Testimony - Prove your Mother gave Birth to You

This is a common argument I have heard in various lectures. This is a question to all people of mankind. Prove to me your mother gave birth to you, proving she is your mother. The truth is, you didn't see it. So what do you rely on, testimony.

Testimony is a written or spoken statement. In the case of your mother giving birth to you, you can rely on various people and documentation:

  • Your mother
  • Your father
  • Doctor
  • Midwife
  • Birth certificate
In the case of our prophet Muhammad SAW. We have thousands of chains of narration. View the section on biographical evaluation, this talks about the biography of the narrators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_studies).

The history of the narrators must include 4 things: 
  1. Their Isma-ul-Rijjal (biographies)
  2. Their kunniyaat (nicknames)
  3. Their place of settlement
  4. Their date of birth and date of death (to verify whether this person met the people whom he narrated from)

The above shows you the level of authenticity required to even document something regarding the prophet Muhammad SAW

A better link than Wikipedia should be used of course and inshallah I will find one.

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