87. Moses was granted these two miraculous signs in order to provide testimony
to his being a Messenger of God, the creator and sovereign of the universe.
As we have mentioned earlier, whenever the Prophets introduced themselves as
God's Message-bearers, people asked them to produce some miraculous sign, to
perform something supernatural. In response to those demands the Prophets produced
what the Qur'an terms as 'signs', and which are called 'miracles' by theologians.
Those who tend to play down the supernatural character of such signs or miracles,
and who try to explain them in terms of natural laws of causation, in fact attempt
to build a mid-way house between believing and disbelieving in the statements
of the Qur'an. Such an approach can hardly be considered reasonable. What it
does demonstrate, however, is how such people can be pulled in two opposite
directions. On the one hand, they are not inclined to believe in a Book which
abounds in narrations of a supernatural kind. On the other hand, being born
followers of their ancestral religion, they are not inclined to reject the Book
which carries supernatural narrations.
With regard to miracles, there are two basic questions that people should ask
themselves. Did God, after creating the universe and establishing a system of
natural causations therein, suspend Himself such that it is no longer possible
for Him to interfere in the workings of the universe? Or does He still hold
the reins to His realm in His owns Hands so that His command is enforced every
moment, and He does retain the power to alter the shape of things and the normal
course of events - either partially or fully, - as and when He wills?
It is impossible for those who respond in the affirmative to the first question
to accept the idea of miracles. For clearly miracles do not fit in with their
concept of God and the universe. Honesty demands that instead of indulging in
far-fetched explanations of Qur'anic statements on miracles, such people should
clearly declare that they do not believe in the Qur'an. For quite obviously
the Qur'an is explicit, even quite emphatic in affirming the former concept
of God.
As for those who, being convinced by Qur'anic arguments, respond in the affirmative
to the second question regarding God and the universe, for them there is no
difficulty in accepting miracles. Let us take the instance mentioned in verse
107, namely, that the rod of Moses turned into a serpent. Now, there are those
who believe that serpents can come into being only through one process - the
known biological process. Such people are bound to reject the statement that
Moses' rod changed into a serpent and later reverted to its original shape.
On the contrary, if you are fully convinced that it is God's command alone which
causes life to arise from lifeless matter, and that God has full power to confer
whichever kind of life He wills, the transformation of the rod into a serpent
and its subsequent reversion to its original state is no stranger than the transformation
of any other lifeless matter into a living entity. The fact that the latter
happens virtually every day whereas the former took place only a few times in
history is not enough to declare the first as incredibly, strange and the second
as 'natural'.