İbn Haldun Çalışmaları Dergisi, 9 (1) 2024, 111-123

Araştırma Makalesi / Research Article DOI: 10.36657/ihcd.2024.121

19th and 20th-Century Islamic Scholars’ Approaches to

Miracles

19. ve 20. Yüzyıl İslam Düşünürlerinin Mucizelere Yaklaşımı

İD Abdüssamet Sarıkaya
Ibn Haldun University, Türkiye
[email protected]

Received: 13 September 2023 Accepted: 19 November 2023 Published: 15 January 2024

Abstract: The Islamic modernists, led by Abduh, Afghani, Rashid Reza, and Sayyid Ahmad Khan,
attempted to establish a direct parallel between the values produced by the Enlightenment and
Islamic beliefs as an expression of a sense of oppression against the West. Their modernist stance
profoundly affected Qurʾānic interpretation in the new age, and serious ruptures were experienced
in issues such as “the dominance of revelation over reason”, “the use of early narrations as a source
of interpretation”, and “preserving the issues related to the realm unseen”, which have been
emphasized by the classical Islamic scholarly tradition. The miraculous parables have also had
their share of these efforts at change. In a manner very similar to the conception of “natural
religion” that flourished with the Enlightenment, the possibility of miracles has come up for
discussion. In this context, they followed modern scientific developments and needed to explain
the miracles within this framework.

Keywords: Islamist Movement, Islamic Modernists, Rationalism, Interpretation of the Qurʾān,

Miracles

Öz: Abduh, Afganî, Reşid Rıza ve Seyyid Ahmed Han’ın başını çektiği İslâm modernistleri Batı’dan
gelen baskıya karşı aydınlanmanın ürettiği değerler ile İslâm inançları arasında doğrudan bir
paralellik kurmaya giriştiler. Onların modernist duruşları yeniçağdaki Kur’an yorumunu da
derinden etkilemiş, “vahyin akla egemenliği”, “erken dönem rivayetlerinin yoruma kaynaklık edişi”,
“gayb ile ilgili konuları aynen muhafaza etme” gibi geleneksel kültürün önemle üzerinde durduğu
konularda çok ciddi kırılmalar yaşanmıştır. Mucizevî kıssalar da bu değişim çabalarından payını
almıştır. Aydınlanma ile palazlanan “doğal din” tasavvuruna çok benzer bir biçimde mûcizelerin
imkânı tartışmaya açılmıştır. Bu bağlamda onlar modern bilimsel gelişmeleri yakından takip etmek
suretiyle mucizeleri bu çerçevede açıklama ihtiyacı içerisine girmişlerdir.

Anahtar kelimeler: İslamcı Hareket, İslam Modernistleri, Akılcılık, Kur’an Yorumu, Mucizeler

ORC-ID: A. Sarıkaya 0000-0002-3564-4530

112 Abdüssamet Sarıkaya

1. Introduction
From the 16th century to the present day, materialism, the dominant current of thought
in Western society, sees any appeal to the creator or spirituality in any situation as a
legacy of traditional thought that must be destroyed. On the other hand, by replacing
God at the center of society with science, religious beliefs are at best relegated to private
life (Touraine, 1995). Since this movement of detachment from the sacred and alienation
from God flattens all vertical contexts, it has come to be perceived as a religion capable
of drawing the boundaries of all elements in the universe. This has led to a growing
crisis and tension in modernizing societies, and science, which facilitates human life and
makes it comfortable, has become an element that threatens the very existence of
human beings due to the movement of detachment from the sacred and alienation from
God.

In addition to this, the “deterministic” understanding of the universe, which was

presented scientifically, has led to the detachment of the universe and human beings
from God, which in turn has led to the emergence of either an “ineffective” understanding
of God or a complete denial of God. So much so that a significant number of scientists,
despite believing in religion and God, began to have an ineffective God paradigm instead
of an effective God paradigm due to this emerging understanding. As a result, the idea
of a universe created by God and functioning according to the order established by God
was replaced by the idea of a universe operated by ‘causality’, and the next step was the
idea that there would be no need for God and that God would be expelled from the
universe.”

This relationship of modernization with the sacred and its destructive effect gradually
began to affect the Ottoman society and state in the 18th century. As a result, the
Ottoman Empire was influenced by many ways of thinking, especially rationalist and
positivist ways of thinking, and especially by Western values such as freedom and
equality, which were created with the Industrial Revolution (Düzgün, 1995). The reactive
ways of thinking and the defensive, rejectionist, and compromising attitudes that
emerged in the Islamic world are seen in many works and interpretations of the Qurʾān
(Kırca, 2013).

2. Dealing with the Kawnī (Sensory) Miracles: The Authors of al-Manār

(Muhammad Abduh-Rashid Reza)
First of all, unlike the traditional understanding, the authors of al-Manār do not accept
miracles other than the Qurʾān as proof of prophethood. In Rashid Reza’s words,
19th and 20th-Century Islamic Scholars’ Approaches to Miracles 113

miracles are divided into two parts: the miracle of the Qurʾān and kawnī miracles in terms
of whether or not they prove revelation and prophethood (Reza, 2005). Allah supported
the Prophet with rational proofs and numerous cosmic miracles. However, the Qurʾān is
the greatest miracle that proves his prophethood and lasts until the Day of Judgment
(Reza, 2011). In accordance with Allah’s law of progression, kawnī miracles were proof
of prophethood for the prophets before the Prophet Muhammed and a scare to the
unbelievers. However, they cannot be proof of his prophethood for the humanity that
reached a mature point (rushd) with the Prophet, but only a blessing from Allah for the
believers in times of difficulty (Reza, 2005).

According to Rashid Reza, the Qurʾān is the only miracle that proves the Prophet’s
prophethood and shows that Islam is the revelation of God. Another proof for both of
them is that the Prophet was an ummah (Reza, 2005). This is explained extensively in
Tafsir al-Manār, but Rashid Reza devoted his work al-Wahy al-Muhammadi to this issue.
The fact that the Qurʾān is the main and only miracle in this sense is related to the history
of human development and what the human mind needs or will submit to at this point.
Because the prophets showed miracles in accordance with the conditions, abilities, and
skills of the people living in the age they were sent. For this reason, the Qurʾān is the
greatest miracle of the Prophet, who was sent from a people who had reached an
extremely advanced level in eloquence and eloquence (Reza, 2011).

As for kawnī miracles, according to Rashid Reza, the Prophet was given universal
miracles. However, these miracles must be explained with reason and scientific data.
Otherwise, those who rely on reason and scientific data use them as a reason to deny
the Qurʾān and Islam. Those that cannot be explained by reason and scientific data, on
the other hand, if they are fixed by Qurʾānic verses or transmitted authentic reports
(mutawatir), have occurred in accordance with laws that we do not yet know. In this
context, it is evident that there are two parts of cosmic miracles in terms of the way they
occur. The first part is the miracles that occur in accordance with Allah’s continuous,
regular and general laws that prevail in His creation and order in the universe. These are
evidence of the perfection of Allah’s will and power, the comprehensiveness of His
knowledge and wisdom, and the breadth of His mercy, and they are numerous. The
second part is the miracles that take place outside the laws known to mankind. They
show that Allah’s power and will are not limited to the laws mentioned in the first part,
and they are few in number. This is because Allah can create something that is contrary
to His existing laws due to His other wisdom (Reza, 2005). Rashid Reza calls the miracles
in the first part “spiritual miracles that resemble the acquisition (kasb)” and the miracles
114 Abdüssamet Sarıkaya

in the second part as takwini (nature-based) miracles. Takwinī miracles are miracles
about which the divine laws are not known.

The most important approach of the authors of al-Manār regarding kawnī miracles is
that they try to explain them with rational and scientific explanations. In other words,
they try to rationalize them or bring them closer to reason. Their foremost aim is to
show that religious texts (especially Qurʾān) do not conflict with the data of reason and
science and to prevent both Westerners and Western-admiring Muslims from
abandoning their religion. This is because astonishing advances in science lead to the
denial of miracles. These advances have become a danger even for the Western
civilization that made them happen. The solution can be summarized in the following
sentence: “This problem cannot be solved unless religion and science are united. This is
what the last prophet Muhammad brought” (Reza, 2011). In our opinion, their biggest
mistake at this point is that they have not realized that the Western-based positivist
understanding of reason and science is incompatible with Islam as a religion. There are,
as far as we can identify, four interrelated reasons for the rationalization efforts:
1. The first reason is that such miraculous events in the Qurʾān, as we have already
mentioned, alienate people who have reached the age of maturity from religion
and the Qurʾān, and this must be eliminated. This is certainly the most important
reason according to the authors of al-Manār.
2. Secondly, to prove that the fact that an event is a miracle does not prevent it from
being rational, as mentioned earlier. In fact, this reason is a necessary
consequence of the first one. It is just that at the time of the miracle, these laws
were still hidden and unknowable to people: “Although miracles occur in
contradiction with the known laws of Allah in the universe and contrary to the
usual, they are in conformity with the secret laws” (Reza, 2011).
3. Third, because people are inclined to deny what they see as impossible, so they
try to show that they are possible to happen (mumkin). This reason is also a
necessary consequence of the second. As mentioned just above, the flow of water
from the Prophet’s fingers is a spiritual-kawnī miracle. However, this happened
because Allah permitted the Prophet to use the law of the formation of water
(Reza, 2011).
4. The fourth is to prevent people from being deceived and exploited by similar
miracles. For in every century there have been reports of strange events occurring
outside the framework of divine laws. Some of these are complete lies. Some of
them have scientific and technical reasons unknown to many. Some of them are
19th and 20th-Century Islamic Scholars’ Approaches to Miracles 115

thought to be wondrous when in fact they are not. Some of them are delusions
and optical illusions (Reza, 2011).

Based on these reasons, what is attempted to be done is to show, if possible, that the
event is not an extraordinary event, that is, a miracle, and if not possible, to declare that
they are miracles by trying to bring them closer to reason. However, Rashid Reza reminds
us that the interpretations made in the name of bringing them closer to reason should
not turn into interpretations that have no limits and no measure (Reza, 2011).

In this context, the interpretations in the following examples generally belong to

Muhammad Abduh. However, Rashid Reza, who did not hesitate to criticize and correct
his teacher when he deemed it necessary, did not have any objection to these
interpretations and even adopted them. With these interpretations, so much importance
was given to the rational and scientific explanation of some events that were understood
as miracles in the classical literature that it was revealed that the event was not a miracle,
even if they themselves did not explicitly state it.

2.1. Kawnī Miracles of Prophet Muhammad

Another example of a non-miracle is the incident of Shaqq al-Qamar. Rashid Reza sees
this event as problematic, mainly because it contradicts the Qurʾān. First of all, the
narrations state that this event took place after the polytheists demanded a miracle.
However, the Qurʾān informs us that their request for a divine miracle was rejected:
“They say: ‘Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?’ Say: The unseen is only
for Allah (to know). Wait, and I am one of those who wait with you.” (Surah Yunus, 10:
20), “The only thing that prevents Us from sending signs (miracles) is that those before
them denied them” (Surah al-Isra, 17: 59). It also contradicts the verses that declare that
if the desired miracle is realized, those who do not believe will be tormented and even
exterminated” (Surah al-Tawbah, 9: 70).

Rashid Reza, who declares that the incident contradicts the Qurʾān, also discusses the
related narrations separately. First of all, he states that the allegations that the narrations
on this subject have reached the level of mutawatir (mass transmitted) are not true.
According to him, scholars have been in the habit of saying that the narrations on topics
such as virtues, tales, and proofs of prophethood have reached the level of mutawatir to
prove their content. The hadith is extremely strange as it is not a recurring event such
as a lunar eclipse, yet the narrations do not rise to the level of mutawatir. Moreover, if
this hadith had taken place to prove the Prophet’s prophethood against the challenge of
116 Abdüssamet Sarıkaya

the polytheists, all the Companions who witnessed or heard it should have narrated it
and relied on it as their primary evidence. However, this was not the case in reality.

After these evaluations, he draws attention to some aspects of his century. He says that
scholars like to multiply miracles. This is because ordinary people, although they
understand and are impressed by the extraordinary aspect of kawnī miracles, are unable
to comprehend the miracle of the Qurʾān. However, times have changed, and
independent and free-thinking people who reject taqlid have multiplied, and these
narrations have led to criticism of Muslim scholars and Islamic sciences. Rashid Reza
even says that they feared that Islam would be criticized. Moreover, such narrations have
the effect of alienating and making everyone with an independent mind, whether Muslim
or non-believer, hate Islam. However, “Islam prevents us from accepting anything
contrary to the Qurʾān or to God’s laws in the universe, whether it is narrated from the
Companions or any other person” (Reza, 2011).

Moreover, the principles to be believed in Islam are established with absolute proof.
Muslims are in a state of ijma (consensus/agreement) on this issue. The narrations about
the event of the Shaqq al-Qamar are not conclusive, nor is verse 1 of Surah al-Qamar,
which states that the moon was split, conclusive evidence for this event. If it were not
for the related narrations, this verse would be judged to foretell one of the scenes of the
apocalypse. Lastly, according to him, there is no harm in denying this incident or
accepting it. The main problem is to say that “it is a miracle demanded by the idolaters
and evidence proving prophethood. For that reason, it must be believed” (Reza, 2011).

The last example for this section is the Prophet’s Mi’raj. Rashid Reza summarizes his
approach to this issue as follows: “According to the preferred view based on the results
of the investigation, Isra’a and Mi’raj took place in a spiritual state. In this state, the soul
is in control of Allah’s laws on the body” (Reza, 2011). According to him, Allah gives the
spirits of prophets the power to manipulate the matter of the universe and their souls.
The dispositions (tasarruf) they make with this power are greater than the dispositions
of chemists over matter, but they are of the same kind. With this power that Allah has
given to His prophets, they can create a body for their souls from the matter of the
universe whenever they wish, and they can disintegrate it whenever they wish (Reza,
2011, p. 143). Although Rashid Reza admits that the miracle of Isra’a and Mi’raj takes
place with the spirit and body in harmony with the traditional understanding, his starting
point is different from the traditional approach. According to him, the emerging
spiritualism in Western science and the studies on the influence of spirit on matter
19th and 20th-Century Islamic Scholars’ Approaches to Miracles 117

constitute a basis for the rational explanation of the miracle of Isra’a and Mi’raj. Since
this issue is analyzed in more detail in the case of Farīd Wajdī, we will leave the necessary
explanation there.

3. Farīd Wajdī’s Approach to Miracles

Muhammad Farīd Wajdī is considered to be from the school of Abduh. It is clear that
Wajdī was influenced by him on many issues. The most obvious example of this is his
interpretation of the stones thrown by the birds of Babel in Surah al-Fil, which Wajdī
adopted and incorporated into his tafsir (Wajdī, 1953). Although Wajdī is recognized as
a commentator belonging to the school of Abduh, he is not subject to him in all matters.
For example, in al-Manār it is argued that the best exegesis of the Qurʾān can be done
through the Qurʾān. However, there are not many verses in Wajdī’s tafsir that are
interpreted in this way. Accordingly, in al-Manar, it is seen that the interpretation of the
Qurʾān with asbab al-nuzul (occasions of revelation) is criticized, because reports related
to asbab al-nuzul cause the general meaning of the verses to be confined to history and
not to be revealed clearly. Wajdī, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of these
narrations and states that the meaning cannot be revealed without knowing the reasons
for their occurrence. Although Wajdī can be described as a more radical Salafist than
Abduh, he can be defined as a modernist in terms of his exegetical views.

When it comes to sensory/kawnī miracles, Farīd Wajdī, in his work al-Madīniyya wa’l-
Islam, takes a striking stance. According to him, human beings went through two
periods, one of which can be considered as the tufulah (childhood) period of the intellect
and the other as the age of rushd (puberty), and in the first period, God sent people
sensory/kawnī miracles that left them bewildered and incapable of unraveling the
mystery. Now, in an age like the present, when reason and humanity have reached their
maturity, such kawnī miracles are no longer of great importance (Wajdī, 1954). Farīd
Wajdī also sees the denial of past miracles by European scholars today as a sign that the
age of sensory miracles has passed. In order to justify this, he states that God sent Islam
in such a way that it would be free of miracles because He knew that in the future, a
period would come when the effectiveness of science based on reason would increase,
not miracles that transcend the laws of nature (Wajdī, 1954).

Farīd Wajdī took a relatively positive approach to miracles under the title of “Miracle in
the Perspective of the Qurʾān” in his work, which he published as a preface to his tafsir
work. In this section, he included many miracles and miracles mentioned in the Qurʾān
and the Sunnah, such as the fire not burning Prophet Abraham, Prophet Moses’s turning
118 Abdüssamet Sarıkaya

of the staff into a snake, Prophet Jesus’ raising the dead, water gushing out of the
Prophet’s fingers, Prophet Solomon’s bringing the throne of Belkis in the blink of an eye,
and parables such as Khidr and Ashab al-Kahf. After listing these examples of miracles,
he felt the need to explain the issue from a scientific perspective and used the fact that
human beings develop their rational faculties to penetrate the material world and make
unimaginable discoveries to prove the possibility of miracles. After stating that his
explanations on this subject are not contrary to science and reason, the author states
that today Europe has made advances in discovering the secrets of the soul and that
necromancy séances now prove the existence of a spiritual realm based on sensation
and experience (experiment-observation). Therefore, he states that there is no room for
doubt about the authenticity of the miracles of prophets and the miracles of saints,
provided that they are transmitted through tawatur (Wajdī, 1954).

4. Muhammad Asad’s Approach to Miracle

Muhammad Asad’s understanding of “miracle” is different from the definition of
supernatural (khariq al-adah) in kalam literature. He translates some of the Qurʾānic
words “ayah” with the word “miracle” or “miraculous” and states that the concept of
“miracle” is not just an event outside of the natural phenomena that everyone observes,
but it means a “sign” and a “message”. Therefore, what is actually defined as a miracle
is an extraordinary message. However, according to him, extraordinary messages cannot
be characterized as supernatural. This is because the laws of nature are only
comprehensible manifestations of Allah’s laws of creation (Sunnat Allah). In this
framework, Assad describes everything as natural whether it is appropriate for natural
functioning or not. On the other hand, he declared that the usual events that were
constantly observed in life were also miracles: “As so often in the Qur'an, a reference to
the spiritual life engendered by divine revelation is followed here by a reference to the
miracle of organic life as another indication of God’s creative activity” (Asad, 2009).
However, according to Asad, the power to perform miracles, which is said to have been
given to past prophets to support their messages, was not given to Muhammad.
According to him, the fact that this is insisted upon in the Qurʾān shows that neither the
prophets of the past nor the Prophet Muhammad was given a miracle in the extraordinary
sense.

Asad bases his approach to miracles on the verse “Miracles are in the power of God
alone” (2009). He claims that what is commonly described as a “miracle” constitutes, in
fact, an unusual message from God, indicating sometimes in a symbolic manner -a
spiritual truth which would otherwise have remained hidden from man’s intellect. But
19th and 20th-Century Islamic Scholars’ Approaches to Miracles 119

even such extraordinary, “miraculous” messages cannot be regarded as “supernatural”

for the so-called “laws of nature” are only a perceptible manifestation of “God’s way”
(Sunnat Allah) in respect of His creation- and, consequently, everything that exists and
happens, or could conceivably exist or happen, is “natural” in the innermost sense of
this word, irrespective of whether it conforms to the ordinary course of events or goes
beyond it. From this, it is understood that according to Assad, prophets did not show
any supernatural miracle but Allah sent them some miraculous signs and characteristics.
His translating the 59th verse of Surah al-Isra’a as “And nothing has prevented Us from
sending [this message, like the earlier ones,] with miraculous signs [in its wake], save
[Our knowledge] that the people of olden times [only too often] gave the lie to them”
shows that he considers that the Prophet Muhammad also did not receive any
extraordinary miracles.

5. Şehbenderzade Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi and Manastırlı İsmail Hakkı’s

Approach to Miracle
Starting from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth
century, a transformation in the mentality of Muslim intellectuals in their understanding
of science and their conception of history is clearly seen in their discourses/works. The
scholars, who saw the cause of the state’s decline in the misunderstanding of
religion/Islam, embarked on a new conception of Islamic history in general and the
Prophet in particular. We see the manifestation of this in the works written in the form
of “a human prophet free of miracles”. Jalal Nuri’s (d. 1938) Hatem al-Anbiya is one of
the most striking examples of this.

Şehbenderzade’s understanding of “natural religion”, which he constantly reveals in his

work, is his emphasis on reason and science. As a matter of fact, while explaining the
concept of natural religion in the introduction of his work, he discusses that it should
be in accordance with reason/science and nature. For this reason, Şehbenderzade
sometimes ignores the events that are not in accordance with reason and science by
stating that their narrations are fabricated, and sometimes he states that it is of no value
whether the event takes place or not. As a matter of fact, Şehbenderzade’s approach to
the sensory miracles, especially the Elephant Incident, the Incident of the Shaqq al-
Qamar, and the Mi’raj incident confirms this claim (Şehbenderzade, 1908).

5.1. Şehbenderzade’s Approach to the Kawni Miracles: The Splitting of the Moon and
Isra’a-Mi’raj
In his History of Islam, he states the following about the division of the moon into two:
120 Abdüssamet Sarıkaya

… According to some ancients, the miracle of “shaqq al-qamar” took place during
this period. According to our ijtihad, this is a description of a spiritual situation through
representation and metaphor. The occurrence or non-occurrence of such an incident,
whether or not it is a metaphor, has no bearing on the essence. On the contrary, we cannot
attach any importance to such miracles, which are related to the sensory organs. Our
Prophet’s greatest miracle is the Qurʾān (Şehbenderzade, 1908).

Şehbenderzade’s interpretation of the sensory miracles and sometimes his effort to

trivialize them is due to his “scholarly rigorism” (ilmî taassub) and his attempt to write a
“scientific” history, which we have been trying to reveal since above, as he himself puts
it. As a matter of fact, while evaluating the subject of Mi’raj, which he treats as a separate
topic, he constantly resorts to interpretation about the nature of Mi'raj:
… This is what the event of Mi’raj consists of in its outward form. However, not all
of the Prophet’s companions are convinced that the Mi’raj is corporeal and material. Some
of the companions, including A’isha, are convinced that the Mi’raj is a spiritual event. . .
The conception of the Mi’raj as a material event is completely contrary to the true aqa’id
of Islam. . . (Şehbenderzade, 1908).

Even if it is not at all unbelievable, to think that the Mi’raj has taken place physically
contains several ideas and opinions that cannot be matched with the truth of Islam
(Şehbenderzade, 1908).

It is quite remarkable that Şehbenderzade mentions the Islamic tradition and then states
that it is contrary to true Islam. It would not be wrong to say that what he means by
“contrary to true Islamic creed” is contrary to reason and science.

5.2. Manastırlı İsmail Hakkı and His Approache to Miracles of the Prophet
In his work entitled Hak ve Hakikat (Truth and Reality), which he wrote as a criticism of
Dozy, Manastırlı mentions at length that the Qurʾān is a miraculous book and that many
newly discovered truths were foretold by the Qurʾān centuries ago. After discussing the
scientific nature of the Qurʾān, he evaluates the subject of the Prophet’s miracles, which
was controversial at the time and which was subject to new interpretations. Manastırlı’s
statements here show the reflections of Westernization and the impact of positivism
more clearly. Manastırlı tries to emphasize the Prophet’s spiritual/intellectual miracles
rather than his sensory/kawnī miracles. We see that he presents a vision of a Prophet
who revolutionized not with his sensory miracles but with his morality.

The only sensory miracle we see dealt with throughout the work is the destruction of
Abraham’s army by the birds of Abābīl. However, it is evident that Manastırlı is clearly in
19th and 20th-Century Islamic Scholars’ Approaches to Miracles 121

an effort to rationally interpret the case of Elephant mentioned in the Qurʾān. As a matter
of fact, he defends the notion that the birds of Abel destroyed the army of Abraham by
raining germs that would cause smallpox and measles. He mentions that he received
this view from Muhammad Abduh, who was one of the leading proponents of the return
to the “main sources” movement and the reinterpretation of religion within the
framework of religion-rationality-science relations (Manastırlı, 1911).

The author, while believing that the miracles have taken place, argues that they no longer
have any meaning, and therefore, sensory miracles can no longer be taken into account
in the proof of the Prophet: “Here we prove the prophethood with the above-mentioned
spiritual evidence, without any hesitation and taking into account the evidence of kawnī
miracles” (Manastırlı, 1911).

According to Manastırlı, the human intellect has now passed the age of childhood
(tufulah) and reached the age of maturity (rushd). In this age, prophethood can be proven
by “spiritual/intellectual miracles” rather than “sensible/kawnī miracles”. Although he
states that he believes in the occurrence of sensible miracles, according to him, this is
an age in which spiritual/intellectual miracles will be revealed, because for the proof of
prophethood, which is not limited to any time and space, only spiritual/intellectual
miracles, which are not limited to any time and space, should be used.

6. Conclusion
Enlightenment Philosophy is the culmination of the intellectual process based on the
sovereignty of reason that began with the Renaissance in the West and continued with
17th-century rationalism. The Enlightenment strongly opposed God’s intervention in the
universe, and at the end of this process, reason took the reins from revelation and denied
metaphysics the right to life. Thus, religious-metaphysical elements were excluded from
the universe of human thought and even from every stage of life. Miracles were also
considered impossible events by this system of thought.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, European states invaded and colonized various parts of
the world. The Islamic world, for the most part, came under the guidance of these states.
Among intellectuals and scholars of Islam, the decline of the Islamic world was discussed
in all its dimensions at that time and various remedies were sought. The Islamic
modernists, led by Abduh, Afghani, Rashid Reza, and Sayyid Ahmad Khan, attempted to
establish a direct parallel between the values produced by the Enlightenment and Islamic
beliefs as an expression of a sense of oppression against the West.
122 Abdüssamet Sarıkaya

Their modernist stance profoundly affected Qurʾānic interpretation in the new age, and
serious ruptures were experienced in issues such as “the dominance of revelation over
reason”, “the use of early narrations as a source of interpretation”, and “preserving the
issues related to the realm unseen (a’lam al-ghayb)”, which have been emphasized by
the classical Islamic scholarly tradition. The miraculous parables have also had their
share of these efforts at change. In a manner very similar to the conception of “natural
religion” that flourished with the Enlightenment, the possibility of miracles has come up
for discussion. The Indian Subcontinent school, led by Ahmad Khan, went to the path of
denying miracles altogether, while Abduh and R. Reza reformulated the philosophical
and Sufi methods of interpretation hidden deep in our tradition according to the
conditions of the age and applied them to the miraculous parables. In this context, they
closely followed modern scientific developments and needed to explain the miracles
within this framework.

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