AL-QURAN, The Miracle of Miracles
     Ahmed Deedat

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     Say: If the whole of mankind and jinns were to gather together to
produce the like of this Qur`an, they could not produce the like thereof,
even if they backed up each other with help and support.

     What is a miracle?
I think it is necessary that we have a clear picture of what we mean by a
miracle. Here are some definitions:-

"An event that appears so inexplicable by the laws of nature, that it is
held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God."
"A person, thing or event that excites admiring awe." "An act beyond human
power, an impossibility."

    It is logical that greater the impossibility, greater the miracle. For
example, should a person expire before our very eyes and is certified dead
by a qualiified medical man, yet later on a mystic or a saint commands the
corpse to 'arise!', and to everybody's astonishment the person gets up and
walks away , we would label that as a miracle. But if the resurrection of
the dead took place after the corpse had been in the mortuary for three
days, then we would acclaim this as a greater miracle. And if the dead was
made to arise from the grave, decades or centuries after the body had
decomposed and rotted away, then in that case we would label it the greatest
miracle of them all!

     A Common Trait:
It has been a common trait of mankind since time immemorial that whenever a
guide from God appeared to redirect their steps into the will and plan of
God; they demanded supernatural proofs from these men of God, instead of
accepting message on its merit.

    For example, when Jesus Christ (pbuh) began to preach to his people -
"the children of Israel" - to mend their ways and to refrain from mere
legalistic formalism and imbibe the true spirit of the laws and commandments
of god, his 'people' demanded miracles from him to prove his bona fides
 his authenicity , his genuineness), as recorded in the christian
scriptures:

    Then certain of the scribes and the phairsees answered, saying master,
we would have a sign ( miracle ) from thee. But he answered and said unto
them, "an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign (miracle) and
there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas
 matthew 12:38-39 holy bible)

    Though on the face of it, Jesus (pbuh) refuses to pamper the jews here,
in actual fact, he did perform many miracles as we learn from the gospel
narratives.

    The holy bible is full of supernatural events accredited to the prophets
from their lord. In reality all those 'signs' and 'wonders' and 'miracles'
were acts of God, but since those miracles were worked through his human
agents, we describe them as the miracles of prophets (i.e. Moses or Jesus
(pbuh) by those hands they were performed).

     Quirk Continues:
Some six hundred years after the birth of Jesus(pbuh), Muhammad (pbuh) the
messenger of God was born in Makkah in arabia. When he proclaimed his
mission at the age of forty, his fellow countrymen, the mushriks of makkah
made an identical request for miracles, as had the jews, from their promised
Messiah. Text book style, it was as if the arabs had taken a leaf from the
christian records. History has a habit of repeating itself!

And they say: why are not signs sent down to him from his lord? (holy Qu`ran
29:50)
     SIGNS! WHAT SIGNS!!
"Miracles ? Cries he, what miracles would you have? Are not you yourselves
there? God made you 'shaped you out of a little clay.' Ye were small once; a
few years ago ye were not at all. Ye have beauty, strength, thoughts, 'ye
have compassion on one another.' Old age comes-on you, and grey hairs; your
strength fades into feebleness: ye sink down, and again are not. 'Ye have
compassion on one another': This struck me much: Allah might have made you
having no compassion on one another, how had it been then! this is a great
direct though, a glance at first-hand into the very fact of things...." "(On
heroes hero-worship and the heroic in history,")by Thomas Carlyle.
     "This Struck Me Much"
This, that "ye have compassion on one another", impressed thomas carlyle
most from his perusal of an English translation. I persume, there verse that
motivated this sentiment is:

    1. And among his signs is this, that he created for you mates from
amonng yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquillity with them. and he has
put love and mercy between your (hearts): verily in that are signs for those
who reflect. (emphasis added) Translation by A Yusuf ALi (Qu`ran 30:21)

    2. And one of his signs it is, that he hath created wives for you of
your own species that ye may dwell with them, and hath put love and
tenderness between you. herein truly are signs for those who reflect
(emphasis added) Translation by Rev. J.M. Rodwell(M.A.)

     3. By another sign he gave you wives from among yourselves, that ye
might live in joy with them, and planted love and kindness into your hearts.
surely there are signs in this for thinking men(emphasis added) Translation
by N.J. Dawood.

     The first example is from the translation by Yusuf Ali, a muslim. The
second is by a christian priest the rev. Rodwell and the last example is by
an iraqi Jew, N.J. Dawood.

     Unfortunately Thomas Carlyle had no access to any one of these because
none of them had seen the light of day in his time. The only one available
to him in 1840 was as he said on page 85 of his book under referance - "We
also can read the Koran; our translation of it, by sale, is known to be a
very fair one."

     Taint Is In The Motive:
Carlyle is very charitable to his fellow countryman. The motives of george
sale, who pioneered an English translation of the Holy Quran, were suspect.
He makes no secret of his antagonism to the holy book of Islam. In his
preface to his translation in 1734 he made it known that it was his avowed
intention to expose the man Mohammad and his forgery. He records: "who can
apprehend any danger from so manifest a forgery?... The protestants alone
are able to attack the koran with success; and for them, I trust, providence
has reserved the glory of its overthrow." George Sale, And he set to work
with his prejudiced translation. You will be able to judge how 'fair' and
scholarly george sale was from the very verse which 'struck' (carlyle)
'much!' Compare it with the three example already given by a muslim, a
christian and a jew: And of his signs another is, that he had created you ,
out of yourselves, wives that ye may cohabit with them, and hath put love
and compassion between you.

     I dont think that george sale was a 'a male chauvinist pig' of his day
to describe our mates, wives or spouses as sexual objects. He was only
keeping to his promise, which carlyle overlooked. The arabic word which he
(sale) perverted is 'li-tas-kunoo' which means to find peace, consolation,
composure or tranquility; and not 'cohabit' meaning 'to live together in a
sexual relationship when not legally married' (the reader's digest universal
dictionary.)

     Every word of the Quranic text is meticulously chosen, chiselled and
placed by the All-Wise himself. They carry God's 'fingerprint', and are
signs of God. And yet, the spirtually jaundiced....

     Ask For A Sign:
What signs?? They mean some special kinds of signs or miracles such as their
own foolish minds dictate. Everything is possible for God, but God is not
going to humour the follies of men or listen to their false demands. He has
sent his messenger to explain his signs clearly, and to warn them of the
consequences of rejection. Is that not enough? The trend of their demand is
generally as follows:

     In specific terms they asked that he - Muhammad (pbuh) - 'Put a ladder
up to heaven an bring down a book from God in their very sight' - "Then we
would believe," they said. Or "ye see the mountain yonder, turn it into
gold' - "then we would believe." or 'make streams to gush out in the
desert' - "then we would believe."

     Now listen to the soft, sweet reasoning of Muhammad(pbuh) against the
unreasonable and sceptical demands of the mushriks - "Do I say to you,
verily I am an angel? Do I say to you, verily in my hands are the treasures
of God? Only, what is revealed to me do I follow." Listen further to the
most dignified reply he is commanded by his Lord to give the unbelievers.

     Say (O Muhammad): 'The signs (miracles) are indeed with Allah: And most
certainly I am only a clear warner.!'

     In the following ayah the holy prophet is made to point to the holy
Qur`an itself as an answer to their hypocritical demand for some special
kind of 'sign' of 'miracle' for which their foolish pagan mentality craved.
For indeed all miracles are 'signs'; and it is their disbelief, their
scepticism, their lack of faith which motivates their request for a sign.
They are asked to - 'look at the Qur`an' and again, 'look at the Qur`an!'

     It is not enough for them that we have sent down to thee (O Muhammad)
the book(al-Qur`an) which is rehearsed to them? Verily, in it (this
perspicuous book) is a mercy and reminder to those who believe. (Qur`an
29:51).

     Two Proofs:
As a proof of the divine authorship and the miraculous nature of the Qur`an,
two arguments are advanced by the almighty Himself:

     1. 'that we' (God Almighty) have revealed to you (O muhammed!) 'the
book to you' who art absolutely an unlearned person. An 'ummi' prophet. One
who cannot read or write. One who cannot sign his own name. Let thomas
carlyle testify regarding the educational qualifications of Muhammad -

     'one other circumstance we must not forget: that he had no school
learnin; of the thing we call school-learning none at all.' Moreoever the
divine author(God Almighty) himself testifies to the veracity of
Muhammed's(pbuh) claim that he could never have composed the contents of the
holy Qur`an; he could not have been its author:

     And thou (O Muhammad) was not (able) to recite a book before this (book
came), nor art thou (able) to transcribe it with thy right hand:

     In that case, indeed, would the talkers of vanities have doubted
(Qur`an 29:48).

     The author of the Qur`an is reasoning with us, that had Muhammad(pbuh)
been a learned man, and had he been able to read or write, then in that case
the babblers in the market places might have had some justification to doubt
his claim that the holy qur`an is God's word. In the event of Muhammed(pbuh)
being a literate person, the accusation of his enemies that he had probably
copied his book (Qur`an) from the writings of the jews and christians, or
that perhaps he had been studying aristotle and plato, or that he must have
browsed through the 'Torat,' the 'Zabur' and the 'Injeel' and had rehashed
it all in a beautiful language, might have carried some weight. Then, 'the
talkers of vanities' might have had a point. But even this flimsy pretence
has been denied to the unbeliever and the cynic: a point hardly big enough
to hang a fly upon!

     2. 'The book'? Yes, the 'book' itself, carries its own evidence proving
its divine authorship. Study the book from any angel. Scrutinize it. Why not
take up the author's challenge if your doubts are genuine? Do they not
consider the qur`an(with care) had it been from other than Allah, they would
surely have found therein much discrepancy. Consistency:
     It is inconceivable that any human author would remain consistent in
this teachings and his preachings for a period of over two decades. From the
age of forty, when Muhammad (pbuh) recieved his first call from heaven to
the age sixty-three when he breathed his last, for twenty-three years the
holy prophet practised and preached Islam. In those twenty-three years, he
passed through the most conflicting vicissitudes of life. Any man, during
the course of such a mission, would be forced by circumstances to make
'honourable' compromises, and cannot help contradicting himself. No man can
ever write the same always, as the message of the holy qur`an is: consistent
with itself, throughout! Or is it that the unbelievers objections are merely
argumentive, refractory, against their own better light and judgement.?
Furthermore, the holy qur`an contains or mentions many matters relating to
the nature of the universe which were unknown to man before but which
subsequently through evolution and discoveries of Science have fully
confirmed - a field where an untutored mind would have most certainly lost
in wild and contradictory speculations!

     Self-Evident Proof:
Again and again when miracles are demanded from the prophet of God by the
cynical and frivolous few, he is made to point to the qur`an - message from
high - as 'the miracle.' The miracle or miracles! And men of wisdom, people
with literary and spiritual insight, who were honest enough to themselves,
recognised and accepted al-qur`an as an a genuine miracle.

     Says the holy Qur`an: Nay here are signs self-evident in the hearts of
those endowed with knowledge: And none but the unjust reject our signs.
(qur`an 29:49).


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M.L. Ghandi