• The parting of the sea when Moses struck it with his staff, whereupon it split into twelve separate pathways; his people crossed and were saved, while Pharaoh’s people followed and were drowned.

And there were many other successive signs—proofs for those who beheld them and proofs, too, for those who only heard of them—for they were conveyed by the greatest (1) repositories of certitude, the heavenly scriptures, and have been handed down by every generation. None denies such signs except an obstinate, ignorant heretic. All the signs granted to the prophets are of this very nature.

• Another lesson: the signs of the prophets, the karamāt (extraordinary favors) bestowed upon the righteous friends of Allah, and every marvel by which Allah overrides normal causes—whether by altering those causes, suspending their causal force, making them depend on other causes, or placing hindrances that block them—are among the mighty proofs of Allah’s oneness. They show that He is capable of all things, that nothing great or small falls outside His decree, and that these miracles, karamāt, and alterations do not contradict the tangible causes and familiar order Allah has embedded in creation. Truly, you will never find any change or deviation in Allah’s established way. Allah’s ways with respect to all past and future events fall into two categories:

• The first category—which comprises the vast majority of events, creatures, revealed and decretal rulings, and the laws of recompense—never changes or departs from what people normally observe and from the causes they recognize. This category, too, is fully encompassed by Allah’s power and decree.

From this we learn the perfection of Allah’s wisdom in His creation and legislation, and that causes and effects, when one follows their paths properly, inevitably lead to their intended outcomes and fruits, whereas whoever does not