The Essence of Islam – Volume V — Page 33
Miracles, Signs and Prophecies 33. When reason recognizes a miracle and testifies that it is from Allāh, such a miracle is a thousand times better than the miracles that are related only as tales and myths. For this there are two reasons: The first is that reported miracles cannot be considered by us who were born hundreds of years after their occurrence— as something which we ourselves have seen and experienced. And since they are only based on reports that have reached us, they can never be accorded the same degree of credence as is given to observed and tangible phenomena. Secondly, even for those who actually witnessed them, such reported miracles, as are beyond the realm of reason, cannot be truly convincing. This is because there are many wondrous feats which even conjurors can easily perform, but they are no more than cunning tricks. How then are we to convince a suspicious opponent that the wonders manifested through Prophets such as creating serpent, or bringing a dead man back to life are free from the sleight of hand practised by these conjurors. . These difficulties are not peculiar to our times: it is quite possible that the same questions may have risen at the time when these miracles occurred. For instance, when we look at verses 2-5 of Chapter 5, in the Gospel of John, we read: "Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool, and stirred up the water; then