Why should anyone believe this man?

Maybe you have asked this yourself, or someone asked you. It usually sounds like this:

• Lots of people have said God speaks to them. Why believe this one?
• Maybe he made it up to get power, money or fame.
• Maybe he believed it, but imagined it.
• Maybe his followers made him bigger after he died.

This is a fair question. Asking it is not a sin. Allah Himself tells people to stop and think about Nabi ﷺ¹. He does not tell them to believe without looking.

This chapter looks at the evidence calmly, one piece at a time. We use only the Quran and sahih (authentic) hadith. Weak popular stories are left out. We do not need them.

The short answer

There are only a few ways to explain a man who says: Allah sent me.

• He was lying.
• He was honest, but mistaken. He believed something that was not real.
• He was honest, and right. Allah really sent him.

His life does not fit the first two answers. He was honest all his life, gained nothing worldly, thought clearly, foretold things that came true, and brought the Quran. Each sign alone is strong. Together they point to one answer: he was a true messenger of Allah.

Now let us look at each sign.

What was he like before the Quran came?

Nabi ﷺ was forty when the first revelation (words from Allah) came to him². So his people had known him, and how he treated people, for forty years.

Allah told him to point to this: I lived among you a whole lifetime before this. Will you not think?³. In other words: you know me. Have I ever lied to you?

• His people trusted him. The books of Seerah (his life story) say the people of Makkah called him al-Amin, the trustworthy one.
• His wife spoke for him. When the first revelation came, he was afraid. Khadijah said: Allah will never disgrace you. You keep ties with your family, you help the poor, you look after guests, and you help people in trouble⁴. A wife knows a man better than anyone.
• Even his enemies said so. He stood on the hill of Safa and called the tribes of Makkah. He asked: if I told you an army was in the valley, about to attack you, would you believe me? They said: yes, we have only ever known you to tell the truth. Then he told them about Allah, and his own uncle Abu Lahab turned on him in anger⁵.

So they did not doubt his honesty. They did not like what he asked of them: to leave their idols.

What did his enemies say about him?

The best witness is often an enemy. An enemy has every reason to say bad things.

Abu Sufyan led Makkah against Nabi ﷺ for years. Once the Roman emperor questioned him about Nabi ﷺ. He later said that only fear of being called a liar by his own men made him tell the truth⁶.

Could he have been lying?

People lie for something: money, power, comfort or fame. So ask: what did his message get him?

• Years of hardship. He was mocked, his followers were tortured, and he had to leave Makkah. To get an easy life, he only had to stop.
• A very simple life, even as a ruler. Later he led all of Arabia. Still, Aisha said that two months could pass with no fire lit for cooking in his homes. They lived on dates and water¹¹. His family never ate their fill of wheat bread three days in a row until he died¹².
• He slept on a rough mat. Umar once saw the marks of a palm leaf mat pressed into his side, and cried. The kings of Rome and Persia live in luxury, he said. Nabi ﷺ said: are you not happy that they have this world, and we have the next?¹³. He said: I am like a traveler who rests in the shade of a tree, then moves on¹⁴.
• He left almost nothing. No money and no slaves. Only his white mule, his weapons, and land he had already given in charity¹⁵. His armor was held by a Jewish man as a promise for some barley¹⁶. What prophets leave behind is charity, not an inheritance for their family¹⁷.

That is not how a man lives who made up a religion to get rich.

He told the truth even when a lie would have helped him

His little son Ibrahim died. On that same day, the sun went dark in an eclipse. People said: the sun has gone dark because Ibrahim died. A man making things up would have kept quiet, because it made him look special. Instead, Nabi ﷺ stood up and said: the sun and the moon do not go dark for anyone's death or birth. When you see this, pray and make dua¹⁸.

He was just as honest about himself. Allah told him to say: I do not have the treasures of Allah, and I do not know the unseen, and I do not say I am an angel¹⁹. And he told us: do not praise me too much, the way Christians did with Isa son of Maryam. Say: the slave of Allah and His Messenger²⁰. A man who wanted fame would not talk like this.

Could he have been mistaken, or imagining it?

Maybe he was honest, but it was all in his own mind? The Quran tells people to think about him, alone or in pairs: there is no madness in your companion²¹. And: by the grace of your Lord, you are not a fortune teller and not mad²².

His life fits that.

• He thought clearly for twenty-three years. He led a community, made peace deals, judged disputes and taught thousands. Sharp, practical men like Abu Bakr and Umar trusted his mind completely.
• He could not make revelation come when he wanted. When people spread a lie about his wife Aisha, a whole month passed with no revelation about it²³. If the Quran came from his own mind, he would have cleared her on day one. Another time, revelation stopped for a few nights, and a woman mocked him: your devil has left you. Then Allah sent Surah ad-Duha: your Lord has not left you, and He is not displeased with you²⁴.
• The Quran sometimes corrects him. Once he turned away from a blind man who came asking to learn, and Allah sent verses about it²⁵. A man does not write a book that corrects himself in front of everyone. See Could a person have written the Quran?

Allah also says something strong: if he had made up even a few words and said they came from Allah, Allah would have taken him by the right hand and cut the main artery of his heart²⁶. Instead, his message was completed and kept.

Did the things he said would happen come true?

A prophet knows the future only when Allah shows him. So we can check. Here are some from the Quran and sahih hadith. Some came true after he died, so he could not have arranged them.

• The Romans would win. The Persians had beaten the Romans badly, and the Roman empire looked finished. The Quran said: the Romans have been beaten in a nearby land. But after their defeat, they will win, within a few years²⁷. Within a few years, the Romans struck back and won. Historians agree on this. It is the same victory Heraclius thanked Allah for²⁸.
• Safe roads, and the fall of Persia. When the roads were full of robbers, Nabi ﷺ told Adi ibn Hatim: you will see a woman travel alone from al-Hira (in Iraq) to the Kabah, afraid of no one but Allah. And the treasures of Kisra, the king of Persia, will be opened. Adi later said: I saw the woman travel. And I was one of those who opened the treasures of Kisra²⁹.
• His daughter Fatimah. In his last illness, he quietly told her she would be the first of his family to follow him in death³⁰. She died about six months after him³¹.
• Abu Lahab. A whole surah said his own uncle Abu Lahab would end in the Fire³². He lived for years after that. To prove it wrong, he only had to say: I believe. He never did.

What do his character and his message tell us?

Allah says to him: and you have a great character³³. People could see it every day.

• He made things easy. When he had a choice, he took the easier way, as long as it was not a sin. And he never took revenge for himself³⁴.
• He forgave his enemies. When he entered Makkah as the winner, he forgave the people who had fought him for years. Read it in the Seerah.
• He was sent as a mercy. Allah says: We sent you only as a mercy to all the worlds³⁵.

The biggest sign: the Quran

Nabi ﷺ said every prophet was given signs that made people believe. What I was given is the revelation Allah sent to me⁴⁰. He could not read or write⁴¹. Yet he brought a book that no one could match⁴². Other signs were seen only by the people there. The Quran is a sign you can read today. See Could a person have written the Quran? and Has the Quran been kept the same?

And his message was the same as the prophets before him, like Ibrahim, Musa and Isa: worship one God and do good. See The prophets and messengers.

Why did he marry more than one wife?

Some people point to his marriages and say he was driven by desire. The facts tell a different story.

• For about twenty-five years he had one wife. Khadijah was older than him. She was his only wife until she died, when he was about fifty. He spoke of her with love for the rest of his life⁴³.
• Most later wives had been married before, many of them widows. Aisha was the only one who had not⁴⁴. Hafsa, Umar's daughter, lost her husband after Badr⁴⁵.
• Some marriages brought peace and freedom. When he married Juwayriyah, the Muslims freed about a hundred families of her tribe, because they were now his in-laws⁴⁶.
• His wives taught the Muslims much of what we know about his life at home.
• Allah set special rules for him. Other men may have up to four wives, and must be fair⁴⁷. Allah gave Nabi ﷺ special marriage rules⁴⁸, then told him to marry no more⁴⁹.

For questions about Aisha's age, see Aisha's age and slavery.

What we cannot prove like a math sum

Let us be honest about the limits.

• No single fact proves it on its own, the way you prove 2 + 2 = 4. It is more like a court case. You look at all the witnesses together: friends, enemies, his life, what came true, and the book he brought.
• We were not there. We know his life through reports passed down by people. That is why Muslim scholars checked those reports so carefully. See Can we trust the hadith?
• You may not find an answer to every attack you read. That does not cancel the strong signs you already have. See How to look for answers.
• Guidance is from Allah. Many people who met him in person still did not believe. Evidence opens the door, but the heart has to walk through it.

What can you do with this doubt today?

• Get to know him. Most doubts about Nabi ﷺ come from not knowing him. Read a little of his life each week in the Seerah.
• Read the Quran with its meaning. It is the message he brought.
• Check what you hear. If a video says something shocking about him, look for the full source and the full story. See How to look for answers.
• Ask Allah to show you the truth. A simple dua is enough: O Allah, show me the truth as truth, and help me follow it.
• Talk to someone you trust. An imam or a teacher who knows the Seerah well can help. If doubts are making you very sad or anxious, please talk to someone today: family, an imam, a doctor or a counselor. See Is it normal to have doubts?

Common questions

Many people have said they were prophets. How is he different?

Use the emperor's questions⁵⁰. Was he honest before? Did he gain money or power for himself? Did what he said come true? Did he bring something no one could match? Nabi ﷺ himself warned that about thirty liars would come after him, each saying he is a messenger of Allah⁵¹. He is the last prophet⁵². See Muhammad ﷺ, the final messenger.

Could he just have been a good man and a great leader, but not a prophet?

That is hard to hold. He said again and again that Allah sent him. If that was not true, he was not a good man, because a good man does not lie about Allah. Heraclius saw this: a man who never lied about people would not lie about Allah⁵³. So the real choice is: a liar, a man badly mistaken, or a true prophet. His life does not fit the first two.

My friend is not Muslim and asks why I believe in him. What do I say?

Keep it simple and kind. Tell him one or two things that move you: his honesty, his simple life, or how his enemy Abu Sufyan spoke about him. You do not need to win an argument. Allah tells us to invite people with wisdom and kind advice⁵⁴.