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TELLY DA’WAH EMBASSY
Telly Da’wah Embassy,
Zone ‘E’ GRA, Iba Estate, Ojo, Lagos State. P. O. Box 10211, LASU Post Office,
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234-818-211-9714. Email: tellydawah@yahoo.com
DA’WAH TRACTS VOL. 1 NO. 31
MIRACLES
OF THE
PROPHETS
MIRACLES OF THE
PROPHETS
What is a miracle? Who are those who have performed miracles in the past?
What did they do? What are the sources of miracles? What was the effect on
them? How did we get to know about such miracles? Questions… questions…
questions. These and many more are the questions we intend to address in this
tract.
What is a miracle? A miracle is an extra-ordinary
feat performed either by a human being or actualised by any other creature or
engendered by a force of nature.
Miracles in general are supernatural in outlook. They are incidents or
achievements contrary to expectations and in contra-distinction to human
imagination. We must not confuse miracles with magic and tricks which come ten
for one naira these days.
Our focus in this tract is those genuine miracles of past prophets of God as mentioned either in the
Glorious Qur’an or the Bible or both. Having defined the word ‘miracle’ and
having identified our focus in this piece, we may now proceed to answer the
next question: who are those who have performed miracles in the past?
Yes, who are they? Who are those who performed miracles in the past? What
did they do? In actual fact we can only paraphrase the story of past miracles
for lack of space. A small tract like this cannot contain all past miracles. It
will run into volumes of books. What we intend to do therefore is to briefly
summarise past miracles from both the Qur’an and Bible so that the truth may be
known.
The Qur’an says falsehood must disappear when truth arrives (Qur’an 17:81).
The Bible lays empahsis on the subject of truth. It says, “You will know the
truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The Qur’an warns that we
must not conceal truth with the cloak of falsehood after the truth has been
known (Qur’an 2:42).
Almost
all the prophets of God performed miracles. Beginning from Enoch, Noah,
Ishmael, Elijah, Elishah, Daniel, Moses, Joshua, Jonah, Jesus and Muhammad
(peace be upon them all). Enoch flew to the sky without an
helicopter (Genesis 5:24). A school of thought believes that Enoch
of the Bible is the same as Idris in the Qur’an who also flew to the sky and
did not come back (Qur’an 19:57).
Another
prophet who also flew to the sky was Elijah. He went up into heaven in a chariot of fire (2nd
Kings 2:11). Jesus was also taken up into heaven
according to both the Bible and the Qur’an (“Was taken up into heaven” Mark
16:9; “God raised him up” Qur’an 4:158).
Prophet
Muhammad (S.A.W.) also flew to the
seventh heaven and beyond it to the throne of God on the Night of the Great
Flight (Qur’an 17:1). The difference in his flight was that while Enoch (Idris),
Elijah and Jesus flew to the sky and did not come back, Muhammad (S.A.W.)
performed the same feat and still came back to earth. He left in the night and
came back before morning! Then he continued to dwell among homo sapiens!!
Noah
who did not train as a carpenter or an engineer was able to build a ship with
Allah’s guidance (Qur’an 11:37; Genesis 6:16-18), embarked upon the ship with different
species of animals and birds (Qur’an 11:40-41; Genesis 6:19; Genesis 7:11)
sailed and landed safely on Mount Jud after almost fifty-seven days (Qur’an
11:44; Genesis 8:1-19).
According to the Glorious Qur’an and the Bible Prophet Ismail (Ishmael)
miraculously escaped being slaughtered by his father (Ibraham or Abraham, Quran
37: 99-111, Genesis 22: 10-13) while Abraham himself escaped unhurt
when he was thrown into a huge fire (Quran 21: 68-70). Daniel
also came out alive from the lion’s den for offering prayers to God
instead of to King Darius. An angel came into the den and shut the lions’
mouths (Daniel 6: 21-22).
Elijah was fed by birds (1 kings 17:5-7) and he brought down the lord’s fire on the
offering, a feat which four hundred and fifty priests of Baal who
challenged him could not perform (1st Kings 18:37-38).
The
same Elijah parted the River Jordan and he crossed to the other side on dry
ground by merely striking the river with his mantle (2nd Kings 2:8). Earlier on, in the days of Musa (Moses), when
Pharaoh was pursuing Moses and the children of Israel, Musa had done exactly
the same thing, using his staff to strike the River Nile and the river parted
into two for Musa and the Israelites to cross (Qur’an 26:64; Exodus 14:21-25).
God promised in the Qur’an that He would preserve Pharaoh’s body (Qur’an
10:92) as a sign for coming generations. This promise actually came true. Pharaoh’s body has been mummyfied in the National Museum at Tahrir
Square, Cairo. Thousands of tourists troop into the museum to see
his body. This is typical proof of the authenticity of the Qur’an. Incidentally, the Bible
does not say anything about his preservation. Those who claim
that Muhammad (S.A.W.) copied the Qur’an from the Bible have something to learn
here.
Prophet
Musa (Moses) had a staff (a stick) which could turn into a snake and still
return to its original status! This miracle is in both the Qur’an
and the Bible (Qur’an 20:17-21; Exodus 4:2-4).
This snake, though small in size, was able to swallow big animals like
tigers and lions conjured by Pharaoh’s magicians during a challenge (Qur’an
7:117; 20:66-72). A mountain disappeared into ordinary powder when Musa
insisted on seeing God face to face (Qur’an 7:143) although the biblical
account refers only to Musa seeing God’s back and not His face (Exodus 33:17-21).
Musa also spoke to God near a mystical fire (Qur’an 20:10-14).
Moses
was further empowered with nine signs from God. His hand could become snow-white if
he puts it in his armpit and brought it out again (Qur’an 7:108). He predicted
years of drought and shortage of water (7:130); years of short crops (7:130);
epidemics (7:133), locusts which ate up everything; lice invaded Egypt; frogs
infested the whole country and whenever the Egyptians fetched water it turned
into blood (7:133). The ninth sign was the mystery staff.
According to the Glorious Qur'an, Sulayman (Solomon) had
a carpet which he used to fly whenever he wanted (Qur’an 21:81). He
had several jinns who did his bidding (21:82). He understood the languages of
the jinns, animals and birds (27:16-19). On one occasion one of the jinns
brought the throne of Bilkees, the Queen of Sheba, from her palace to Sulayman
thousands of kilometres away in the twinkling of an eye! (27:38-42).
Prophet
Yunus (Jonah) who was swallowed by a whale miraculously came out of the fish’s
stomach alive and unhurt after three days (Qur’an 21:87-88, Jonah 1:17; Jonah
2:10). Joshua made the sun and the moon stand in the sky for several hours
(Joshua 10:12-13).
The miracles of Jesus (Isa) are also listed in both the Qur’an and Bible.
Jesus turned water to wine in Galilee (John 2:1-11). He opened the eyes of
Bertiment the blind beggar at Jericho
(Mark 10:46-52). He healed ten lepers on the way to Jerusalem though only one
of them showed gratitude (Luke 17:11-15). He fed ten thousand people with only
one loaf of bread (John 6:10-13).
In Mathew 14:25-26 Jesus walked on the sea. In Mark 4:37-38 Jesus calmed
the raging storm. While in John 11:34-44 he woke up Lazarus who had been dead
for four days! Interestingly enough the Qur’an also mentions these miracles of
Jesus and even much more.
The Qur’an relates how Jesus was given the holy spirit, how he made the
blind see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the lame to walk and the dead
to come alive (5:113)!
The Qur'an even mentions three separate miracles which the bible did not
mention, namely how Jesus turned clay shaped like birds into live birds (Qur'an
5:113). Secondly, how the disciples asked him to tell God to bring down a table
laden with food from heaven for them to eat and believe, and Jesus did it
(Qur'an 5:115-117) and how Jesus spoke the day he was born! (Qur’an 19:30-33). As for the miraculous birth of Jesus, we are constrained to affirm that
it was not unprecedented.
The Qur'an acknowledges this miracle (3:45-47) but it reminds us that the
miraculous ‘birth’ of Adam was even greater (3:59). The Bible’s version of the
‘birth’ of Eve also surpasses that of Jesus (Genesis 2:7). Melchisedek, another
mysterious man, had no father or mother (Hebrew 7:3).
Yet
thousands of Christians claim that Jesus is God on account of his miracles.
Interestingly enough, the miracles mentioned in the Bible were also performed
by other prophets.
If Jesus fed ten thousand men with only one loaf of bread (John 6:10-13),
Elishah had earlier fed a multitude (2nd Kings 4:42-44). The same
Elishah fed the widow and her children out of nothing! (1st Kings
17:8-16) and filled empty vessels with oil (2nd Kings 4:1-4).
Muhammad (S.A.W.) fed another multitude with a single cat slaughtered by Abu
Hurayrah. When the chips were down, on the battle field where men were dying of
thirst, Muhammad (S.A.W.) turned one of his fingers into a running tap and a
whole battalion drank its fill and filled their bottles.
If Jesus flew to heaven (Mark 16:19), Elijah also did (2 kings 2:11),
Enoch did (Genesis 5:24) and Muhammad (S.A.W.) too (Qur’an 17:1). If Jesus
cured lepers (Luke 17:11-15). Elishah had done it earlier (2 kings 5:1-14).
Muhammad’s saliva cured Abu Bakr of a scorpion’s deadly poison inside a cave.
If Jesus woke the dead (John 11:34-44). Elisha had done that before Jesus came
and Muhammad (S.A.W.) did it after his departure. Elishah woke up a dead child
again (2nd kings 4:32).
Even years after Elishah died and he was buried, his bone which
accidentally touched another dead man who was about to be buried caused the
dead man to come alive! (2nd Kings 13:20-21). Such was the power of
Elishah. Yet nobody called him ‘God’ or ‘saviour’.
Muhammad (S.A.W.) woke up a cat already slaughtered by Abu Hurayrah and
eaten up by guests! Two boys of the same father who died on the same day and whose
death threw the parents into a spasm of pain were brought back to life by Muhammad
(S.A.W.).
Yet Muslims never call Muhammad God, neither do they worship him. They
worship the God who created Muhammad instead.
The
miracles performed by the prophets were real. But they did not do them with
their own powers alone. God helped them to do it. Elijah confessed that he was God’s servant
before calling down the fire. Even then he did not command the fire to come
down, instead he called on God to answer him with fire from above (1 Kings
18:36-40).
Jesus also confessed that he could not do anything personally. He said, “I
of my own authority I can do nothing” (John 5:30). The Bible affirms that the
miracles of Jesus were all given to him by God (Acts 2:22). In the Qur’an,
Allah confirms that the miracles of Jesus were actualised with His permission
(Qur’an 5:113).
The scene at the tomb of Lazarus is enough to teach us a lesson. Before
waking Lazarus, Jesus spread his hands to heaven and said, “Father, I thank
thee that Thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always. But I have
said this on account of the people standing by that they may believe that thou
didst send me.” When he has said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus,
come out!” And the dead man came out(John 11:42-44).
To
ignore all the other prophets and concentrate on Jesus alone is tantamount to
being parochial, partial and prejudiced at the expense of truth and reality.
The Bible says, “Investigate all things and hold fast to that which is
true and avoid what is evil” (1st Thessalonians 5:20-22). If we do
not visit other people’s farms we would always assume that our father’s farm is
the biggest.
It is our hope that we have been able to provide answers for all the
questions asked in the beginning of this tract. It is left for you, dear
reader, to re-examine your position. Miracle is a general phenomenon among the
prophets. Believe all of them. They deserve it. But do not exaggerate or be a
sycophant over any.
To
assume that Jesus is ‘God’ because of his miracles is to slip eternally into
the deep abyss of religious fanaticism. All the prophets were powerful and
great and their messages were the same, i.e. to believe in God.
We must believe in all of them, from the first (Adam, may Allah bless him)
to the last (Muhammad S.A.W.). This is why Muslims believe in all the prophets,
including Jesus (peace be upon him). GOD Bless you as your eyes open to the
truth. (Amin).
Today you also stand a good chance
of becoming a believer in all the prophets. The door of Islam is open. It is
waiting for you to come in. Come to Islam now and believe in all the prophets
of God as prophets, no more, no less. Leave your past trespasses and you will
be forgiven. Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.
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This tract was prepared by Telly
Dawah Embassy. For further enquiries, please call 234-818-211-9714.
Telly Da’wah Embassy was founded in
1995 by Professor Ishaq Akintola for spreading the peaceful message of Islam.
Please reprint or make copies of this tract and distribute free of charge to
earn rewards from Almighty Allah. Allah bless you as you support His cause.
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