Who is Really Blind?

Basis of Revelation: محمد رول الله

We claim that the existence of God is so obvious and universal that anyone can tell that there is a God. It also seems very obvious that the creation of such a vast universe is not meaningless. There must have been some purpose. But our reason goes only as far as that. We cannot really tell any further. After all, even if there is a God, how do we know what He is like? And what is our purpose in life? Also, aside from such existential questions, how should how to live our lives? If God did create us, He should let us know of our purpose and how we should live our lives, of course. These things cannot be answered by reason alone, for as humans our knowledge and reasoning is very limited.
And that is how we understand the significance of revelation. Allah didn't just create us for no reason, rather He created us for a purpose. And He didn't leave us here blindly, rather He sent us guidance from the heavens. And that is through the Prophets and Messengers (peace be upon all of them) He sent. To some of them He sent books of revelation. The Tawrah (Torah), the Zabur (sometimes said to be the Psalms), the Injeel, and the Quran are the books of revelation, along with the scrolls of Musa and Ibrahim.
The Prophets and Messengers (peace be upon them) that He sent are all humans, and they're not more than slaves of Allah, like any other man. They used to eat and drink just like we do, and they also did other things necessary for any man to do. However, they're the best of humans, free from sins. And the best of them is the final Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ, the Seal of Prophets.
Of course, people aren't going to accept this at just face value. The first and foremost question someone might ask is why even send a Prophet? Why doesn't Allah just speak to humans directly? To that we say, it's an arrogant wish of man to ask for the Lord of the worlds to come down to speak to humans, and even if He were to, we are too insignificant to see Allah, and His words are difficult to bear. This has been proven many times in the Quran and various Ahadeeth , and I don't want to delve any further into this. Let's say that we accept this answer, but why human? Why not an angel? After all, that would have been more clearly believable. But as Allah puts it, He sent every nation a Prophet from their own people. That is, of course, His wisdom, but a benefit of this is that we can directly understand and learn from a human being. The fact that a fellow human being who eats and drinks just like us, and goes to market and does other regular things is doing things a certain way makes it easier for us to learn those things. After all, a huge portion of our deen is based on the sunnah. The most important factor here is that even if Allah had sent them angels, they wouldn't have believed.
Well, even if we say that God sent messengers, how do we know that this revelation in particular is the truth? And why should Muhammad ﷺ be the last messenger, why can't anyone who claims to be a Messenger now be a true messenger?
We know that Muhammad ﷺ is a true Messengerof Allah, because of the evidence in favour of it. If we look at his ﷺ life, we can see that he never lied, and he was a wise man. Therefore when he says that this was revealed to him ﷺ from Allah, he wasn't lying. Nor was he deluded, for he ﷺ is too wise for that. He didn't do it for wealth or power, for the people of Quraysh were ready to give him both to stop the message, but he didn't care ﷺ. This claim is, of course, something difficult to grasp in general, because none of us have seen him ﷺ. But there is more. There are many predictions of his found in the Ahadeeth , which came true. And while it may seem sort of like a weak argument to bring Ahadeeth  into the question, as they are the islamic source of narrations. However, what must be brought to attention is that the historical value of Ahadeeth  is far more than any other source. That is because both the text of the Hadeeth and the chain of narration, meaning the chain of people by whom the narration was passed through from Rasulullah ﷺ, are both recorded, scrutinized and studied. There's a whole science related to Hadeeth, and there are many categories depending on the authenticity of the text in accordance to the Quran and other authentic narrations, the number of people that narrated it, the chain by which it passed and each of their reliability and character and so on. Even the language was scrutinized. There's also explanation for Ahadeeth , and the context is known for many, if not most, Ahadeeth . And not to mention, the true scholars had always both written and memorised Ahadeeth , the chain of narration included, so that if the written materials got lost or corrupted they had knowledge from memory and if they forgot or someone said something wrong, then they had the written materials to refer to. The result is that we know very well what has been preserved and how reliable each narration is, and there are principles that are used to determine which grade of hadeeth can be used for what purpose, be it the exegesis of the Quran, or for legislative issues, or otherwise. Thus, the historical accuracy of Ahadeeth  is very reliable, and it is a rather strong argument compared to what it seems at face value.
However, there are other evidence as well. He ﷺ had plenty of small miracles, including the splitting of the moon, which was even mentioned in the Quran, but the central miracle in Islam is the Quran. Everything about the Quran, from its language and eloquence to the content of it to its preservation is miraculous in nature. The first and foremost thing to mention here is that the language and eloquence of the Quran is unmatched even by the best of poets of the Arabs. It is not poetry, rather the style of the Quran is quite unique. Though the Messengerof Allah ﷺ was eloquent in his speech as well, he had never recited poetry nor was the language used in the Quran like his, rather it was far more eloquent. In the Quran, Allah challenged them to produce something like the Quran, even if it's just a surah. The shortest surah is only three ayaat (often translated as verses, but different from our biblical or poetic understanding of it, literally means "signs"), and it would suffice as succeeding in the challenge if they had produced only three ayaat. However, even with their mastery and eloquence of the Arabic language, they could never produce anything like the Quran, and it remains unchallenged. Secondly, the content of the Quran is miraculous as well in many ways. The logical arguments in the Quran for the Oneness of God and the hereafter and other matters of faith, the descriptions of hereafter, the perfect and timeless laws and socioeconomic system found in the Quran, etc are some very strong points which point to the fact that it is not produced by a human. Though it is never the focus, there are many scientific and historic statements found in the Quran that couldn't have been known at the time, but were proven to be true later on. There are even some predictions, like the fall of Rome and their subsequent victory over the Persians, that came true. There are also matters of the heart and nature of humans in the Quran, that are very accurate to real life and anyone can find wisdom unmatched by anything or anyone else in it. Last but not least, the preservation of the Quran is evidence for its Divine source as well. The entirety of the Quran has been preserved, and there are no two seperate versions of the Quran. It is preserved primarily in the hearts of the believers, that is to say, by memorisation. Millions of people have it memorised from start to finish perfectly, and the majority of Muslims know at least a few surahs of the Quran, and even if they do not, at least they know the first surah, Surah Al-Faatihah. Even so, it is also preserved in written form as a book. The Quran we have today is the same as the Quran that was revealed to Muhammad ﷺ. The written pages of the Quran that can be found from early on may look slightly different due to the fact that diacritical marks and dots weren't used before in Arabic and have been introduced since as ways of make learning and reciting easier for non-Arabs. Some people may also point to the variant readings of the Quran and misunderstand them to be different versions, but they are actually the same version of the Quran, the only version of the Quran. Rather, there are some ayaat of the Quran that may be recited in multiple ways that were approved by Rasulullah ﷺ himself. These variant readings may have slightly different implications in terms of meanings but they do not change the meaning per se, rather they enhance and enrich the meaning. An example of this is from Surah Al-Baqarah, where Allah talks about the hypocrites. He uses the word "yakhda'oona" in one reading and "yukhaadi'oona" in the other, both of which come from the same root word, but the first reading implies that they're fooling themselves, and the second reading implies that they're trying to fool themselves but deep down, even they know they're lying. The meaning isn't quite different so much as it is enhanced by the variant readings. These variant readings are mentioned, and studied and explained in the commentaries of the Quran and the scholars have never hidden them.
All in all, the Quran is altogether a book which has been preserved perfectly, unlike any book from that time, and it is a book with a style and content such that no man is capable of producing it. Thus, it is obvious that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had not written this, nor had it been produced by any other man. As such, it is the strongest evidence that Muhammad ﷺ was indeed a Messenger of Allah, and I urge everyone to read it with understanding, learn about the proper context and meanings of its ayaat, and then judge with that knowledge whether it is the truth or not.
As for why there can't be any more Prophets after him ﷺ, it is proven from the Quran and Sunnah, and there is also logical basis for it. After all, Muhammad ﷺ is a Messenger for all of humanity until the end of time, and the message itself is perfectly preserved. Thus, there is no need for another messenger. Not to mention, there is no one after him ﷺ, who has shown such evidence, and there will be no one in the future either.
And it is with all this understanding that we Muslims bear witness, محمد رسول الله - "Muhammad ﷺ is the Messenger of Allah".