Why Should I Believe Muhammad ﷺ Was a Prophet?

If the Qur’an is truly revelation from God, another question follows:

Why should we believe Muhammad ﷺ when he said God had sent him?

The greatest evidence for his prophethood is the Qur’an itself.

Muhammad ﷺ did not present the Qur’an as his own religious teaching. He said it was revelation from God and that his role was to deliver it:

قُلْ إِنَّمَآ أَنَا۠ بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَىَّ أَنَّمَآ إِلَـٰهُكُمْ إِلَـٰهٌ وَٰحِدٌ

“Say, ‘I am only a man like you, to whom it has been revealed that your God is One God.’”

If the Qur’an really is the word of God, then Muhammad’s claim to prophethood follows.

That is why the previous article examined the Qur’an itself: its message, consistency, challenge, preservation, and whether human authorship adequately explains it.

But Muhammad’s life also allows us to test competing explanations.

Was he lying? Was he seeking wealth or authority? Was someone teaching him? Or was he sincere but mistaken?

What Did His Enemies Say About Him?

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī records an exchange in which the Byzantine emperor Heraclius questioned Abū Sufyān about Muhammad ﷺ while Abū Sufyān was still his enemy.

Heraclius placed Abū Sufyān’s companions behind him and told them to contradict him if he lied. Abū Sufyān later admitted:

“By Allah! Had I not been afraid of my companions labeling me a liar, I would not have spoken the truth about the Prophet.”

Heraclius asked:

Had Muhammad ever been accused of lying before claiming prophethood?

No.

Did he break his agreements?

No.

Were his followers increasing or decreasing?

Increasing.

Did people enter his religion and then abandon it out of dissatisfaction?

No.

Had any of his ancestors been a king?

No.

What did he teach?

Abū Sufyān said that Muhammad ﷺ commanded people to worship Allah alone, abandon the worship of their ancestors, pray, speak truthfully, remain chaste, and maintain family ties.

Abū Sufyān even said that when asked about Muhammad’s agreements, the only criticism he could insert was that they were currently under a treaty and he did not know what Muhammad would do next.

The report does not prove prophethood by itself. But it shows that even an enemy who wanted to speak against Muhammad ﷺ could not accuse him of having lived as a liar before claiming revelation.

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 7, Book 1: Revelation.

Was It for Wealth?

If Muhammad ﷺ fabricated prophethood for money, the best place to test that explanation is after wealth became available.

After gaining political authority in Madinah, considerable wealth passed through his hands. At Ḥunayn, for example, he gave al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis one hundred camels and gave ʿUyaynah the same.

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4336, Book 64: Military Expeditions.

Yet ʿĀʾishah reported:

“The family of Muhammad had not eaten wheat bread to their satisfaction for three consecutive days since his arrival at Medina till he died.”

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5416, Book 70: Food, chapter “The food of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions.”

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb also described seeing Muhammad ﷺ lying on a palm-fibre mat that had left marks on his side. ʿUmar wept when he compared his condition with the luxury of Caesar and Khosrow.

Sources: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4913, Book 65: Tafsīr; Sunan Ibn Mājah 4153, Book of Zuhd, chapter “The beds of the family of Muhammad ﷺ.”

When Muhammad ﷺ died, his armour was mortgaged to a Jewish man for barley.

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2916, Book 56: Jihād.

He had access to wealth, distributed large amounts of it, and continued living modestly himself.

That is difficult to reconcile with the claim that he invented prophethood for money.

Was It for Power?

A person can reject luxury and still desire authority.

So did Muhammad ﷺ construct a religion designed to exalt himself?

The Qur’an commands him to say:

قُل لَّآ أَقُولُ لَكُمْ عِندِى خَزَآئِنُ ٱللَّهِ وَلَآ أَعْلَمُ ٱلْغَيْبَ وَلَآ أَقُولُ لَكُمْ إِنِّى مَلَكٌ

“Say, ‘I do not tell you that I possess the treasures of Allah, nor do I know the unseen, nor do I tell you that I am an angel.’”

And:

قُل لَّآ أَمْلِكُ لِنَفْسِى نَفْعًا وَلَا ضَرًّا إِلَّا مَا شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ

“Say, ‘I have no power to benefit or protect myself, except as Allah wills.’”

Islam directs worship entirely toward God. Muhammad ﷺ denied divinity, independent knowledge of the unseen, and independent power over benefit and harm.

More strikingly, the revelation sometimes corrected him.

When he turned away from a blind believer while speaking to influential men in Makkah, the Qur’an said:

عَبَسَ وَتَوَلَّىٰٓ أَن جَآءَهُ ٱلْأَعْمَىٰ

“He frowned and turned away because the blind man came to him.”

It also addressed his decision concerning the prisoners of Badr:

مَا كَانَ لِنَبِىٍّ أَن يَكُونَ لَهُۥٓ أَسْرَىٰ حَتَّىٰ يُثْخِنَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ

“It is not for a prophet to take captives until he has thoroughly subdued the enemy in the land...”

Muhammad ﷺ recited these corrections as revelation to his followers.

He did not present himself as an author standing above Islam, but as a servant under the authority of God.

He Refused a False Supernatural Claim

Muhammad’s young son Ibrāhīm died on the same day as a solar eclipse.

Some people connected the two events.

Muhammad ﷺ corrected them:

“The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of the death or life of someone.”

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1043, Book 16: Eclipses.

The belief made him appear more supernatural. He could have allowed it to continue without inventing anything himself.

Instead, he rejected it.

That is difficult to reconcile with the idea that Muhammad ﷺ deliberately manufactured supernatural claims to strengthen his authority.

What If He Was Sincere but Mistaken?

This is a stronger objection.

A sincere person can be sincerely wrong. Muhammad’s honesty and sacrifice therefore cannot establish prophethood by themselves.

This brings us back to the greatest evidence:

the Qur’an.

Sincerity might explain why Muhammad ﷺ believed he was a prophet.

It does not explain the Qur’an.

Before claiming revelation, Muhammad ﷺ was not known for producing scripture or religious literature. The Qur’an itself says:

وَمَا كُنتَ تَتْلُوا۟ مِن قَبْلِهِۦ مِن كِتَـٰبٍ وَلَا تَخُطُّهُۥ بِيَمِينِكَ ۖ إِذًا لَّٱرْتَابَ ٱلْمُبْطِلُونَ

“You did not recite before it any scripture, nor did you write one with your right hand. Otherwise the deniers would have had cause for doubt.”

Yet through Muhammad ﷺ came the Qur’an over more than two decades.

If someone taught him, where is the teacher who accounts for the Qur’an?

Where is the period of sustained scriptural education?

Where is the earlier body of religious writing from which it developed?

Muhammad ﷺ consistently distinguished the Qur’an from his own speech and said that he received it rather than composed it.

The question therefore cannot stop at whether he was sincere.

What explains what he brought?

There Were Also Prophecies

The hadith literature also records predictions attributed to Muhammad ﷺ that were later fulfilled.

While his grandson al-Ḥasan was still young, Muhammad ﷺ said:

“This son of mine is a chief, and perhaps Allah will make peace between two large groups of Muslims through him.”

Years later, al-Ḥasan relinquished his claim to political leadership and reconciled two Muslim forces that had been preparing for conflict.

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2704, Book 53: Peacemaking.

Muhammad ﷺ also told ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim that he would see a woman travel safely from al-Ḥīrah to Makkah and that Muslims would conquer the treasures of the Persian emperor Khosrow.

ʿAdī later reported:

“I saw a lady in a Howdah traveling from Al-Hira till she performed the Tawaf of the Ka'ba, fearing none but Allah. And I was one of those who opened the treasures of Khosrau, son of Hurmuz.”

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3595, Book 61: Virtues and Merits of the Prophet ﷺ.

For a fuller examination of Muhammad’s ﷺ prophecies and other signs of prophethood:

What Best Explains Muhammad ﷺ?

The evidences do not all carry the same weight.

His simple lifestyle does not prove prophethood. It argues against the claim that he fabricated prophethood for wealth.

His refusal to exploit the eclipse does not prove revelation. It argues against deliberate religious manipulation.

His reputation for honesty does not prove every later claim. It makes deliberate fraud harder to explain.

His prophecies provide further evidence.

But the greatest proof of his prophethood is the Qur’an.

If Muhammad ﷺ was lying, we must explain the Qur’an and why he maintained his claim through persecution, victory, and power without turning it into personal wealth or worship of himself.

If he was sincere but mistaken, his sincerity is explained, but the Qur’an is not.

Muhammad ﷺ gave a simpler explanation.

He did not claim to be God or ask to be worshipped. He did not claim the Qur’an as his own work.

He said that God had sent him with revelation.

مُّحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ ٱللَّهِ

“Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”

The Qur’an is the greatest evidence for that claim, and the life of the man who brought it gives us further reason to believe he was telling the truth.