Religion is different from superstitious belief . But if there is a common point between religion and superstitions, it is that both claim things that cannot be experimented scientifically. Magical tricks and miracles belong to these kind of things. It is commonly accepted by all people of wisdom that a small percentage of humans are capable of doing thing beyond logical explanation. Some researches done at the university of Stanford in the USA had proven that some people had what was refereed to as a sixth sense. Regardless of their religion of ethnic-al origin,they could count items in a closed box, use telepathy to communicate from distance and even guess what people were thinking. Some Chinese soothsayers or Indian Fakirs among many others, could performed things beyond understanding such as flying(apparently) , etc.. We are going to name 6 main criteria we can use to distinguish the miracles performed by Prophets and men of God form that of common people or magicians.
1-The miracles of prophets are so unique that they cannot be reproduced by others.
The miracles of the prophets ( and men of God) are extraordinary actions performed in the contexts of the revelations of scriptures or signs from the divine.. For example, in the time of Pharaohs, Some power rested on solid achievements of famous magicians. So God let Moses challenge the magicians with a most powerful magic. For instance, in one of the performances, The serpents that the magicians caste by throwing their sticks were swallowed by that of Moses. The miracle of Moses is contrary to the law of the magicians of that time. If there is something that magicians can perform then it is not unique and is known by other magicians.
“They said, Moses, will you throw something down or shall we be the ones to throw. “he said:” You throw! So when, they charmed people’s eyes and overawed them. They produced a splendid black magic. And we revealed to Moses: ‘ Cast thy stuff.’ And lo, it forthwith swallowed up their lying invention. So the truth came to pass, and false was proven what they were doing” (Qu’ran 7:117-122)
Similarly, In the time of Jesus there were of lot of healers who could heal various sicknesses. Thus God gave Jesus the power to cure lepers, and to bring back a dead man to life, something that none of the healers of that time could do. The miracle of Jesus is a challenge to all the healers who could do all kinds of things but could not reproduce the action. It his also a sign of the power of God as well as the proof of the prophethood of Jesus.
….We gave clear signs to Jesus, the son of Mary and strengthened hitm with the Holy Spirit…..(qu’ran 2:87)
And when Muhammad, the unlettered prophet started his recitation of the divine book, Arabia of his time was well versed in poetry but his recitation had the features to challenge all the poems that the scholars of that time had composed. The book cannot be reproduced or if when reproduced cannot has the same effect. And the qu’ran is unique in terms of its content and composition. Although apparently disorganised, there is a sophisticated coherence in its structure and content.
“Do they consider the qu’ran (with care)? Had it been from other than God, they would surely have found therein many contradictions”
2- The miracles of prophets are performed only by truthful people
The prophets of God were truthful in whatever they performed and their predictions always came true. Magicians (sorcerers) work with evil spirits and can predicts some events accurately but will add a lot of lies because they don’t have all information from angels.
Moreover, sorcerers may not be known as righteous people in the society were they lived. Many of them are engaged I `n prohibited things and pursuit of wordly pleasure and interest. Thus every miraculous action they performed is accompanied by acts of disbelief(Kufr). Prophets and men of God enjoin good and forbid evil and cannot be harmed by Satan but magicians and sorcerers often live in a state of psychological misery with tremendous problems in familial and marital lives.
On the contrary, prophets of God were righteous people. They were known as honest, patient, just, and forgiving. Many Christians believe that Jesus never committed a single sin and never told a lie. Muhammad was known to be humble, truthful, helpful and compassionate.`
3- Fake miracles based on witchcraft and divination can be learned but divine signs are from chosen prophets or men of God according to their mission
The process of acquiring enhanced capacities might have something in common with ethical principles taught by religions, But the miracles created by such capacities are different from that of men of God. Men of God never believe in superstitions and magic and could challenge superstitions and magic as falsehood. Those who practice magic know each others and can teach and pass their knowledge though evil spirits (jinns) and can challenge each other according to their degree of training. Miracles give to prophets are signs of God and unique in space and time. But as reported in Qu;’ran 2:102,, Magic was taught as is a trial and a path to perdition.
They followed what the devils taught during the reign of Salomon. Salomon never disbelief, but the devils were disbelievers teaching black magic to the people. They also taught that which was revealed to the two angels Haroot and Maaroot in Babylon. The two never taught anyone without first advising them , “ We are merely a test, so do not disbelief”. So They learned form the two such things that could separate a man from his wife. However they could never harm anyone with him without the will of God. They learned things that are harmful to them and did them no good. Without doubt, they knew that there is no share in the hereafter for those who purchased it. Evil indeed is the price for which they sold their souls. If only they knew. (qu’ran 2:102)
Wonders are also performed by chosen individuals to give a sign to the believers. The chosen ones might perform actions based of knowledge of the attributes of God or some recommended actions. This cannot simply be done by inspiration as in the case of prophets by are being taught to specific people according to the necessity of their mission. The nearness to God is a condition to reach some stages of .
Imam Rabani while speaking about the miracles of men of God said: “ People expect miracles from religious men but some religious men do not have any power to perform miracles(Karamats) but are close to God through adhering to the teachings of the prophets.”
4. Divine miracles were revealed and some recorded in books whereas normal miracles are based on esoteric and philosophical teachings
Some enhanced capacities originated from philosophical principles . Lao tse, Buddha , Confucius among others, taught basic ethical principles that may enable transcendence in the wordly sense. Guantama Buddha taught people to meditate and give up unnecessary wordly ambitions through ascetic life. These philosophies also taught patience, mutual assistance, and forbidden evil in the same way as known religions but were not based of the concept of a unique God creator of everything. Their knowledege is not based on divine revelations and can be transmitted from generations to generations through lectures.
Even though the Buddha was against idolatry, Buddha never mentioned a divine entity at the origin of creation. It is probably though interpretation of his philosophy extreme admiration of some of his followers that he is his considered as a state of divinity. Indeed through following this philosophy you can be freed from ignorance but there is no guarantee about the hereafter. The concept of Nirvana is liberation not salvation.
Superhuman capacities might enable you achieve wordly goals but you can only come close to God through adhering to his commands, and in so doing you achieve peace in this world and felicity in the hereafter.
5 -Divine miracles are performed only for the sake God
The Dajjal will perform a lot of miracles but they will be performed for people to believe in him, that he is the new leader of a new group of special people who are saved. The miracles of the prophets were performed for the sake of God only. Thus even learned religious saints did miraculous actions to produce water and food to nourish people who were starving, Their miracles are not fro their own sake but for the benefit of the oppressed or those in a difficult situation there is a famous Hadith about intention and sincerity of actions. The Hadith is about the three first people to enter Hell fire. All three performed very honourable actions but were rewarded in this world as it was their intention. So, on the day of judgement their actions were rewarded because they were performed for wordly purposes.
The miracles that the prophets and men of God perform are not for wordly achievements but to show a sign to those who believe.
6–Fake miracles can be undone by following the commandments of God, but actions performed miraculously by prophets of men of God cannot be undone.
If a miracle has been performed by a trick of the magicians, following the commandments of God and strictly adhering on what is enjoined and giving up what is forbidden can undo the action of the magician by the permission of God.
Whereas the predictions of Prophets were accurate as they said things that came to happen in their lifetime, perditions of magicians are messages from jinns who steal some information about future events and add lies on them. Moreover predictions of fortune-tellers, astrologers, clairvoyants and false prophets are vague and with lack of precise time frame. Things may occur that are similar to the vague predictions but will be mere coincidences. In cases they will give a time frame they will fail in their predictions.
A good demonstration is a prediction of the 16thh century French Occultist Nostradamus.
From the time I am writing this before 177 years, 3 months and 11 days, by pestilence, long famine, and wars, and more still by inundations, the world between this day and that, before and after, shall be diminished, and its population so reduced that there will hardly be hands enough to attend to agriculture, and the lands will be left as long without culture as they have been under tillage.
This prophecy never materialised as the time was 1555. The population of the world grew on the contrary of the predictions and there were major advances in agriculture after the predictions.
