The Healing Miracles of Prophet Muhammad — Evidence of Prophethood and Comparison with Gospel Accounts
Among the greatest confirmations of the prophethood of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is the healing of the sick that Allah worked through his blessed hands, supplication, and breath. These are not isolated accounts — they are narrated across the two Sahihs and other authenticated collections, spanning multiple companions across different occasions. The Seal of Prophethood visible between his shoulders, witnessed by al-Sa’ib ibn Yazid and described as resembling the button of a camel, was itself a physical sign confirming what these miracles demonstrated: that this was the Messenger of Allah.
The Hadith of al-Sa’ib ibn Yazid — Healing Through Ablution Water
“My aunt took me to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said: O Messenger of Allah, my nephew is sick. So he wiped my head and prayed for blessings for me, then he performed ablution, and I drank from his ablution water. Then I stood behind him and looked at the Seal of Prophethood between his shoulders, like the button of a camel.”
This single narration contains two signs: first, the truth of the prophethood confirmed through the physical Seal between the Prophet’s shoulders; and second, the miracle Allah bestowed upon His chosen one by healing the sick. Historians record that al-Sa’ib ibn Yazid lived a long life, passing ninety years of age, maintaining his health with no signs of old age appearing upon him — an effect attributed to the blessing of the Prophet’s supplication.
The Healing of Ali ibn Abi Talib at Khaybar
Among the miracles Allah honored His Prophet with was the healing of the companion Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, on the day of Khaybar.
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “I will give this banner to a man through whose hands Allah will grant victory, who loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him.” So the people spent that night wondering about the owner of the banner, and in the morning they went to the Messenger of Allah to find out who would win this favor. The Prophet asked about Ali ibn Abi Talib and they told him that he was suffering from conjunctivitis. So he sent for him, and when he came, he spat in his eyes and prayed for him, and Allah healed him with the blessing of the Prophet. He received the banner, then he fought until Allah granted victory through his hands.
Ali ibn Abi Talib arrived at Khaybar afflicted with conjunctivitis so severe he could not see, and departed with his sight restored and the banner of victory in his hand.
The Restoration of Qatada ibn al-Nu’man’s Eye at Uhud
What is more remarkable still is what Imam al-Tabarani narrated on the authority of Qatada ibn al-Nu’man, may Allah be pleased with him.
Qatada ibn al-Nu’man fought on the day of Uhud, and an arrow struck him that took out one of his eyes from its place. He ran to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while holding it in his hand. The Prophet took it and put it back in its place and prayed for him, and it returned to its natural state — and it was his most beautiful eye and the strongest in sight.
An eye displaced from its socket by an arrow, restored by the Prophet’s hand and prayer to its place, becoming the strongest in sight. This is among the most striking of the prophetic miracles recorded in the hadith literature.
The Healing of Salamah ibn al-Akwa’ Through the Prophet’s Breath
“I saw the mark of a blow on Salamah’s leg, so I said: O Abu Muslim, what is this blow? He said: This is a blow that struck me on the day of Khaybar. The people said: Salamah was injured. So I came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he breathed on it three times, and I have not complained of it until now.”
The Prophet breathed on the wound three times, and from that moment until the narrator’s time of speaking, Salamah ibn al-Akwa’ had not felt any pain from it. The healing was immediate and permanent.
The Healing of Abdullah ibn Atik’s Broken Leg
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sentAbdullah ibn Atik on a mission, and his leg was broken during it. When he returned to the Prophet, he asked him to spread his foot, then wiped over it, and the broken bone was fixed. He was able to walk on it from that moment.
A broken leg, healed by the Prophet’s hand passing over it, restored to full function immediately upon the wiping.
The Healing of Jabir ibn Abdullah
On the authority ofJabir ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, that he fell seriously ill and was confined to bed until he could no longer distinguish those around him. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, visited him in the company of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him. He called for water, performed ablution with it, then sprinkled it on Jabir, and he recovered from his illness.
Healing of Spiritual Diseases — The Young Man Who Sought Permission for Adultery
The Prophet’s healing extended beyond the physical to the spiritual. Among the most striking examples is the account narrated by Imam Ahmad.
A young man came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, asking his permission to commit adultery. The Prophet placed his hand on his chest and said: “O Allah, forgive his sin, purify his heart, and guard his chastity.” Allah removed the tyranny of desire from his heart, and he no longer turned to women.
These situations and others indicate the great honors and many gifts that Allah bestowed upon His Messenger, in support of his call and confirmation of his prophethood.
A Comparative Note — The Gospel Accounts of Jesus’s Healing Methods
A comparative examination of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s healing methods reveals a meaningful distinction in how the two prophetic traditions record miraculous healing.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is recorded healing a blind man by mixing saliva with earth to form mud, which he then applied to the man’s eyes:
“He said this and spat on the ground and made clay with the spittle and anointed the blind man’s eyes with the clay.”
In the Gospel of Mark, a two-stage healing is recorded in which the method appears incomplete on the first attempt:
“Then he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And he spat on his eyes and laid his hands on him and asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, ‘I see people like trees walking.’ Then he laid his hands on his eyes again and made him look up. He was restored and saw every man clearly.”
Several points are worth noting from a comparative standpoint. First, the Mark account describes a healing that required two attempts before being completed — a detail without parallel in the authenticated prophetic miracles, all of which were immediate and complete. Second, the method in John involves physical materials of uncertain provenance mixed with saliva applied externally, whereas the Prophet’s healings in the Sahihs involved supplication, breath, wiping, or blessed water — methods that carry no such concerns. Third, in the Mark account, Jesus explicitly asks the man whether the healing worked after the first attempt, indicating uncertainty about the outcome — again without parallel in the hadith accounts of prophetic healing.
These are not presented as arguments against Jesus’s prophetic status — Islam affirms Jesus as a prophet and messenger of Allah — but as observations about the textual presentation of miracles in the Gospel accounts compared to the authenticated hadith record of the Prophet Muhammad’s healings.
The healing miracles of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, are narrated across the most rigorously authenticated hadith collections, spanning multiple companions across different occasions and different types of affliction: conjunctivitis, a displaced eye, a combat wound, a broken bone, severe illness, and spiritual disease. In every case the healing was immediate, complete, and accompanied by supplication to Allah alone — confirming that the Prophet was a servant and messenger through whom Allah worked these signs, not a source of miraculous power in himself. The Seal of Prophethood between his shoulders, visible to the companion al-Sa’ib ibn Yazid as a physical mark like the button of a camel, confirmed in the physical realm what these healings confirmed in the spiritual: that Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was the Messenger of Allah.