The Uniqueness of the Holy Qur'an

1. A miracle implies an extraordinary event which is beyond human capacity and is above available knowledge and the general laws of science. Thus, a miracle is something that human beings are unable to perform whether through their natural abilities and powers or thorough the power of science and by using scientific methods. Hence, that which can be brought about through natural and scientific laws and as a result of the qualities of different objects cannot be classed as a miracle. For example, flying through the skies in an airplane, traveling to other planets and galaxies with the help of space ships, viewing distant planets with the help of a telescopes, or curing severe diseases through medical knowledge and medicines, et cetera, cannot be considered as miracles. This is because these acts are not extraordinary and are not outside absolute human power. In fact, experts and specialists can, with the help of instruments, scientific methods, and knowledge of the natural or artificial qualities of different things, make it possible.

2. In reality, miracles are acts of Allah and stem from Divine Power that are sometimes manifested through His Messengers (S.A.W.) in order that people build faith in them and follow them and prove sincere to them.

3. The one who claims to be a prophet should be able to perform miracles to authenticate his truthfulness and his Prophethood.

4. A miracle does not take place at the hands of ordinary people because a miracle is a Divine act and is supernatural.

Divine acts and actions do not take place at the hands of ordinary and ungodly people. Thus, when a sincere and trustworthy person - known for his truthfulness and honesty declares a religion whose principles and other fundamental issues do not conflict with the intellect and logic, and if a miracle is seen at his hands, them he must truly be a Divine Prophet. If this were not the case, then we would be (committing the blasphemy of) saying that Allah has granted miraculous powers to a liar and has, authenticated him. Since it is repulsive to authenticate a liar, such an act could never be Allah's, since He never commits repulsive acts. Thus, if someone exhibited miracles and at the same time offered a complete, comprehensive, and logical religion, he is certainly a Divine prophet. I repeat: The quiddity and the reality of a miracle are supernatural, and a supernatural act cannot but be a Divine act.

Therefore, a miracle is an act of Allah and He never authenticates anyone except the ones who are truly Prophets and Saints and have come through Him and never gives any other the power to perform a miracle. Thus, care should be taken so that not all and any random acts are mistaken for miracles.

5. In the same manner that a miracle cannot be performed at the hands of ordinary people, a genuine and truthful Prophet must have a miracle and through this he must possess Divine authentication. It is true that people - naturally and based upon their pure and unpolluted nature (fitrah) - consider a person whom they find capable, truthful, reliable and honest to be a good person and assume that his inner self is the same as his outer self. Thus, they develop a trust in him; yet all these are not enough reason for that person to be considered as infallible (masum) and these factors do not give us sufficient grounds to consider him as being immune from falsehood and error and to take all his calls and commands as valid and to submit to him and to being to believe in him. In fact, it is also possible that people may harbour doubts about such a person if he claims prophethood and they may also fall into perplexity and may fall into dishevel. And if that comes to be the case, the guidance and instruction of the people cannot be possible at his hands and the Prophet would, thus, fail in his mission. It is here that the significance and the impact of miracles is experienced and it is here that Divine Mercy and Grace come in and a miracle takes place at the hands of the Prophet in order that the people gain full certainty about his prophethood and that pure souls and untarnished and healthy hearts recognize his sincerity and believe in him and consider his words as Divine Commands. In this manner, the religion (din) penetrates into the hearts of people and Allah's Command spreads and establishes itself in the world.

6. The life histories of the Prophets have recorded various miracles. Three prominent Prophets - Prophet Moses (A.S.), Prophet Jesus (A.S.), and Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) - too, had their own exclusive miracles. What was the reason for the differences in their miracles?

We have mentioned earlier that the beneficial of a miracle is that people are convinced to have faith in the prophethood of the owner of that miracle. In this manner, the Prophet is able to spread faith certitude into the hearts of people. After gaining release from their initial skepticism, the people begin to believe in him and act upon his commands and reach dignity, honour, and felicity and follow in the footsteps of the Prophet in their quest for absolute perfection. Thus, miracles are sent for the benefit of mankind and are a mercy from Allah to His creation, just as the presence of a Prophet who is a favour and mercy from Allah. They act as rain and purify stains from the hearts, and like the sun, they illuminate man's intellect and they are like life which is breathed into the inner being of man. Therefore, it would also be important for the miracle to be in accordance with the period and the location of its manifestation as well as the norms, habits, perception, and awareness of the people to whom it is manifested, so that it can be recognized and accepted in such a way that the mentioned benefits can be gained from it.

7. During the times of Prophet Moses (A.S.), the knowledge of sorcery was rampant among the people of Egypt. A group of educated and intellectual people had acquired this knowledge and knew about its impact. It was taught and practiced widely.

Therefore, the people were aware of the laws of the knowledge of sorcery, the extent of its applicability, and the extent of its power, and they also knew what lay beyond the purview of the power of this knowledge. For this reason, wisdom demanded that the miracle of Prophet Moses (A.S.) be of a kind that people could recognize but only of a more superior nature to what they were capable of and had knowledge about, so that it would be considered as a miracle as against the knowledge and power of the magicians, thereby gaining victory over them. This demanded that the kind and the nature of the work would be of the same kind as that of the magicians.

8. In the times of Prophet Jesus (A.S.), Palestine and Syria were under Greek dominance. Many Greeks were settled in these countries and healing and curative practices were widely practiced. It is for this reason that certain chapters of the Torah that are existent with the Jews contain comprehensive instructions on curing patients from such diseases as edema, small pox, leprosy, and scabbiness. These instructions are based on the methods used by the Jewish priests and it seems that they stemmed from the spiritual practices of these priests even if medicines were used in the process. These are all indicative of the widespread practice and use of the arts of healing and curative practices and the powers and effects of medicine among those people. It was with this background that Prophet Jesus' (A.S.) miracle was his extraordinary ability to heal lepers and the congenitally deaf and blind. His community could relate easily to such acts and knew well that such acts were beyond the powers of the priests and the doctors and were even beyond the realm of medical treatment and in fact stemmed from another power which was Divine in nature.

9. The awareness of the Arabs among whom Islam emerged (Allah's Wisdom deemed it best for this religion to emerge from among this people) was mainly centered around literature and the skills of eloquence and oration. There were no other fields of knowledge and science that were prevalent and learnt among them. The dominant culture in that society was based on eloquence and oratory skills and the powers of speech. Many poetry sessions and sittings were organized for enjoying good poetry. It was customary for the men of eloquence to compete and flaunt their skills in these fields and the favourite and widely prevalent topic of discussion was poetry, eloquence, and the importance of poets, orators, and skillful speakers. Thus, the environment of that society was well-versed in gauging the limits of beautiful oration and the extent of eloquence and who had those skills and to what extent one can progress in those fields. Therefore, Allah's Wisdom which is based on logic and rationality demanded that the miracle of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) fall in the realms of eloquence but that which was beyond human power and the power of human eloquence and that it be different from the speech, writings, and the compositions of human beings.

10. As the verses of the Qur'an were revealed and recited to the eloquent and literary Arabs, they recognized this degree of eloquence as being of a miraculous nature which was beyond their knowledge and capacity. They realized that they could never produce a book or even a chapter like that of the Qur'an and even though they spent years opposing the Prophet (S.A.W.), and waged many bloody battles they could not succeed in competing with the Qur'an because if they could, then it would have been much easier and preferable an ordeal than the battles, and they would have replied the Prophet (S.A.W.) with at least one chapter like those of the Qur'an and would have eliminated Islam for good.But they did not do this, simply because they were helpless and incapable and, instead, they continuously engaged in conflict with the Prophet (S.A.W.) and his followers and began many wars.

11. It was very clear to the eloquent Arabs who were well versed in recognizing the nuances of oration and eloquence and the limits of human ability in these fields that the Qur'an that was revealed in their language was a miracle and was beyond human power. It was a Divine act and not an ordinary phenomenon. Thus, the Qur'an stood as a proof against them and as the grounds for the mission of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.).Similarly, the miraculous nature of the Qur'an is also clear to other communities. This is because, as a rule, whenever the elite, the learned, and the experts among people approve of the authenticity of something, the rest take it as a sign of validity and submit to their superior discretion. Human intelligence, too, demands the same.

12. The Glorious Qur'an is the most superior of all miracles because its miraculousness and its extraordinariness are in its very essence that does not need anything outside of itself.

13. The Glorious Qur'an is an everlasting and eternal miracle and has been and shall be protected both, in its matter and its form. Anyone anywhere, and at anytime can refer it, ponder upon it, seek inspiration from it and be guided by it.

14. The Glorious Qur'an has testified its own extraordinariness and has explicitly and repeatedly invited people to challenge it, saying: If you think that this Qur'an has been forged by a man them you too bring the like of it; then bring ten forged chapters like it (11:13); If not ten, then bring a chapter like this(10:38). In other words, if you can bring one verse like the verses of the Qur'an, the call to Islam which is so heavy on you and opposes all your customs and beliefs will be, withdrawn from you, and if you fail to do this, then submit that this Book is a Divine Revelation and is not the word of any man.

In spite of all these open invitations and opportunities, the Arabs failed to produce anything even close to the Divine Word and it was because of their own failure that they bad-mouthed the Prophet (S.A.W.) and pelted him with stones and prevented people from listening to the verses of the Qur'an. If they had the power to do so, they would have produced a book like Qur'an and would have recited it in their sessions of poetry oration and would have summoned the Prophet (S.A.W.) and would have convinced him of his defeat. Then they would have declared openly that Muhammad (S.A.W.) had conceded and that he was defeated, and in this way, they would put an end to the call of Islam. In fact even if they had succeeded in bringing two lines of verse like those of the Qur'an which would have been acceptable to the skilled ones as being of the caliber of the Qur'an, the forces of evil deviation would have glorified their success to such an extent that its word would have spread all over the world. This would have been the best the most peaceful challenge that they could have posed against Islam.

15. The Qur'an is a miracle from other aspects too and is beyond ordinary human power. Recognizing its extraordinary nature from various aspects is not exclusive to the Arabs, and in fact anyone can (through a good translation) reach this conclusion. One of the matters that Qur'an contains is historical narrations. This Book narrates the events and stories pertaining to earlier communities and famous personalities of the past, and that too through person [the Prophet (S.A.W.)] who had never attended school and had never undergone any kind of studies. What is important to note is that many of these narrations are also present in the Torah and the Evangel (Christian Bible) that are currently available among the Jews and the Christians and which are considered as heavenly scriptures by them. The only difference is that much of what has been narrated in the Torah and the Evangel is tinged with superstition and blasphemy and is illogical and delirious. For example, in the Torah, as regards the narration of the story of Prophet Adam (A.S.) and the forbidden fruit, Allah the Almighty has actually been alleged with falsehood and deceit! A similar example is about Prophet Abraham (A.S.) and his alleged misgivings about the promise of God... and how the angels came to Prophet Abraham (A.S.) and gave him the good tidings of the birth of Prophet Isaac (A.S.). A third example is the claim that Prophet Aaron (A.S.) was himself responsible for creating an idol!

Now compare these narrations from the current Torah with what the Qur'an has revealed.

Prior to the Revelation of the Qur'an the only sources available to have recorded such narrations were the sacred teachings of the Jews and the Christians, samples of which we saw in the above paragraph. This was what was in circulation among the Jews and the Christians of those times, but what has been revealed in the Qur'an is free from blasphemy and insult to the Divine Prophets (A.S.). What has appeared in the Qur'an was certainly not extracted from the sources that were available in those times otherwise it would also have contained similar fiction. In fact, what has come in the Qur'an is through Divine Revelation.

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Ref: Allamah Shaykh Muhammad Jawad Balaghi Najafi
www.ahlulbaytportal.com