Our Creator, who created the realm of living creatures in the most perfect manner, designed all creatures as a wonderful work of art and a book of wisdom and it is the requirement of His wisdom to send a guide that will let us see the beauties of these creatures and read these books of wisdom and make them known by us because an inapprehensible book without a teacher is no more than a nonsensical page. The universe is just like a wonderful book that contains such deep meanings.
Since the wisdom of our creator requires sending a guide and teacher, of course, His guide or teacher will have reason and mind. Since He will select this guide among the ones who have reason, He will select the one who is perfect both in talent and morals. This slave is the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who has been approved both by allies and foes.
The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the exemplary person and the teacher who was selected by God for us as His slaves. He faced the denial of the people when He started to declare the divine case just like all other prophets who were given the duty of prophethood. As a custom of God, every prophet showed some miracles in order to prove the authenticity of their case. Miracles are actions that stun its witnesses. That is, showing a deed which cannot be done by those who see it. Though this deed is seen as a deed of the prophet, it is actually a deed which is made by God through the hands of the prophet; that is, the real doer is God. So, the miracles of the prophets are deeds which are beyond the capacity of other people shown by prophets and created by God that strengthen the belief of believers and cause unbelievers to have belief. For example, “the flowing of water from a hand’s fingers like a fountain” is a deed that a man cannot do. With the permission of God, the prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’s quenching the thirst of His army with the water flowing from his five fingers just like a fountain with five taps is a miracle. (1)
The biggest and eternal miracle of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the Qur’an. The Qur’an’s rhetoric and scientific news and declarations which inspire the discoveries of the scientific environment and hundreds of its miracles such as prophesies have been proved. As time passes, the Qur’an becomes young and its new miraculous aspects are founded.
The biggest miracle of our prophet Muhammad (PBUH) after the Qur’an is his own personality. That is, the highest level of morals and talents that are gathered in him have miraculous qualities. It is so apparent that many companions like Abdullah bin Salam who was at first a Jewish scholar became a Muslim by only seeing His face and saying “This face has no lying, this face cannot have any cheating!..” (2) We refer such miraculous qualities of our prophet (PBUH) to the section called “The Exemplary Ethics of the Prophet”.
There are also miracles shown by him some of which are presented in the Qur’an and a great majority of which are reported in history and sirah books (the life history of the Prophet). There are over a thousand miracles of him such as the prophesies that come true, foods and drinks that get fertile with his touch, ill ones that are healed, the splitting of the moon with a mark of his finger, the miracle of Miraj (ascension), and his miracles on animals and trees. (3)
Every prophet showed miracles. (4) However not every prophet showed miracles in every subject. For example, all prophets showed miracles in certain areas like Hz. Isa’s (pbuh) showing miracle in the area of medical science (5) or Hz. Sulayman’s (Solomon) commanding the Jinn and animals. (6) However, the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was supported by all kinds of miracles. The reason of this can be explained by the fact that his prophethood is for all of the universe and humanity. A Sultan’s grand messenger goes to a village for a subject that interests all inhabitants of that place and the people from all levels there welcome and give presents to him. Similarly, when the Lord of realms sent His messenger, the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) whose religion and invitation is for all, from the realms of angels to the creatures both living and non-living thing cause him to show miracles and the whole universe merely welcomed him by acclaiming him and they presented their spiritual gifts to Him.
In this work, we will present you the authentic miracles of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by classifying them under headings. In our work, we have used the method which is used in the work titled The Miracles of Muhammad (PBUH) (The LETTERS, The Nineteenth Letter) by Badiuzzaman Said NURSI and from time to time we will quote from it. We have also based the arrangement and classification of the miracles on the method in that book. We advise those who want to have further information to refer to that exceptional work.
Finally, we want to give brief information on frequently used terms such as tawatur, mutawatir (explicit consensus) and mutawatir manawi (consensus in meaning) and ahad (singular narration) that are both presented in miracles and riwayahs of this section and in the science of hadith.
Tawatur is the kind of glorious hadith which is transmitted by numerous authorities and about which there is no room for doubt.
Mutawatir (which is also called “explicit consensus” or “consensus in meaning.”) means transmitting a glorious hadith as it is by numerous authorities and about which there is no room for doubt.
Mutawatir manawi, (consensus in meaning)is transmitting a glorious hadith in terms of its meaning by numerous authorities and about which there is no room for doubt. That is, there is a certainty of the incident but there may be some differences in its details.
Ahad (also called singular narration) refers to news or hadiths narrated by only one narrator.
After having presented the basic information here, now we are starting to narrate the miracles.
(1) Muslim, Zuhd, 74, no. 3013; Ibn Hibban, Sahih, 8:159.
(2) Tirmidhi, Qiyama: 42: Ibn Maja, Iqama: 174, Atima: 1; Darimi, Salah: 156; Istidhan: 4 Musnad, 5:451.
(3) al-Asqalani, Fathul Bari, 6:454; Nawavi, Sharhu Sahih Muslim, 1:2.
(4) al-Anbiya, 21/5; Yunus, 10/74
(5) al-Maida, 5/110; Aali Imran, 3/49
(6) Al-Anbiya, 21/82l; an-Naml, 27/16