There are at least eighty examples similar to these eight instances. When they are put together, they form a chain so strong that no doubt can break it or shake it. Taken as a whole, this sort of miracle, that is, the speaking of inanimate beings in order to testify  to  Muhammad’s  (UWBP)  prophethood,  expresses  the  same  certainty  as ‘consensus in meaning.’ Each example is strengthened by the whole. Yes, a slender pole becomes strong when put together with stout poles. If he joins the army and becomes  a soldier,  a  weak,  powerless  man  gains  strength  enough  to  challenge  a thousand men.

TWELFTH SIGN

This consists of three examples that are related to the Eleventh Sign, but are of the greatest importance.

F i r s t  E x a m p l e : “And when you threw, it was not you who threw; it was rather God that threw.”(8:17) As established by the researches of all Qur’anic commentators  and  the  reports  of  the  scholars  of  Hadith,  this  verse  refers  to  the following incident that occurred during the Battle of Badr:

God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) took up a handful of earth and small stones and threw them at the army of the unbelievers, saying: “May your faces be deformed!”,  and just as these words entered  the ears of all of them despite being a single phrase, so too the handful of earth entered all their eyes. They all became preoccupied with their eyes, and although on the attack, the army suddenly turned tail and fled.[179]

Also during the Battle of Hunayn[180] the authorities on Hadith and foremost Imam Muslim report that like at the Battle of Badr, he again threw a handful of earth while the unbelievers were staging a fierce attack. Saying: “May your faces be deformed!”, the handful of earth struck the faces of each of them, with God’s leave, the same as words of the phrase entered all their ears. Busy with their eyes, they retreated and fled. Since this extraordinary event at Badr and Hunayn is not within man’s power and ordinary causes, the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition states, “When you threw, it was not you who threw; it was rather God that threw.” That is, the event was outside human power. It occurred, not through human agency but in an extraordinary manner, through divine power.

S e c o n d  E x a m p l e : The accurate books and foremost Bukhari and Muslim narrate that during the Khaybar expedition, a Jewess roasted a goat, filling it with a very strong poison.

[179] al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id, vi, 84.

[180] Muslim, Jihad, 76, 81 (Bab: Shahat al-Vujuh); Musnad, v, 286.