His chosenness ﷺ and his eternal Light

His creation ﷺ from Light

Imam Ahmad narrated from Al-Arbad ibn Sariya, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "I am, with Allah, in the Mother of the Book the Seal of the Prophets, and Adam indeed was fashioned in his clay; and I will inform you of the first of that: the invocation of my father Ibrahim, the glad tidings of my brother Isa about me, and the dream my mother saw." In another narration: "I was a Light between the Hands of Allah before He created Adam by fourteen thousand years." And he ﷺ said: "The first thing Allah created was my Light, and from my Light He created everything." And Allah, Exalted is He, chose him from the noblest and purest tribes; he ﷺ said: "Allah chose Kinanah from the offspring of Isma'il, and He chose Quraysh from Kinanah, and He chose Banu Hashim from Quraysh, and He chose me from Banu Hashim." — [Muslim]

• Allah wrote him as the Seal of the Prophets, and indeed Adam was formed in his clay — [Ahmad]
• His Light ﷺ existed before the creation of Adam by fourteen thousand years — one of the well-known hadiths
• Allah chose him from the noblest Arab lineage — Kinanah, then Quraysh, then Banu Hashim — [Muslim]
• Ibrahim gave glad tidings concerning him in his supplication: "Our Lord, and send among them a messenger from among them." [Al-Baqarah:129]
• Jesus gave glad tidings of him: "and giving glad tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name will be Ahmad." [As-Saff:6]

His noble birth ﷺ and its glad tidings

He ﷺ was born on Monday, the twelfth of Rabi' al-Awwal in the Year of the Elephant (571 CE), in Makkah al-Mukarramah. His mother Amina did not find carrying him burdensome nor painful. He ﷺ was born pure and joyful, with the fingers of his hand clasped, pointing with his forefinger as if in glorification. Amina saw in a dream a voice saying: "You have conceived the master and best of this ummah, so when you deliver him say: I seek refuge for him with the One from the evil of every envier, then name him Muhammad." And his Light ﷺ was cast on the night of his birth so that the palaces of al-Sham were illuminated for him.

• The idols were cast down on their faces and fell on the day of his birth ﷺ
• His Light ﷺ illuminated the palaces of al-Sham at his birth so that his mother Amina saw them
• The Iwan of Kisra was shaken and cracked, and fourteen balconies fell from it
• The sacred fire of Persia was extinguished, though it had not been extinguished for a thousand years before that
• The Lake of Sawa, which had been worshipped, dried up
• The astrologers saw in the conjunction of the stars that which announced the coming of a prophet