Umayya ibn Khalaf: the testimony of an enemy
Sa’d ibn Mu’adh, who had come to Mecca for the umra, lodged with his friend Umayya ibn Khalaf. A quarrel with Abu Jahl led him to say to Umayya: “I have heard Muhammad ﷺ say that he will kill you.” Umayya replied: “By God, Muhammad ﷺ does not lie when he speaks.” He repeated it to his wife, who said the same (Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 242-243).
When the call to arms for Badr came, his wife reminded him of it. He wanted to stay behind; Abu Jahl persuaded him to go along “for a day or two”. He was killed at Badr, in 624 (Bukhari 3632).
The hadith is found only in al-Bukhari, notes Ibn Kathir (Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 243). It brings together the prophecy, the enemy’s admission that the Prophet ﷺ was truthful, and the fulfillment. Umayya did not believe in him; he did not doubt his word.
Badr: “here so-and-so will fall”
On the eve of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ placed his hand on the ground and showed the place where each of the chiefs of Quraysh would fall: “here so-and-so will fall”. The next day, not one of them fell anywhere but on the spot he had shown. Two witnesses report it in Muslim: Anas, and Umar, who says: “they did not miss the bounds he had marked” (Muslim 1779; Muslim 2873; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 394).
The Qur’an had foretold the rout of this army; on the day before, the Prophet ﷺ pointed out each of the chiefs who would fall.
Deaths announced before the news
The Negus. The Prophet ﷺ announced the death of the king of Abyssinia on the very day he died, and prayed over him with the Muslims at the prayer ground (Bukhari 1245). Al-Bukhari and Muslim report it from Abu Hurayra (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 29). Only the date is debated: Rajab 9 AH (630) according to al-Suhayli; Ibn Kathir replies “and that is open to question”, and places this death after the conquest of Khaybar, in the year Ja’far returned from Abyssinia (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 29-30).
The commanders of Mu’ta. He ﷺ described the battle before the news arrived: “Zayd took the banner and fell, then Ja’far, then Abd Allah ibn Rawaha”; then Khalid took it up, “and God granted them victory” (Bukhari 4262; al-Salihi, X, 64). The battle took place in Jumada I 8 AH (629) (Ibn Hisham, II, 373).
Khaybar, and the hidden letter
The banner. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Tomorrow I will give the banner to a man through whom God will grant victory.” The next day Ali, who was suffering from his eyes, received it, and the fortress was taken (Bukhari 3009). Al-Bukhari and Muslim report it from Sahl ibn Sa’d and Salama ibn al-Akwa’ (al-Salihi, X, 62). This was at Khaybar, in Muharram 7 AH (628) (Ibn Hisham, II, 328).
The admired fighter. A man fought better than all the others, and the Prophet ﷺ said: “he is of the people of the Fire”. Wounded, the man killed himself with his own sword; the one who had followed him came back to bear witness that he was the Messenger of God ﷺ (Bukhari 4202). Ibn Kathir reports three views on the place: Uhud, Khaybar, “and that is the correct one”, or Hunayn (Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 244).
Hatib’s letter. Before the conquest of Mecca, in Ramadan 8 AH (630), he ﷺ sent Ali, al-Zubayr and al-Miqdad to the garden of Khakh and said: “there is a woman traveler there who carries a letter”. The letter of Hatib ibn Abi Balta’a to Quraysh was found on her. Ali tells the story himself (Bukhari 3007; Ibn Hisham, II, 389). In the account of Urwa quoted by al-Salihi: “the news came to him from heaven” (al-Salihi, X, 64).
The dream of the emigration and of Uhud
He saw in a dream that he was emigrating to a land of palm trees. He thought it was al-Yamama or Hajar: it was Yathrib, Medina. He saw a sword broken at the tip: these were the losses of Uhud; then the sword made whole again: the victory that followed (Bukhari 3622). The Hijra was in 622, Uhud in 625. A narrator in the chain adds: “I think he had it from the Prophet ﷺ” (Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 242).
Four accounts, with their limits
Other prophecies are reported by the sira. Their transmission or their versions are debated: we give them with what limits them.
- Ubayy ibn Khalaf. The Prophet ﷺ told him: “it is I who will kill you, if God wills”. Grazed on the neck at Uhud, in Shawwal 3 AH (625), Ubayy said “Muhammad ﷺ has killed me” and died at Sarif, on the way home (Ibn Hisham, II, 60 and 84; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, III, 69). Ibn Ishaq has it from Salih ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, with no Companion named (Ibn Hisham, II, 84).
- The termites and the pact. During the boycott, the Prophet ﷺ announced that termites had eaten the pact hung up in the Ka’ba. Abu Talib had the document brought before Quraysh: it was found just as he had described it, and the boycott came to an end, in the tenth year of the mission (Ibn Hisham, I, 376-377; al-Salihi, X, 58-59). But Ibn Hisham has it from “some scholars”, with no chain (Ibn Hisham, I, 377), and the versions differ on what was eaten: everything except “Bismika Allahumma”, everything except the names of God, or, on the contrary, the names of God (Ibn Hisham, I, 376-377; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 148).
- The rock of the Trench. As the Trench was being dug, in Shawwal 5 AH (627), the Prophet ﷺ struck a rock and announced the conquests of Yemen, Syria and the East; Abu Hurayra would later say: “conquer what you will: their keys were given to Muhammad ﷺ before that” (Ibn Hisham, II, 214 and 219). Ibn Ishaq has it from a source he does not name, and Ibn Kathir calls “singular” the version with the palaces of al-Hira and of Chosroes (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, III, 191-193).
- The death of Chosroes announced to Badhan. To the envoys of Badhan, the Persian governor of Yemen, he said: “My Lord has killed your lord this night”. Chosroes was killed by his son Shirawayh, and Badhan embraced Islam with the Persians of Yemen (al-Salihi, X, 67; on Badhan, Ibn Hisham, I, 69). Ibn Hisham has it from al-Zuhri without giving the chain, and the date varies: 10 Jumada II 7 AH (15 October 628) according to al-Waqidi, 10 Jumada I 9 AH (25 August 630) according to al-Suhayli (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, III, 510 and I, 48).
Foretold in his lifetime ﷺ, seen after him: Adi ibn Hatim
In the presence of Adi ibn Hatim, one man complained of poverty, another of highway robbers. The Prophet ﷺ told Adi that, if he lived, he would see three things: the woman traveler setting out from al-Hira and circling the Ka’ba fearing no one but God; the treasures of Chosroes son of Hurmuz opened; a man offering a full handful of gold or silver and finding no one to accept it (Bukhari 3595; Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 246).
Adi draws the conclusion himself, in the hadith: “I saw the woman traveler set out from al-Hira and circle the Ka’ba fearing no one but God, and I was among those who took the treasures of Chosroes”. The third point he leaves to those who will live to see it. Al-Bayhaqi places it under Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz; Ibn Kathir leaves open a later fulfillment, in the time of the Mahdi or of the descent of Jesus (Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 257).
Two prophecies out of three are attested by the very man to whom they were made. They were fulfilled under the caliphs, in the time of the conquests traced on page 3.
How this page connects to the others
- The rout of Badr foretold by the Qur’an, in Mecca: page 1, The Qur’an’s predictions.
- Umayya’s admission meets the reasoning of Heraclius: page 5, The testimony of his person.
- The prophecies fulfilled after his death ﷺ: page 3, Fulfilled after him.
- The account of the battles: From Badr to Tabuk; the boycott: The preaching in Mecca.
Sources for this page
- Hadiths: Bukhari 3632 (Umayya); Muslim 1779 and Muslim 2873 (the places at Badr); Bukhari 1245 (the Negus); Bukhari 4262 (Mu’ta); Bukhari 3009 (the banner); Bukhari 4202 (the fighter); Bukhari 3007 (Hatib); Bukhari 3622 (the dream); Bukhari 3595 (Adi ibn Hatim).
- Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat al-Nabi ﷺ (extract from al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya), ed. al-Sayyid Ibrahim Amin Muhammad, al-Maktaba al-Tawfiqiyya, Cairo, I, 242-246 and 257 (Shamela 23678).
- Ibn Kathir, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. Mustafa Abd al-Wahid, Dar al-Ma’rifa, Beirut, 1976, I, 48; II, 29-30 and 394; III, 69, 191-193 and 510 (Shamela 930).
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. Mustafa al-Saqqa, Ibrahim al-Abyari and Abd al-Hafiz Shalabi, al-Babi al-Halabi, Cairo, 2nd ed., 1955, I, 69 and 376-377; II, 60, 84, 214, 219, 328, 373 and 389 (Shamela 23833).
- Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Uyun al-athar, Dar al-Qalam, Beirut, 1993, I, 148 (Shamela 23653).
- Al-Salihi al-Shami, Subul al-huda wa-l-rashad, ed. Adil Abd al-Mawjud and Ali Mu’awwad, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 1993, X, 58-59, 62, 64 and 67 (Shamela 1693).
- Research file “His prophecies, from his lifetime to our day”, v1.0, 2 November 2026: first period; sections on Umayya ibn Khalaf and Adi ibn Hatim.