Evaluating claim to prophetism and proposal of Mohammadan prospect

A prophet is basically one who receives and communicates God’s guidance unto man.
The basic criteria for verifying the veracity of a prophetic claim poses that if any
prophet be found falsified in any of his attributions to God then he is not a genuine
prophet. If, on the other hand, he claims to speak in the name of the one God and his
words do convey otherwise inaccessible knowledge; in particular relation to shaping
future events, then in all likelihood a prophet has indeed spoken the word of the
Lord.
This process of divine communication in the Abrahamic tradition is gathered to have
manifested in three roughly distinct forms; a. intuition, dream, or vision; b. through
angelic medium; and the exceptional c. intimate imparting of information.
With regards to the functional aspect a prophet is to elucidate faith in God and His
scheme for mankind, as well as means – both ethical and circumstantial – whereby
success therein may be achieved. While most are dispatched to deliver divine
intimation, some select prophets, as evident through Biblical historiography and
crystallized through the Quran, are designated to unravel a miniature model for that
scheme wherein God establishes His judgment seat on earth through this prophetic
medium in order to deliver His humble righteous servants immediate handsome
reward while segregating haughty transgressors for inescapable due chastisement.
Muslims believe Mohammad[p], a 7th century Arab of Ishmaelite descent, was a man
of God and the last of God’s prophets to put in effect that scheme with wholesome
perfection. One is indeed very hard pressed to find in the entire Biblical tradition a
nabi whose prophetic proclamation received such remarkable fulfillment and success
than his. Moreover, not will you find in the whole tradition a prophet whose
ministerial mission is historically more documented and authenticated than
Mohammad’s.
Recall that Mohammad was a man living a common bedouin life aiding daily
provisional needs by shepherding people’s flock. He’s aged forty when he sees coming
out of the blue an angel with God’s message of calling His people back to the long
forsaken monotheistic belief. He takes this message to chieftain of Quraysh, most
prominent Arabian tribe of the time, and tells them, ‘Why not I give you one testimony
wherewith, if you choose to confess, shall gain sovereignty over the Arabs and dominion over non-
Arabs?’ Pondering in amazement as to what kind of profound utterance or perhaps an
ingenious incantation could produce a reward of such marvelous glory they implored
with craving curiosity, and he told them forthrightly, ‘Declare ye: there is no god but one
God, no partners has He.’
To the Quraysh, and effectively the Arabs as a whole, this was the most untenable
offer, for at first one could hardly ever envisage these illiterate and desolate
bedoweens roaming isolated wastelands on camels conquering the vastly resourceful
and thriving civilized world dominated by the mighty Sassanid and Byzantine empires.
As a matter of fact, in all their known history never had the Arabs militarily ventured
past the confines of their native desert frontiers beyond the Arabian Peninsula. Then
to assert this astounding ‘imminent success’ was to sprout forth through shunning
esteemed ancestral traditions was taken as a step beyond too far. Mohammad’s
promise and preaching was therefore received by pagans as posing an open peril to
the Haram’s religious sanctity which was – so they believed – intrinsically linked to
idols installed in and around the Ka’bah. Nor to be neglected was the prophecy’s
negative commercial impact as apprehensions arose concerning a real possibility of
jeopardized transit ties and severed diplomatic connections with illustrious and
apposite neighbors; factors threatening to shake the very foundations on which that
cultic merchant society was taken to subsist. Hence Mohammad’s message meted
utter derision, his teachings flouted and his elfin community of followers jeered in
every bazaar; ‘Lo and behold! Here come the sovereign of the earth who shall defeat Chosroes and
Caesar’, became common mockery flung for fun at Muslims who would subsequently
endure severe ostracization and persecution to the point of breaking.
However, the future was fixed to fold around his word and in a remarkable turn of
events this lonely voice in the desert would come to harvest a valiant army of ten
thousand saints as he marched towards fulfillment of yet another prophecy; a vision,
wherein foreseeing his companions perform rites of pilgrimage in wholesome peace, a
manifest token for the reclamation of Mecca. Within two years of this monumental
success which was truly a precursor for future unravelings, the number of his
fellowship would reach constellational proportion as the whole of Arabia, previously
at odds, would embrace the faith of monotheism and come to hearken his call to
Islam, the last iteration of revealed religions. Remarkable still is the fact that within a
few decades of Mohammad having delivered his immediate companions glad-tidings
of regal glory and sovereignty over the designated land, this newly chosen artillery-less
army of God had accomplished the impossible by toppling formidable empires
previously held unassailable, gaining possession of the kingdom, and establishing the
theocratic institution. Thus in acquiring all the consecrated land gifted of God the
Ishmaelites had achieved before dusk what their Israelite cousins could not in an
epoch.
This was indeed the mother of all prophecies and a triumphant fulfillment. God was
quite evidently working through Mohammad, His servant and messenger. After his
ministerial mission be considered in light of previous prophets and by applying similar
methods drawn for identification of seers of old, it becomes sparklingly clear that
Mohammad’s luminary prophetism out-shines that of his pious predecessors, insofar
that one is moved to wonder; if Mohammad was not a prophet, who was?

M. Usman Shahid