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Are there miracles in the Koran?

The Koran emphasizes signs and miracles over and over again. It’s important to have miraculous signs to back up the word of Allah. Allah is a miraculous Allah who exists in a spiritual dimension. He created the world. Allah must have control over it.

The Koran highlights over and over those miracles found in the Bible as examples of Allah’s signs.
  • Creation and making man from dust
  • Noah and the flood
  • Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
  • Moses and the plagues
The Koran understands that those miracles showed the power of Allah. In Surah 3:184, the Koran makes clear that God used miracles to confirm its message in the Bible (the Messengers who came before).

But does the Koran contain any unique miracles, separate from the Bible that supports it's own claims? The Koran records some miracles (separate from those that it borrows from the Bible):
  • Surah 3:13 – the Muslims won a battle against the Meccans at the Battle of Badr when they were outnumbered, 2 to 1.
  • Surah 7:73-79/Surah 15:80-82/Surah 26:155-158 – the miracle of the messenger Salih who came from the stubborn Thamud tribe. When they refused the message of monotheism, Salih caused a She-camel to come out of a rock, then told the Thamuds not to touch her. They rejected the challenge and killed the camel. A great earthquake came and destroyed their houses.
  • Surah 7:85-88 - the messenger Shu’aib who came to the Midians and told them to accept the message of the Koran. They rejected him and a great earthquake destroyed them.
  • Surah 9:25-26 – a reference is made the Battle of Hunain when God sent invisible warriors to win the battle. History shows that in 630 AD the Muslims with 12,000 soldiers fought the Meccans with 4,000.
  • Surah 17:1 – what Muslims call the Isra, when Muhammad claimed he made a night journey (by vision or in person) from Mecca to Jerusalem (or as some claim to Medina)
  • Surah 18 – the Sleepers of the Cave, the story of some youth who, while being persecuted, hid in a cave and slept for many years. God kept them alive until the persecution ended. The number is disputed.[1]
  • Surah 34 – The inhabitants of Sheba did not give thanks for their beautiful gardens, so Allah made the fruit bitter.
These “miracles” include some military fights but could be explained because the Muslims were expert warriors and strategists. Muhammad claims that their military power was a sign of their miraculous power.

So they rejected him, and We destroyed them. Verily in this is a Sign: but most of them do not believe. Surah 26:139

Is military prowess a sign from Allah or a result of fierce fighting, expert swordsmanship or strength in numbers?

Earthquakes are pretty amazing as long as they happened exactly after the rejection of the message and not one year later—making them a coincidence. Visions are powerful, but not the same as actually transporting to another location. Bitter fruit could mean a bad crop.[2]

Allah in the Koran claims he could produce miracles at a moment’s notice.

If (such) were Our Will, We could send down to them from the sky a Sign, to which they would bend their necks in humility. Surah 26:4

Why doesn’t he? God wants people to believe and miracles are the way.

The Koran reveals many times that the people of Muhammad’s day requested miracles to confirm the message he was preaching.

They say: “O thou to whom the Message is being revealed! truly thou art mad (or possessed)! “Why bringest thou not angels to us if it be that thou hast the Truth?” We send not the angels down except for just cause: if they came (to the ungodly), behold! no respite would they have! Surah 15:6-8

Would the presence of angels help Muhammad’s case? It certainly would have convinced some of those who were hard to convince.

Jesus did miracles all the time. Even the Koran agrees with this.

The number of miracles recorded by the Bible are incredible. With just Jesus alone we have these:
  • Curing of two blind men (Matt 9:27-31)
  • Piece of money in the fish’s mouth (Matt 17:24-27)
  • The deaf and dumb man (Mark 7:31-37)
  • The blind man of Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26)
  • Jesus passes unseen through the crowd (Luke 4:28-30)
  • The miraculous draught of fishes (Luke 5:4-11)
  • The raising of the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7:11-18)
  • The woman with the spirit of infirmity (Luke 13:11-17)
  • The man with the dropsy (Luke 14:1-6)
  • The ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19)
  • The healing of Malchus (Luke 22:50-51)
  • Water made wine (John 2:1-11)
  • Cure of nobleman’s son, Capernaum (John 4:46-54)
  • Impotent man at Bethsaida cured (John 5:1-9)
  • Man born blind cured (John 9:1-7)
  • Lazarus raised from the dead (John 11:38-44)
  • Draught of fishes (John 21:1-14)
  • Syrophoenician woman’s daughter cured (Matt 15:28; Mark 7:24)
  • Four thousand fed (Matt 15:32; Mark 8:1)
  • Fig tree blasted (Matt 21:18; Mark 11:12)
  • Centurion’s servant healed (Matt 8:5; Luke 7:1)
  • Blind and dumb demoniac cured (Matt 12:22; Luke 11:14)
  • Demoniac cured in synagogue at Capernaum (Mark 1:23; Luke 4:33)
  • Peter’s wife’s mother cured (Matt 8:14; Mark 1:30; Luke 4:38)
  • The tempest stilled (Matt 8:23; Mark 4:37; Luke 8:22)
  • Demoniacs of Gadara cured (Matt 8:28; Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26)
  • Swine rush into and drown (Mark 5:1-20)
  • Leper healed (Matt 8:2; Mark 1:40; Luke 5:12)
  • Jairus’s daughter raised (Matt 9:23; Mark 5:23; Luke 8:41)
  • Woman’s issue of blood cured (Matt 9:20; Mark 5:25; Luke 8:43)
  • Man sick of the palsy cured (Matt 9:2; Mark 2:3; Luke 5:18)
  • Man’s withered hand cured (Matt 12:10; Mark 3:1; Luke 6:6)
  • A lunatic child cured (Matt 17:14; Mark 9:14; Luke 9:37)
  • Two blind men cured (Matt 20:29; Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35)
  • Jesus walks on the sea (Matt 14:25; Mark 6:48; John 6:15)
  • Jesus feeds 5,000 “in a desert place” (Matt 14:15; Mark 6:30; Luke 9:10; John 6:1-14)
  • Many fulfilled prophecies
  • The conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35)
  • Star of Bethlehem
  • The transfiguration (Matt 17:1-8)
  • The resurrection (John 21:1-14)
  • The ascension (Luke 2:42-51)
The Koran makes this claim about Allah and his control over the natural world:

Surely Allah causes the grain and the stone to germinate; He brings forth the living from the dead and He is the bringer forth of the dead from the living; that is Allah! how are you then turned away. Surah 6:95

It is interesting to note that Jesus performed many of these same miracles that Muhammad states only Allah can do. Jesus fed thousands loaves of bread (grain).  He raised three people from the dead.  In addition, he controlled nature by allowing the fishermen to catch many fish (Luke 5). He cursed a fig tree and it died (Matthew 21). He walked on water, told the wind to stop blowing and cured many from sickness. If Surah 6:95 is the resume of God, then Jesus fulfills those qualifications by his miracles.
 
[1] This is actually a retelling of a legend called The Seven Sleepers of the Cave that started in 250 AD when Roman Emperor Decius persecuted the Christians. Seven young men hid in a cave and the emperor had it sealed. As the story goes, decades later a farmer opens up the cave and they all awake, thinking they had slept a day.

[2] Jesus cursed a fig tree that turned rotten the next day.