Ibn Abbas said that forty Jews came to Medina saying: “Come, lets go to the liar (God save us!) who says: I am the best of prophets, so that we may prove his falsehood.” When they approached the Holy Prophet (S) he said: “I make Torah an arbiter between me and you.”
They said: “We agree.” Then they said: “Adam is better than you because Allah created him with his own hand and blew His spirit in him.” The Holy Prophet (S) said: “Adam (a.s.) is my father. Yet the grace given to me by the Almighty Allah is more than what is given to him.” The Jews asked what it was. The Holy Prophet (S) replied: “The callers of Azan call five times daily: I witness that there is no god, except Allah and I witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
He does not say: Adam is the Messenger of Allah and on Judgment Day the standard of praise will be in my hand, not in the hand of Adam (a.s.).” The Jews said: “Of course what you said is true, because it is written thus in Torah.” The Holy Prophet (S) said: “This is the first grace.” Then the Jews said: “Musa is better than you, because Allah spoke to him in four thousand words but He did not talk with you even in one word.”
The Holy Prophet (S) said: “I am given more than him as Jibraeel seated me on his wings and took me upto the seventh heaven and I passed by Sidratul Muntaha which is near Jannatul Mawa and I reached upto the leg of the throne (Arsh). There I heard a voice: “I am Allah except, whom there is no god and that I have no defects or drawbacks whatsoever and that I am to give security to the creation from punishment and I am a witness over them.
I am Victorious, Mighty, Powerful and Enforcer. I am kind and Merciful.” I have seen Allah not with physical eyes but with the eyes of the soul. Hence this is better than what Musa (a.s.) had. The Jews said: “Muhammad, you have told the truth as this also is written in the Torah.” Then they said: “Nuh is better than you as Allah made him ride the Ark and made that Ark rest at mount Judi.” The Holy Prophet (S) said: “Allah has given me better than that.
He gave me a canal which flows from beneath the Throne (Arsh). There are thousands of palaces on the banks of that canal having bricks made of gold and silver. Their grass is saffron and pebbles are pearls and ruby. Its ground is of white musk. That canal is called Kauthar. Allah granted it to me and to my Ummah. He says in the Holy Qur’an:
إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ.
“Surely We have given you Kauthar.”17
The Jews said: “You said the truth, because it is mentioned like this in Torah.” The Holy Prophet (S) said: “This is the third distinction.” They said: “Ibrahim is better than you as Allah made him His friend (Khalil).” The Holy Prophet (S) replied: “If Allah made him His friend (Khalil) He made me His beloved, and He named me Muhammad.” They asked: “Why did He give you the name of Muhammad?”
The Holy Prophet (S) said: “He gave me a part of His Good Name as He is Mahmud and I am Muhammad, and my followers are Hamid.” The Jews said: “You are right.” The Holy Prophet (S) said: “This is the fourth grace.” Then the Jews said: “Isa is better than you, because one day when he was in Baitul Maqdas and satans wanted to harm him, Allah ordered Jibraeel who hit the satans with his wings and threw them into fire.”
The Holy Prophet (S) said: “Allah has bestowed me with a better miracle. On the day of the Battle of Badr, when I was hungry, a Jewess welcomed me with a big bowl of roasted mutton and sugar. She said: Thanks to Allah who made you victorious over the enemies. I had vowed that if He brought you back safe from Badr, I will sacrifice a sheep for you. The Holy Prophet (S) said: I dismounted from my mule, Shahba, and extended my hand to that bowl when, by the command of Allah, it became alive and stood up on its four legs saying: O Muhammad! Don’t eat me as I have been poisoned.” The Jews said: You are right, as this also is mentioned in Torah.
The Holy Prophet (S) said: “These are the five distinctions.” The Jews said: “One more question remains after which we will return. Sulaiman is better than you, because Allah had made humans, jinns, birds and beasts subservient to him.” The Holy Prophet (S) said: “Allah made Burraq subservient to me, which is better than all that is in the world. It is one of the quadrupeds of Paradise. Its face is like humans and legs like horse.
Its tail is like that of the cow. It is bigger than an ass and smaller than a mule. Its saddle is of ruby, rein of white pearls having seventy thousand golden ropes. Two of its legs are decorated with pearls, ruby and emeralds. “There is no god, except Allah, the One without a partner and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” is written on its forehead.
The Jews said: “You are right. It is written like this in Torah and also that this is better than what Sulaiman had. O Muhammad! We testify to the Oneness of God and also that you are His Messenger.” Thereafter His Eminence (S) said: “Nuh (a.s.) guided his people for nine hundred and fifty years, but Allah says that only a few believed in him. But the number of my followers, during my short life is far bigger than those who believed in the messengership of Nuh (a.s.).
Verily there will be 120000 rows in Paradise. 80000 will be for my followers and 40000 for the followers of all other prophets. Almighty Allah has made my Book (the Holy Qur’an) a testifier of all the previous scriptures and it has annulled all of them. I have been sent to legalize that which was banned for the previous prophets and also to prohibit some of the things which were admissible during the times of the earlier messengers.
One of such things is that in the Shariat (religious law) of Musa (a.s.) fishing was prohibited on Saturday. Allah had turned some of them into monkeys for disobeying the said commandment. But in my code of laws this is permissible, as mentioned in the Holy Qur’an:
أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ وَطَعَامُهُ مَتَاعًا لَكُمْ وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ
“Lawful to you is the game of the sea and its food, a provision for you and for the travelers…”18
…and my followers are allowed to eat the fat of slaughtered animals which you cannot eat. And Allah has sent Salawat on me as He has mentioned in the Holy Qur’an:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ ۚ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا.
“Surely Allah and His angels bless the prophet; O you who believe! call for (Divine) blessings on him and salute him with a (becoming) salutation.”19
Moreover Allah has called me compassionate and merciful:
لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ .
“Certainly an Apostle has come to you from among yourselves; grievous to him is your falling into distress, excessively solicitous respecting you; to the believers (he is) compassionate, merciful.”20
Allah ordained that people should not confide anything to me until they pay something to the poor (Sadaqah). No such command was issued in respect of any other messenger. Then after making it obligatory, the Lord, annulled this order, as a mark of His mercy.
Reference:Hayat Al-Qulub Vol. 2