Did Muhammad Perform Miracles Like Jesus Did?
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Biblical prophets performed miracles to establish their credentials. For
example, Moses said to God in Exodus 4:1, “What if [the Israelites] do not
believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?” How did God respond? He told Moses to throw his staff to the ground; instantly, it
turned into a snake. He told Moses to pick it up by its tail; it turned back
into a staff. Then God said in Exodus 4:5, “This … is so that they may believe
that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
A similar thing happened to Elijah on Mount Carmel: He was challenged, and God sent down fire from heaven to confirm he was a true prophet (see 1 Kings
18:16–39). As for Jesus, he actually came out and said, “Do not believe me
unless I do [miracles] of my Father” (John 10:37). And then he did them. Even
Nicodemus conceded this when he said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know you are a
teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are
doing if God were not with him” (John 3:2).
This kind of confirmation never happened on Muhammad’s behalf. In fact,
Muhammad, the founder of Islam, actually believed Jesus was a prophet who
performed miracles, including raising the dead. Muslims also believe Moses and Elijah performed miracles. However, in the Koran when unbelievers challenged Muhammad to perform a miracle, he refused. He merely said they should read a chapter in the Koran. (See Sura 2:118; 3:181–84; 4:153; 6:8,9,37 in the Koran.) And yet Muhammad himself said, “God hath certainly power to send down a sign” (Sura 6:37). He even said, “They [will] say: ‘Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?’” (Sura 6:37). Unlike Jesus, miracles were not a sign of Muhammad’s ministry. It wasn’t until 150 or 200 years after Muhammad’s death that his followers invented miracles and ascribed them to him. / Adapted from interview with Dr. Norman Geisler
