in the Gospels, miracles take the place, not only of argument, but also of religious duties, moral teachings and spiritual awakening. The dead are made to rise from the graves, multitudes of the sick are healed, sight is restored to the blind, the lame are made to walk, the deaf to hear, water is turned into wine, devils are cast out and many other wonderful deeds are done.29 That these are only exaggerations or misunderstandings or even pure inventions is quite another matter; the impression one gains is that the great object before the reformer is not to bring about a transformation by implanting faith in God in the mind of man; and that conviction of the truth is sought, not by argument or appeal to the heart, but by overawing the mind by the miraculous. The conception of the miracle, as given by the Holy Qur’ān, is quite different. Here the supreme object before the Holy Prophet is to effect a moral and spiritual transformation; the means adopted are an appeal to the reasoning faculty, an appeal to the heart of man to convince him that the Divine message is meant for his own uplift, and lessons drawn from previous history showing how the acceptance of truth has always benefited man, and its rejection has worked to his own undoing. The miracle has its own place in the Divine scheme; something great and beyond human power and comprehension is wrought now and again to show that the source of the great Message of Truth is supernatural, Divine. Thus the Holy Qur’ān makes it clear that the bringing about of a transformation is the real object for which prophets are raised, that this object is attained by several means, each of which, therefore, has but a secondary value, and that among these evidences of the truth of the Holy Prophet, the miracle occupies not the highest place.
Thus it is that, while the Holy Qur’ān is full of arguments, makes frequent appeals to human nature, and repeatedly refers to the histories of previous peoples, the mention of miracles in it is very rare. But still they are not denied: “And they swear their strongest oaths by Allāh that if a sign came to them they would most certainly believe in it. Say, Signs are with Allāh. And what should make you know that when they come they believe not” (6 :109). The words “signs are only with Allāh” clearly imply, as do those that follow, that extraordinary signs will be shown as an evidence of the Divine mission of the Holy Prophet. Strange it is that there are critics who
29 Though the Gospels lay so much stress on miracles, the whole force out of the argument of miracles, if there be any argument, is taken away by two outstanding facts. In the first place, similar miracles were, according to the Gospels, worked even by the opponents of Jesus Christ, for he is himself made to say: “And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? “ (M.12:27;Lk.11:19). The disciples of the Pharisees could therefore work the miracles which Jesus did. And again, he is reported as saying: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Mt.7:22). Even false Christs could work the miracles which Jesus showed: “For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders” (Mt. 24:24). And last of all there was the healing pool of those days: “Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had” (Jn. 5:2-4). If miracles were so cheap in those days, if even the disciples of the Pharisees and iniquitous and false Messiahs could perform the self-same miracles which the “Son of God” was performing, if there was such a miraculous pool, what evidence can these miracles possibly afford?
Yet another consideration makes the evidence of the Gospel miracles worthless. The miraculous in a prophet’s life is needed to assure the people to whom he is sent of the truth of his message, and to convince the ordinary mind that some supernatural power is at his back. The question, therefore, is, supposing Jesus wrought the miracles which are recorded of him in the Gospels, what was the effect produced by those miracles? Certainly if such wonderful deeds were done, the masses ought to have followed him without hesitation. But the Gospels tell us that though multitudes of the sick followed him and were healed, and though faith was a condition precedent to healing, yet Jesus never had multitudes of followers. His following was very poor, perhaps no more than five hundred men. His own disciples also did not show in any marked degree the effect of the miraculous upon their lives. Of the twelve specially chosen, one turned traitor, another cursed and the rest all fled, leaving the master in a sad plight. Therefore even if Jesus worked miracles, they would seem never to have fulfilled the object for which miraculous power is vouchsafed.