Auron ka hai Payaam aur, mera Payaam aur hai, / Ishq key dardmand ka tarz–e–kalaam aur hai! (Iqbal)
For anyone seriously looking for miracles and proofs, 99 of them should be sufficient, wouldn’t you say? But apparently that is not how these things work. Apparently, it is all fun and games for a whole lot of us, albeit some very good, clean and, should I say, holy or sacred fun.
But to me this is serious business. So I am going to put all of us to work.
So, here is what I want us to do. With every argument I make and with every proof or piece of evidence I point out, let us clearly say yes or no. Let us not just keep on reading and moving on without making a personal determination and commitment with regard to each one of the proofs I present.
And then I want us to count, tabulate and document these points and these miracles and proofs. And then go out and ask ourselves who else has got them or who can match or surpass them. That is the work I want you to do: every one of you who is reading these words.
Is that fair? Yes or no? Ask and answer that question.
That means no more business as usual for us. So, ladies and gentlemen, get up on your toes and do some homework, some hard work if you can.
Let us then begin by talking, one more time, about the miracles of Allah’s most beautiful names. For, to me, no matter where I look in Islam, what I find is a cornucopia of splendours, wonders and miracles. And proofs that this whole thing could only have come from God Almighty. And there is no way any human agency – either an individual or a committee – could have invented any of this.
Al–Asmaa’ Al–Husnaa – Allah’s most beautiful names – is how the Qur’ān refers to God’s beautiful names.
What a beautiful, miraculous expression, in and of itself: Al–Asmaa’ Al–Husnaa – the most beautiful names! Yes or no? And this expression has come to be associated – almost exclusively – with the names of Almighty Allah. Is this not a most amazing and wonderful miracle in and of itself?
Yes or no? What do you think?
The Qur’ān gives these names to us. And it does so through the mouth of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam. Those who do not believe Qur’ān is God’s word have to then accept that it is the word of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
If God is not the one performing these wonders and miracles then Muhammad is: Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam. No reasonable person denies or disputes that.
Either way it is a strong argument – it is proof in a probabilistic sense – of their very special and most likely – and evidently and absolutely if you ask me – divine nature and origin.
And thereafter we can marvel at the individual miracles that those individual names contain – each one of them separately – if they could be separated at all. All ninety–nine of them by some official counts, including some Hadith of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
And more by some counts. But beyond all count in reality and truth.
For, to God, and to God alone, belong all beautiful names. For, how could it be otherwise? How could any or all of those glorious names belong to anyone else? For, then that person would be God, wouldn’t he? That is how reasonable and rational, and if you ask me perfectly scientific, systematic and logical, Islam is.
How could anything of any kind, including perfection, belong to anyone else, when he is the one – the only one – who made and owns everything? And when no one else made or can make anything, and therefore can really lay claim to nothing? When he alone is perfect and no one else is?
This is not a matter of so–called faith or belief I am talking about. But a simple and directly observable reality about the world in which we live.
Nothing at all – not a thing, big or small, not one iota – belongs to or is made by anyone else. Not a grain of sand; not a blade of grass; not a drop of water. Not, as the Qur’ān taught us to realise 1400 years ago, even an atom’s worth or something even smaller and tinier than an atom!
Just consider that. The Qur’ānic miracle of the atom.
And then ponder over the miracle of there being an atomic theory in the Qur’ān? An atom – Dharrah – or a part thereof! That is right. That is what the Qur’ān talks about: an atom or something tinier and smaller than an atom. Atom split into particles and each particle taken and spoken about in the Qur’ān in its own right.
Fourteen hundred years ago. That is when it happened on this earth. That is when the Qur’ān reached our hands in this world. If this is not a miracle then what is it?
Tell me if it is or it is not a miracle. Yes or no.
QUR’ĀN’S ATOMIC THEORY
Does anyone even realize what is being said here? And this was hundreds of years before the world realized there were atoms in this world. Or that an individual atom itself could be split and divided into its many component parts – protons, neutrons, and whatever else it is that an atom is supposed to be made up of.
Talk about miracles – in the Qur’ān! And in Islam! Propounding an atomic theory before a millennium and a half before the world came around to thinking about it?
And all those living and ongoing miracles in the everyday life of Muslims themselves – such as the Muslims are – if only I had the time to explain each one of them separately.
KEY TO TRUE HAPPINESS
It is therefore in the understanding and acceptance of these miracles that human happiness really lies. Nor just for ourselves but also for others. Not just for this or that group, but for all human beings.
Key to true happiness, therefore, is to realize and to believe that it is to Allah that everything belongs. And it is Allah, therefore, that owns, plans, runs and manages everything.
To know this, and to accept it with the fullness of one’s heart, is where true happiness and success really lie – both here and in the hereafter. To deny and turn away from it is the sure path to a miserable existence – both here and in the hereafter.
These miracles and these proofs then are our pathway to success and happiness, not only in this world, but also in the next world. To turn a blind eye to them is to invite disaster for ourselves and for others.
As the Qur’ān says: Wa Man A’arada ‘An Dhikree, Fa–Inna Lahoo Ma’eeshatan Dankaa. Paraphrase: those who turn away from me, what a miserable existence awaits them.
[Write to the author at [email protected]. Also visit www.IslamicSolutions.Com and Listen to Pasha Hour International.]