We typically assume people who claim God spoke to them are crazy - why don’t we think that of prophets?
This post got way longer than I thought it would. I’m sorry. But I really, like… I really swung hard on this one.
I get what you’re saying, it’s like: where do we draw the line? I mean, as Muslims, the line is pretty simple in that we believe that The Prophet Muhammad is the last Prophet of God and no other messages will come after him.
As far as who is a Prophet, The Qur’an is actually pretty clear not only that God has given every people a Prophet, but that God has not mentioned all of them in The Qur’an:
And, indeed, [O Muhammad,] We sent forth apostles before thy time; some of them We have mentioned to thee, and some of them We have not mentioned to thee. [40:78]
So, frankly speaking, we only know of those who God enumerated in The Qur’an, otherwise, we do not know. So there’s that.
But I think the bigger issue here is that we need to understand what exactly a miracle is.
Let’s start with Ibrahim (Abraham). His people hate him because he’s telling them “yo, worshiping these idols makes no sense, they can’t do anything for you, they’re just statues!” So his people decide to show him, make an example of him, so what do they do? They throw him into fire, because that’s the most destructive thing they can think of.
God shows His power over all things, by ensuring that the fire does nothing to Ibrahim and he just gets out.
But today, if you see someone on youtube or whatever get on fire and survive, you’re not going to lose your mind. You’re going to be like: “he has a fire protective suit and he has that gel, and I’ve seen that in like 5 million movies, whatever.”
But that miracle was for those people, because that was the craziest thing they could think of. But to you and me? That was nothing.
Then there’s Musa (Moses) and he’s up against Pharaoh. Pharaoh wants to prove to Moses that he’s the most powerful, I mean, Pharaoh thinks he is a god. So how does he challenge Musa? With magic.
Now, that sounds ridiculous to you. And to me. But at the time? That was how you did things! Remember, these people believed like dragons made nighttime, so yeah, MAGIC!
So Moses takes up the challenge, and when Moses throws down his staff, the magicians of Pharaoh, knowing when they have seen a real trick or not, freak out, because the staff turned into a real snake. What do they do? They throw themselves down into prostration and exclaim that they believe in God. They know a trick. They’re the best magicians around, and they know it’s not a trick.
Now, what does Pharaoh say? He says (I’m paraphrasing 7:123) “Did I give you permission to believe?” Look at the arrogance of Pharaoh. He thinks he should control everything, and the funny part is, he’s the one who setup magic as the way to prove who was right and who was wrong.
What Pharaoh shows us is that, if you do not want to believe in God, no sign will convince you otherwise. Pharaoh literally challenges Moses all the time. Pharaoh sets up everything, what will be a proof, what he needs to be convinced, and even when he’s proven wrong, he’s like “nope!” The point here is that people will believe what they want to, regardless of the facts that are presented to them. Belief in God is a choice, it’s not some destiny that God gives you and denies others, because in The Qur’an, God specifically says that He will help you in whatever it is that you want. If you want to believe, He will help you in that. If you do not want to, that will be your choice.
But it’s also important to remember that Pharaoh is not evil because he was born that way, he’s evil because he wants to be. He’s evil because it is easier for him. It allows him to continue the way the world works, and it suits him.
Pharaoh is terrifying because he is something that we can become, he’s a warning of what happens when we subvert our ego against what is truth.
But the miracles of Moses, are like, magic? But that miracle isn’t for you or me. When you see David Blaine or whoever do some magic trick on TV, you’re not thinking “WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?!” You’re thinking: “what trick did they use for this?” So that miracle is like, weird, it’s like, not impacting you.
Let’s fast forward to Eisa (Jesus). So at the time of Jesus, the Romans are all about medicine. Their physicians were competing with each other over who could do the most stuff. Awesome, right? The problem was they were not doing it to benefit people, but to benefit their own personal status.
The proof of this was lepers, who the Romans kicked out of the city, and made them live off away from society. This is why when Jesus goes to the lepers, it is such a significant act. He is embracing the people that society have deemed beyond their scope of acceptability, which is ironic, since this same society marveled at medical efforts, right?
So what does God gives Jesus? He allows him to cure the lepers and the blind, showing God’s power over what was considered impossible at that time, because that was what that society felt to be the coolest.
But today, leprosy can be dealt with relatively easily. No one is freaking out about transplants of corneas or drugs that bring down fevers which seemingly killed everybody back in the day. So, those miracles aren’t really for us, either.
Now we come to The Prophet Muhammad. If Ibrahim dealt with fire, and Musa with magicians, and Jesus with the healers, what does The Prophet deal with? Poets.
Arabs loved poets and poetry. If you could spit out poetry, you could be seen as the coolest. Why? I dunno. They also thought orphans were the worst, so they obviously had terrible priorities. But poetry was like, THE BEST!
So, The Prophet, who is illiterate, who isn’t known to be some poet himself, comes against these poets and drops this beautiful, perfect, Arabic that… drops the mic (look I’m hip!)
But that’s not really the miracle, The Miracle of The Qur’an is that it is ideas. The Qur’an shows you the power of ideas, how they impact your world, your perception, what choices you will make.
Pharaoh’s ideas allowed him to justify killing people for his power. How many dictators and despots have utilized racism, xenophobia, and various other ills constructed by humanity to oppress, to kill, and to destroy the world only to protect their power?
The Qur’an shows you the power of ideas, how the ideas and mandates of God can overcome oppression, not just of kings and countries, but of individuals, between friends, between foes.
The reason The Qur’an is the greatest of God’s Miracles is because it is the one that has the most power. It is a miracle that you and I can hold in our hands. Those other miracles are for those people, for their time, but The Qur’an–and the concepts and ideas of God–are timeless, and they are the ultimate proof as to what a true miracle is, that is why God has left The Qur’an as God’s last Miracle onto Earth.
So why do I believe God spoke to The Prophet? Because I have God’s words in my hands and I can judge whether they come from God or not. They are there. The proof is in my hands. It is in yours, too. The decision about whether you want to believe is your choice, but it’s not belief in the abstract, it is belief in the most lasting aspect of the human experience: of an idea, of human memory and experience, and of what we choose to learn from those experiences. Will we become better or will we slink into what is comfortable and easy?
What ideas will we uphold and which ones will we discard? That’s the challenge of The Qur’an, of what was revealed to The Prophet, to us.
