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According IslamReligion.com, Muhammad made a prophecy about the timing of his daughter's death:

The Prophet informed his daughter, Fatima, that she would be the first member of his family to die after him. There are two prophecies in one: Fatima will outlive her father; Fatima will be the first member of his household to die after him. Both were fulfilled.

Did Muhammad make this prophecy? Did it come true?

Sakib Arifin
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  • His cousin, Ali, caused a bit of a rift in the religion, because people felt that he was closely enough related. – RToyo Oct 17 '17 at 15:42
  • Fatimah died before Ali. So, that doesn't count. I suppose anyone with a daughter will have his daughter to die after him first. –  Oct 17 '17 at 15:43
  • @LangLangC: If that is a serious proposal, take it to Meta. You'll need to explain it further. – Oddthinking Oct 18 '17 at 01:28
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    This may be more suitable for Islam.SE, as no skepticism is required. – Andrew Grimm Oct 18 '17 at 03:18
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this question doesn't require skeptical thinking, just expert knowledge. A claim containing suspected anti-Islam nonsense or suspected propaganda would require skepticism, but this does not appear to be nonsense or propaganda. – Andrew Grimm Oct 18 '17 at 03:21
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    @AndrewGrimm, I'm sorry, but I don't agree. I think anything IslamReligion.com says about Islam *could* be considered propaganda. Reading this, one can be skeptic that he said it (like any other *quote* question on this site) and secondly, one can be skeptic that the "prophecy" has been "fulfilled". – Jordy Oct 18 '17 at 07:43
  • @Jordy Whether or not a prophecy has been fulfilled is definitely OT for this SE, though whether or not there is reason to believe that Muhammad made this prediction and whether or not it matches known historical facts may be on topic. – Cubic Oct 18 '17 at 10:24
  • @Cubic, please reread my comment (and note the quotation marks). Everything you just said is exactly what I am saying. – Jordy Oct 18 '17 at 10:41
  • Relevant: https://sunnah.com/bukhari/62/65 – Sakib Arifin Oct 18 '17 at 11:53
  • Actually it's true. –  Jan 30 '18 at 01:29
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    I don't think one needs to resort to divine message to predict that Mohammed would predecease his daughter given that he was forty years older than she. – Clint Eastwood Jul 06 '18 at 16:34
  • and dying. However, besides Fatima, does he has other members of his family that may die too? – user4234 Sep 22 '19 at 15:06

1 Answers1

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Question 1: Yes

According to Sahih al Bukhari, one of the central collections of orally transmitted words and sayings by Muhammad, he did make this prophecy:

حَدَّثَنِي يَحْيَى بْنُ قَزَعَةَ، حَدَّثَنَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ بْنُ سَعْدٍ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، عَنْ عُرْوَةَ، عَنْ عَائِشَةَ ـ رضى الله عنها ـ قَالَتْ دَعَا النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَاطِمَةَ ابْنَتَهُ فِي شَكْوَاهُ الَّذِي قُبِضَ فِيهِ، فَسَارَّهَا بِشَىْءٍ فَبَكَتْ، ثُمَّ دَعَاهَا، فَسَارَّهَا فَضَحِكَتْ، قَالَتْ فَسَأَلْتُهَا عَنْ ذَلِكَ‏.‏ فَقَالَتْ سَارَّنِي النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَأَخْبَرَنِي أَنَّهُ يُقْبَضُ فِي وَجَعِهِ الَّذِي تُوُفِّيَ فِيهِ فَبَكَيْتُ، ثُمَّ سَارَّنِي فَأَخْبَرَنِي أَنِّي أَوَّلُ أَهْلِ بَيْتِهِ أَتْبَعُهُ فَضَحِكْتُ

Narrated `Aisha:

The Prophet (ﷺ) in his fatal illness, called his daughter Fatima and told her a secret because of which she started weeping. Then he called her and told her another secret, and she started laughing. When I asked her about that, she replied, The Prophet (ﷺ) told me that he would die in his fatal illness, and so I wept, but then he secretly told me that from amongst his family, I would be the first to join him, and so I laughed."

Sahih al-Bukhari [61:130]

Question 2: Yes

It is correct that Fatima was the first one to die among Muhammad's household, the Ahl al-Bayt. There is a disagreement on her exact death date, but it is unanimously accepted by historians that she died in 632 CE (the same year in which Muhammad died on 8th of June). The next member of the Ahl al-Bayt to die was Muhammad's wife Maria al-Qibtiyya in 637 CE. Among Fatima's own family, the first one to die was her husband Ali ibn-e-Abi Talib in 661 CE.

DenisS
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Failed Scientist
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    So if i understand this correctly, the text that you site as reference was written about 200 years after the facts? That leaves plenty of time to adjust prophecy to reality doesn't it? – Scrontch Jul 06 '18 at 14:36
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    Off course it can, but if we don't believe this, then all the history of Islam (and even of Christiantiy) is unauthentic to us. If non-Muslims historians didn't write much about the events then leaves us inevitably with the Muslim historians only and Bukhari's collection is a collection of high standards of Research. – Failed Scientist Jul 06 '18 at 15:12
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    And one should see Bukhari's collection in depth before evaluating the claim "Adjusting prophecy to reality" as he has narrated even those Ahadith/events which are totally contrary to his Believes (he being a Sunni Muslim narrated a lot of Ahadith which back the Shia sects number of claims in their favour and go against the Sunni Islam). – Failed Scientist Jul 06 '18 at 15:15
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    Having said that all, I would love to find the history of both Christianity and Islam from a "3rd person". I am seriously in research of finding some detailed historic journals of Tang Dynasty about Arab-Byzantine wars, etc. – Failed Scientist Jul 06 '18 at 15:18
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    Downvoted. You're citing an extremely biased source that was written 200 years after the events in question. Furthermore, according to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatimah) she was the youngest child, and the only child of his first wife to live to adulthood, and therefore outlived other members of her family by default. – DenisS Jul 06 '18 at 18:06
  • @DenisS Kindly read the question or prediction again: She(RA) would be the first one amongst his family to meet him(SAW) after his death. RE Extremely biased Source: What alternative source do we have for not only this small incidence (which doesn't matter much) but all of Islam's history? What is your source of knowledge about Islam's history? This book written 200 years after events or ones written even after that? Being the students of history, our hands are tied by these constraints. If you have an earlier source than Bukhari, I would love to see it! – Failed Scientist Jul 06 '18 at 18:19
  • @TalhaIrfan: Why have you reverted my edit? – Schmuddi Jul 08 '18 at 05:34
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    @TalhaIrfan something that isn't a sacred Islamic text is necessary. The writers clearly have a vested interest in Muhammad being right and making predictions that come true. Furthermore, the tone of your answer is off. You should try to make your answer be as neutral in tone as possible. Your answer reads like a Muslim propaganda piece. Even if you had cited proper sources, I still would have downvoted because of the tone of the answer. – DenisS Jul 08 '18 at 20:57
  • @DenisS: If you have a look at the edit history, you'll see that I tried to change the answer to a neutral tone. That edit was reverted. – Schmuddi Jul 08 '18 at 21:06
  • @Schmuddi I see that, and that was the right thing to do. We're probably gonna need a mod to come in if he's going to revert any edit that tries to edit this to have a neutral tone – DenisS Jul 08 '18 at 21:17
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    @TalhaIrfan *"but if we don't believe this, then all the history of Islam (and even of Christiantiy) is unauthentic to us..."*. So your argument for the claim being true is "It must be true or we will have to concede that our religion is myth and not facts". Well now... does that speak for the truth of the claim or not? –  Jul 09 '18 at 06:46
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    @FailedScientist " if we don't believe this, then all the history of Islam (and even of Christiantiy) is unauthentic to us" Or may be just some parts. Forrest Gump is a fictional character but some facts about the history of America in this film are true. Some characters were real and described objectively. Sometimes histories are slightly changed every time they are told. Sometimes the narrator add ficticious details to make the more interesting or to prove their point. This can even tracked in some parts of the bible. – borjab Feb 04 '20 at 20:07
  • @borjab Can't agree more! – Failed Scientist Feb 19 '20 at 06:38
  • @Scrontch What is your definition of a prophecy? If the prophecies happened *after* hundreds/thousand of years the hadith was written would you believe it? If so, there are a lot.. – Adola Mar 06 '21 at 16:48