Prophetic Miracles from the Supernatural to Natural Events: Between Modernist and Ahmadiyya Interpretations

Document Type : Research Paper

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Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Miami, Florida, United States

http://dx.doi.org/10.37264/jiqs.v1i2.5

Abstract

This article examines the beliefs of modern Muslims regarding miracles and supernatural claims. It looks at how modern Muslims have had to interpret most of the miracles mentioned in the Qur’an metaphorically or naturally in order to avoid accusations of error. It also examines the views of Muhammad Asad, who argued that the stories of miracles adopted traditional myths as a site for teaching morals. The article further explores the interpretations of naturalists, who interpret miracles in ways that do not contradict empirical observations of naturalism. Finally, it examines the influence of European and Christian ideas on modernist Muslims, and the silence of modernist commentators on the similarity in their ideas with some Christians who wrote a few generations before them. The conclusion is that modern Muslims have had to interpret miracles in ways that do not contradict empirical observations of naturalism, and that there is no tangible evidence that modernist Muslims have been influenced by the ideas of Europeans or earlier Christians.

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