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read,' Say thou: 'Praise be to my Lord: have I been aught but a human being, an
Apostle?"' From this passage it is clear that the Quraish were not satisfied with the
statement (verse 90) that the Qur'an could not be equalled, and was a sufficient proof of
Muhammad's commission. Hence they demanded a miracle of the kind here mentioned. In reply
Muhammad is told to say that, being merely a man, he could not show such a miracle as they
desired. Hence it is clear that the accounts of the Miraj and of the water which
Muhammad is said in certain Traditions to have caused to gush forth from the ground, and
even from his fingers,1 cannot be relied upon, since, if they were historical,
no such answer would have been given to the demands of the Quraish as is given in this
passage. Instead of this, the answer would have been a declaration of his ability to do
such things. In Surah xxix. 49, 50, we find the same demand for a miracle, and the same
refusal to give any sign except the Qur'an itself. "And they said, 'Unless there be
sent down upon him signs from his Lord . . .' Say thou: 'Verily the signs are with God,
and verily I am an evident warner.' Hath it not sufficed them that We have sent down upon
thee the Book? It is being read aloud over them: verily in that is surely mercy and
warning to a people who believe."
From these passages it is clear that the Qur'an teaches us that Muhammad had no power
to work miracles, and that the verses of the Qur'an (for this very. reason called "
signs "آيات) are sufficient proof 2 of his being a Prophet. We have
already in a previous 3 chapter inquired into this matter, and have seen that
something more than mere elegance of style is needed to prove that a book has really been
sent down from God Most High.
Some Muslims, however, assert that in the Qur'an itself two special miracles of
Muhammad are definitely
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mentioned. One of these is the alleged Splitting of the Moon. It is true that
in Surah liv. 1 it is written "The Hour hath drawn near, and the moon hath been
split." But for many reasons this verse does not prove that any such miracle was
wrought by Muhammad. (1) If it meant this, it would contradict Surah xvii. 61; whereas
Muslims deny that there is any self-contradiction in the Qur'an. (2) Muhammad is not
mentioned in this verse in connexion with the splitting of the moon: neither in Suratu'l
Qamar nor in any other Surah is he said to have had anything whatever to do with it. Nor
does the Qur'an call it a miracle, nor does it say that the Splitting of the Moon was in
any way a sign of Muhammad's Divine commission. If the Qur'an had meant that Muhammad
wrought so stupendous a miracle, it would have said so, just as the Old Testament and the
New clearly record certain definite miracles wrought by Moses, Christ, and His Apostles
respectively. (3) If Muhammad had split the moon asunder, the Qur'an would certainly have
stated this in answer to the demands of the Quraish in Surahs xiii. 30 and xvii. 92-95,
for commentators agree in holding that Surah liv. "descended" before either of
these two. (4) Injury done to a creature of God like the moon would be a sign of great
power, but it would not necessarily prove that the person who exercised that power had a
commission from God. (5) Had any such phenomenon occurred, it would have been observed all
over the earth, and would have been recorded in the histories of many nations as a most
astounding event. Those who know from Astronomy the size of the moon, and what effect its
splitting in two and the wide separation of the portions from one another would have had
upon the earth, will not contend that this really occurred. (6) Moreover, no history
records such an event, or even the appearance of the moon being split in two, and some
leading Muslim commentators deny that the Suratu'l Qamar implies that anything of the kind
ever occurred. Al Baizawi
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