The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 225
The Messiah and his Second Coming 225 swer is that God does not make anyone the master of death and life or harm and benefit. Prophets seek miracles through prayer and supplication and do not possess the power to work miracles like a man has the power to use his hands and feet. Thus the power of creation is one of those Divine attributes that are never bestowed upon man and is distinct from a miracle. The essence of a miracle is that God Almighty, in order to demonstrate the truth and honour of a Prophet and the powerlessness and helplessness of his opponents, manifests something that is extraordinary or beyond imagination by His special design or in response to the prayer or supplication of the Prophet. . But it is done in a manner which is not inconsistent with. His attributes of Unity, Holiness and Perfection and which does not permit of anyone else's power or design. . It is not a miracle that God Almighty should invest a human being with the power of fashioning birds of clay, which would become real birds with flesh and bones and blood and all the limbs of animals when he breathes into them. If. God Almighty can make someone the agent of His attribute of creation in the case of birds, He can also bestow the full agency of His attribute of creation. In this event, partnership in Divine attributes would become permissible, though only under His direction and permission, and the comprehension of the true Creator would become doubtful in the presence of such creators whose creations would become indistinguishable from God's. This would not be a form of miracle; it would be partnership in Godhead. . Some wise people try to solve the dilemma of polytheism by asserting that the birds which Jesus created did not live for any length of time but fell down and died after a short flight. But this explanation would help only if it is held that those birds were not invested with true life but