Library Islam Philosophy of Islam chapter 06 - Monotheism of the Qur’an The miracles
The miracles
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The miracles
A sensible man having some knowledge can easily understand the nature of miracles if he takes into consideration the relation of material causes to Allah, His will and His command. The Islamic outlook on the world supports the occurrence of miracles. It finds no contradiction between it and the law of causation, which enunciates that no phenomenon appears without a cause, because from the Qur'anic point of view a miracle is a phenomenon which has a special cause, viz. the will of Allah.
Not only this that the occurrence of the miracles has no contradiction with the universal law of causation in principle but for practical purposes also it is not inconsistent with the normal system of cause and effect. Man while evaluating the scientific and experimental laws does, not sit waiting for the discovery of absolute and unexceptionable rules. All those who are conversant with the advanced experimental sciences know well that the law of relativism is applicable to most of the laws of these sciences. The discreet and well‑informed scientists do not believe in their absolute and one hundred per cent reliability. Anyhow, they use these relative laws in their scientific studies and depend on them in arriving at scientific and technical results, unless the subsequent scientific progress proves the falsity of any one of them.
In our ordinary day‑to‑day life also we do not sit waiting for the one hundred per cent reliability of anything.
All sensible persons of the world travel by cars, railway trains, ships and aeroplanes serviced by experienced technicians and driven by dutiful drivers, navigators and pilots, though all know that none of these means of transport can be relied upon one hundred per cent. The most well equipped means of transport, serviced and guided by the most experienced and responsible personnel, may occasionally meet an accident or go out of order and overturn. The reason is that man bases his calculations on normal conditions, and not on exceptional circumstances, especially such exceptional circumstances the chance of which is very meagre, say one per thousand or even lesser. The miraculous events take place in very exceptional circumstances by the command of Allah. Their ratio to the normal events is extremely meagre, even less than one per million. From this it is evident that belief in the occurrence of miracles by the will and command of Allah does not militate against the value and theoretical and practical reliability of the normal system of cause and effect.
