MIRACLES -ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE IN BRIEF:PART 8.

From the Layman’s (Nasir Ali) Desk-7: Miracles –Islamic perspective in brief:

Part 8 – Continued….


In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful.


From Shawahid an-Nabuwwa of Noorudin al-Jami (d.1492 c.e.) also, we learn of the karamaat of Sahaba al-Kiraam and the Tabiian, and a few of which are mentioned below:


1. Abu Bakr ® the first Caliph of Islam, willed at the time he was about to leave the world that his children would be looked after by Aisha ®. He said: My son and two daughters, I entrust them to you.” Now other than Aisha ® he had only one daughter named Asma. Aisha ® asked: “ I have only one sister, who is the other sister of mine?” He said, “My wife is pregnant. I think she will have a baby-girl.” Indeed, after his demise, a baby girl was born to his wife as he had said. [This is also reported by ash-Shatibi in 'al-Muwafaqat' (4/85), and Ibn Taymiyyah in 'Majmu' al-Fatawa' (11/318)]

2. When he was about to die, Hazrat Ali ® instructed his son, Husain ®: “Take my coffin to a place called ‘Arnanin where you will see a luminous white rock. Dig up a grave and bury me there.” They carried out the instruction and actually saw what Hazrat Ali ® had told.

3. While travelling with ‘Abdullah ibn Zubair ®, Hazrat Hasan ® stopped to take rest at a date grove. The date palms having withered, ibn Zubair ® said: “How nice it would have been if there were dates on the tree!”  Thereupon, Hazrat Hasan ® supplicated to Allah. Soon a palm bloomed into clusters of dates. Seeing this, the people around him said: “This is magic”! Hasan ® said: “No, it is not. Allah the Exalted created it because of the supplication of the grandson of the Messenger of Allah (sallal laahu alaihi wassallam)”. 

 4. Abdullah ibn Umar ® while travelling once met some wayfarers who were waiting on the road. He asked them what had held them there. A traveler replied: “We’ve heard that there is a lion on the way. That’s why no one can traverse further. Abdullah ibn Umar ()R) went up to the lion and patting its back, removed it away from the road.

5. According to an account stated by Safina ®, an ex-slave having been set free by the Messenger of Allah (sallal laahu alaihi wassallam), he was travelling by ship when a tempest set in and the ship was wrecked. He clung to a log and was driven ashore by waves. He now had to cross a forest on his inland. A lion came out of the forest. He told the lion that he was a Companion of the Messenger of Allah (sallal laahu alaihi wassallam). The lion bowed its neck and led him out of the forest. The lion murmured something at the time of parting. He understood that the murmuring as bidding a farewell to him.

6. Once Ali ibn Husain (also known as Zain al-Abidin ®) was dining in the countryside along with the members of his household. A gazelle approached and stood waiting. He said: “O gazelle! I’m Ali ibn Husain ibn Ali, and my mother is Fatima the daughter of Rasool (sallal laahu alaihi wassallam). Come and eat too.” The gazelle did eat after which it went away. The children begged him to call the gazelle again. He said: “I shall, only if you will not disturb it.” The children agreed. He called out the gazelle again. The gazelle came up to them and ate its fill. Only when one of the children patted its back, that it shied away from them.


7. A blind Muslim came to Abdullah ibn Mubarak (d.181H/797 c.e.) and begged him to pray for his sight. Abdullah prayed long, and soon the blind man gained his sight. Many people witnessed this incident. Among those who saw the blind man coming to Abdullah ibn Mubarak was al-Fudhail bin Iyadh.

8. Hamid at-Tawil narrated: A brick fell when closing the grave of Thabit al-Banani (rahimah-Allahu ta'ala)after his burial. They saw al-Banani performing ‘salaat’ (the ritual prayer or Namaaz) in the grave. Thereupon, they went to his house and inquired from his daughter about her father. She informed them that her father performed salaat late every night for fifty years and habitually supplicated before dawn: “O my Allah! If you have granted the performance of salaat in the grave to anyone besides the prophets, let it fall to my lot too.”

9. Once Ayyub as-Sahtiyani (rahimah-Allahu ta'ala) had a hard time in the desert with his friend who was so thirsty that his tongue hung from his mouth. "Do you have a problem?" he asked. "I am about to die of thirst," his friend said. "If you will not tell anybody, I may find you water," he said. His friend swore that he would not. Then, he stamped his foot on the ground and a spring gushed out. They drank to their fill. His friend did not explain the event to anybody until Ayyub died.


Let us now turn to Yusuf an-Nabhani (1849-1932 c.e.) who wrote forty-seven valuable books has also documented the Karamaat of fifty-four as-Sahaaba, corroborated by eye-witness account, in his book two-volume Jami’ al-Karamat-al- Awliya [Compendium of Miraculous Gifts of Friend of Allah]. Some of these Karamaat are in fact well known:

1. During the time of Caliphate of Hazrat ‘Umar ® the Muslim army was engaging a huge army of the Persians who outnumbered them five to one. Sariya, the commander of the Muslim army, engaged the Persians on the plain of Nehavend (A.H.23). Just at the time when the Persian army was about to encircle the Muslim army, Hazrat Umar ® who was delivering a ‘Khutba’ (sermon) on the minbar of the Masjid at al-Madinah, came to know about the condition of the Muslim army. He cried out: Ya Sariya! To the hill! To the hill! Sariya and his companions heard the Caliph’s voice and backed off to the hill. Reorganizing themselves from there, they attacked the enemies on the plain, completely routing the Persians. (This incident is also reported in Bayhaqi’s Irshaad at-Taalibin on the authority of ibn Umar ®, and also by Ibn Katheer in Taareekh). It may be noted that when Sariya had heard the voice of Umar ® he was at a distance of two months’ journey from Madinah the Radiant, and the Muslim army was, in fact, outnumbered to the ratio of 1:5.


2. During the time of Hazrat ‘Uthman ® caliphate, Anas ibn Maalik ® visited him, and seeing him Hazrat Uthman ® remarked “I see there is a sign of ‘Zina’ (fornication) in your eyes. On his way to the Caliph, Anas had cast glances on a woman. This fornication of the eye became apparent to Hazrat ‘Uthman ® and hence constitutes a miracle. (This incident is also mentioned in Maktubat III, 19th letter, of Muhammad Mathum al-Farooqi).


Briefly, there are more miraculous incidents involving the Sahaba or Tabiian and others:


1. Hadith al-Ghaar: Story of three friends who were blocked in a cave by a huge rock, and how the rock shifted gradually on its own each time one of them narrated his good deeds, and finally they were freed when the rock moved completely aside.


2. A tradition related by Abu Huraira ® of infants who were miraculously endowed with speech (i.e. other than Jesus): A child who exculpated the monk Jurayj (Gregory) when he was falsely accused by a harlot; a child who divined the characters of a horseman and a woman.


3. The story of Khalid b. Waleed ® who said “Bismillah” and drank a deadly poison which did not harm him.


4. Hazrat Umar ® being saved by two lions when a Persian assassin was about to kill him.


5. The fire refusing to burn Abu Muslim al-Khawlani who was thrown into a burning fire when he had refused to acknowledge al-Aswad al-Ansi of Yemen as prophet. After being banished, Abu Muslim came to Madinah the Radiant and met Hazrat Umar ® who praised Allah for letting him see the man who had performed the same miracle as Ibrahim a.s. (recorded by Shaykh Abdullah Ayad al-Qarni).


To Continue, Insha Allah….


NASIR