The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 1 of 4

238 THE LIFE OF THEPROPHET MUHAMMAD
me, both his previous and his later sins. His nation is forgiven. I have made gifts
to them similar to those I gave to the prophets, and imposed duties upon them
that I imposed upon the prophets and the messengers, so that they will come to
me on Judgement Day with their light like that of the prophets."
The text continues until the words, "0 Damid, I have given preference to
Muhammad and to his nation above all the nations."
Knowledge of the existence of reference to him in the books of the peoples of the
Scriptures, a fact known to the religion, is essential. And many verses of the holy
Qur'an give proof of that and we have, praise be to God, made reference to those
in the proper places.
One such verse is, "(As for) those to whom we gave the Scripture before it,
they believe in it. And when it is recited to them, they say, 'We believe in it. It is
the truth from our Lord. We were already submitting Muslims before it"' (siirat
al-&a$, XXVII, v.52-3).
And Almighty God said, "Those to whom we have brought the book know
him as they know their sons. (Yet) a group of them certainly conceal the truth,
though they know it" (stirat al-Baqara, 11, v.146).
Almighty God also said, "Those who were given the knowledge of it prostrate
themselves on their faces when it is recited to them and they say, 'Glory be to
our Lord; the promise of our Lord is fulfilled'" (stirat al-IsrZ', XVII, v.107-8).
This means that if it were the promise of our Lord that Muhammad (SAAS)
exists and be sent, then that is an indisputable fact. And all praise to Him
capable of whatever he wishes; there is nothing he is incapable of doing.
And the Almighty said, makimg reference to the priests and monks, "And
when they hear what was revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflow
with tears for the mth they recognize. They say, '0 God, we believe, so write us
down among those bearing witness' (stirat al-Mij'ida, V, v.83).
In the story of the Negus, Salman, 'Abd Allah b. Salam and others, as will
come hereafter, there are many testimonials to this effect. And all praise and
power are to God.
In the explanatory notes relating to the lives of the prophets (in the text
al-Bid~ya ma al-Nih~ya: The Beginning and the End) we referred to their
descriptions of the mission of the Messenger of God (SAAS), of his towns of
birth and of refuge, and of his nation. These occur in the accounts of Moses,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and others.
Almighty God has related of the last of the prophets of the Israelites, Jesus,
son of Mary, that he stood up among his people and addressed them as follows,
"I am the Messenger of God to you, verifying what is in the Torah that came
before me and announcing the coming of a messenger who will come to you after
me and whose name is Ahmad" (swat al-Saff, LXI, v.6).