Did Muhammad Perform Miracles?

It is no secret that faith blinds and believers cannot see anything wrong with the object of their belief. This is the reason why while Muslims can find errors in the Bible, the Hindu texts and the scriptures of all other faiths, they can’t see the blatant absurdities in their own faith..

Muslims love Muhammad so much that they want to dress like him, speak the same language he spoke, behave the way he behaved and eat the food that he ate. This is not an indication of the greatness of Muhammad, but the unconditional, fanatical and blind faith of his believers.

Followers of all cults adulate their leader. All cults are cult of personality. They are about one person at the centre of all the attention, adoration, emulation and eulogy. This is no indication that their leaders were really superior beings. Humans need heroes and fabricate them. Often when these leaders die they assume a mythological status much bigger than life.

Muslims have not seen Muhammad. They rely on second hand stories about their prophet. Those stories idolize him beyond human reason. Many of those tales (hadiths) are forged, exaggerated and baseless.  The following is one example.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 58, Number 208
Narrated Anas bin Malik:
The people of Mecca asked Allah’s Apostle to show them a miracle. So he showed them the moon split in two halves between which they saw the Hira’ mountain.

Also Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 56, Number 830 ,831, 832

The splitting of the Moon is mentioned in the Quran, but this strange phenomenon is not claimed as a miracle of Muhammad. It is rather Muhammad and a bunch of Meccans observing what they thought are two moons and Muhammad commented that this is the miracle of Allah.  For more on splitting the moon see this article

Or this one that claims he made water out of nothing.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 1, Book 4, Number 170
Narrated Anas bin Malik:
I saw Allah’s Apostle when the ‘Asr prayer was due and the people searched for water to perform ablution but they could not find it. Later on (a pot full of) water for ablution was brought to Allah’s Apostle . He put his hand in that pot and ordered the people to perform ablution from it. I saw the water springing out from underneath his fingers till all of them performed the ablution (it was one of the miracles of the Prophet).

Or he multiplied the bread. Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 59, Number 428

However, the above miracles contradict the Quran.  When challenged, Muhammad repeatedly denied being able to perform any miracle. He said that although other prophets before him were given the power to perform miracles, his only miracle is the Quran.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 9, Book 92, Number 379
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, “There was no prophet among the prophets but was given miracles because of which people had security or had belief, but what I was given was the Divine Inspiration which Allah revealed to me. So I hope that my followers will be more than those of any other prophet on the Day of Resurrection.”

There are many verses in Quran that reaffirm this last Hadith, proving that Muhammad never performed any miracle and found it useless.

In the following verse Muhammad is acknowledging that other prophets before him came with miracles or clear signs, but still people rejected them, highlighting the futility of miracles as the proof of his revelation.

They (also) said: “Allah took our promise not to believe in a messenger unless He showed us a sacrifice consumed by Fire (From heaven).” Say: “There came to you messengers before me, with clear Signs and even with what ye ask for: why then did ye slay them, if ye speak the truth?” if you are truthful? Q. 03: 183

The unbelievers repeatedly asked Muhammad to perform a miracle so that they could believe. All they got in response was,

They say: “We shall not believe in thee, until thou cause a spring to gush forth for us from the earth, Q. 17: 90

His response was:

Say: “Glory to my Lord! Am I aught but a man,- a messenger?” Q. 17: 93

People doubted Muhammad because they saw nothing extraordinary or miraculous in him.

And naught prevented mankind from believing when the guidance came unto them save that they said: Hath Allah sent a mortal as (His) messenger? Q. 17: 94

And they say: “What sort of a messenger is this, who eats food, and walks through the streets? Why has not an angel been sent down to him to give admonition with him? Q. 25: 7

“Or (Why) has not a treasure been bestowed on him, or why has he (not) a garden for enjoyment?” The wicked say: “Ye follow none other than a man bewitched.” Q. 25: 8

But Muhammad kept telling them that he is just an ordinary man not an angel, and people should not expect miracles from him!

Say: Had there been in the earth angels walking about as settlers, We would certainly have sent down to them from the heaven an angel as a messenger. Q. 17: 95

Commonsense dictates that no one would deny and call a man who performs such mighty miracles, like splitting the moon, as believed by all the Muslims, a madman or possessed. But those who knew him best actually called him by these names.

They say: “O thou to whom the Message is being revealed! truly thou art mad (or possessed)!. Q. 15: 06

No one would demand him miracles if he had already performed one

Why do you not bring to us the angels if you are of the truthful ones? Q. 15: 07

Muhammad’s response was:

We send not the angels down except for just cause: if they came (to the ungodly), behold! no respite would they have! Q. 15: 08

The Quraish kept asking for a sign or a miracle to believe and Muhammad kept saying that he can’t do it. He is only a warner.

And the Unbelievers say: “Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?” But thou art truly a warner, and to every people a guide. Q. 13: 07

There are many more verses that tell the same story – people asking miracles and him saying, I am just a man, just like you, only a warner.  A clear proof that Muhammad never performed any miracle is in this verse where it says that people rejected even other messengers who came with miracles and clear signs.  In other words he would not perform miracles because according to him even if he performed them they people would not believe. This is of course a lie.  I am a rationalist and a critic of Islam but if I see a miracle by any Muslim even I will believe.

Then if they reject thee, so were rejected messengers before thee, who came with Clear Signs, Books of dark prophecies, and the Book of Enlightenment. Q. 3: 184

In the above verses Muhammad is denying any supernatural power. If he could perform a miracle, why would he refuse to show them one? In the following verse he clearly rejects miracles as the proof of prophethood comparing them to witchcrafts.

Their hearts toying as with trifles. The wrong-doers conceal their private counsels, (saying), “Is this (one) more than a man like yourselves? Will ye go to witchcraft with your eyes open?”Q. 21: 3

Had he performed miracles, it would be of no proof to people who did not see him do it, but it would have at least convinced those around him.  Many charlatans, like the Indian crook Sai Baba perform tricks to fool their audience.  Muhammad could not do even that.

Muhammad was right in emphasizing that the real miracle should be his message or the Quran. Although this is a valid argument the Quran is no miracle at all. It is a book full of errancies and absurdities.

I don’t see Muhammad as a superior human being for two reasons.

a)       Many of hadiths and verses from the Quran, reveal him as a ruthless, vengeful, deceitful, and impious man. Acts like raiding, looting, killing those who did not believe in him, cursing his enemies, treating women as second class citizens and calling them deficient in intelligence, cowardly assassinating women and old men for criticizing him make him more like a thug and less like a prophet.  Acts like these are not precisely spiritual characteristics that I seek in a man I would like to follow and emulate. His deeds are far from the deeds of an  “honored messenger” as he claimed to be in the Quran. 69:40

b)     Today’s modern Muslims, especially those whose standard of ethics is colored by western/humanistic precepts, who unlike the masses of Muslims can distinguish between right and wrong, try to distance themselves from those hadiths that depict Muhammad as a ruthless immoral unethical gangster.  They deny the validity of those hadiths and everything that shows Muhammad in a negative light. However, if those hadiths and verses are forged, then the whole validity of Islam crumbles and there is no reason for to believe in a mythological figure whose real life and words are not known.