Islamic view of miracles

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A number of terms are used in Islam to refer to the claims of events happening that are not explicable by

Sufi saints often used to convert unbelievers to Islam (considered a work of "divine generosity" rather than "divine power" employed in the miracles of prophets).[2]

Definition

A systematic definition of miracles performed by apostles can be found in the work of the

Muslim scholar al-Īd̲j̲ī Mawāḳif, historian A.J. Wensinck states.[5] The main purpose of miracle is to prove the sincerity of the apostle and has to satisfy the following conditions:[5]

  1. It must be performed by God
  2. "It must be contrary to the usual course of things"
  3. It should be impossible to contradict it
  4. "It must happen at the hands of him who claims to be an apostle
  5. "It must be in conformity with his announcement of it, and the miracle itself must not be a disavowal of his claim"
  6. "It must follow on his claim"[5]

Theology

Belief in that which is transmitted by

Islamic prophet Muhammad which are also transmitted by mutawatir. Such hadiths and miracles must also be fully believed in for one to be a Muslim. However, rejecting an ahad, or solitary, narration is only sinful (fisq) and not disbelief.[6][7][8][9]

Miracles are split up into

Al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah, upon which there is consensus, there are two points on this: "We do not prefer any of the saints of this nation over any of the prophets, upon them be peace. We say that a single prophet is better than all the saints put together. We have faith in what has come of their miracles (karamat) and what has been authenticated in their narrations from trustworthy narrators."[10]

Taftāzāni lists in his Sharh al-'Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya the following lists the following miracles as performed by saints and prophets:[11]

  • Contradicting the customary way of things, such as covering a great distance in a short time.
  • Appearance of food and drink and clothing at the time of need, as performed by
    Zacharias
  • Walking on water, related to many saints
  • Walking in the air, related to Ja'far ibn Abi Talib
  • Inanimate solid objects and animals speaking
  • Warding off of approaching calamity and protection from enemies

Islam and natural law

In order to defend the possibility of miracles and

Muslim theologians, the laws of nature were only the customary sequence of apparent causes: customs of God.[12]

Quran

According to Denis Gril, Islam teaches that miracles – i.e. a supernatural interventions in the life of human beings – are present in the Quran "in a threefold sense: in sacred history, in connection with Muhammad himself and in relation to revelation."[1] By contrast, Ali Dashti (d. 1982) writes that "there has been much debate [...] on the question whether the Qur'an is miraculous in respect of its eloquence or of its subject-matter, or of both. In general the Muslim scholars consider it to be miraculous in both respects."[13]

In the

Qur'an, the term ayah is used to refer to miracles—cosmic phenomena for example are ayat takwiniyyah—particularly miracles of creation.[14] But it is also used to mean "evidence," "sign", "Quranic verse", (religious obligations are ayat taklifiyyah). In Islam in general ayah is often used to a mean Quranic verse, but there is overlap in meaning: ayat/verses are believed to be the divine speech in human language presented by Muhammad as his chief miracle,[1]
and miracles are a "sign" (ayah) of God and of Muhammad's prophethood. [5]

Verses of the Qur'an stating that the Qu'ran itself is a miracle – i.e. so amazing it could not have been a natural occurrence – include:

  • Q11:13[15] "Will they say, he hath forged the Quran? Answer, bring therefore ten chapters like unto it, forged by yourselves; and call on whomsoever ye may to assist you, except God, if ye speak truth",[16] was revealed in response to polytheists accusation that Muhammad's revelation was invented by Muhammad or came from other men.[13]
  • 8:31:[18] "We have already heard (such things). If we wished, we could say (things) like this. These are only fables of the ancients"[13]

Sacred history

The Qur'an does not mention any miracle for

Nuh), "The oven (tannur) out of which the water burst and announced the flood".[1] Hud, prophet for the ancient tribe of ʿĀd and the first of five Arabian prophets of the Qur'an, does not have any particular miracle (thus according to historian Denis Gril prefiguring Muhammad).[1] (See Q.7:69 for his response when he was rebuked for not producing a miracle.)[1]

Code 19

Main article: Quran code

The term Quran code (also known as Code 19) refers to the claim that the Quranic text contains a hidden mathematically complex code. Advocates think that the code represents a mathematical proof of the divine authorship of the Quran and they also think that it can be used to identify orthographic errors within the Quranic text. Proponents of the Quran code claim that the Quran code is based on statistical procedures.

In the United States, at the end of the 20th century, the Egyptian Quranist Muslim biochemist Rashad Khalifa developed a theological doctrine that influenced Quranists in many other countries. With the help of computers, he carried out a numerical analysis of the Quran, which according to him clearly proved that it is of divine origin.[20] The number 19, which is mentioned in chapter 74 of the Quran as being "one of the greatest miracles" played the fundamental role,[21] which according to Khalifa can be found everywhere in the structure of the Quran, and the fact that a Quranist discovered such a big miracle proved the Quranist approach.[22] Khalifa also cited Quran's chapter 74, verse 30: "Over it is nineteen".[23][24] The movement popularized the phrase: "The Quran, the whole Quran, and nothing but the Quran."[25] Some objected to these beliefs and, in 1990, Khalifa was assassinated by someone associated with the Sunni group Jamaat ul-Fuqra.[26]

Ijaz movement

Further information:
Quran and miracles § Claimed scientific miracles

Starting the 1970s and 1980s, a genre of popular literature known as ijaz, and often called "scientific miracles in the Quran", argued that the Quran abounds with "scientific facts" centuries before their discovery by science and thus demonstrating that the Quran must be of divine origin.[27] Among these miracles found in the Quran are "everything, from relativity, quantum mechanics, Big Bang theory, black holes and pulsars, genetics, embryology, modern geology, thermodynamics, even the laser and hydrogen fuel cells".[4] "Widespread and well-funded"[28] with "millions" from Saudi Arabia,[4] the literature can be found in Muslim bookstores and on websites and television programs of Islamic preachers.[4] According to author Ziauddin Sardar, the movement has created a "global craze in Muslim societies".[4]

However, the ijaz movement has been criticized by scholars.[4][29][30][31] Ziauddin Sardar argues that it requires "considerable mental gymnastics and distortions to find scientific facts or theories in these verses."[4] According to Zafar Ishaq Ansari, the Quran is the source of guidance in right faith (iman) and righteous action (alladhina amanu wa amilu l-salihat), but the idea that it contained "all knowledge, including scientific" knowledge has not been a mainstream view among Muslim scholarship.[29]

Unlettered prophet

The Quran describes Muhammad as ummi (

Watt prefer the second meaning.[35][36]

However, some scholars[who?] argue that the word did not mean "illiterate" but non-Jewish and non-Christian Arabs, pagan Arabs.[clarification needed][34]

Scientific miracles

The theory of the scientific miracle of the Qur'an claims that the Qur'an has a miracle in expressing some scientific material (some modern scientific discoveries that were unknown at the time of writing the Qur'an). The history of writing in connection with the science and religion of Islam dates back to the works of Ibn Sina, Fakhr al-Razi, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, but has increased significantly in recent times. Authors in this field include Naeem Al-Mohassi, Maurice Bukay, Rafiei Mohammadi, Mostarhameh, Makarem Shirazi, and Rezaei Isfahani. These interpretations claim that some verses of the Qur'an reflect prophetic statements about the nature and structure of the universe, physics, fetal biological growth, geology, mountain structure, and other phenomena that have been later confirmed by scientific research. This group of Quran commentators presents this as proof of the divinity of the Qur'an.[37][38][39]

Muhammad

Main article: Miracles of Muhammad

The Qur'an does not overtly describe Muhammad performing miracles, according to historian Denis Gril, and the supreme miracle of Muhammad is finally

identified with the Qur'an itself.[1] At least one scholar (Sunni scholar Muhammad Asad) states that Muhammad performed no miracles other than to bring the Quran to humanity,[40] and other scholars, such as Cyril Glasse and Marcia Hermansen, downplay the miracles of Muhammad, stating "they play no role in Islamic theology",[41] or "play less of an evidentiary role than in some other religions".[2]

However, Muslim tradition (

splitting the Moon in view of the Quraysh when they had begun to persecute his followers.[1][43] This tradition has inspired many Muslim poets.[44]

See also

References

  1. ^
    Encyclopedia of the Qur'an
  2. ^
    Marcia Hermansen
    (2004). Martin, Richard C. (ed.). Encyclopedia or Islam and the Muslim World. MacMillan Reference USA. p. 454.
  3. ^ "Annemarie Schimmel" And Muhammad is his Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety Online Archive Publication date 2017-12-13 Uploaded by Ejaz Archives p. 78
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Sardar, Ziauddin (21 August 2008). "Weird science". New Statesman. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e A.J. Wensinck, Muʿd̲j̲iza, Encyclopedia of Islam
  6. ^ "Establishing Matters of Aqidah With Hadith Ahad". SeekersGuidance. 27 May 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  7. ISBN 978-977-771-047-3
    .
  8. OCLC 977737394
    .
  9. ^ "Denying the Mutawaatir Hadeeth - Islamweb - Fatwas". www.islamweb.net. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  10. ^ "Al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah in English and Arabic | Faith in Allah". 18 December 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  11. ISBN 0-8369-9259-8
    p. 138-139
  12. ^ Robert G. Mourison, The Portrayal of Nature in a Medieval Qur'an Commentary, Studia Islamica, 2002
  13. ^
    Dashti, 23 Years
    , 1994: p.40
  14. ^ Mohammed, Khaleel. "Muhammad Al-Ghazali's View on Abrogation in the Qur'an". forpeoplewhothink.org. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  15. ^ Q11:13, 50+ translations, islamawakened.com
  16. Sale translation
  17. ^ Q17:88, islamawakened.com
  18. ^ Q8:31, islamawakened.com
  19. ^ 11:40, 23:27
  20. ^ Musa: The Qur’anists. 2010, S. 13.
  21. ^ Q 74:30: „Über ihr sind neunzehn.“ Übersetzung von Hartmut Bobzin: Der Koran. 2017.
  22. ^ Khan: Nineteen. 2010, S. 112.
  23. ISBN 978-3-658-12956-9
    .
  24. ISBN 978-1-85168-161-7
    .
  25. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00189.x
    .
  26. ^ Historic House: The story behind that building with the words 'Happiness Is Submission to God' Archived 2020-07-09 at the Wayback Machine, Tucsonweekly.com, Accessed July 7, 2020
  27. ISBN 978-1-4120-1443-4
    . Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  28. ^ Cook, The Koran, 2000: p.29
  29. ^
    JSTOR 25728019
    .
  30. ^ Talib, Ali (9 April 2018). "Deconstructing the "Scientific Miracles in the Quran" Argument". Transversing Tradition. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
  31. ISSN 0591-2385
    . Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  32. ^ Q7:157, islamawakened.com
  33. ISBN 978-0-85771-622-4
    .
  34. ^
    Dashti, 23 Years
    , 1994: p. 44
  35. ISBN 978-0-85224-171-4
    .
  36. doi:10.3366/jqs.2002.4.1.1
    .
  37. Ahmad Dallal
    , Quran and science, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an
  38. ^ رضایی اصفهانی، محمد علی. «حركات خورشید و اعجاز علمی قرآن». دریافت‌شده در ۱۸ ژوئن ۲۰۲۰.
  39. ^ http://jima.imana.org/article/view/8693 A Scientist's Interpretation of References to Embryology in the Qur'an
  40. ^ Muhammad Asad, Message of the Qur'an [Dar Al-Andalus Limited 3 Library Ramp, Gibraltar rpt. 1993] p. 427, fn. 71
  41. ISBN 978-0-7591-0189-0
    .
  42. ^ Quran 54:1–2
  43. Encyclopedia of the Qur'an
    , Moon
  44. ^ "Muhammad", Encyclopedia of Islam Online

Further reading

External links

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