The best way to tell if someone is an imposter is by seeing him in desperate times; in places where there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Perhaps situations where death was the only other option. Well, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) had plenty of incidences like that.

And nothing proves your sincerity more than the battlefield, where you don’t know if you will live to see the next day. As mentioned in another article, Prophet Muhammad would be in the front line of battles and a source of confidence. His cousin, Ali (رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ) said,

“If the fighting became fierce when the two nations met, we used to seek protection from the Messenger of Allah. And none of us were nearer to the enemy than he was!”

[Source: Ahmad]

I want to take you to one particular one and that is the Battle of Badr. In this, the Muslims numbered about 313. On the other side, the enemies numbered about 1,000. A fight was not originally planned and thus, the Muslims were not in full-battle attire. It didn’t make sense for the Muslims to want to fight. Yet, they chose to. And the night before the fight, what did Prophet Muhammad do? Panic? Call it quits and tell his people, “Okay guys, let’s just go home”? Or run away? Nope! He stayed up to pray to God. If you’re an imposter who’s making up that there’s a God and that you’re a messenger sent by Him, the last thing you’ll do is put yourself in life or death situations. Why would you want to go to battles, especially ones where you are disadvantaged? Besides that, the last thing you’ll do before a battle, especially in private, is to pray to the very idea you made up.

Finally, what did he do before the fight actually started? He raised his hands to the skies and passionately prayed to God pleading for victory. We should ask ourselves: what kind of an imposter does all that?

If you understand the society Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) lived in, you will understand why he was considered a threat. He fought against the religious beliefs of his society, against elitism, racism, injustices to women, slaves, you name it! His teachings touched every fabric of society. There was a reason so many Arabs, especially the elites, hated him.

So how did he go from just one person in Makkah to being the ruler of the Arabian peninsula, a feat never done in Arab history before? One would think that before he could finish his 23 years of preaching, he would have been assassinated. After years of preaching in his home town of Makkah, the elites indeed did have enough and started becoming hostile towards the Muslims. They were tired of speaking to them and resorted to violence. In fact, towards the end of the Prophet’s stay in Makkah, there was an assassination attempt on him, but it failed and he was able to escape to Madinah, which he then called home til he died.

Even in Madinah, there was worry that someone would come to his house and kill him. Thus, his companions bodyguarded him at night. Ibn Abi Hatim, a scholar of Hadith, narrated that the wife of the Prophet, ‘Aishah (رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهَا) said, “The Prophet was being guarded until this Ayah, وَاللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ النَّاسِ was revealed.” In the Qur’an, this is in Ayah 67 of Surah Al-Maa’idah and it translates to “Allah will protect you from the people.” After that, the Prophet had no more bodyguards!

Despite that, Prophet Muhammad was known to be a courageous individual throughout his life. For example, as the companion Anas (رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ) reported:

“The people of Madinah were frightened by a noise one night and some came out of their homes in the direction of the sound. They were met by the Prophet returning, as he had preceded them to where the sound came from. The Prophet was riding on the horse of Abu Talhah without a saddle and a sword around his neck, saying, ‘Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid!’” 

[Source: Sahih Bukhari 2751, Sahih Muslim 2307]

He also lived a simple life. His entire house was no bigger than some of our bedrooms. He would walk in Madinah at night, at times by himself. He would also take naps under a tree. Yet, nothing happened to him. As recorded by Bukhari, Muslim, and other scholars of Hadith, there was even an incident where a Jewish woman intentionally fed him a poisoned lamb, yet it didn’t kill him.

On the battlefield, he was in the front line and a source of confidence. His cousin, Ali (رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ) said,

“If the fighting became fierce when the two nations met, we used to seek protection from the Messenger of Allah. And none of us were nearer to the enemy than he was!”

[Source: Ahmad]

There were countless battles the Muslims were in, several where the Muslims could’ve been wiped out and just been a footnote in the history books, if even. In the Battle of Uhud, Prophet Muhammad sustained such great injuries to his head that the Muslims thought he passed away. Yet, despite all this, he survived and was able to complete his mission of spreading Islam.