Miracles And Law Of Nature
The discussion on miracles versus natural laws requires certain principles to be established. There are 3 basic components to this discussion; one is a miracle, second is natural laws and the third is Practice of God. The Laws of Nature are designed by God and he is not subject to them as he is outside/ beyond our universe. These laws are OUR limits. Anything beyond these laws are assumed to be miracles, but only in OUR realm. In the beginning of humankind, many things were considered as miracles/witch craft that were later discovered and defined as certain laws/phenomenon of nature. These miracles were then downgraded and more and more miracles lost their position as we made progress. If can we can train dogs to sniff out contraband by pointing a finger or blowing a whistle, if we can train dolphins to echolocate things in deep waters at our command, if we train pigeons to deliver letters and messages across countries then the event of birds dropping pebbles on the attackers of Kaaba will seem to be less of a miracle. The practice of God is what He consistently does in a particular situation. If He punishes for a certain act, then He consistently punishes for the same act, through all times and nations, without exceptions. A miracle falls into the category of HIS practice to provide certain powers as proof, to his chosen ones. We have not learned that principle/ability/law as yet, if ever we could, or may be never. When God says Isa did such and such “by his permission” repeatedly, or when Moses uses the staff to part the sea, it is only by his permission. This Divine permission to make things manifest in this world of laws, that defy the current understanding of laws are called miracles. Miracles are also proof that God is not bound by our universe or laws. Miracles serve the purpose of “shock and awe” to grab attention of its audience. Is curing or controlling or preventing leprosy a miracle today? It would still be a miracle if one did it by merely touching a patient. Is raising the dead a miracle today? It would be a miracle if we did it by touch and not use the defibrillator. Wim Hof and his students can endure an intravenous injection of bacterial endotoxin while others get violently sick. It is a miracle when the phenomenon is not known. It is a biological science when we know that excretion of adrenaline is the reason these outliers can tolerate this poison. They can do this at will, i.e. control autonomic nervous system. In the end, we can understand the ayahs of the Qur’ān in a certain context within the paragraph they are written.