Sūratu’r-Ra‘d [Thunder]: (13:31)

وَلَوْ أَنَّ قُرْآنًا سُيِّرَتْ بِهِ الْجِبَالُ أَوْ قُطِّعَتْ بِهِ الْأَرْضُ أَوْ كُلِّمَ بِهِ الْمَوْتَىٰ ۗ بَل لِّلَّهِ الْأَمْرُ جَمِيعًا

If at all through a Divine Book mountains were moved, or the earth were torn apart, or the dead were made to speak, (all would be only through this Qur’ān). No, but to God belongs the whole command (to decide what shall be and how it shall be).

(Ar-Ra‘d 13:31)

1. If the mountains were moved or the earth were torn apart or the dead were made to speak through a Book, all this would not be possible through the Torah, the Psalms, or the Gospel, but they would definitely be possible through the Qur’ān. Thus, God, exalted is His Majesty, draws the attention of people to the Qur’ān.

2. If all these incidents had actually happened, they would have been miracles. Even though the Prophets may have asked for these to happen hoping that their people might believe, they did not happen. This shows that the miracles worked by the Prophets and created by God in order to prove the mission of Prophethood and the Prophethood of the Prophets were dependent upon God’s will and permission.

3. With the expression, “to God belongs the whole command,” attention is drawn to certain distortions in thought and belief. That is, people are warned about for what and from whom they should ask. It is also stressed that all power, material or spiritual, is God’s, and it is He Who creates everything and whatever people do. Doing and creating are different things. Without God’s creation of people’s deeds, nobody can accomplish anything. It is also God Who creates effects and without His creation, the law of causality means nothing. He does whatever He wills, and if He wills, He may open hearts to belief without miracles. If He wills, He tears the earth apart, moves mountains, and makes all the dead speak. However, none of these have an effect on hearts as deep and as lasting as the Qur’ān has on the hearts, whose guidance God wills. Thus, the verse implies that the miracles or anything or any incident which we deem to be extraordinary are of little significance compared with the universal revolution that the Qur’ān has brought about. If we conceive of effects as the results of the things we consider as extraordinary, any greatest, world-wide, and lasting effects can only belong to the Qur’ān. If God wills, it is possible through the Qur’ān that mountains are moved and scattered, the earth is rent apart, and the dead are made to speak, but the purpose of the revelation of the Qur’ān is not to realize all this. The purpose of Divine wisdom in the revelation of the Qur’ān is, by God’s leave, to shape a new role model and raise new generations to enable faith to dominate human beings by penetrating into their hearts, to show mortal human beings the way of eternity and allow them to view eternity and eternal happiness through the window of the conscience before they die. True success is to become open to the realization of the purpose for the revelation of the Qur’ān. Indeed, if the mountains are thrown into the air, the earth is broken into shreds, and the bones in graves start talking, their temporary effects would be quite weak compared to the eternal and permanent effect of the Qur’ān on humankind.