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CHAPTER V
AN INQUIRY INTO MUHAMMAD'S ALLEGED MIRACLES, IN ORDER TO LEARN WHAT EVIDENCE IN
SUPPORT OF HIS CLAIM TO BE A PROPHET OF GOD IS THEREBY AFFORDED
IN order to prove that a man is really a prophet, it is by no means necessary to show that he
wrought miracles. Many prophets have come without miraculous power, and, on the other hand, men who
had no Divine commission have done what seemed miraculous. For instance, in Moses' time the
magicians of Egypt did some things which to the polytheists of that country seemed quite as
wonderful as Moses' miracles (Exod. vii. 10-13, 22; viii. 7, 18). Besides this, we are told of false
prophets who shall work miracles (Mark xiii. 22; Matt. xxiv. 24; Rev. xvi. 13,14; xix. 20),
especially one who is still to come, and who is probably the Dajjal of whom Muslims speak. Of the
true prophets, very few have wrought miracles. In the Old Testament miracles are not mentioned as
wrought by anyone until the time of Moses. As Moses was not only a great prophet, but had also to
introduce a new Revelation, he was empowered to work certain miracles mentioned in the Torah These
were necessary to prove his claim to come with a message from God, to speak with God's authority,
and to bring a Divine Revelation. Elijah and Elisha too had this power granted them, because they
lived at a time when the true Religion was almost extinct, and because their task was to call the
people back to their God. But we are not told that the power of working miracles was given to David,
Jeremiah, or other leading prophets. Of John the Baptist, who was greater than any preceding
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prophet .(Matt. xi. 11; Luke vii. 28), the Jews said, apparently with truth, "John
did no miracle" (John x. 41). It is clear, therefore, that only at great crises, or when a new
Revelation was being given, did God grant a great prophet the power of working miracles in proof of
his Divine commission.
But, if Muhammad's claims were well-founded, he was the Seal of the Prophets, the last and
greatest of them all, sent to the Arabs, a people among whom no prophet had ever before risen, as
far as is known to us. He asserted that he was the bearer of an unique message from God, a
Revelation greater than any that had preceded it, and that the Qur'an which he recited had been
dictated to him by the Angel Gabriel, who on the Night of Power had brought it down from the highest
heaven, where it had been inscribed by God's command upon a Preserved Tablet. Moreover, Muhammad
claimed that his message was for all men, and was never to be superseded. It was necessary,
therefore, that he should work miracles in order to substantiate this lofty claim. Otherwise his
claim could not be proved true, since (as has been shown above) he uttered no prophecies. We
naturally therefore inquire what miracles he wrought.
Here the Qur'an itself gives us a very clear and concise answer. He wrought none. This is
evident from not a few passages. One of the most decisive of these is Surah xvii. 61: "And
nought hindered Us from sending the signs except that the ancients called them false." In his
Commentary upon this verse Al Baizawi says 1: "Nothing turned Us from sending the
signs which the Quraish demanded except the fact that the ancients called them false, those who were
like them in disposition, like 'Ad and Thamud: and verily, if they had been sent, they would surely
have called them false, just as those people did, and would have rendered their own extirpation
necessary, according as Our rule runs: and We had decreed that We would
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