islam but I am asking you to pray to God, every night, before going to sleep, the following:  O god! I am an ignorant person, without friend or helper, please show me the right path, etc………….”

He started reciting the prayer every night. Nothing happened for ten to fifteen days. Then one night he had a long and complicated dream. I am only going to narrate the part related to Prophet Muhammad^pbuh.

 

 “………A large moon appeared in the west. It was about fifteen times bigger than the full moon. The light was so powerful that one could see for thousands of miles. We (the author and his friend Sadiq ) started our journey. I felt that we have arrived at Mecca. We reached Kaaba (the holiest site of Islam). Countless sahaba (companions of Prophet Muhammad^pbuh) were sitting in white dress, facing Kaaba. Prophet Muhammad^pbuh was sitting with his back resting on the wall of Kaaba. We recognized him from a distance. I was walking behind Sadiq, because he was a Muslim and I was not, so he had the right to meet the Holy Prophet first. We passed through the sahaba. Sadiq shook hands with the seated Prophet.

When I (Ghazi) extended my hand, the Holy Prophet stood up, and embraced me; this lowly non-Muslim. Every pore of my body got filled with happiness. Holy Prophet sat down with me sitting beside. He asked, ‘Why have you come? ’

‘To become a Muslim’ I replied.

Prophet Muhammad^pbuh took my right hand in his hands and read something. Then he said “now you are a Muslim”

I, Ghazi, was very happy to hear this, because I had been converted to Islam by the Holy Prophet himself.

 

To be continued

 

(1) Mayra Qabool-a-Islam ( My conversion to Islam), by Ghazi Ahmed (this book is in Urdu)