Library Islam Philosophy of Islam chapter 05 - The World is a Dependent Reality Special signs
Special signs
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Special signs
The claim of the prophets to have contact with an immaterial and imperceptible source by means of revelation being of an extraordinary nature, some people who admit the integrity, uprightness, sincerity and sagacity of such claimants, still have doubts about their prophethood.
These people demand some special signs to prove the contact of a prophet with the immaterial source. They expect a prophet to do things which it is not possible for a human being to do and which cannot be explained away by natural and normal reasons. In other words they wish them to work a miracle. One or more miracles give them the complete satisfaction which cannot be achieved by any other means. Anyhow there are some people who regard the miracles as mere jugglery and are not satisfied with them by any means.
In view of all these aspects of the question we once more emphasize that the best way to identify a prophet is, for those who can do so, to study his personality, his antecedents, his aims and his accomplishments.
Such an all‑round study is the best way to ascertain whether a claimant is really a prophet who is favoured with Divine revelation, a genius who has pretended to be a prophet, a mere juggler who has made such a claim for self‑aggrandizement only, or an abnormal person suffering from delusions. In any case all that a prophet claims is that he is a human being like other human beings, he eats and drinks like them and leads a normal human life. But he has experienced a big change in himself ‑ a sudden transition, or in the words of the prophets themselves, they have been endowed with a Divine gift. He knows well that this transition has come from Allah and that all the extraordinary excellence found in him and his teachings is due to this transition or Divine gift.
If you study carefully from the authentic sources the life‑history of the Prophet of Islam, from his birth to his prophethood and from that time to his death, you will find a clear example of this transition, which in itself is an eloquent sign of the existence of Allah.
