In my experience speaking to Christians about Islam and Christianity, I have seen Christians fall into an epistemological paradox in their attempt to reject Islam while believing in Christianity. They reject miracles as evidence to prove prophethood even though that is the basis of any religion.
In this article, I will discuss this paradox and how to respond to those who engage in it.
Introduction
Why We Use Miracles to Prove Prophets
To understand this paradox, you must first understand the fact that we, as Muslims, prove the truth of a religion by showing the following points:
- A person claimed to be a prophet
- That person did not make illogical or contradictory claims
- That person performed miracles, which indicates divine support
- Those miracles are strongly proven and are authentic
- That person’s teachings and religion are reliably represented today
Anyone who can show the above points about a person has proven his religion to be true. Anyone who fails in showing any of these points fails in proving his religion.
Someone might ask: Why do miracles for a prophet prove divine support?
The response is: The world works according to certain laws that God has decided, and showing miraculous things which break those laws is the only way God can show people He supports a person’s claim to represent Him.
Even if God appeared to everyone in front of their eyes, that would be nothing more than breaking the normal laws of nature. So, if other entities had the power to make things appear
Hence, it is impossible for God to allow a false prophet to show miracles. If He allowed that, it would be impossible for anyone to verify any information from God. Anyone who claims God would allow such a thing impugns God’s wisdom and knowledge.
We can use an example to demonstrate the reliability of miracles.
Imagine a king who is sitting in his court with advisors around him. The king sits in his court every day at this same time, and he does not stand up until the evening.
Then, a messenger comes into the court and announces, “I am a messenger sent to you by your king. He commands you to obey the law written in this letter. Although he will not speak to you directly, he has given me a sign to show you and prove I am in fact from him. As soon as I stop talking, our king will stand up and sit down three times.”
As soon as he stopped speaking, the king silently stood up and sat down again three times.
In this case, should there remain any room for doubt in the minds of the courtiers and advisors that this messenger is indeed from the king and they need to follow this law?
This is the case with prophets. Their sign is God changing His normal way of running the universe exactly as stated when stated. When God does that, there should remain no room for doubt in a rational person’s mind that this is God’s message.
That is the reasoning and strong rationality behind why miracles are definite and indubitable evidence for the truth of a prophet.
Christian Objections
A lot of Christians, however, come across the fact that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) has many miracles recorded from him with very strong authenticity and, in fact, realize that their own prophet Jesus (AS) does not have miracles recorded from him to the same level of strength and authenticity.
So, they are motivated to find ways to dismiss the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)’s claim to prophethood, and they decide to do that by dismissing the effectiveness of miracles completely!
Many of them do this because dealing with the actual claims of evidence and testing them against each other is more difficult than comfortably denying that miracles matter at all while appealing to obscure ways of affirming their religion that do not require testing and authenticating evidence.
Some Christians simply deny religion can be proven at all beyond their faith. So, they absolve themselves from testing the two religions’ claims by appealing to their own faith.
Other Christians appeal to the fulfillment of prophecies, and claim a prophet can only be true if he matches prophecies from previous scriptures and is false if he contradicts prophecies from previous scriptures. They say miracles cannot prove a prophet true, implying that the devil or other spirits could make miracles happen.
As a result, they base the truth of their religion to debatable interpretations of obscure texts and their claim that those prophecies confirm their religion and deny Islam.
Other Christians claim specific miracles are evidence but not other types of miracles.
All of this, however, leads to complete collapse of epistemology and the methods of knowledge, leading to contradictions and paradoxes.
I will show the many problems present in the denial of miracles as the ultimate arbiter of prophethood with three arguments:
- Rational: The logic of using the fulfillment of prophecies is paradoxical and falls apart.
- Historical: Prophets of the past proved themselves with miracles according to the Bible, not due to fulfillment of prophecies.
- Scriptural: The scriptural evidence in the Bible shows miracles prove prophethood.
Prophecies
Before delving into the arguments, know the difference between making prophecies and fulfilling prophecies.
Prophecies are a type of miracle a prophet can have. That is, making predictions that always come true and are never false is a miracle that indicates the truth of a prophet. That is the case with our Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who made many true prophecies.
That is different from appealing to the fulfillment of prophecies as evidence. That means: A person fulfilling prophecies that were made by a past scripture proves their prophethood. This is the claim of some Christians.
Logical Argument
Someone who negates the superiority of miracles in favor of fulfilling prophecies can either say 1) miracles are enough sometimes but fulfillment of prophecy is needed other times, 2) only fulfillment of prophecy is necessary, or 3) both are necessary together.
Each of these positions is internally contradictory.
Miracle Then Fulfillment of Prophecy
Some Christians say the truth of Musa (AS) was proven through miracles but the prophecy of anyone after Musa (AS) must be proven through the fulfillment of prophecies from the Torah and Bible instead of or in addition to miracles.
You can ask this group: If you believe in Musa (AS) and his scripture for one reason (miracles), how can you reject another person who has the exact same reason (miracles)?
It is circular and contradictory to consider a reason enough evidence to believe in a prophet in one case but not another case.
Either the reason is effective or it is not. Either something proves divine support or it does not. If a miracle can mean something other than divine support, why not the same in the case of Musa (AS)? If it were possible for someone other than God to bring miracles, why would Musa (AS)’s miracles be proof for him?
In fact, it is made worse by the fact that the miracles of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) are proven far stronger today than the miracles of Musa (AS), assuming the miracles of Musa (AS) are even proven today at all!
This is not even considering the fact that the scriptures attributed to Musa (AS) are not proven to be authentic to him either!
So, even before falling into the paradox, a person needs to prove the miracles of Musa (AS) with authentic evidence (one book recording them which we do not have strong evidence originates from his time is not enough evidence) and to prove the scriptures and prophecies are authentic to Musa (AS) and the other prophets.
Just Fulfillment of Prophecy
Some Christians claim the truth of the Old Testament is proven because its prophecies are fulfilled in the Jesus of the New Testament and the New Testament is proven true because it fulfills the prophecies of the Old Testament.
Everyone can see this is circular without even considering the truth of the claim that the New Testament fulfills prophecies of the Old Testament.
Something can only be proof for a claim if that claim is the only thing that fits the situation used as proof. If multiple claims can match the proof, the proof does not actually prove a particular claim.
Using a proof like that would be like saying a gun proves the guilt of one person specifically because he had the money and access to buy that gun even though four other possible suspects also had the same money and access.
So, a proof that can match multiple scenarios and suspects is not a proof at all.
In this case, our gun is that the New Testament stories (supposedly) fulfill the prophecies in the Old Testament and the accused person is the conclusion that both the Old and New Testament are true.
There are multiple alternate scenarios that can equally explain the situation of New Testament stories supposedly fulfilling prophecies from the Old Testament.
First scenario: The Old Testament was truly from God and the prophecies in it were truly from God, however, people misinterpreted the prophecies and wrote fabricated stories about a man that fulfills a misinterpretation of those prophecies. Most of the events reported in the New Testament did not happen and a lot of the prophecies were misunderstood.
In this case, the stories in the New Testament would fulfill one group’s interpretation of the prophecies in the Old Testament without proving the New Testament true.
Perhaps a Christian might say: You are only giving hypotheticals. Do you have any proof this happened?
I would respond: You are the one who claimed the New Testament fulfilling the Old Testament proves both of them true. I am showing you why it is not necessary that one book fulfilling the prophecies of a previous book proves that book to be true by giving possible scenarios of how that could happen without the two being true.
So, if you have another proof for the books being true other than prophecies and other than miracles, bring it for consideration.
Perhaps a Christian might say: This hypothetical is impossible because it claims the stories are fabricated when we know the New Testament is not fabricated.
I would say: Prove the New Testament is not fabricated without appealing to fulfillment of prophecies (since that is the issue of debate) and without appealing to miracles. It is well-known in history that the authors of the New Testament were anonymous, and we have no evidence or proof to believe their accounts were accurate. We neither have their names nor the names of their sources.
Second scenario: The Old Testament prophecies are made up and someone pretended to fulfill those prophecies on purpose to make it seem that they are a true prophet. So, both the Old Testament and the fulfilling prophet are false.
If it were possible for someone other than God to perform miracles, then it would be even easier for them to fulfill made-up prophecies.
A Christian might say: God would never allow his scripture and prophecies to be corrupted!
I would respond: You are assuming the Old Testament comes from God. How do you know that?
He might say: Because of the aforementioned prophecies being fulfilled.
I would respond: That is circular. This whole discussion is about proving whether the Old and New Testaments were truly from God. You cannot use the conclusion of the argument (that they are from God) as a premise to the argument (that the prophecies cannot be corrupted because they came from God).
So, if you wish to claim the prophecies could not be made-up even though many books have made-up prophecies, prove the Old Testament was from God without using miracles alone (since you deny it as being proof on its own) and without using prophecy fulfillment (since this is the very issue we are discussing) and prove that God never allows His scriptures to be corrupted by humans.
It is impossible to do that.
Third scenario: The prophecies were true, and someone pretended to fulfill the prophecies. So, the Old Testament is true, and the New Testament claims are true, but the one who fulfilled the prophecies did it on purpose deceptively.
If someone other than God can perform miracles, it would be even easier for him to pretend to fulfill some prophecies.
All of these are scenarios which involve one book fulfilling the prophecy of a previous book without being true in itself. With the existence of these scenarios, it is impossible for someone to claim the simple fulfillment of prophecies can prove both the Old and New Testament because one fulfills the other.
Both Miracles and Fulfillment of Prophecies
Then, some Christians might say: A prophet is proven when he both fulfills previous prophecies and performs miracles. So, it is neither alone, rather both together. So, Jesus is proven true because he performed miracles and was confirmed by the Old Testament prophecies.
This has the same problems noticed in the previous claims.
I would ask: How do you know that the “previous prophecies” come from a true prophet?
If he leaves his standard, he has contradicted himself. If he sticks to it, he would have to say: He is proven if he both fulfills previous prophecies and performs miracles.
In that case, you can keep asking this question until it becomes clear that a prophet at some point is not proven through any fulfillment.
After all, who can prove today that the Prophet Musa (AS) was fulfilled by previous prophets? No one can know that today since we barely have texts strongly attributed to Musa (AS)’s time alone, let alone works from before him.
In fact, as we discussed in a previous section, the Torah itself never claims the fulfillment of previous prophecies to prove the Prophet Musa (AS).
That being the case, this standard is inconsistent and arbitrary and would require the rejection of all prophets. If the Prophet Musa (AS) cannot be proven, the standard requires the rejection of the prophets after him because there is no use being the fulfillment of the prophecy of a prophet who himself is not proven!
Specific Types of Miracles
Finally, some Christians might classify miracles into different types and say some can be performed only by God.
Some of them might say: Making true prophecies is a miracle no one other than God can do because no one other than God can know the future perfectly.
I would respond: The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) also brought many true prophecies. So, with that standard, you must accept him.
Another possibility is to distinguish between types of physical miracles.
Some Christians might say: Only God can raise the dead or give life, but other miracles (including prophecies) are not exclusive to God. Thus, Jesus must have been true because he was resurrected, but the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not resurrect or give life, so there is no evidence for him.
I would respond: The distinction between a miracle like resurrection or splitting the moon or multiplying water is arbitrary with no clear rational argument behind it. Logic only proves the specialty of miracles in general without specifying one type of miracle as superior to another.
He might say: XYZ verse in ABC scripture proves only God can raise the dead or give life.
I would say: That is circular because the scripture is proven to be true only after deciding which type of miracle indicates some scripture comes from God. Before knowing what type of miracle only comes from God, how can we know the scripture is correct?
So, the idea of distinguishing miracles is impossible to sustain. It is necessary to accept all of them.
There is an additional problem: If other entities can make miracles appear as they claim, even if their power is short of resurrection, they could also pretend to give life without actually doing so. To make Jesus appear to resurrect from the dead, a demon would not need to actually resurrect him. The demon would only need to make his body disappear from his tomb and appear in the form of Jesus in front of people a few days later (even granting he did actually appear resurrected to eyewitnesses).
Historical Argument
In the Torah, the Quran, and the Abrahamic tradition in general, there are recorded many stories of the prophets and how they preached to their nations. Those stories invariably do not mention any condition of fulfillment of prophecies. Rather, they use miracles as evidence to prove a prophet.
Story of Moses
The most important story is the story of Musa (AS). In the story of Musa (AS), God calls Musa (AS) from the burning bush and tells him to preach to his people and the Pharaoh.
Because Christians consider the current Torah to be reliable, let us look at the stories of the Torah.
Musa (AS) in the Torah asks God what they can call Him:
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord,[d] the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Exodus 3
In this conversation, let alone God referring to a pre-existing prophecy, He makes a new promise to the people. If a prophet was only believed based on fulfilling past prophecies, God would tell Musa (AS) to remind them of some past prophecy that he fulfills.
I heard some Christians claim that the Israelites only believed in Musa (AS) due to him fulfilling some past prophecy they had among their elders or scholars. This belief has zero basis in the texts and is wishful thinking invented for the purpose of arguing their idea that past prophecies are needed.
In fact, the Torah continues and explicitly talks about how Musa (AS) would prove his prophethood to the people:
4 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the Lord, “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.”
6 Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous[a]—it had become as white as snow.
7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
8 Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
Exodus 4
When Musa (AS) asked how to prove his truthfulness to people who do not believe in him, God gave him miracles. One miracle was that his staff would become a snake. Another miracle was that his hand would become white.
There is no mention at all of the fulfillment of past prophecies here. Rather, the very fact that he had signs was intended by God as evidence for them to believe. That is why God says “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second.” The signs are clearly meant as evidence for people to believe.
Then, how can Christians claim that miracles do not matter and fulfilling prophecies is more important? The story of Musa (AS) as recorded in the Torah portrays the exact opposite.
The Torah concludes Musa (AS)’s encounter with the Israilites with the following:
Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed.
Exodus 4
The writer links the belief of the Israelites with the signs performed by Musa and Haroon (AS), and he mentions nothing related to prophecies being fulfilled.
The writer of the Torah also says, linking the rejection of signs and wonders to a hardened heart:
But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you.
Exodus 7
Someone might ask: How is bringing signs and miracles evidence of being from God even though magicians can perform signs and miracles too?
The Torah answers this question:
8 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: 12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
Exodus 7
The Torah demonstrates two things: 1) In a contest, the miracles of God are far above ordinary magic and they come out on top. 2) God does not let false claimants to divine support win. Rather, the magicians were allowed to do their magic tricks before Musa (AS) came as a prophet, but they were defeated as soon as they attempted to deny or affect the truth of a prophet.
After this demonstration, the Torah considers Pharaoh’s refusal to listen to him a hardening of the heart.
This is what we as Muslims believe. The miracles of the prophets have no comparison. The truth of the miracle is proven by how it defeats all the magicians and false claimants of its time.
This was the same as what happened in the life of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) with the Quran itself and other miracles he brought. He brought a book, miraculous in its composition, writing, and content, which none of the expert poets or soothsayers or magicians of the time could compete with.
The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) challenged the magicians and poets that were in his society, bringing in the Quran: ⟪Say, “If mankind and the spirits gathered in order to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to each other assistants.”⟫ (17:88)
Despite the challenge, they all failed.
According to the Torah, whoever rejects a prophet’s miracles after they are proven to him as defeating all false claimants would be described as the Pharaoh is described: “[His] heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.”
Story of Jesus
The same process of using miracles to prove prophethood occurs in the story of Jesus (AS) as recorded in the Gospels.
After mentioning the famous story where Jesus turned water into wine, the writer of John says:
11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
John 2
He explicitly links the revelation of Jesus’s glory and the belief of his disciples to the signs Jesus brought, including the turning of water into wine.
At this point, a Christian might object: Jesus and his crucifixion is prophesied in the Old Testament, so Jesus did fulfill prophecies to prove his prophethood!
However, the response is: This is the first miracle Jesus performed and all these miracles which the writer of John refers to were done before Jesus was ever crucified.
There is no doubt that the disciples believed in Jesus (AS) even before he was crucified. So, you have two choices: 1) They believed in him due to his signs and miracles and it is justified to believe in a person for signs and miracles, or 2) They believed in him due to his signs but it was wrong of them to believe until after he was crucified.
The absurdity of the second position is obvious to everyone. As a result, it is necessary to concede that believing in a person simply due to his signs is justified even though he does not fulfill a specific prophecy.
Perhaps a Christian might say: Jesus’s very birth fulfilled a prophecy because he was born of a virgin!
The response is: If you say it is possible for other than God to make miraculous things happen, it would be easy for them to make a virgin birth happen as well. The virgin birth is no different to other miracles. In fact, it is easier to produce because even normal humans can pretend a birth is virgin without any magic or miracle. They can just lie and hide the truth!
If you say it is impossible for anyone other than God to make miraculous things happen and thus to make the virgin birth happen, you have come to our position: Miracles do prove divine support because no one else can truly create them!
As a result, the alleged fulfillment of the alleged prophecy of the virgin birth is not justifiable reason to believe in a person if you also claim miracles can come from other than God. It would be contradictory.
All of this discussion is made clear by the words of the writer of John who explicitly links the belief of the disciples to the signs Jesus brought without conditioning anything on the fulfillment of prophecies.
Although it is true that Jesus (AS) did fulfill prophecies according to the Gospel writers, it is clear signs and miracles were considered evidence of his truth that did not rely on the fulfillment of prophecies.
(Note: Wine is not allowed in our law but it was probably allowed in the previous laws. Allah changes laws slightly from prophet to prophet but the core message of monotheism remains the same.)
The writer of Acts quotes Peter noting that signs and miracles are what accredited Jesus (AS):
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.
Acts 2
In this passage as well, it is clear that miracles themselves proved Jesus (AS) without recourse to specific prophecies. If miracles could be done by other than God, it would be meaningless to say a person was accredited by miracles.
Scriptural Argument
Scriptural Proof Supporting Miracles
The Torah confirms the idea that the truth of a prophet is determined by the miracles he brings and the true predictions and prophecies he makes, not particularly his fulfillment of previous prophecies.
The writer of the Torah says:
18 [The Lord said]: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
Deuteronomy 18
This prophecy in Deuteronomy refers to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) since he was sent to the children of Ishmael who are the brethren tribe of the Israelites. However, this is not the place to delve into that discussion.
The main takeaway from the above passage is that a true prophet is known from a false prophet by their proclamations in the name of God that something miraculous or difficult to predict will happen.
When they make this proclamation and it does not happen, that is how you recognize the false prophet.
There is no mention here of recognizing true or false prophets based on whether they fulfill past prophecies!
The Torah also confirms the second condition I mentioned in the beginning of this article when proving a prophet, “That person does not make illogical or contradictory claims.”
13 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.
Deuteronomy 13
The Torah allows that God might test people with a prophet who tells them to worship other Gods. But, this is something the people should be able to recognize since polytheism is illogical and contradictory. When someone makes such a claim, he is no longer a candidate for prophecy.
The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) brought pure monotheism with no room for doubt or debate that anyone can be worshiped besides God. He brought in the Quran: ⟪Your god is only Allah, except for whom there is no deity. He has encompassed all things in knowledge.⟫ (20:98)
All of this is to show that God might sometimes allow miracles for people who bring an inherently illogical message like polytheism, but not when there is nothing inherently illogical about that prophet’s teachings about God.
Someone might ask: If you say we can have logic as a standard in addition to miracles, then why can we not say matching previous scriptures is a standard in addition to miracles as well?
The response is: It is only possible to rule out prophets who preach something like polytheism because logic is a more fundamental source of knowledge than miracles or books.
However, when there is no logical issue, using previous scripture to negate a prophet leads to a contradiction: negating one person who brings miracles based on the message of another person who is also proven because of miracles. The same standard cannot be enough to prove one but not the other! That would be circular and contradictory. We will discuss this issue in more detail in the logical argument.
So, anyone who claims a man who brought pure monotheism along with miracles and prophecies was not from God leads himself into an undeniable contradiction.
Scripture Denying Miracles?
Some Christians claim their scripture supports the idea that miracles and signs should not be followed if they are brought by a prophet who contradicts the message brought in their books and Gospels.
They quote a passage from the Gospel of Mark:
21 [Jesus said:] At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
Mark 13
However, there is no proof for the Christian claim in this quote from Jesus (AS) even if we took this quote to be true. In reality, it must be interpreted along with the words of the Torah: Jesus here means prophets and false messiahs who make clearly false claims about polytheism.
This is what we believe as Muslims as well, that an anti-Christ will come near the end of times who will bring signs and miracles. He will preach that he is God himself. With this polytheism, his falsehood will become clear to the people of logic.
This does not reduce the importance of miracles as evidence when the prophet makes no such clearly contradictory claims.
If someone insisted on interpreting this passage from Jesus (AS) as a rejection of all miracles and prophecies as evidence for truth even when someone does not make contradictory claims, that means this passage is false and not attributed to Jesus (AS) because it contradicts the Torah as we have discussed and is logically contradictory as we will discuss in a following section.
Some Christians also quote Paul’s letter to the Galatians:
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!
Galatians 1
They claim this is evidence miracles are to be rejected if they contradict the current Gospels.
However, this is extremely poor evidence. Before anyone can use this as evidence, he needs to prove the authority of Paul (Why should anyone believe him?) and prove the authenticity of this writing to Paul.
Even before all that is all proven, the passage remains false for contradicting the Torah and logic as we will discuss. So, if Paul truly said it, either he said it in hyperbole or he made a false claim as a liar.
It is also interesting to note that none of these passages mention anything about fulfillment of prophecies being the deciding factor in whether a prophet is accepted or not as some Christians claim.
In conclusion, there is no reliable or clear scriptural evidence for anyone to deny miracles prove the truth of prophethood even without the fulfillment of prophecy.
So, there is no viable argument for a Christian in distinguishing between types of miracles if he says other miracles are not exclusive to God.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is contradictory, circular, and paradoxical for a Christian to reject the use of miracles for the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in proving his prophethood by arguing miracles do not prove prophethood unless there is fulfillment of prophecies.
We saw in this article how the history of the Prophets both Muslims and Christians agree about, the advice of how to identify prophets in the Torah, and even logical and rational analysis shows the falsehood of this idea that miracles are not enough evidence to prove the prophethood of a person.
Rather, this position has to be abandoned by fair people. Instead, they should actually investigate the evidence that each religion gives to prove itself and verify whether those claims are true. When they do that with an open mind while seeking guidance from God sincerely, they will be guided to the correct path God-willing.
As for the actual miracles of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), I have only touched them briefly in this article. For a more detailed discussion on the miracles, prophecies, and signs of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), refer to the book Proofs of Prophethood and the video series of the same name. Those sources will discuss both what the miracles were and how we can know they actually happened.
I also did not discuss in this article whether the claimed prophecies fulfilled by Jesus in the New Testament really stand up to scrutiny and also did not delve into whether the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is also confirmed by prophecies in the Old Testament. For more discussion on this topic, refer to the book Abraham Fulfilled. It will become clear in that book and similar studies that the Prophet (SAW) is fully in line with the Old Testament in reality even though he does not need to be.
I also did not discuss in this article the fact that the Old Testament and New Testament are considered corrupted by us. That topic and its consequences are covered in other places.
Finally, I ask God to guide you and me.