By Kabeera Ali

“Have they not reflected upon their own being? Allah only created the heavens and the earth and everything in between for a purpose and an appointed term. Yet most people are truly in denial of the meeting with their Lord!”
Quran 30:8

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘Miracle’?

Is it something supernatural or a preternatural cause? Something that has possibly defied the laws of nature or perhaps it is something that we have just failed to comprehend?

When I was young, I remember being so enticed and excited when I heard the stories of the Prophets. One story that struck me was the story of my beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he went on the journey of Isra’ Mi,raj. When I first heard this story, I was so amazed at the Prophet’s ﷺ journey from Mecca to Masjid Al Aqsa in Jerusalem and then ascending up to the heavens all in one night on a Buraq, described as a “ white animal, half donkey, half mule with wings.”

When I look back now and reflect, the younger me honestly believed this story to be similar to a fairytale-like story… and as I grew older, I believed this same story to be simply, a miracle. But one thing I could not comprehend was how to rationalise a miracle.

Before we can begin to comprehend a miracle, we have to return to the first lesson of Why Islam is True? course and the Argument from Contingency (AFC):

The universe exist contingently Everything that exist contingently needs a necessary being to make it exist Therefore the universe needs a necessary being to make it exist Similarly, miracles are also contingent upon the necessary being, as the necessary being is a volitional agent with the will and power to make miracles exist.

Miracles are therefore a break of regular association or an event that interrupts the relations of cause and effect.

Because of this break in regular association, we often assume miracles to be a supernatural cause or deem it to be a fictional event. However, there are many living miracles that still exist today.

TAKE THE QURAN FOR EXAMPLE, A BOOK THAT CLAIMS TO BE THE WORD OF GOD (THE NECESSARY BEING). HOW CAN WE PROVE THAT THE QURAN IS TRULY THE WORD OF GOD AND A MIRACLE?

The Quran has been a mass transmitted report that has remained unchanged throughout the years since it was revealed. We witness a living miracle as we have millions of people across different parts of the world that are not native Arabs memorise the entire Quran word for word. The Quran is preserved from any corruption as it is preserved by millions of people over 14 centuries since the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. This event has broken the regular association of cause and effect by remaining unchanged and therefore it presents itself as a historical miracle.

Not only that, the linguistic expression of the Arabic language used in the Quran has been proven to be in correct mathematical order. The interesting fact was that the Quran was revealed to our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who could not read or write. So the grammatically correct and powerful statements used in the Quran were beyond the Prophet’s capabilities and academic background.

The Quran also contains varying types of speech, including devotions, liturgical passages, narrative stories, admonishments and instructions that are expressed in both literal and figurative styles, making it the highest degree of eloquence. The Quran also poses a serious challenge for translators and linguists alike, as it employs many stylistic, linguistic and rhetorical features, and literary devices such as metaphor, assonance, epithet, irony, repetition, polysemy, metonymy, simile, synonymy and homonymy.

This brings us to the Argument from Miracles

An event is miraculous when it interrupts the relationship between cause and effect Here, the linguistic abilities of humans are the cause and the eloquent speech they can produce are the effect So the Quran is miraculously eloquent because it interrupts this relationship. No matter how eloquent a human can be, they wil not be able to produce anything as eloquent as the Quran In Surah Al Baqarah, Allah issues a challenge to produce a single verse that can resemble the Quran

“And if you are in doubt about what We have revealed to Our servant, then produce a sûrah like it and call your helpers other than Allah, if what you say is true.”
Quran 2:23

This constitutes definitive proof of humans’ inability to match the language used in the Quran.

So, why is there a need for miracles?

Miracles may happen to prove to the audience that the Prophets were true in their words, by the will of the necessary being mainly to prove their truthfulness as Messengers of God and/or to ascertain the Belief in God. These are called Mu’jizah.

But at the same time, a miracle or a break in regular association may happen in the following various circumstances:

Prophetic miracles (mu’jizah): miracles at the hands of someone who claims to be God’s messengers Preparatory miracles (irhas): miracles at the hands of someone who will be appointed as messengers in the future Saintly miracles (karamah): miracles that happen at the hands of someone who follows the messengers faithfully and being honored with extra ordinary faculties by God Miracles of Divine Aid (ma’unah): miracles that happen at the hands of the average Muslims (e.g blessings in the small quantity of food or resources sufficing their needs) Misguiding miracles (istidraj): extraordinary events that happens at the hands of someone who is not faithful to God to further lead them astray Humiliating miracles (ihanah): miracles that happen at the hands of someone who falsely claim to be a messenger of God (e.g. Musaylimah the Liar) Thus, miracles by itself do not prove anything other than the fact that a necessary being exists who is independent and not affected by contingent causes and effects. Anything that is contingent therefore needs a necessary being to make it exist, to live, and to die etc. And now we logically understand that a miracle itself is contingent upon God and the various reasons why a miracle or a break in regular association can happen by the will of the necessary being.

May Allah grant us beneficial knowledge. Ameen