The Miracles of the Prophets and Imams

Another hadith of the Imam (A.S.) is one in which he was asked by Ibn al-Sakit, "Why did the Almighty and Exalted God send Mousa (Moses) ibn Imran (A.S.) with a miraculous cane and white hand and the tool of sorcery, Isa (Jesus, AS) with miraculous medicine, and Muhammad (A.S.) with miraculous speech and oratory?" The Imam (A.S.) said, "When the Almighty and the Exalted God sent Moses (A.S.), sorcery dominated the minds of people of his time, so he brought them from the Almighty and the Exalted something which they never had, nor could they bring about anything like it, thus rendering their sorcery void and proving his argument against them. When the Almighty and the Exalted God sent Jesus during a period when chronic diseases became widespread and people were in dire need of a cure. Jesus (A.S.) brought them from God the Almighty and the Exalted something they never had, bringing the dead back to life, curing those born blind and the lepers by the Will of God, proving his argument against them. And when the Almighty and Exalted God sent Muhammad (S.A.W.) during the time when speeches and oratory (and I think he said with poetry, too), he brought them the Book of the Almighty and the Exalted God and with pieces of wisdom and counsel thereby he voided their arguments." Ibn al-Sakit said, "By God I have never seen anyone like you! What is the argument against people these days, then?" He answered, "Reason. Through it can you come to know who tells the truth about God and you believe in him, and who tells lies about God and you disbelieve in him." Ibn al-Sakit said, "This, by God, is the right answer..."
A miracle is a super-natural thing which the ordinary individual is unable to perform due to his limited energies and motivational powers. Miracles are different from sorcery. Sorcery is not an actual super-natural act but a swift movement which causes the viewer to see the realities turned upside down, or changes the visible picture into its contrary. This may take place by subjecting the viewer to obscure effects which veil from his sight a certain colour or a certain picture. What leads us to that conclusion is the statement of the Almighty in the context of narrating how Moses (A.S.) fared with the wizards from the descendants of Israel, saying, "So their ropes and their canes seemed to him, because of their sorcery, as though they were crawling."[1] Sorcery, then, is nothing more than stimulating the imagination, making things look different than they are, and causing one to fall under a magical spell. As regarding what a miracle is, it is an actual result of a super-natural deed intended to win the argument against people in the process of proving one's true prophethood and mission, and it is an act which God causes to happen. It is different from sorcery because it is not subjected to psychological effects, or complications in the movement, but a broadening of the energy which affects matters viewed by man due to the effect of the Might of God. In narrating the story of Moses (A.S.), the Almighty stated, "And (appoint him) an apostle to the children of Israel, (with this message): `I have come to you, with a Sign from your Lord, in that I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by God's leave; and I heal those born blind, and the lepers, and I bring the dead back to life by God's leave.'"[2] And the Almighty has also said, "And it was never the part of an apostle to bring a Sign except as God permitted. For each period is a Book (revealed)."[3]
Every one of the Prophets had a miracle which distinguished him from other prophets and messengers and which was in harmony, in its own particular way, with the common phenomena which prevailed upon the social condition of the time so that the psychological effect caused by its miraculous effect would become a reality, as the Imam (A.S.) meant in the tradition above. The miracles of prophets, according to the contexts of the verses and narratives, were not the result of the effect of a natural human energy; rather, they were the results of a creative energy whereby God distinguished His Prophets for the purpose of establishing the superiority of their argument when such a miracle was necessitated by the mission.
As regarding the miracles of the Imams which are reported in order to testify to their Imamate and to their being the most rightful for the post of caliphate, this is not something unusual about them since they were selected by God to be His vicegerents on earth, entrusting them with the message after His Prophet (S.A.W.), but what must be researched is that many such miracles were proven to have been performed by them and were attested to by an acceptable medium.
But the Imams never needed a miracle beyond the qualifications of knowledge and conduct which distinguished them in order to prove the authenticity of their Imamate, for the qualifications which characterized them were by themselves the miracles proving their right.
We have said that the miracle is the super-natural phenomenon which in its own particular way agrees with the general phenomena which dominated the social reality of its time, and the common phenomenon which enjoyed a clear priority during the time of the Imams was knowledge; therefore, it is mandatory that their miracles proving their Imamate should be super-natural knowledge whereby they rise above all other levels of their contemporary folks. Imam al-Reza (A.S.) was asked about the phenomenon whereby an Imam could be identified as an Imam when his time comes as an accurate indication of his Imamate, and he answered by saying, "It is knowledge, and God's response to his plea."
In a tradition regarding the distinctions of an Imam, he said, "His indications are in two attributes: knowledge and God's answer to his plea, and all the events which he foretold before their occurrence, for that is according to a promise made to him by the Messenger of God (S.A.W.) which he inherited from his forefathers, peace be upon them, which in turn would be among matters told to the Prophet (S.A.W.) through Gabriel from God, the Knower of the Unseen and the Unknown, Glory be to Him."
This statement of the Imam (A.S.) leads us to realize that the miracle should be in harmony with the phenomenon of the time, thus proving the argument. Each of the two requirements mentioned by the Imam were actually satisfied in him and in all other Imams; through them, their super-natural miracle is completed, without the need to prove their Imamate, or to prove its authenticity by other miracles the truth about many of which we may not have a way to prove. It is also a clear answer to those who accused the Imams (A.S.) of claiming to know the unknown due to their foretelling of events which were yet to occur and which did take place after that. All this, according to the context of the statement of the Imam (A.S.), is the knowledge which they gained as a prerogative privilege they inherited from their grandfather the Messenger of God (S.A.W.) according to the commandments of the Almighty and Exalted God so that their distinction might be evident to the public and they would be distinguished from all other segments of the nation.
Notes:
1- Taha:66
2- Aali 'Imran:49
3- Al Ra'd:38