The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1551 page)

 
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Miracle
.

A striking event brought about (usually by God) for a religious purpose, against the usual course of nature; for example, the
resurrection
or the instantaneous healings recorded in the Christian gospels. The modern mind (post-
Hume
tends to ask of miracles, did they really happen; and, if so, what do they show? But religiously, miracle stories have also to be evaluated in the contexts in which they are told, in order to discern their meaning for those transmitting them: they are usually regarded as signs of God's power, or as vouching for the authority of a revelation, prophet, or holy person.
Among Jews, belief in miracles rests on the biblical descriptions of the interventions of God, beginning with creation itself. In the Hebrew Bible, such events as the Ten Plagues and the parting of the Red Sea are understood as interventions by God. The medieval Jewish philosophers found it difficult to accept the supernatural element in the biblical understanding of miracles, but this way of thinking has been condemned as
‘Hellenism
’ by such thinkers as S. D.
Luzzatto
.
In Islam the
Qur’
n
speaks of the ‘signs’ of All
h (
y
t
, singular
y
) as proofs of the divine power: natural phenomena, and extraordinary events. The term used in Islam for ‘miracle’, though not occurring in the Qur’
n, is
mu‘jiza
(that which could not normally be achieved; cf.
i‘j
z
, from the same root). This is a sign given by All
h to prove the authenticity and truthfulness of a
prophet
, in particular
Mu
ammad
. Although the sole ‘miracle’ of Mu
ammad is said to be the Qur’
n, yet in the
s
ra