Can someone verify a story?

[Little_Lion]

I heard this many years ago before reverting, and wanted to know if it was authentic. It was a tale that was supposed to show that even the Prophet (pbuh) was not always perfect.

Once Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) came to a town where there were five rabbis who wanted to test him to see if he really was a prophet of Allah. So they asked him five unanswerable questions. The Prophet (pbuh) said, "I will have your answers in the morning." And that evening he prayed to Allah, but he did not receive the answers. He has to go back to the rabbis the next morning and say that he was not given the answers, "but surely I will get them tonight". He again prayed to Allah but no, he was not given the answers. This went on for twenty days before Allah finally gave him the answers to the unanswerable questions. And Allah warned the Prophet (pbuh) that He is never to be demanded of answers, and He gives answers when He sees fit.

Has anyone heard this story before? Is there truth to it? It does not really sound like something our Prophet (pbuh) would do, saying he will definitely get answers from Allah without even saying insha'Allah, but the story has a good moral.

 

[Delete.]

A'salamu alaykum, sister. I think you may be referring to when Nabi salaAllahu alayhi wa salam replied "Tomorrow I will do it" but he did not say "In sha Allah".

And never say of anything "Indeed, I will do that tomorrow." Except, when adding "In sha Allah". And remember your Lord when you forget it and say, "Perhaps, my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this to right conduct." Qur'an 18:23-24

Abu Hurayra radhiAllahu anhu reported that RasoolAllah salaAllahu alayhi wa salam said, "Sulaiman Ibn Dawood alayhi salam said: I will certainly have intercourse with seventy wives during the night, and every wife amongst them will give birth to a child, who will fight in the cause of Allah. It was said to him: Say 'In Sha Allah', but he did not say so and forgot it. He went round them but none of them gave birth to a child except for one woman and that too was a half formed child." Upon this RasoolAllah salaAllahu alayhi wa salam said, "By the One in Whose Hand is my soul, had he said 'In sha Allah' he would not have broken his oath, and that would have helped him to attain what he wanted." Sahih Muslim

It is not a tale to show that Nabi salaAllahu alayhi wa salam was not perfect.. Yes, he was a human being. But rather, this is to show us the importance of saying "In sha Allah" because without the Will of Allah, we can achieve nothing. And if we forget, to say it when we remember. Allah knows best.

 

[AabiruSabeel]

It is reported in Tasfir Ma'ariful Qur'an,

It is also mentioned in classical tafsir books.

[FONT=&quot]At-Tabaree mentions that this was directed to the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) after he promised to respond the next day to a question about the affair of the people of the cave, but did not make istithnaa', so the revelation was withheld for 15 days, until the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) became distressed. Then when the aayaat were revealed about the people of the cave (the aayahs immediately preceding these two), this command followed it and was a lesson for the Prophet (sallallaah 'alayhe wa sallam). [Tafseer At-Tabaree 8/208, Al-Kutub Al-'Ilmiyyah] [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Ibn Katheer also mentioned this. [Tafseer Ibn Katheer 5/148, Taybah] [/FONT]​

 

[Little_Lion]

Jazak'Allah khair! Wonderful to know the truth!

 

[greenhill]

I got this from the web, the story seems good, so I will post it for you.

"The Three Questions​

Was Muhammad

really a prophet? Was he just a convincing fake? How could they find out? These are the questions which the leaders of the Quraish were continuously asking themselves. They finally decided to consult the Jewish rabbis in Yathrib about the problem, since Jews had had more dealings with prophets in the past and the rabbis were knowledgeable in the scriptures.
The rabbis advised the Quraish to ask Muhammad

three questions. If he knew the answers to those questions, then he was truly a prophet. The first question was about some young men of long ago, who had left their people and had had a wondrous experience. The second question was about a traveler who had journeyed to the ends of the earth in the east and the west. The third question was about the Spirit, and what it was.
The Quraish hurriedly sent messengers to Muhammad

to ask him the three questions. The Prophet told them to return the following day and he would have the answers for them. However, he failed to add, “insha Allah,” that is, “if Allah wills.” By the next day he had not received any revelation to help him answer the questions, and he had to ask the messengers to return the following day. This was repeated for fifteen days, while the people of Mecca laughed at Muhammad’s

inability to answer the three questions. Finally Jibril

appeared to the Prophet

, and told him the three answers. He also explained the reason for the delay. In Surah 18: 23-24, is the warning that one should not plan to do anything in the future, without saying, insha Allah. All that we hope to do is only accomplished by the will of Allah.
The first question was about some young men who remained steadfast in their worship of one God, while the rest of their people turned to the worship of idols. No one is sure of the number of youth involved. That knowledge is Allah’s alone, although many scholars have disputed over the number. To escape persecution, the young men hid in a cave, where Allah caused them to fall asleep for about three hundred years (only Allah knows the exact length of time). They had a dog with them, and to anyone who happened to see them they would have appeared to be awake, and the person would have been filled with fear of them. When they finally awoke, it seemed to them as if only a short time had passed. It was when one of them was sent down to the town to buy food that they learned they had slept for centuries. The account of these sleepers is in the Quran,Surah 18:9-25.
The answer to the second question was about a great traveler identified as Zul-Qarnain, “the owner of two horns.” He had great power and had been given the ways and means to do all things. He traveled to the setting of the sun, which set in a murky pool. Nearby there lived a people over whomZul-Qarnain had authority to punish or reward. He chose to punish those who did wrong and then send them back to Allah to be further punished. Those who believed in Allah and were righteous, would be rewarded. Then he journeyed to the rising of the sun, where he found a people who had been provided with no protection against the sun. Those people he left completely alone.
As part of his answer to the second question, Muhammad

gave information about a third journey which Zul-Qarnain made. He traveled to a place between two mountains, where the people understood scarcely anything about Allah. They asked for his help in building a barrier between them and two beings called Yajooj and Majooj. In return for his assistance they promised to pay tribute to him. However he did not desire tribute. He replied that the power which he received from Allah was better than any tribute which they could offer him. And so he helped them erect a barrier of iron and lead, which Yajooj and Majooj were powerless to climb over or dig through. But the Quran warns that on a day appointed by Allah, they would break out of their place of confinement and cause great destruction. This would be one of the signs that the Day of Judgment was near. The story of Zul-Qarnain can be found in the Quran 18:84-103.
The third question, about the Spirit, had the shortest answer. The Quran (17:85) says that the Spirit comes by command of Allah, and that mankind does not have the knowledge to fully understand it. The Jews disputed that they had been given full knowledge in the Torah, but Allah tells us that their knowledge is very small, in comparison to Allah’s knowledge, which could not be recorded even if all the trees on earth were pens and all the seas were ink.
Despite Muhammad

having answered all their questions successfully, the rabbis did not recognize him as a prophet, and the Quraishi leaders did not follow the rabbis’ advise to follow him as a prophet. But many other people were convinced and the number of believers increased. As the numbers of believers increased, the opposition felt increasingly threatened and resorted to persecution of the followers of Muhammad

."


But there was another commentary, not mentioned here, was that because it took so long, 15 days, it was also concluded that he did not use black magic to quickly get the answer as the prophet (saw) said that he only knows what Allah allows him to know. It had to be genuine! Hence they ridiculed that Allah had abandoned him. And he did not try to hide his error. That says much.


eace:

 

[noraina]

^^^ I was just going to post something similar. I have heard this story so many times....

 

[Karl]

I thought the prophet got his info from an angel not directly from Allah. Gabriel the arch angel wasn't it?

 

[Delete.]

I thought the prophet got his info from an angel not directly from Allah. Gabriel the arch angel wasn't it?

The revelation came through Jibril, alayhi salam, with Allah's permission. Yes