undefined

--- Issue: "703" Section: ID: "1" SName: "Living The Quran" url: "living-the-quran" SOrder: "1" Content: "\r\n

Miraculous
\r\nAl-Isra (The Ascension) Chapter 17: Verse 59

\r\n

"Moreover, nothing keeps Us from sending forth more of the miraculous signs that the disbelievers demand, except Our knowledge that the earliest generations of humanity belied them all. For We gave to the people of Thamud the miraculously created she-camel, brought forth before their very eyes, and still they wronged her. Nor do We send forth miraculous signs except to put the fear of God in people's hearts."

\r\n

The more something transcends the "normal," the greater its controversy, and the less people will believe it really happened. Yet, the human being does not tire - rather, insists! - on the miraculous when it comes to religion.

\r\n

What people do not realize, or tend to forget, is that the miraculous comes not only as an affirmation of the truth of God, but as a test of people's faith in that truth that brings about their divine denunciation if they fail to believe after having witnessed it or after they have received its account through a valid report, such as through a subsequent Prophet or a revealed Book of God.

\r\n

This is the meaning of the example in the verse just cited, that of the miraculously created she-camel sent as a sign to the ancient people of Thamud. When a miracle occurs, one party accepts it, but another always rejects, and each group exerts itself in its argument to vindicate or debunk its occurence.

\r\n

Science has many more believers today in its "miraculous" possibilities than does religion. They tend to reject reports about miracles that happened in the context of religion, considering them superstitions that do not correspond with what they believe they know about the laws of physics, forgetting that we know little, indeed, about the universe. There are also sincere men and women of religion who seek to interpret these miraculous events in a manner that accords with the sensibilities of the modern mindset, preferring to explain them by the serendipity of certain "scientific" events or to interpret them as allegorical or spiritual in their "real" meaning.

\r\n

Yet the Quran tells us three things: (1) it happened; (2) it happened with precisely this intent, that is, to test the faith of people; (3) the outcome of the miraculous on the mind of the skeptical has usually just the opposite effect than it ought to have on a rational creature; namely, the narrowing of belief in their breast, which leads to greater sin.

\r\n

Compiled From:
\r\n "The Gracious Quran" - Ahmad Zaki Hammad, pp. 212-214

\r\n" ID: "1075" ---