CHAPTER V

AN INQUIRY INTO MUHAMMAD'S ALLEGED MIRACLES, IN ORDER TO LEARN WHAT EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF HIS CLAIM TO BE A PROPHET OF GOD IS THEREBY AFFORDED

IN order to prove that a man is really a prophet, it is by no means necessary to show that he wrought miracles. Many prophets have come without miraculous power, and, on the other hand, men who had no Divine commission have done what seemed miraculous. For instance, in Moses' time the magicians of Egypt did some things which to the polytheists of that country seemed quite as wonderful as Moses' miracles (Exod. vii. 10-13, 22; viii. 7, 18). Besides this, we are told of false prophets who shall work miracles (Mark xiii. 22; Matt. xxiv. 24; Rev. xvi. 13,14; xix. 20), especially one who is still to come, and who is probably the Dajjal of whom Muslims speak. Of the true prophets, very few have wrought miracles. In the Old Testament miracles are not mentioned as wrought by anyone until the time of Moses. As Moses was not only a great prophet, but had also to introduce a new Revelation, he was empowered to work certain miracles mentioned in the Torah These were necessary to prove his claim to come with a message from God, to speak with God's authority, and to bring a Divine Revelation. Elijah and Elisha too had this power granted them, because they lived at a time when the true Religion was almost extinct, and because their task was to call the people back to their God. But we are not told that the power of working miracles was given to David, Jeremiah, or other leading prophets. Of John the Baptist, who was greater than any preceding

prophet .(Matt. xi. 11; Luke vii. 28), the Jews said, apparently with truth, "John did no miracle" (John x. 41). It is clear, therefore, that only at great crises, or when a new Revelation was being given, did God grant a great prophet the power of working miracles in proof of his Divine commission.

But, if Muhammad's claims were well-founded, he was the Seal of the Prophets, the last and greatest of them all, sent to the Arabs, a people among whom no prophet had ever before risen, as far as is known to us. He asserted that he was the bearer of an unique message from God, a Revelation greater than any that had preceded it, and that the Qur'an which he recited had been dictated to him by the Angel Gabriel, who on the Night of Power had brought it down from the highest heaven, where it had been inscribed by God's command upon a Preserved Tablet. Moreover, Muhammad claimed that his message was for all men, and was never to be superseded. It was necessary, therefore, that he should work miracles in order to substantiate this lofty claim. Otherwise his claim could not be proved true, since (as has been shown above) he uttered no prophecies. We naturally therefore inquire what miracles he wrought.

Here the Qur'an itself gives us a very clear and concise answer. He wrought none. This is evident from not a few passages. One of the most decisive of these is Surah xvii. 61: "And nought hindered Us from sending the signs except that the ancients called them false." In his Commentary upon this verse Al Baizawi says ¹: "Nothing turned Us from sending the signs which the Quraish demanded except the fact that the ancients called them false, those who were like them in disposition, like 'Ad and Thamud: and verily, if they had been sent, they would surely have called them false, just as those people did, and would have rendered their own extirpation necessary, according as Our rule runs: and We had decreed that We would