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Prophets and their miracles — the lessons for us

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 10 January 2025

“And We do not send messengers but as bearers of good news and warners; then whoever believes and acts aright, they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve.”  — ch. 6, Al-An‘am, v. 48

وَ مَا نُرۡسِلُ الۡمُرۡسَلِیۡنَ اِلَّا مُبَشِّرِیۡنَ وَ مُنۡذِرِیۡنَ ۚ فَمَنۡ اٰمَنَ وَ اَصۡلَحَ فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَیۡہِمۡ وَ لَا ہُمۡ یَحۡزَنُوۡنَ ﴿۴۸﴾

“O children of Adam, if messengers come to you from among you relating to you My messages, then whoever guards against evil and acts aright — they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve.” — ch. 7, Al-A‘rāf, v. 35

یٰبَنِیۡۤ اٰدَمَ اِمَّا یَاۡتِیَنَّکُمۡ رُسُلٌ مِّنۡکُمۡ یَقُصُّوۡنَ عَلَیۡکُمۡ اٰیٰتِیۡ ۙ فَمَنِ اتَّقٰی وَ اَصۡلَحَ فَلَا خَوۡفٌ عَلَیۡہِمۡ وَ لَا ہُمۡ یَحۡزَنُوۡنَ ﴿۳۵﴾

In these verses that I have recited, God explains the basic reasons why He sent His messengers. The first verse says that they came to deliver the good news that those people who believe in them and do good deeds will be accepted by God. They will have no fear of what they will face in the life after death, nor any regrets over the kind of life they led in this world. The Messengers were also warners, to warn people of the bad conse­quen­ces of their bad deeds. The second verse says to the whole of mankind that God would be raising His Messengers among their various nations with His scriptures. The purpose of sending them with their scriptures is again stated, that people learn to guard against the doing of evil deeds and to do good deeds.

It is commonly believed among Muslims that the prophets performed miracles and extraordinary acts, which no human can do, in order to convince their people that they were truthful in claiming to be sent by God. There is no doubt that unimaginable and incredible things were made to happen by God in the lives of the prophets at their hands. But the question is: Was it their mission to overawe and impress people by performing miracles so that the people would believe them to be true messengers of God?

One difficulty is that by showing miracles you can, at the most, only impress and convince those people who witness the miracles. People of later generations can only read about the miracle of a prophet, they don’t see it taking place. We ourselves only read in the Quran that such and such a prophet performed such and such extraordinary act. How can merely reading about it convince us of that prophet’s truth?

We also know from the Quran, and indeed the Bible, that all prophets faced severe opposition from their people even though these people supposedly saw miracles of these prophets in front of their eyes. Jesus is said to have given sight to the blind and brought the dead to life. According to the Bible, he did this in front of the public. Muslims in general believe this also. If Jesus did this literally, he would have earned much popularity and good fame among the public, and it would have strengthened people’s faith in him. But when those people’s religious leaders subjected Jesus to severe persecution, so much so that they had him sentenced to be crucified, no one stood up in his support, and said: Look at the great works of healing that he performed which we benefitted from.

The Quran gives us some examples of both the opponents and the followers of prophets demanding from them that they show miracles. Moses had saved his nation from the Pharaoh and taken them to safety and freedom across the Red Sea. Despite witnessing this great miracle, his own followers still kept on violating his teachings and even made a golden calf to worship. The Quran records that they said to Moses:

“we will not believe in you till we see Allah manifestly” (2:55).

They wanted him to show them God face-to-face. It further says that God gave them shade, food and water while they were living in unsettled conditions in a wilderness. This is believed to have happened as a miracle, but it had no effect on them in strengthening their faith or improving their morals and deeds.

Again, in case of Jesus, the Quran tells us that his closest followers asked him to perform the miracle of getting God to send them food from heaven. Jesus replied:

“Keep your duty to Allah if you are believers” (5:112).

In other words, his function was to teach them to be dutiful and be true believers, not perform miracles for them. But they gave him this reason for wanting the miracle:

“We desire to eat of it, and that our hearts should be satisfied, and that we may know that you have indeed spoken truth to us, and that we may be witnesses of it” (5:113).

The Quran has already mentioned before this incident, the various miracles of Jesus, that he healed the blind and the sick, and raised the dead to life, which unfortunately people take literally. It seems that those miracles didn’t convince even his closest followers fully that he was true in claiming to be sent by God, and they wanted to see another miracle. This illus­trates the mentality of those people who want to see some miracle before accept­ing the teachings of a messenger of God. They are never satisfied and keep demanding to see more.

Most of our Muslim brethren say that prophets were granted miracles by Allah in order to convince people that they were not false claimants but true in claiming to have been sent by Allah. But as I have just shown, the Quran tells us that even the closest followers of some prophets, let alone their opponents, did not acquire full faith in them after seeing miracles at their hands. They wanted to see more all the time.

In case of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, his followers never demanded from him any miracle to prove that he was from God. They knew from his revelations and from his character that he was truthful in claiming to be sent by God. His opponents did demand, sarcastically, that he should show them certain signs. The Quran says that they said to the Holy Prophet:

“We will by no means believe in you, till you cause a spring to gush forth from the earth for us, or have a garden of palms and grapes in the midst of which you make rivers to flow forth abundantly, or you make the heaven to fall on us in pieces, as you think, or bring Allah and the angels face to face (with us), or you have a house of gold, or you ascend into heaven. And we will not believe in your ascending till you bring down to us a book we can read. Say: Glory be to my Lord! Am I anything but a mortal messenger?” (17:90–93).

His mission is not to show wonders to people, but to convey to them a message of how to reform yourselves, and as a mortal like them to act on that message himself and set an example. His opponents demanded to see these things happening physically, and there and then. Eventually, all these things did come to Muslims through their faith and after they had undergone sacrifices and trials. Islam spread outside Arabia and Muslims inherited springs of water and gardens of palms and grapes with rivers flowing in them literally. The heaven was made to fall on the opponents in pieces, meaning that they became helpless and powerless to persecute Muslims anymore. Muslims did get houses of gold, both in material prosperity and more importantly houses of their holy men and scholars which were full of the treasures of spiritual and worldly knowledge. Muslims did ascend to heaven in terms of their morals and character.

Incidents from lives of the prophets are commonly related among us Muslims which tell of how Allah saved His prophets from their enemies by miracle. Abraham, it is said, was put into a fire to burn him alive but the fire miraculously cooled down. Jesus was about to be crucified but rescued from this fate miraculously. Our Holy Prophet Muhammad and Muslims under his command had a miraculous victory in their first battle at Badr. I am not discussing here the nature of these miracles and in what manner they took place. I would like to point out that while people focus on these miracles, they don’t turn their attention to what the prophets themselves did which brought about Allah’s help. Abraham was willing to accept being thrown into the fire rather than save his life by agreeing to give up teaching that God is One. He didn’t know that he would be saved. Jesus too accepted being sentenced to death on the cross rather than save his life by giving up his condemnation of the hypocrisy and evil ways of the Israelite religious leaders. He didn’t know for certain that he would be saved. And our Holy Prophet Muhammad entered the battle of Badr, knowing that the most likely outcome would be the obliteration of the Muslims, but the alternative to confronting the enemy in battle was to surrender and give up Islam.

The Quran tells us that the messengers of Allah and their followers with them were tested severely and then it points out to the Holy Prophet’s Companions:

“Do you think that you will enter the Garden, while there has not yet come upon you the like of what befell those who have passed away before you. Distress and affliction befell them and they were shaken violently, so that the Messenger and those who believed with him said: When will the help of Allah come? Now surely the help of Allah is near!” (2:214)

So it wasn’t that the prophets, like in the examples I just gave of Abraham, Jesus and the Holy Prophet Muhammad, were facing these trying situations while comfortable and content in the knowledge that they would be rescued by some miracle. In the Quran the Holy Prophet Muhammad is directed to say to his enemies:

“I am not the first of the messengers, and I do not know what will be done with me or with you. I follow only what is revealed to me, and I am but a plain warner” (46:9).

The concern of the prophets was only with their missions of preaching. They faced these trials, being prepared to meet death. Their determination and steadfastness and willingness to face whatever confronted them, this was, I think, the real miracle. So these stories, instead of just being tales of wonder to fascinate us with, contain a lesson for us as well. To face the greatest difficulty in the path of our faith, the faith which we know to be true, becomes a goal for all Muslims to aspire to.

So may Allah enable us to correctly understand the lives and missions of the prophets, and to learn practical lessons from them, instead of treating them as stories — ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk