Events coinciding with the birth of the Holy Prophet

Summary

Coinciding with the birth of some of the Prophets, great events would take place in order to prepare the people to accept the invitation of the Prophet; this is called Irhas. Coinciding with the birth of the Holy Prophet, events also took place.

Irhas

Coinciding with the birth and childhood of every Prophet, miracles and supernatural events took place, the aim being to prepare the people to accept the claims of the next Prophet. Amongst these miracles, a few pointed out could be the childhood of Ibrahim and growing up alone in a cave, the event of the River Nile and him growing up in the care of Asiyah and Pharaoh in the history of Prophet Musa and the birth of Isa without a father and talking in the cradle. Miracles that take place before and alongside the birth of every Prophet is called Irhas. Irhas, in its lexical form, means ‘to prepare’ and ‘to strengthen’, and in its technical terminology, it means the occurrence of supernatural events before the birth of a Prophet, at the time of the birth of a Prophet and before their claim to prophethood. The original and true purpose of Irhas is to prepare the people to accept the Prophet that is about to be born.

Hidden events

Based on the view of the historians, the Holy Prophet of Allah was born on the 12th or 17th of Rabi al-Awwal, Year of the Elephant. It has been narrated from Imam Sadiq: “Satan used to go to the seven skies and eavesdrop on the heavenly news. When Prophet Isa was born, He banished him from three levels of the skies, and when Prophet Muhammad was born, he was banished from all seven levels of the skies and the angels drove the devils out of the doors of heaven by shooting meteors at them.” Fakhr Razi, in his own exegesis, under the verse: “We used to sit in its positions to eavesdrop, but anyone listening now finds a flame waiting for him,” (Surah Jinn, verse 9) has narrated some sayings in regards to the banishment of the devils from infiltrating the heavens: “When the Holy Prophet of Allah was born, the devils were driven out and the earth shook until the churches were destroyed and anywhere but wherein Allah was not worshipped was destroyed.”

Evident earthly events

Ibn Shahr Ashub, quoting Imam Sadiq, writes: “Whilst the Holy Prophet was being born, the idols fell on their faces onto the ground. On that day, the crowns of kings toppled and their tongues unable to speak. Fortune-tellers became separated from their knowledge and the magic of the magicians rendered null. On that night, a light emanated from the land of Hejaz and spread and extended to the west.” Amongst other events that took place the night of the birth of the Holy Prophet is the extinguishment of the Persian fire-temple that was continuously burning for thousands of years. In this manner, on that night, the Archway of Ctesiphon was shaken, cracked and fourteen of its turrets fell. The Savah River, which according to a narration, people used to worship, ran dry and water began to flow in the valley of Samawah, where water hadn’t been seen in many years. Lady Aminah, the mother of the Holy Prophet, has been quoted as saying: “By Allah, when my son was born, he placed his hands upon the ground and raised his head towards the sky and looked around and began to move his lips by saying the words of Tawhid and a light radiated from his holy mouth, which the people of Mecca, the Basri palaces and surrounding area which is Damascus saw, the red Ayn Palaces and it’s districts and the white Palaces of Istakhr in Fars and neighbouring districts saw and on that night, the world was illuminated and amidst the light, I heard a voice that said: “You have brought the best of people into this world, so name him Muhammad!”