269. Saints and Miracles.
Men have the capacity to do things that are possible for them as humans.Even the saints cannot perform acts that can be carried out by God. This concept forms the basic ideology of Islam.
Things like bringing to life a dead person, being blessed with a child creating something out of nothing, transforming one thing out another, can never be carried out by any man, and the power to do such things has not been granted to any man.This is fundamentals of Islam. But people do deceive others by doing various tricks.
But verses (2:60, 3:49, 5:110-114, 6:109, 7:73, 7:107, 7:108, 7:115-117, 7:133, 7:160, 10:81, 11:64, 13:38, 14:11, 17:59, 17:93, 20:20, 20:22, 20:69, 20:77, 21:69, 21:81, 21:82, 26:32, 26:33, 26:45, 26:63, 26:155, 27:10, 27:12, 27:17, 28:31, 28:32, 29:24, 29:50, 34:12, 37:98, 38:36, 38:37, 38:38, 40:78, 54:27, 91:13) of the Quran talk of various miracles by messengers of God that could never be carried out by ordinary men.
Those who refute miracles by messengers of God, are refuting the Quran!
This does not necessarily mean they are capable of doing anything and everything. Let’s have a detailed look.
Those sent by God as messengers were chosen from among the people, and they were very much human.
People were unable to digest, they have to reconcile to the fact messengers from God was someone very much like them.
17:94, 23:33, 25:7, 36:15, 21:3, 23:47, 26:154, 26:186. The Quran says people cited this aspect as a reason to reject the messengers sent by God, verses 17:94, 23:33, 25:7, 36:15, 21:3, 23:47, 26:154, 26:186.of the Quran confirm this.
People at all times believed that messengers of men can happen to be men themselves, but when it comes to messengers sent by God they should be far from being ordinary humans.
There were justifications for their belief. Because accepting someone as a messenger of God as soon as he declares himself would result in accepting each and every person declaring so.
God does accept the wish of the people, there is got to be a difference between the ordinary and those declared as messengers.
And when sending his messengers to people the Almighty always sent them with some kind of miracles.
And people witnessing these miracles performed by the messengers would not have any reservations in believing them.
These miracles performed by the messengers of God in order to guide people to the straight path were granted to them by Him to prove indeed they are God’s messenger.
Had they not been granted miracles, any one could pose as a messenger of God.
But the messengers of God cannot perform miracles whenever they desire, or for that matter whenever the people want them to.
It can be performed by the messengers only when the Almighty permits them. The power to perform miracles rests only with Allah.
The verses 13:38, 40:78, 14:11 of the Quran stand testimony to the fact that miracles can be performed only with the permission of God Almighty.
Verses (17:90-93) of the Quran commands Prophet Muhammad to say to the enemies of Islam, the power to perform miracles rests with Almighty, when they asked him to perform some miracles as a condition to accept Islam.
It is easy for God Almighty to perform the above cited miracles and the people did not demand all the miracles to be performed at a single stretch, they asked for any one, as a condition to believe in the prophet. But the Almighty did not permit Prophet Muhammad to perform as demanded by them.
Allah is the One Who performs miracles.To make understand that He would reveal the miracles through men whenever He wishes, let’s look into incidents that took place through Prophet Musa.
The Almighty gets a reply from Prophet Musa by asking him what he holds in his hands. The prophet says he has a stick, immediately that stick turns to be a snake. Allah performed it to happen, even Prophet Musa was not aware himself it would happen.This could be known from verses 20:17-21.
Later Prophet Musa called Firon towards Almighty and performed the same miracles with the help of Him. But Firon dismissed the miracles of God and called it sorcery; he challenged Prophet Musa for a showdown with his court magicians.
The royal court magicians were ready to attend the competition with Prophet Musa. They enacted their sorcery. Prophet Musa though he had his stick with him did not make use of it to defeat the competitors. He waited for the commandment from God to perform, though the miracle had been earlier exhibited.
Prophet Musa threw in his stick only after the commandment from God after which the sorcery of the magicians was defeated. This can be seen from the verses 7:115, 116, 117 of the Quran.
Prophet Musa though had the stick with him and the time had arrived to throw in the stick, he refrained until the commandment from God Almighty.
Let’s go through a similar incident in the Quran.
When the enemies of Prophet Musa were after him and the sea as hurdle in front of him he did not use his stick to pave the way through it. He waited for the commandment again at this instance from God. Only when the commandment to strike at the sea was given, did he proceed to make good his escape from the forces of Firon. This can be seen from the verses 26:60, 61, 62, 63. Of the Quran.
Let’s look into another incident in the life of Prophet Musa.
Prophet Musa’s community represented to him about the scarcity of drinking water in them. Though he had the stick with him, he did not strike the ground with it bring out a spring, he prayed to God Almighty for water, and on receiving the commandment from God, struck the ground with his stick to bring out springs of water. This can be known from verse 2:60 of the Quran.
Prophet Esa performed many miracles including bringinging the dead to life. God Almighty when talking about these miracles in verses 3:49, and 5:110 of the Quran says all were performed by Prophet Musa with His blessings.
The prophets did not perform miracles whenever people desired, nor did they do it on their accord.
We need to look at miracles at a different angle as something possible only from God.
Earlier to Prophet Muhammad many messengers were sent and very many of them were killed by people.
This can be known from verses (3:112, 3:21, 2:61, 2:91, 2:87, 3:183) of the Quran
If the messengers had been blessed with miracles as they desired why would they be killed by ordinary people? If any attempt is made on our life it is imperative we escape the attempt and there is no religious compulsion to submit ourselves.
If the messengers had been blessed with the power to perform miracles as and when they desired, it was their duty to make use of it to safeguard themselves, in which case they would not have been killed by people at all. But they were killed, hence this goes on to prove that performance of miracles is the sole prerogative of God Almighty, and not that of any messenger of God or anyone else.
The Quran speaks in many places about the tribulations undergone by messengers of God.
Messengers reeled under poverty.
They were ostracised by their community.
They were tortured and tormented.
They were banished fro their native places.
All these can be understood from verses (2:214, 12:110, 13:12, 38:41,42, 6:33, 6:34, 2:83-86, 6:17, 7:188) of the Quran.
Had the messengers been blessed with the power to perform miracles what was the reason for them to undergo various hardships in their lives.
.Power to perform miracles rest with God alone can be understood from all these incidents.
The messengers had to face many battlefields, and happened to lose many comrades in them. If they had possessed the power to perform miracles, they would not have happened to face all such difficulties, and the enemies would have been obliterated without any difficulty.
Messengers of God like all other men had individual wants, they could not fulfill all their desires with their powers only if they possessed. The Quran speaks of this in many places.
When Prophet Yusuf was flung in to a desolate well by his siblings he was not aware of it , neither could Prophet Yaqub come to know of when he was sold as a slave. He could only grieve the separation of his son and could do nothing for years.
Had Prophet Yaqub been blessed with powers to perform miracles he would not have suffered to the extent he did.
Prophet Yusuf was imprisoned for no fault of his. He was imprisoned for many years. It can be seen from verse (12:35) of the Quran that he could not save himself from being imprisoned.
Prophet Yusuf wouldn’t have to have undergone all these difficulties had he possessed the power to work wonders at his will.
Prophet Ayyub was severely affected by a disease, he could not safeguard himself against such a disease could be seen in verses ( 21:83,84, 38:41) of the Quran.
Prophet Ibrahim though being declared as a friend of Allah was not blessed with a child until his very old age. The Almighty did not bless him with a child at an age when people yearn for an offspring, he had one at a very old age. This can be seen from verses (14:39, 15:53,54) of the Quran.
.Prophet Ibrahim was blessed with a child when he had already made up his mind he would never have one. If Prophet Ibrahim had the power to decide to have a child he would have had one at the age when normally all the others have.
Prophet Zechariah kept on praying for a child till the old age when he was blessed with one, can be seen from verses( 3:38, 3:39, 3:40, 19:2-9, 21:89,90) of the Quran.Though the messengers were blessed with powers to perform miracles they could not use it to suit their own needs can be seen here.
Just because the messengers were granted powers to perform miracles need not necessarily mean they are capable of doing everything in this world, if that was the case they would not have undergone all the tribulations they did.
It could be understood from the following verses 6:50, 11:31, 3:128, 7:188, 10:49, 10:107, 6:17, 6:57 of the Quran that though the messengers of Allah were granted powers to miracles they were unable to do everything what they had wished for.
Though the fact remains the messengers were granted powers to perform miracle , so does the fact they do not possess any extraordinary powers.
The miracles by the messengers of God were never performed by them alone and neither were given powers to do so naturally. We need to understand that whenever the Almighty required to perform miracles for people to witness, He did so through His messengers.
We can try to understand the difference between a person doing something on his own, and the way that act manifests itself from him in the following example.
When a person falls into a coma and has been declared he would never again come to senses, suddenly sits up in his bed, is termed a miracle no doubt. He wouldn’t declare that he himself accomplished the feat nor would we believe he did so. We will declare that was a blessing from God towards him.
We will call such an act as accomplished by him only when does the planning and executes it.
How would we understand a person falling from a 50 storey building and surviving the fall? There is no doubt that it is a miracle to happen.But did the person perform this miracle or did God express it through him?
We will term it as a miracle only when he falls from a 50 storey building every time and nothing happens to him. Nobody would ever say this happens to them, and we are to understand this as something that happened to him unexpectedly and God helped him.
The fact is miracles were expressed through messengers and were not planned by them.
Miracles were seen to be expressed not only through messengers but also through other men and dumb creatures.
The Hud-Hud bird spoke to Prophet Sulaiman. It comes to know about the woman ruling a neighbouring country. And also reports about their movements to Prophet Sulaiman.
The Quran. 27:20-28
We wouldn’t understand all these incidents about the Hud-Hud bird as being rational or intelligent, it has to be understood rather as a miracle by the Almighty through it.
We also have details in the Quran about Prophet Sulaiman’s passing by with his forces as understood by ants.
The Quran. 27:18.
This should not be understood as the ants had the power to interpret the coming of Prophet Sulaiman or the power had been granted to them to do so. Rather it has to be comprehended as the Almighty’s expression of His miracle through the ants.
Similar to miracles expressed by the Almighty through ants and the Hud-Hud bird, the messengers were granted the power to perform at times needed.
Apart from ants and birds the Almighty has expressed miracles even through his enemies.
Samiri who lived during the time of Prophet Musa made a golden idol and turned it to one with flesh and blood that made a noise.The Quran 20:88-90.
Samiri did not possess any power as has already been explained in point no;19.
Sometimes miracles may happen in one’s life by chance. They cannot claim credit for those. But there is an acute difference between miracles expressed through messengers of God and that by others. Let’s look into them.
There are two types of miracles.
The first type is the one permitted by the Almighty and happens as per His will.
The second type of miracle is the one that takes place through the person who is unaware of it himself.
This second type is the one that takes place occasionally in someone’s lifetime, taking place even now. People who are declared as hopeless by doctors get cured, or it may be a case of one infant surviving a plane crash while all the others perish. Or may be the case of one survivor picked up from the debris of a building crash etc;.after a gap of ten days. These kind of miracles take place in the life of many persons.
Let’s take the case of a person surviving a fall from a 50 storey building. Of course this is a miracle! But before he begins to fall down or while he goes down falling no one tells him he is not going to die, neither does he has the thought he is not going to die.
The miracles on the messengers side are not similar to the one from others where one is not aware that it is happening..
The messengers are made aware of the miracles about to be performed, with the permission from God, facilitating them to prove their prophethood.
Or the people might reject it as a chance happening.
In this way the miracles of Allah differ from that of others.
When it is being said nobody can work the way Allah does, then how come Iblis execute tasks similar to Allah? Is the question raised by some.
Similarly there is another question about how Dajjal can bring to life a dead person as given in some Hadiths, when it is the sole prerogative of the Creator.
Firstly we need to take into comprehension whether the acts by Iblis is done on his own accord or on the permission of Allah.
Verses 7:13,14,15, 15:34,35,36,37,38, 17:62, 63, 64, 65, 16:98,99,100, 15:35-42 of the Quran say that prior to Iblis being sent out from his heavenly abode he was granted certain powers to lead people astray.
Shaitan does not have power on his accord to penetrate people heart/mind to lead them astray.He pleaded with the Creator to grant him permission and time to mislead humans. And was granted the same. But he was given permission along with a weakness where he will fail to mislead people with steadfast belief in God.
When Allah says permission was granted to Shaitan there is no point in arguing that Shaitan is executing things in the world as God does. Believing this would not end in equating with God.
Here we need to believe these acts as not equating with God In the same way as we do in the case of messengers when they execute these acts. Because miracles by messengers are performed on the basis of permission granted by the Almighty.
Prophet Muhammad had said that Dajjal will perform acts that are exclusively in the domain of the Almighty. We can come to know by this, God has permitted him.
We need to believe this in the same as we do in the case of Iblis and Dajjal when they were given liberties. This does not come in the ambit of creating an equal to God.
Creating an equal in Dajjal to God arises only when we believe that Dajjal has the capability to perform wonders at his will.
There is evidence to prove that messengers performed wonders with permission from God, and there is also evidence to the same effect Iblis and Dajjal will also perform wonders with permission from God.
This way whoever is granted permission to perform wonders would do it and not anyone else.
The wonders and miracles said to have been performed by comrades of Prophet Muhammad and saitns are nothing but concocted stories.
Hence any miracle can be performed only by those who had direct talks with the Almighty and permitted by Him.
The Quran: 13:38, 14:11, 40:78.
The above quoted verses say that even messengers of God can perform only with His permission.
The above cited verses say that the messengers can perform wonders only on permission from Almighty and even a repeat performance needs His permission. We have already explained that even the messengers themselves cannot perform but with the help from the great God.
What we come to understand by this is t, if one has to perform miracles he should have a divine connection, or the message announcing about certain people misguiding has to be conveyed to him as a warning.
Conveying of divine message has ended with Prophet Muhammad, there is no chance of Allah talking to anyone. And anyone who is not a messenger does not stand a chance to receive permission to perform miracles, hence we come to a firm conclusion that none can perform wonders now.
If any one declares that saints can perform miracles, we need to make sure that there is a divine communication, whether God granted them permission, are they messengers of the Almighty, Is it possible for messengers to appear now.
Since the messengers of God had to encounter people they were sent with miracles, there is no need for others for miracles after the sealing of prophethood.
If ever there are messages about miracles by comrades of Prophet Muhammad and saints, they are nothing but figments of the minds of those who produced it immaterial of the books they are registered in.
We give you below a message as an example.
Once Khalifa Umar (R.A) during his reign, sent a contingent of soldiers under the leadership of Sariya to a particular spot miles and miles away. In the intervening one Friday Khalifa Umar during the sermon in a masjid, kept on repeating the words ‘Sariya go towards that mountain’ as if speaking directly to him, though the distance between Khalifa Umar and Sariya was nearly one month travel. It is being said that Sariya followed the directions of Khalifa Umar during his Friday sermon simultaneously during the battle and won it.
This incident can be found registered in the hadith books, Abu Nu aimin Dalain Nubuwwah, Bihaki’s Al Ihthigath and various other. These hadiths are weak and not authentic, contradicting the Quran.
This story relates something that Khalifah Umar’s human eye could not see or view, giving one of the attributes of God to Khalifa Umar. Giving Khalifa Umar a status equal to God leads to equality with God. This is forbidden in Islam.
The key to unseen is with God alone and not with anyone else.
The Quran 6:59
The Almighty at occasions discloses hidden truths to His messengers so as for them to reveal it to people. Hence there is no logic in God to disclose hidden secrets to people other than His messengers.
The Quran: 72:26.
Since Umar (RA) is not a messenger of Allah, there is no possibility of God’s message to him regarding the happenings at the battlefield. Hence this story happens to be a weak narration and as well contradicts the Quran.
The Shias have created a number of concoctions in the name of their Imams of having performed miracles. The people who are supposed to counter such concoctions on the other hand have ventured to create stories of their own Imams, resulting in such stories.
In case it so happens to be a first time narration of miracles,by others than messengers, then there’s got to be a reliable narrator chain link.
We term the first type of miracles as one’s non-Muslims or to the evil among Muslims. These miracles are similar to blessings from God not based on characteristics of people. And does not convey that people with such blessings are virtuous ones.
Declarations that miracles performed by others than messengers are the same are nothing but imaginations.
People call wonders by prophets as muhjizaath and that by saints as karamath. There Is no proof for such claims either in the Quran or in the hadiths.
The word karamath used in The context in which the word Karamath is used by these people without any substantiation either from the Quran or form the sayings of Prophet Muhammad cannot form the basis of Islam.
The people who believe in stories in the name of Karamath do not produce any evidence in substantiation but keep on saying that such happenings does take place in shrines of saints.
The status of any saint in Islam is, they are incapable of perfoming wonders even during their life time, it is inexplicable how they are credited with wonders after their death.
Prophet Muhammad has said that when a man dies, nothing continues with him except three things such as his permanent charity, his useful teachings, and the prayers of his virtuous offspring.
Narrator: Abu Huraira.
Hadith Book Muslim:3358
The Quran says when a person dies, a barrier is erected between the dead and this world.
At the end when death approaches them they plead “ My Lord, send me back to the world to complete my good deeds.” But these are just words uttered and there is a barrier behind them until their resurrection.
The Quran- 23:99, 100
There is much evidence to prove that there is absolutely no connection between the dead and this world.
Please refer to explanation points 298, 41, 79, 83, to know more about no connections between the dead and this world.
And moreover there is no truth in claims that miracles take place in shrines. Rumours spread by vested interests create such impressions.
When only two people out of the thousand who visit shrines with a prayer to become wealthy turn rich, the rest of the f 998 fail to realise their belief is a false one.
The two who have become wealthy do the advertisement for the rest of the 998 who in spite of failure refuse to talk out of fear they may lose whatever is with them for talking against a revered saint.
This is the reason, a belief continues to exist that miracles do take place in shrines of saints.
MIracles do not happen at the rate of 2 per 1000 not only at shrines but also at temples and churches and other places of religious worship.
This is the reason these places receive enormous amount of donations when compared to muslim shrines.
As per the argument of these people, worshipping at temples and churches may not be a crime, if miracles are a yardstick.
Let’s look into the matter of how two out of 1000 experiance miracles.
Allah has programmed all incidents in this world to happen at a specified time.
When that particular time arrives, the shrine worshippers while they are at the shrines believe it happened because of the person interred there.
People in temples at believe it happened because of the deity there
Those present at the church at that time start believing it happened because of Jesus or Mary etc.
Even if they hadn’t visited the shrine, the temple or church at that particular time, things that happened to them at places, would have taken place wherever they were .Verses 7:34, 10:49, 16:61 of the Quran.
Allah has destined a certain time for things to happen in this world and it takes place accordingly.
Good things happen to people who are against shrine worship and educate muslims against it.
Shrine worshippers are blessed with children, as well those against. Similarly those worshipping at the shrines become wealthy as well those against it. The reason is the particular time has caught up with them. The shrine worshippers should spare a thought about this.
Hence it is a stark naked conclusion that saints while alive in the world are incapable of performing wonders, and absolutely they can do nothing when dead.
People who still believe that saints can perform miracles, and are capable of achieving feats they desire. cite the following hadiths as evidence.
Prophet Muhammad declared:
Allah said: Whoever has made an enemy of my pious follower, I declare war on them. A pious servant of Mine cannot get closer to Me in ways other than what I have shown him. My servant will keep on coming closer to Me by his surplus worship. I will come to love him eventually. And I will become his sight with which he sees, his ears with which he listens, his arms with which he holds, his legs with which he walks, and will grant whatever he wishes. I will become his protector when he needs protection. I do not hesitate in any of My acts like I do when taking out the life of an obedient servant. He hates death and I also hate giving him harshness through death.
Narrator: Abu Huraira.
Hadith Book:Bukhari:6502
The people who misunderstand this hadith claim that Allah has granted the saints the power to perform miracles which was not granted even to the prophets. They say saints see through the eyes of God, and are capable of seeing everything at the same time similar to the Almighty. They say the hearing capacity of the saints are similar to that of the Creator, and can hear many at the same time.
They also claim that all saints including Abdul Khader Jeelani, Shahul Hameed, see and hear things similar to God, and their hands are that of God Himself.
These people would never look into the evidences provided by us and keep arguing on the basis of this hadith.
They cite this hadith as a strong evidence to prove saints indeed are granted powers to perform wonders.
A superficial look at this particular hadith gives such an impression, but going through the Quran and a look at the monotheistic ideology its heart beat, would spell a different explanation.
Do we go for an analysis of its direct meaning or go in for a derivation that does not contradict other evidence. Let’s look into the dangers if taken literally.
Many of the most pious saints were killed and maimed. If these people who claim the saints are God, does it imply that God was killed and maimed? They are duty bound to give a hard thought on this matter.
Generally these kinds of words are used to denote people who have extraordinary faith on others. For example if a person is called as the right hand of another, that does not mean in the real sense, or when we term a couple as living together in soul and body, wouldn’t mean in the literal sense.
It would be appropriate for us to point out another hadith to these ignorant people in this regard.
“When I was hungry, why didn’t you feed me ?” “When I was suffering from thirst why didn’t you quench it”. “When I was bare, why didn’t you offer me a dress?”. These are the questions that will be posed in the hereafter world to some of His servants by Allah. To this the Almighty ‘s servant would reply “ Oh my Lord ! you are my Creator, how can hunger and thirst affect you?”. To this the Creator would reply “ If you had offered food and water to the poor when they approached you, you would have seen me there !
Hadith Book Muslim:5021
Does this mean that all people without food are Allah. Would people pray to them, and construct shrines for them.
Would our hands physically turn out to be that of Allah’s? Would our ears turn out to be that of Allah’s? Would our sight turn out to be that of Allah literally?
These people whomever they call as saints, if are said to be with attributes of Allah how come they are dead. They should be alive even now, on the contrary they are interred like all other men after death.
Whether they are speeches of men or the sayings from the Creator, they do contain parables, or a literary message and they also direct commands.
Wherever a direct message is conveyed it has to be taken in the direct sense, and those that are said with parables should be understood accordingly.
When we denote a human by calling him a lion , it does not mean he is physically a lion, but exhibits qualities of a lion, in countering others bravery etc. We should not understand this in a direct meaning but as a parable.
Similarly we cannot translate all childish prattles to a direct meaning.
Allah makes use of the same kind of language in the below mentioned hadiths.
The final part of this hadith makes clear its meaning.
”When he demands from Me I provide him with”. “When he demands protection, I definately provide for him”. These are the last phrases of the hadith.
The phrases mean to convey that, whatever they desire does not happen, and miracles do not happen at anyone’s will.
And above everything the message is, no one can perform miracles without the help of God Almighty. The interpretation of these verses by these people is in direct confrontation to the above Quranic message.
To know more about how the justifications by people who are shrine worshippers are wrong please refer to explanation points 17, 41, 49, 79, 83, 100, 104, 121, 122, 140, 141, 193, 213, 215, 245, 298, 327, 397, 427, 471
