The Quran

109

وَأَقسَموا بِاللَّهِ جَهدَ أَيمانِهِم لَئِن جاءَتهُم آيَةٌ لَيُؤمِنُنَّ بِها ۚ قُل إِنَّمَا الآياتُ عِندَ اللَّهِ ۖ وَما يُشعِرُكُم أَنَّها إِذا جاءَت لا يُؤمِنونَ

Muhammad Asad

Now they swear by God with their most solemn oaths that if a miracle were shown to them, they would indeed believe in this [divine writ]. Say: "Miracles are in the power of God alone."¹ And for all you know, even if one should be shown to them, they would not believe

Lit., "Miracles are only with God." It is to be noted that the Qur'anic term ayah denotes not only a "miracle" (in the sense of a happening that goes beyond the usual - that is, commonly observable - course of nature), but also a "sign" or "message": and the last-mentioned significance is the one which is by far the most frequently - met with in the Qur'an. Thus, what is commonly described as a "miracle" constitutes, in fact, an unusual message from God, indicating sometimes in a symbolic manner - a spiritual truth which would otherwise have remained hidden from man's intellect. But even such extraordinary, "miraculous" messages cannot be regarded as "supernatural": for the so-called "laws of nature" are only a perceptible manifestation of "God's way" (sunnat Allah) in respect of His creation - and, consequently, everything that exists and happens, or could conceivably exist or happen, is "natural" in the innermost sense of this word, irrespective of whether it conforms to the ordinary course of events or goes beyond it. Now since the extraordinary messages referred to manifest themselves, as a rule, through the instrumentality of those specially gifted and divinely elected personalities known as "prophets", these are sometimes spoken of as "performing miracles" - a misconception which the Qur'an removes by the words, "Miracles are in the power of God alone". (See also 17 :59 and the corresponding note 71.)