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WHAT WE MUST
UNDERSTAND FROM ‘MIRACLE’
A
miracle is an extraordinary accomplishment which God
Almighty brings about at the hands of a Prophet in order
to prove his Prophethood, strengthen the faith of
believers, and to break the obstinacy of unbelievers.
The
universe operates according to fixed laws that God has
determined. But for these laws and the uniform character
of natural events, everything would be happening in a
continuously changing, unstable flux and we could
therefore not have found out the Divine laws of nature or
realized any scientific developments. Although recent
discoveries in atomic physics have made it clear that
whatever exists is a wave in continuous motion and
therefore it is not possible to say that a second later
its existence will be in the same state as it is in now,
on the surface everything occurs according to the
principles which the ‘classical’ or Newtonian physics
established.
Normally,
life has its own laws according to which we behave. We
need certain amount of food and water to satisfy our
hunger and thirst and go to a doctor when we are ill. We
use animals to do certain kinds of labor for us but we
cannot talk to them. Trees are fixed in their places and
neither they nor stones and mountains give us greetings.
We act in conformity with the laws of gravitation and
repulsion and we do not attempt to rise upwards into the
sky without first making calculations based upon those
laws.
God
is not dependent on or bound to any “natural” laws
All
these and other laws are for us; but for them, as we
pointed out above, life would be impossible for us.
However, since it is God Who has determined them, He is
not dependent on or bound to any of these laws at all.
Therefore, He may sometimes annul any of these laws or
change the ordinary flux of events and create an
‘extraordinary’ occurrence at the hands of a Prophet,
either to provide a proof for his Prophethood or to show
that He is is able to do whatever He wills at whatever
time He desires. We call such an occurrence a
‘miracle’. The original word in Islamic literature
translated as miracle is mu‘jiza, which literally means
something which makes others unable to produce a like of
it. If God creates such an occurrence at the hands of a
saint, not a Prophet, then it is called karama, meaning,
literally, an ‘extraordinary favor’. These favors
constitute another proof for the Prophethood of Muhammad,
upon him be peace and blessings, and the truth of Islam.
All
of the Prophets were favored with miracle-working
God
Almighty favored all His Prophets with miracle-working.
However, since all the previous Prophets were sent to a
certain people and their Prophethood was restricted to a
certain time and people, the miracles they worked
pertained to the arts or crafts widespread in the time of
each. For example, since at the time of Moses, upon him be
peace, sorcery enjoyed great prestige in Egypt, God
Almighty favored Moses with a ‘staff’ which would
change into a snake which swallowed all the products of
sorcerers. Likewise, at the time of Jesus, upon him be
peace, the healing arts enjoyed great prestige and most of
the miracles Jesus worked pertained to healing.
The
miracles of the noble Prophet, upon him be peace and
blessings, are very diverse. Since his Messengership is
universal, he was distinguished by miracles that are
connected with nearly all species of creation. When the
aide-de-camp of a glorified ruler enters a city, bearing
diverse gifts, a representative from each of the different
peoples of that city welcomes him cheerfully, each in his
own language. In the same way, when the supreme Messenger
of the Eternal Sovereign honored the universe as an envoy
to the human inhabitants of the earth, bringing from the
Creator the light of truth and spiritual gifts that are
related to the truths of the whole universe, he was
welcomed as the Prophet by each species-from mineral
elements to plants, animals and human beings, and from
moon and sun to stars-in its own language and bearing one
of his miracles. It would require many volumes to mention
all his miracles.
The
majority of the Prophet’s miracles, numbering about one
thousand, were related, first, by a group of Companions
and then by numerous reliable narrators and authorities,
and were recorded in authentic books of Tradition. As for
the rest of them, although they were related each by one
or two Companions, they must also be indisputable, as they
later acquired unanimity by being accepted as truth by
reliable authorities and narrated by more than one chain
of transmission. In addition, most of those miracles
occurred in the presence of great gatherings, either
during a military campaign or a wedding ceremony or on
similar occasions like a feast, and one or two of those
present related the miracle and the others confirmed him
by keeping silent. Therefore, the miracles recorded in
authentic books of Tradition are indisputable and it is
impossible to deny or reject them.
Every
word, act and state of the noble Prophet, upon him be
peace and blessings, bears witness to his Prophethood and
his faithfulness, but not all of them need
necessarily be miraculous
Every
word, act and state of the noble Prophet, upon him be
peace and blessings, bears witness to his Prophethood and
his faithfulness, but not all of them need necessarily be
miraculous. For the Almighty sent him in the form of a
human being so that he could be a guide and leader to
human beings in all their individual and collective
affairs, through which they can attain happiness in both
worlds, and so that he could disclose to human beings the
wonders of God’s art and the works of His Power, each of
which is, in fact, a miracle although it appears to us
ordinary and familiar. If he had been extraordinary in all
his acts, then he could not have been a guide to human
beings and instructed them through his words, acts and
attitudes. He was, however, provided with some
extraordinary phenomena to prove his Prophethood to
obstinate unbelievers and so he occasionally worked
miracles. But his miracles never occurred in such an
obvious fashion as would have obliged people to believe as
it were against their free will. For, in accordance with
the test and trial that man is to undergo in the world,
the way to truth must be shown to him without depriving
him of using his free will. If the miracles had occurred
in so apparent a way as to compel people to believe,
without allowing them to use their own power of choice,
then intelligence would have been left with no choice and
there would have remained no meaning in testing man in
this life and in his being the noblest of creation endowed
with a free will and intellect.
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