“His prophecies are vague, or refuted”

The objection

“His prophecies are vague, or refuted.”

In its strongest terms: the signs of the Hour, “time will draw closer”, “earthquakes will be many”, fit every age, and each generation recognises its own in them (Bukhari 7121). When a prophecy is precise, it seems refuted: “there will be no Caesar after him” (Bukhari 3618), yet the Byzantine empire lasted until 1453; women have not become fifty to one man (Bukhari 81). And the Bible gives the test: the word that does not come to pass does not come from God.

“When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken” (Deuteronomy 18:22).

The answer

The strongest are precise, and verified by witnesses

There is nothing vague in the prophecies that carry the proof: a place, a name, a physical sign, a span of time.

The chiefs of Quraysh at Badr. On the eve of the battle, he ﷺ places his hand on the ground and says: “here so-and-so will fall”. None of them strays from the spot he showed (Muslim 1779; Muslim 2873).
Adi ibn Hatim. He foretells to him a woman travelling from al-Hira until she circles the Ka’ba, fearing no one but God, and the treasures of Chosroes opened. Adi testifies that he saw the first, and was among those who took the second (Bukhari 3595; Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 246).
Egypt and the brick. Abu Dharr is to leave Egypt when two men quarrel there over the space of a brick; he sees them, and he leaves (Muslim 2543; Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 256).
Thaqif. The Prophet ﷺ said: “In Thaqif there will be a liar and a destroyer.” Asma, daughter of Abu Bakr, names the destroyer to the face of al-Hajjaj, who has just killed her son, in 73 AH (Muslim 2545; Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 332, 336-337).
The Kharijites. Their sign: a man one of whose arms is like a woman’s breast. Abu Sa’id, who fought alongside Ali, testifies that he was sought out and brought, and that he saw him as described (Bukhari 3610; Muslim 1066; Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 297-300).
The thirty years of the caliphate. The Prophet ﷺ said: “The caliphate after me will last thirty years; then there will be kingship.” From Rabi’ I 11 to Rabi’ I 41, the abdication of al-Hasan closes the thirty years (Tirmidhi 2226; Abu Dawud 4646; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya, XI, 134).

“Refutations” that are nothing of the kind

The entry into Mecca. After Hudaybiya, when the Muslims have been turned back, Umar asks: “did you not tell us that we would come to the House and circle it?” The Prophet ﷺ answers him: “did I tell you it would be this year?” The promise is fulfilled the following year (48:27; Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 237). A prophecy without a date is not refuted by a delay.

Constantinople. The Prophet ﷺ said: “The city of Heraclius will be taken first”, before Rome (al-Salihi, X, 130). Ibn Kathir, in the eighth century of the Hijra, believed it unconquered and placed its capture at the end of time (Ibn Kathir, al-Nihaya, I, 86, 97). But the capture at the end of time is achieved “by tasbih and takbir” (al-Salihi, X, 130), the capture of 1453 “after a great battle” (Ibn Taghribirdi, XVI, 70). Awaiting a capture at the end of time does not erase the one that history has seen.

Caesar. He ﷺ foretells the end of Chosroes and that of Caesar: “there will be no Caesar after him” (Bukhari 3618). For Chosroes, the fulfilment is plain: he is overthrown and killed in 628, and Persia is conquered between 636 and 651 (research file v1, part 4). For Caesar, Byzantium survives; al-Bayhaqi understands the words of Syria, Ibn Kathir of Syria and the Jazira, which Caesar loses, his kingship remaining confined to the lands of the Romans (Ibn Kathir, al-Nihaya, I, 14; Ibn Kathir, Mu’jizat, I, 245, 258). This is a reading: we give it as such.

The signs “to come”

An authentic prophecy that has not yet come to pass is not refuted: the believer awaits it. The text gives it no date; no date refutes it. Thus:

the Euphrates uncovering a mountain of gold (Bukhari 7119; Muslim 2894), which Ibn Hajar envisages in the time of the Mahdi (Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, XIII, 81);
the fifty women to one man (Bukhari 81), a sign of the end of time for Ibn Hajar, the fruit of the wars of the end of time for al-Nawawi (Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, I, 179; al-Nawawi, al-Minhaj, VII, 96);
the earthquakes, whose multiplication, Ibn Hajar says, means that they will be widespread and continuous (Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, XIII, 87).

Ibn Kathir himself ranks the Euphrates among the signs of which a part has not yet come (Ibn Kathir, al-Nihaya, I, 227-229).

The readings the site itself rejects

Widespread readings say that these signs have been fulfilled in our day. The figures contradict them, and the site does not adopt them:

Earthquakes. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), earthquakes of magnitude 7 or more have remained roughly constant since 1900: its catalogue counts 148 from 1900 to 1909, and 160 from 2010 to 2019 (consulted on 3 November 2026).
Women. In 2025, they make up 49.7% of the world’s population; 1.055 boys are born for every girl, and no country exceeds 55% women (World Bank, from United Nations data).
The “meadows and rivers” of Arabia (Muslim 157). The boom in Saudi wheat relied on non-renewable aquifers, without rivers, and the programme was ended in 2015-2016 to spare water (Library of Congress, 1992; World Grain, 18 March 2016).

This refusal is no weakness in the prophecy: the text did not say that it would happen in our time. It is the proof of a method that does not lend the texts what they do not say.

What the objection gets right

Many signs of the Hour are general. The site does not build on them. The clearest, that of the shepherds who vie with one another in the height of their buildings (Muslim 8), the ancients already saw under way: al-Qurtubi says that it has been witnessed first-hand (al-Qurtubi, al-Mufhim, I, 149). The Burj Khalifa in Dubai (828 metres, 2010) offers an illustration of it; but the text names no place, and the race for height is worldwide. It is a sign, not a proof.

The proof lies elsewhere: in the precise prophecies, named, fulfilled before witnesses.

Sources for this page

Bible: King James Version.
Hadiths: Bukhari 81; Bukhari 3595; Bukhari 3610; Bukhari 3618; Bukhari 7119; Bukhari 7121; Muslim 8; Muslim 157; Muslim 1066; Muslim 1779; Muslim 2543; Muslim 2545; Muslim 2873; Muslim 2894; Tirmidhi 2226; Abu Dawud 4646.
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, 237, 245-246, 256, 258, 297-300, 332, 336-337.
Ibn Kathir, al-Nihaya fi l-fitan wa-l-malahim, ed. Muhammad Ahmad Abd al-Aziz, Dar al-Jil, Beirut, 1988, I, 14, 86, 97, 227-229.
Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, ed. Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Muhsin al-Turki, Dar Hajr, 1997-2003, XI, 134.
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, 130.
Ibn Taghribirdi, al-Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa-l-Qahira, Wizarat al-Thaqafa wa-l-Irshad al-Qawmi, Cairo, XVI, 70.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al-Bari sharh Sahih al-Bukhari, Dar al-Ma’rifa, Beirut, 1379 AH, I, 179; XIII, 81, 87.
Al-Nawawi, al-Minhaj sharh Sahih Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Dar Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi, Beirut, 2nd ed., 1392 AH, VII, 96.
Abu l-Abbas al-Qurtubi, al-Mufhim li-ma ashkala min talkhis kitab Muslim, Dar Ibn Kathir and Dar al-Kalim al-Tayyib, Damascus and Beirut, 1996, I, 149.
Earthquakes: USGS, “Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase?” (archive of 30 June 2014); ComCat catalogue, consulted on 3 November 2026.
Women and births: World Bank, from United Nations data (women, births).
Saudi wheat: Library of Congress, Saudi Arabia: A Country Study, 1992; World Grain, 18 March 2016.
Burj Khalifa: CTBUH, The Skyscraper Center.
Research file “Annonces du Prophète ﷺ”, v1.0, 14 October 2026, part 4.
Research file “Ses prophéties, de son vivant à nos jours”, v1.0, 2 November 2026, third period.