In Sufism, karamat (, singular )[*] refers to supernatural wonders performed by Wali. In the technical vocabulary of Islamic religious sciences, the singular form karamat has a sense similar to charism, a favor or spiritual gift freely bestowed by God or gift received by the one who practiced austerities or contemplation.[Gardet, L., “Karāma”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs.] The marvels ascribed to Muslim saints have included teleportation, supernatural physical actions, predictions of the future, "interpretation of the secrets of hearts",[ and walking on water.][Aziz, M. A. (2011). Religion and Mysticism in Early Islam: Theology and Sufism in Yemen. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 46]
The concept is closely related to that of Barakah (divine blessing) which endows the individual with such abilities.[Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystische Dimensionen des Islam: Die Geschichte des Sufismus. Diederichs, 1992. p. 230 (German)] The prayers of saints may also grant them power over the fate of angels, as in mystical hagiography, a saint may pray for forgiveness of a fallen angel and restore their place in the angelic hierarchy.[Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystische Dimensionen des Islam: Die Geschichte des Sufismus. Diederichs, 1992. p. 230 (German)]
Definition
A number of terms are used in Islam to refer to the claims of events happening that are not explicable by Physical laws or Scientific law, subjects where people sometimes invoke the supernatural.[Denis Gril, Miracles, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Brill, 2007.] A systematic definition of miracles performed by apostles can be found in the work of the Muslim scholar al-Īd̲j̲ī Mawāḳif, historian A.J. Wensinck states the main purpose of miracle is to prove the sincerity of the apostle and has to satisfy the following conditions:[A.J. Wensinck, Muʿd̲j̲iza, Encyclopedia of Islam]
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It must be performed by God contrary to the usual course of things"
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"It must happen at the hands of him who claims to be an apostle
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"It must be in conformity with his announcement of it, and the miracle itself must not be a disavowal of his claim" and "must follow on his claim"
Al-Taftazani lists in his Sharh al-'Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya the following miracles as performed by saints and prophets:[Austin P. Evans A commentary on the Creed of Islam Translated by Earl Edgar Elder Columbia University Press, New York p. 138-139]
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Contradicting the customary way of things, such as covering a great distance in a short time.
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Appearance of food and drink and clothing at the time of need, as performed by Zacharias
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Walking on water, related to many saints
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Walking in the air, related to Ja'far ibn Abi Talib
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Inanimate solid objects and animals speaking
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Warding off of approaching calamity and protection from enemies
In the Quran the term (; ; plural: آيات , literally "sign") refers to signs in the context of Miracle of God's creation and of the prophets and messengers (such as Ibrahim/Abraham and Isa/Jesus).["Annemarie Schimmel" And Muhammad is his Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety Online Archive Publication date 2017-12-13 Uploaded by Ejaz Archives p. 78] included in the Manaqib. Karamat was usually used for miraculous performances of Sufi saints often used to convert unbelievers to Islam (considered a work of Spiritual gift rather than "divine power" employed in the miracles of prophets).
The Sīrah had almost no miracles ( dalāʾil al-nubuwwa) in the first records, although there were hundreds of additions made in later periods.[Özdemir, Mehmet, (2007). Siyer Yazıcılığı Üzerine, Milel ve Nihal, 4 (3), 129-162] Believing in the existence and miracles of Wali is presented as a "condition" for orthodox Islam by many prominent Sunni creed writers such as Al-Tahawi and Nasafi[Jonathan A. C. Brown, "Faithful Dissenters: Sunni Skepticism about the Miracles of Saints", Journal of Sufi Studies 1 (2012), p. 123][Christopher Taylor, In the Vicinity of the Righteous (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 5–6] and is accepted in traditional Sunnis and Shi'ism. The possibility of miracles was explained by appeal to Occasionalism and God's omnipotence as laid out in Medieval Islamic philosophy. Accordingly, natural laws do not exist in itself, but God subsequently creating each moment anew creates the illusion of predictable natural laws which can be ignored by God at any time.[Robert G. Mourison, The Portrayal of Nature in a Medieval Qur'an Commentary, Studia Islamica, 2002]
However, this understanding, along with expressions of respect and visits to the graves of saints, are seen as unacceptable heresy by puritanical and revivalist Islamic movements such as Salafism, Wahhabism and Islamic Modernism.
literally the inimitability of the Quran refers to the Quranic claim that no one can hope to imitate its (the Quran's) perfection,
History
Historically, a "belief in the miracles of saints ( karāmāt al-awliyāʾ, literally 'marvels of the friends of')" has been a part of Sufi Sunni Islam.[Jonathan A.C. Brown, "Faithful Dissenters," Journal of Sufi Studies 1 (2012), p. 123] This is evident from the fact that an acceptance of the miracles wrought by wali is taken for granted by many of the major authors of the Islamic Golden Age (ca. 700–1400),[Radtke, B., Lory, P., Zarcone, Th., DeWeese, D., Gaborieau, M., F.M. Denny, Françoise Aubin, J.O. Hunwick and N. Mchugh, “Walī”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs.] as well as by many prominent late-medieval scholars.[
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Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr, who lived in the second half of the twelfth century, can be seen as an example of Sufi-conversation and miracle performance of his time.[Aziz, M. A. (2011). Religion and Mysticism in Early Islam: Theology and Sufism in Yemen. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 45] In his twenties, it is said he had a vision, while he was sleeping, ordering him to pray. Thereupon he woke up and began to learn and practise all Islamic rituals and teachings, until he eventually reached the state of fanāʾ. During his spiritual journey, at the time he entered Zabid, he began to experience divine gifts and gathered a multitude of followers around him. A group of people once challenged one of his disciples, whereupon al-Khayr's student, with aid of his tachers influence, began to walk on water.[Aziz, M. A. (2011). Religion and Mysticism in Early Islam: Theology and Sufism in Yemen. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 45]
Creed
The doctrine of the karāmāt al-awliyāʾ, which became enshrined as an ijma and required belief in many of the most prominent Sunni creeds of the classical era, such as the aqida of al-Tahawi (ca. 900) and Abu Hafs Umar an-Nasafi (ca. 1000), emerged from the two basic Islamic doctrinal sources of the Quran and the hadith.[ As the Quran referred to the miracles of non-prophetic saintly people like Khidr (al-Kahf:65–82), the disciples of Jesus (5:111–115), and the Seven Sleepers (al-Kahf:7–26), amongst many others, many prominent early scholars deduced that a group of venerable people must exist who occupy a rank below the prophets and messengers but who are nevertheless capable of performing miracles.][
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The references in the corpus of hadith literature to bona fide miracle-working saints like the pre-Islamic Jurayj̲, seemingly an Arabic form of the Greek Grēgorios,[Bukkhārī. Saḥīḥ al-ʿamal fi ’l-ṣalāt, Bāb 7, Maẓālim, Bāb 35][Muslim (Cairo 1283), v, 277][Maḳdisī, al-Badʾ wa ’l-taʾrīk̲h̲, ed. Huart, Ar. text 135][Samarḳandī, Tanbīh, ed. Cairo 1309, 221] only lent further credence to this early understanding of the miracles of the saints.[ The fourteenth-century Hanbali scholar ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), despite his well-known objections to ziyara (visiting of saints' graves), nevertheless stated:
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As one contemporary scholar has expressed it, practically all of the major scholars of the classical and medieval eras believed that "the lives of saints and their miracles were incontestable."[Josef W. Meri, The Cult of Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 68]
In the modern world, this doctrine of the miracles of saints has been challenged by certain movements within the branches of Salafism, Wahhabism, and Islamic modernism, as certain followers of some of these movements have come to view the very idea of Muslim saints "as being both un-Islamic and backwards ... rather than the integral part of Islam which they were for over a millennium."[Juan Eduardo Campo, Encyclopedia of Islam (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009), p. 600] Islamic modernists, in particular, have tended to dismiss traditional conceptions as "superstitious" rather than authentically Islamic.[ Despite the presence, however, of these opposing streams of thought, the classical doctrine continues to thrive in many parts of the Islamic world today, playing a vital role in the daily piety of vast portions of Muslim countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, Senegal, South Africa, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Morocco,][ as well as in countries with substantive Islamic populations like India, China, Russia, and the Balkans.][
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In the Malay Peninsula and surrounding cultural regions, keramat means any special tomb of any religious person venerated, including Buddhists and Taoists.
Muhammad
The Qur'an does not overtly describe Muhammad performing miracles, according to historian Denis Gril, and the supreme miracle of Muhammad is finally identified with the Qur'an itself.[Muhammad Asad, Message of the Qur'an Dar p. 427, fn. 71] and other scholars, such as Cyril Glasse and Marcia Hermansen, downplay the miracles of Muhammad, stating "they play no role in Islamic theology",
However, Muslim tradition (hadith) credits Muhammad with several supernatural events.[A.J. Wensinck, Muʿd̲j̲iza, Encyclopedia of Islam] For example, many Muslim commentators and some western scholars have interpreted the sura 54 (Al-Qamar)[Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Moon] This tradition has inspired many Islamic poetry.["Muhammad", Encyclopedia of Islam Online]
The Quran describes Muhammad as (),[ Q7:157, islamawakened.com] which is traditionally interpreted as "unlettered,"[Dashti, 23 Years, 1994: p. 44] and the ability of such a person to produce the Quran is taken as miraculous
Quranic exegesis
According to Denis Gril, Islam teaches that miracles – i.e. a supernatural interventions in the life of human beings – are present in the Qur'an "in a threefold sense: in sacred history, in connection with Muhammad himself and in relation to revelation."[Dashti, 23 Years, 1994: p.40]
According to Al-Ghazali the term is used to refer to miracles—cosmic phenomena for example are —particularly miracles of creation.
Code 19
The term Quran code (also known as Code 19) refers to the claim that the Quranic text contains a hidden mathematically complex code. Advocates think that the code represents a Mathematics proof of the God authorship of the Quran and they also think that it can be used to identify Orthography errors within the Quranic text. Proponents of the Quran code claim that the Quran code is based on Statistics procedures.
In the United States, at the end of the 20th century, the Egyptian Quranism Muslim biochemist Rashad Khalifa developed a theological doctrine that influenced Quranists in many other countries. With the help of computers, he carried out a numerical analysis of the Quran, which according to him clearly proved that it is of divine origin.[Musa: The Qur’anists. 2010, S. 13.] The number 19, which is mentioned in chapter 74 of the Quran as being "one of the greatest miracles" played the fundamental role,[Q 74:30: „Über ihr sind neunzehn.“ Übersetzung von Hartmut Bobzin: Der Koran. 2017.] which according to Khalifa can be found everywhere in the structure of the Quran, and the fact that a Quranist discovered such a big miracle proved the Quranist approach.[Khan: Nineteen. 2010, S. 112.] Khalifa also cited Quran's chapter 74, verse 30: "Over it is nineteen".[ Historic House: The story behind that building with the words 'Happiness Is Submission to God' , Tucsonweekly.com, Accessed July 7, 2020]
Tafsir'ilmi (scientific interpretation) and ijaz movement
While connections between scientific ideas and the Qu'ran can be found in the works of Avicenna, Fakhr al-Razi, and Al-Ghazali, modern "scientific exegesis" of the Qur'an[Cook, The Koran, 2000: p.29] ijaz movement argues that the Qur'an contains numerous "scientific facts" written down centuries before their discovery by science and thus demonstrating the divinity of the Qur'an.[Ahmad Dallal, Quran and science, Encyclopedia of the Qur'an][http://jima.imana.org/article/view/8693 A Scientist's Interpretation of References to Embryology in the Qur'an]
As explained by cultural critic Ziauddin Sardar, while the claims of the ijaz movement require "considerable mental gymnastics and distortions to find scientific facts or theories in these verses", funding to the tune of "millions" from Saudi Arabia has succeeded in creating a "global craze in Muslim societies"; its claims can be found in many Muslim bookstores, websites, and on television programs of Islamic preachers.
Aside from critics from outside the religion, mainstream Islamic scholars have also objected to certain interpretations of the ijaz movement.
See also
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Haydar Ghazi, also known as Abul Karamat
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Tay al-Arz, the saintly power of teleportation
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Datuk Keramat, local folk religion in Malaysia and Singapore
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Glossary of Islam
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Index of Islam-related articles
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Challenge of the Quran
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Isra and Mi'raj
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Miracles of Jesus
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Miracles of Gautama Buddha
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Imitation and occasionalism
Further reading
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Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.), Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014.
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Reynold A. Nicholson, Chapter 5 "Saints and Miracles" of The Mystics of Islam. 2002. pp. 88–104
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Trimingham, J. Spencer. The Sufi Orders in Islam. Oxford University Press. 1971. pp. 26–28
External links
