Of Prophets and Miracles

17Mar09

My last post was about the greatest miracle – the Quran. Now I will talk a little about the miracles of a few of the other prophets.

Miracles are bestowed depending on cultural values.

Musa alayhi salaam was able to turn his staff into a serpent because the people of that time were really into magic.

The Romans valued the science of medicine and so the miracle of Isa alayhi salaam was giving life with the permission of Allah.

The signs of the minor prophets was that they would put a gathering of food in the middle of a city, and a fire from the sky would come and devour it.

The Prophet Muhammad (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) was sent to a people that highly valued eloquence, even though most of the people were illiterate. It is no coincidence that right before his coming, they had a ‘national competition’ of poets, which would represent the pinnacle of the Arabic language. At this time, the seven famous poems were written – Al Mu’allaqaat Al Sab’a, or the seven hanging poems. Since they valued language the most, it would only be natural for Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to send something that they could relate to and appreciate – the Arabic Qur’an, the mere recitation of which was enough to convince them that these words could not be that of any human. The Qur’an was sent to remind them that even though they had the most eloquent of speech, here is something better.

Keep watching this blog for the next post to see what Utbah ibn Rabee’, one of the seniors of the Quraish, had to say about the Qur’an when he heard it.

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