—a marvel indeed, for with any supernatural sign there is no real distinction between the small and the great. Whoever can ride across the face of a vast, foaming torrent while the horses’ hoof-wraps remain dry, or the water rises no higher than their bellies, has witnessed a miracle; it matters not whether the depth be a man’s height or a thousand, nor whether the body of water be a river or an ocean. In fact, for it to be a raging river—surging like a flash of lightning, sweeping along like a flood—is all the more astonishing and extraordinary.
The same is true of the splitting of the sea—the side of the Gulf of Suez—when each wall of water stood like a mighty mountain. The water drew back to right and left until the seabed was laid bare; Allah then sent a wind upon it that dried it, and the horses advanced without the least unease until the last of them had crossed. Pharaoh and his hosts followed, whereupon
“there overtook them from the sea that which overtook them; Pharaoh led his people astray and did not guide them.” (Q 20:78–79)
When they had reached mid-passage and the vanguard was about to emerge, Allah commanded the sea to crash back upon them; they all drowned to the last man. Not one of them escaped, just as not a single soul from among the Children of Israel was lost. In this lies a tremendous sign—indeed, a number of clear signs—as we have set out at length in the Tafsīr; to Allah belong all praise and favor.
The point is this: the stories we have related about al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, Abū ʿUbayd ath-Thaqafī, and Abū Muslim al-Khawlānī—how they travelled across a rushing current without a single man lost and without misplacing so much as a piece of baggage—took place at the hands of awliyāʾ: one Companion and two Successors. Imagine, then, were such a need to arise in the very presence of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—the master and seal of the messengers, the highest in station on the Night of the Ascension, their imam that night in Jerusalem (the locus of their spiritual authority and the starting point of their journey), their orator on the Day of Resurrection, the loftiest of them in Paradise, the first to intercede at the Gathering, to seek deliverance from the Fire, to usher people into Paradise, and to elevate ranks therein, as we have explained in detail when discussing the categories and kinds of intercession at the end of this book in the section on the conditions of the Day of Resurrection. Allah alone is the One whose help is sought.
When we come to the miracles of Moses we shall mention prophetic miracles of Muḥammad that are even clearer and more brilliant. For now we remain with the miracles of Noah, peace be upon him, and our shaykh has cited only what has already been presented. The ḥadīth-master Abū Nuʿaym Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Iṣbahānī, however, says at the close of his three-volume work Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah:
“Chapter Thirty-Three: Concerning the comparison of the virtues of the prophets with the virtues of our Prophet, and the correspondence between the signs they were given and the signs he was given—for he was granted what they were granted and its like and counterpart.”
He continues: “The first of the messengers was Noah, peace be upon him; the sign he was given was the appeasement of his anger and the answer to his supplication, whereby Allah’s swift vengeance befell his deniers, so that every living thing upon the face of the earth—silent or speaking—perished, except those who believed in him and boarded his Ark. By my life, that is a mighty sign, in perfect accord with the prior decree of Allah and His foreknowledge of their destruction.
“In like manner, when our Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was denied by his people, who went to extremes in harming him and belittling his standing with Allah the Exalted, so that the insolent ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ threw the entrails of a camel upon his back while he was in prostration, he supplicated, saying: ‘O Allah, deal with the chiefs of…’”