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