Anecdotes from the Life of the Prophet Muhammad
by Mumtaz Ahmad Faruqui
Appendix B: Prophecies about the Holy Prophet Muhammad: Prophecies in Hindu Scriptures
Likewise, in Hindu scriptures, too, there are several prophecies about the Holy Prophet Muhammad [pbuh]. A few of these are in the Puranas. The one in the Bhavishya Purana is the clearest of all. The fifth word from left to right is the name of the Holy Prophet [pbuh]. It gives even the name of the country of the Prophet [pbuh]: “Marusthalnivasinan”… denizens of the desert (Arabia). The prophecy, which is translated from the original Sanskrit text, runs as follows:
- Just then an illiterate man with the epithet teacher, Muhammad by name, came along with his companions.
- Raja (Bhoja in a vision) to that Great Deva, the denizen of Arabia, purifying with the Ganges water and with the five things of cow offered sandal-wood and pay worship to him.
- O denizen of Arabia and Lord of the Holies, to thee is my adoration. O thou who hast found many ways and means to destroy all the devils of the world.
- O pure one from among the illiterates, O sinless one, the spirit of truth and absolute master, to thee is my adoration. Accept me at thy feet.
(Bhavishaya Purana, Parv 3, Khand 3, Adhya 3, Shalok 5–8)
Then again:
“O people, listen this emphatically; the man of praise (Muhammad) will be raised among the people. We take the emigrant in our shelter from sixty thousand and ninety enemies whose conveyances are twenty camels and she-camels whose loftiness of position touches the heaven and lowers it.”
“He gave to Mamh Rishi hundreds of gold coins, ten circles, three hundred Arab horses and ten thousand cows.”
(Atharva Veda, Kanda 20, Sukta 197, Mantras 1–3)