A Response to Three Questions of a Christian — Page 41
Reply to the Third Question 41 and I am naught but a man sent as a Messenger. And men sent as Messengers have always shown only those miracles that were not against their glad tidings and they brought only those Signs which Allah the Exalted had decreed for them. ’ Sixth, because the manifestation of miracles and that which is stated by the Prophets sometimes comes to fruition in stages, and because the Prophets, upon whom be blessings and peace, are mere mortals and Messengers, they are not the kind of crea- tion who would desire to oppose Divine will. Mischievous people desire that such miracles as are destined to appear at certain times should be made manifest before their time. Thus, because those miracles are set to manifest at a particular time and are bound by stipulations, they cannot be manifested before their appointed time and before the fulfilment of the precedent conditions. For example, it was promised to Moses, peace be upon him, and those Children of Israel who were suffering severely under Pharaoh, that they would be granted the land of Canaan etc. See the Torah: I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmas- ters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (Exodus 3:7–9)