MIRACLES

[Dr. Shabbir]

MIRACLES
"One who disbelieves in miracles is an infidel, and one who believes them is a fool." :-) [Talmud]

The Qur'anic position:
According to the Qur’an, the Divine Laws or the physical laws in Nature never change. (6:34, 6:115, 10:64, 17:77, 18:27, 33:38, 33:62, 35:43, 40:85, 48:23). Physical miracles must defy those Laws, and therefore, they never take place. They can only be understood as allegories. See 3:7.

3:7 (The Book He has sent down bears an important Principle.) He it is Who has revealed to you (O Prophet) the Scripture. In it some verses are Literal, while some verses are Allegorical. The verses that pertain to Permanent Values have been presented literally. These verses, MUHKAMAT, are the Essence of the Divine Law. On the other hand, abstract phenomena, historical events, and the World of the Unseen are described in similes, metaphors and allegories for your understanding (MUTASHABIHAT). But those who are given to crookedness in their hearts pursue the allegories and try to give them literal meanings, thus creating dissension of thought. None encompasses their final meaning (of such as the Essence of God, His Throne, His Hand, His Book of Decree, the exact mode of Revelation on the heart of the Messengers, the Eternity) but Allah. Those who are well founded in knowledge understand why the allegories have been used and they keep drawing lessons from them (74:31). They proclaim the belief that the entire Book is from their Lord. As the human knowledge evolves, more and more allegories will unfold their literal meaning (41:53). But only the men and women of understanding will bear this fact in mind. (Each of the verses in the Qur’an is MUHKAM, Absolute Truth and you can understand which ones are to be taken literally and which ones are to be taken allegorically, by the context 11:1, 47:20. And each verse in the Book complements the other 39:23).

12:108 Say (O Prophet), “This is my way. Resting my call upon reason, I am calling you all to Allah - I and they who follow me.” (We do not invite through blind faith, vague dogmas or by stunning your intellect with miracles). Glory to Allah! And I am not one of those who ascribe divinity in any form besides Him.”

01. God never changes His Laws.
02. Prophets are not magicians.
03. God wants us to believe in Truth by using our faculties and not by stunning our intellect with miracles.
04. The references to the miraculous phenomena in the Qur'an are all allegorical e.g. giving sight to the blind and life to the dead indicate opening people's eyes to reality and putting in them the spark of life worthy of human existence.
05. In numerous verses in the Qur'an, the prophets are shown refusing to submit to the demands of miracles saying, "I am just a human being like you."
06. Allah repeatedly says that the kind of physical signs they are looking for, become obvious to them when the Period of Respite is over and their annihilation is imminent.