The Seventh Matter

The books of [the Prophet's] biography and works of history have described numerous of his perceptible miracles (mu'jizât mahsûsa), and the famous wonders he performed in the presence of the people, and these have been commented on by authoritative scholars. To teach what is already known would be superfluous, so we refer detailed discussion to their books and here we shall summarize [the miracles] by mentioning [only] their categories.

Concerning [the Prophet's] manifest wonders: although each of them has been transmitted from only one source (âhâdîyan) and there is no consensus concerning them (ghair mutawâtir), as a type and there being many in these categories they may be considered as being unanimously reported in respect of their meanings (mutawâtir bi'1-ma'nâ). They consist of three categories:

The First: [The various paranormal events that took place before the prophetic mission but which were related to it, called] "irhâsat." [These included] the Zoroastrians' fire being extinguished, the drying up of Lake Sava, the breaking into two of Chrosroes' portico, and the prognostications of hidden voices. A person might even fancy that the century in which the Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) was born was a highly sensitive wonderworker that had premonitions of his coming.

The Second Category: The many predictions of the future, including the conquest of the treasuries of the Persian and Byzantine rulers, the defeat of the Byzantines, the conquest of Mecca, and so on. As if [the Messenger's] ethereal, winged spirit rent the bonds of fixed time and space, roamed in the climes of the future, then told us what it had witnessed.

The Third Category: Wonders that could be perceived by the physical senses and were performed during [the period of] his challenging [the existing order] and calling [to Islam]. [These included] stones speaking, trees moving, the splitting of the moon, and water flowing [from his fingers], al-Zamakhsharî stated that there were as many as a thousand [miracles] of this category. Some of these have been reported unanimously but not literally (mutawâtir bi'1-ma'nâ). In fact, even those who denied the Qur'an could not tamper with the verse "And the moon is split."(54:1)

• If you were to ask: Something like the splitting of the moon should have become world famous and known by everyone?

You would be told: [Factors like] differences in the time of its rising, and the existence of cloud, and there being little observation of the skies at that time, and its occurrence at an hour [people are] inattentive, during the night, and its occurring instantaneously, all meant that it was not seen by everyone or most people. Nevertheless, it has been established in narrations that it was witnessed by many caravans for which the moon's position was similar to that [of Mecca].

However, the chief of these miracles is the Perspicuous Qur'an whose proven miraculousness in seven aspects is indicated by this verse.(2:23)

Friend! If you have understood these matters listen now to what you will be told about the three aspects of the verses' positioning and word-order: the verse's positioning in relation to what preceded it; the positioning [and relationships] of some of its phrases; the positioning [and relationships] of the parts of the phrases.