Islamic View of Miracles

“Miracles are not seen in Islam as unnatural occurrences, but as natural phenomena that are concealed from human knowledge at a certain period of time. Otherwise, there would be many questions raised against the wisdom of God. If God created the laws of nature Himself, He should have made some provisions whereby without breaking them, He could bring about desired solutions to a problem. Not all laws are known to man. There are categories of laws working as if in different tiers and on separate planes. Sometimes they are known to man only on one plane and man’s sight is not able to penetrate beyond. As time goes on, man’s knowledge increases and so does the penetration of man’s sight and his capacity to observe such laws as had hitherto remained unperceived. As science progresses, new discoveries throw more light on such laws which seem to work in groups. So, their function and interaction with other laws is better understood.

Those things that appeared to be miracles in the early ages are no longer considered so. Miracles are so, only in relation to man’s knowledge in a specific period of time. When a special exercise of God’s power is displayed, apparently a law is broken. But it is not so; actually a hidden law was already there and only came into operation through God’s command. The people of that time could not have understood that law, nor had they any control over it.

For example, the force of magnetism was not known to man a few thousand years ago. If somebody had accidentally discovered it and had contrived a device by which he could levitate things without any apparent cause discernible to the naked eye then, to the wonderment of everyone, he could exclaim,

‘Lo! A miracle has happened.’

Today, such tricks are considered commonplace and trivial.

The knowledge of man is limited whereas that of God is unlimited. If a law comes into operation that is beyond the scope of man’s knowledge, it looks like a miracle. But looking retrospectively at such instances with the hindsight of knowledge gained since then, we can dismiss all such so-called breaches of the laws of nature as merely natural phenomena which were not fully comprehended by the man of that age.”

Note: This excerpt is taken from the Book “Christianity, A Journey from Facts to Fiction” written by Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad. The original book can be free download here:

https://www.alislam.org/book/christianity-journey-facts-fiction/