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This article analyzes the Muslim belief that Prophet [[Muhammad]] was able to perform [[Islam and Miracles|miracles]].
This article analyzes the Islamic belief that [[Muhammad]] was able to perform [[Islam and Miracles|miracles]].
==Introduction==
==Introduction==


While there are some Muslims who will say Muhammad's only miracle was the [[revelation]] of the [[Qur'an]], the so-called "[[Moon Split Miracle|Moon splitting miracle]]" and other lesser-known miracles are widely believed by Muslims.
While some suggest Muhammad's only miracle was the [[revelation]] of the [[Qur'an]], the so-called "[[Moon Split Miracle|Moon splitting miracle]]" and "Night Journey" and other lesser-known miracles are widely held to be orthodox Islamic beliefs, and find reference in the Qur'an and heavy endorsement in the hadith literature. Some of these miracles alleged to occur in Muhammad's life also appear to adaptations of miracle stories from [[People of the Book|earlier faiths]].


Are these beliefs genuine [[Islam|Islamic]] beliefs, or are they simply the attempts of Muhammad's followers to compete with the variety of miracles attributed to the founders of [[Islam and the People of the Book|earlier faiths]]?
The hadith record that Muhammad denied being able to perform miracles, and an analysis of the Qur'an clearly shows that he had maintained this denial when confronted by critics. And thus, according to imam Bukhari's criteria, the narrations which claim miracles on Muhammad's behalf should be discarded.
 
It appears more clearly then why Muhammad emphasized the Qur'an as his miracle, for he, it seems, did not think himself in possession of other miracles. Moreover, while miracles may serve as proof for those who witness them, they must come to mean little to others. Moreover, one may add, it is indeed quite difficult to maintain the Qur'an is miraculous, given its [[Textual History of the Qur'an|textual history]] and [[Contradictions in the Quran|claims of dubious reliability]], but this is only of secondary relevance to this article, which looks at what the Islamic scriptures say about the prophet's ability to do miracles whatsoever.


==Miracles==
==Miracles==
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===Bukhari's criteria===
===Bukhari's criteria===


When dealing with [[sahih]] [[hadith]] narrations, the burden of proof is always on the person who claims a certain narration is not authentic to provide the [[Daleel|evidence]] for '' why'' they consider it to be not authentic.
When dealing with [[sahih]] [[hadith]] narrations, in the Islamic context, the burden of proof is always on the person who claims a certain narration is not authentic to provide the [[Daleel|evidence]] for ''why'' they consider it to be not authentic.


Imam Bukhari came up with three criteria which he used to determine whether or not a narration was sahih or not. His third criteria is regarding ''mat'n'' (text), i.e. the text/content of a narration must not be in contradiction with the Qur'an. The only exception to this rule is the narrations regarded by scholars to be ''Qudsi'' (narrations which contain non-Qur'anic words from Allah).
Imam Bukhari came up with three criteria which he used to determine whether or not a narration was sahih or not. His third criteria is regarding ''mat'n'' (text), i.e. the text/content of a narration must not be in contradiction with the Qur'an. The only exception to this rule is the narrations regarded by scholars to be ''Qudsi'' (narrations which contain non-Qur'anic words from Allah).
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{{Quote|{{Quran|17|93}}|Say: "Glory to my Lord! Am I aught but a man,- a messenger?"}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|17|93}}|Say: "Glory to my Lord! Am I aught but a man,- a messenger?"}}


People doubted Muhammad due to seeing nothing extraordinary or miraculous in him:
According to the Qur'an, people doubted Muhammad due to seeing nothing extraordinary or miraculous in him:


{{Quote|{{Quran|17|94}}|And naught prevented mankind from believing when the guidance came unto them save that they said: Hath Allah sent a mortal as (His) messenger?}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|17|94}}|And naught prevented mankind from believing when the guidance came unto them save that they said: Hath Allah sent a mortal as (His) messenger?}}
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{{Quote|{{Quran-range|25|7|8}}| And they say: "What sort of a messenger is this, who eats food, and walks through the streets? Why has not an angel been sent down to him to give admonition with him? "Or (Why) has not a treasure been bestowed on him, or why has he (not) a garden for enjoyment?" The wicked say: "Ye follow none other than a man bewitched."}}
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|25|7|8}}| And they say: "What sort of a messenger is this, who eats food, and walks through the streets? Why has not an angel been sent down to him to give admonition with him? "Or (Why) has not a treasure been bestowed on him, or why has he (not) a garden for enjoyment?" The wicked say: "Ye follow none other than a man bewitched."}}


But Muhammad kept telling them that he is just an ordinary man, not an angel, meaning people should not expect miracles from him:
Muhammad maintained that he was just an ordinary man, not an angel, meaning people should not expect miracles from him:


{{Quote|{{Quran|17|95}}|Say: Had there been in the earth angels walking about as settlers, We would certainly have sent down to them from the heaven an angel as a messenger.}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|17|95}}|Say: Had there been in the earth angels walking about as settlers, We would certainly have sent down to them from the heaven an angel as a messenger.}}


Common sense dictates that no one would deny and call a man who performs such mighty miracles a “mad man” or “possessed”. But the people who knew him actually called him by these names:
Muhammad was accused of being a "possessed by demons" - a suspicion Muhammad, at one point shared - and other times of being a "mad man". One wonders if such accusations would be made against someone conducting miracles.  


{{Quote|{{Quran|34|46}}|Say (unto them, O Muhammad): I exhort you unto one thing only: that ye awake, for Allah's sake, by twos and singly, and then reflect: There is no madness in your comrade. He is naught else than a warner unto you in face of a terrific doom.}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|34|46}}|Say (unto them, O Muhammad): I exhort you unto one thing only: that ye awake, for Allah's sake, by twos and singly, and then reflect: There is no madness in your comrade. He is naught else than a warner unto you in face of a terrific doom.}}
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{{Quote|{{Quran|25|8}}|Or (why is not) treasure thrown down unto him, or why hath he not a paradise from whence to eat? And the evil-doers say: Ye are but following a man bewitched.}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|25|8}}|Or (why is not) treasure thrown down unto him, or why hath he not a paradise from whence to eat? And the evil-doers say: Ye are but following a man bewitched.}}


No one would demand him miracles if he had already performed one:
Miracles continued to be requested:


{{Quote|{{Quran|15|6}}|Why do you not bring to us the angels if you are of the truthful ones?}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|15|6}}|Why do you not bring to us the angels if you are of the truthful ones?}}


But Muhammad responded:
To this, Muhammad responded:


{{Quote|{{Quran-range|15|7|8}}|We send not the angels down except for just cause: if they came (to the ungodly), behold! no respite would they have!
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|15|7|8}}|We send not the angels down except for just cause: if they came (to the ungodly), behold! no respite would they have!
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“And the Unbelievers say: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" But thou art truly a warner, and to every people a guide.”}}
“And the Unbelievers say: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" But thou art truly a warner, and to every people a guide.”}}


The Quraishites kept asking for a sign or a miracle to believe and Muhammad kept repeating that he was only a warner:
The Quraishites continued asking for a sign or a miracle to believe, however Muhammad repeated that he was only a warner:


{{Quote|{{Quran|13|7}}|“And the Unbelievers say: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" But thou art truly a warner, and to every people a guide.”}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|13|7}}|“And the Unbelievers say: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" But thou art truly a warner, and to every people a guide.”}}


There are many more ayat that tell the same story. People asking for miracles and him saying “I am just a man, just like you, only a warner”.  
Many other verses host the same theme: people asking for miracles, and Muhammad replies “I am just a man, just like you, only a warner”.  


Clear proof that Muhammad never performed any miracles is found in the following verse where it says that people rejected even those who came with miracles and clear signs, meaning miracles are not helpful:
This verse seems to suggest that miracles would prove futile and that, as such, they were not provided to Muhammad:


{{Quote|{{Quran|3|184}}|Then if they reject thee, so were rejected messengers before thee, who came with Clear Signs, Books of dark prophecies, and the Book of Enlightenment.}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|3|184}}|Then if they reject thee, so were rejected messengers before thee, who came with Clear Signs, Books of dark prophecies, and the Book of Enlightenment.}}


In the above verses Muhammad has been denying any supernatural powers. If he could perform the miracles attributed to him in those ahadith, what is the meaning of these verses?  
If the hadith describing Muhammad's miracles are to be considered authentic, what might these verses possibly be referring to? In fact, one would imagine that Qur'an would rather emphasize such miracles, had they occurred, rather `than implying their non-occurrence.


In the following verse he clearly rejects miracles as the proof of prophethood comparing them to witchcraft:
The following verses seems to suggest that miracles are an insufficient grounds for prophet-hood, since magicians can achieve what resembles miracles:


{{Quote|{{Quran|2|3}}|Their hearts toying as with trifles. The wrong-doers conceal their private counsels, (saying), "Is this (one) more than a man like yourselves? Will ye go to witchcraft with your eyes open?"}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|2|3}}|Their hearts toying as with trifles. The wrong-doers conceal their private counsels, (saying), "Is this (one) more than a man like yourselves? Will ye go to witchcraft with your eyes open?"}}


==Conclusion==
==== Modern Historian Views of Quran Verse 54:1 ====
Many modern academics view the moon splitting verse in the Qur'an simply as a natural astronomical phenomena that may have occurred during the time of Mohammed; which he believed was a sign the hour was imminent, a common belief in antiquity that appears in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian writings in the centuries preceding Islam (and during early Islam),<ref>For examples of this in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrianism literature in the centuries preceding Islam, see Shoemaker, Stephen J. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6jmh. ''The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam.''] University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. ''Chapters 1 - 4''
 
For Muslim's similar beliefs in early Islam, see ''Chapters 5 and 6''.</ref> which later commentators and biographers writing hagiographic material exaggerated to be a miraculous literal splitting. Uri Rubin and Rudi Paret for example suggest it was a partial lunar eclipse,<ref>''Muhammad’s message in Mecca: warnings, signs, and miracles [The case of the splitting of the moon (Q 54:1-2)].'' Uri Rubin in Jonathan E. Brockopp, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad (Cambridge, 2010), 39-60. Noting Rudi Paret's opinion in footnote 9 pp. 44.
 
</ref> while David Cook notes it may have been a comet.<ref>Shoemaker, Stephen J.. The Death of a Prophet ''(Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion) (p. 161).'' University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.. Kindle Edition. </ref>
{{Quote|Neuwirth, Angelika. <i>The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (p. 56 - 58).</i> Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.|The assertion that the “hour” is near picks up on a threatening sign that had already been used once in early Mecca (in Q 79:42). “The Hour” was there the subject of the question: yasʾalūnaka ʿani l-sāʿati ayāna mursāhā (“They ask you about the hour when it will come”; see HC 1, 246, on Q 79:42), but which did not allow an answer...


The hadith record that Muhammad denied being able to perform miracles, and an analysis of the Qur'an clearly shows that he had repeatedly done so when confronted by critics. Therefore, according to imam Bukhari's criteria, the narrations which claim miracles on Muhammad's behalf must be discarded.
...In the spirit of this awareness, the reality of the ‘drawing near hour’ is affirmed in v. 1. This happens for the first time through an empirically observed natural phenomenon: a ‘moon splitting,’ perhaps a lunar eclipse, if one wishes to follow Rubin (2010) with the interpretation of the word in the sense of a poetic-pictorial dressing of the well-known phenomenon. The listeners are familiar with such changes in the celestial bodies from the eschatological predictions clothed in so-called idhā series (see the text type SKMS, 188ff.). Thus a change in the moon in Q 75:8 stands in the context of an eschatological scene. The short sentence Q 75:7–13 rhymes with the same schema 3Car as Q 54, it is obviously evoked here. In Q 75 the ‘disappearance’ of the moon is followed by the prediction of a merging of the sun and moon and finally the projection of the last day... ...A phenomenon known from apocalyptic literature as a sign of the end of the world, which had already been part of the proclamation, is explained as being present in the now: the change in a celestial body has now actually occurred; so the “hour” is near. However, this upgrading of the natural phenomenon was met with ridicule from the opponents...


In a sense, Muhammad was right in emphasizing that the real miracle is his message or the Qur'an, as that is what really counts. Miracles may serve as proof for those who witness them, but mean little to others. But although this is a valid principle, the Qur'an fails to deliver. It is no miracle at all, but a book full of [[Contradictions and Errors|errors and inconsistencies]].
..As Bell (1939: 544ff.) and Paret (KKK, 495) have already emphasized, v. 1 is about a natural event that may have actually taken place at the time of the Meccan proclamation. The interpretation of iqtarabat (and inshaqqat) as “Perfectum propheticum,” as an indication of a future event, which older translators advocate (cf. Blachère 1949: 140ff.), is anachronistic, obviously owing its origins to Islamic tradition. It occurs because the “sign” of the splitting of the moon, which according to a hadith of Ibn Masʿūd was observed by Masʿūd himself and therefore had early relevance in the biography of the prophet, could no longer function as an eschatological sign that had already occurred, as the associated announcement of the imminent end of the world had not come true. It was now understood by some as a mere prediction of an apparition, by others as a sign actually wrought by the prophet himself, a confirming miracle (see Andrae 1918: 55–57; Schimmel 1985: 69–71; and especially Rubin 2010; for the discussions of the theologians who, like al-Naẓẓām [d. 844/845], had to deal with the nonfulfillment of the prediction of the end of the world, see van Ess 1992: 415ff. and 1995: 167ff.).}}


{{Core Miracles}}
==See Also==
==See Also==


{{Hub4|Moon Split Miracle|the Moon Split Miracle}}
 
* [[Muhammad's Revelations]] ''- A hub page that leads to other articles related to Muhammad's Revelations''
* [[Muhammad's Revelations]] ''- A hub page that leads to other articles related to Muhammad's Revelations''


[[Category:Muhammad]]
[[Category:Muhammad]]
[[Category:Revelation]]
{{page_title|Muhammad's Miracles}}
{{page_title|Muhammad's Miracles}}
[[Category:Miracles]]
[[Category:Hadith]]
[[Category:Muhammad]]
[[Category:Sacred history]]
[[Category:Dawah]]
[[Category:Allah]]
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