Social Laws, Physical Laws and Miracles

       

We have already seen in the articles ‘Principles of Conquest of Natural Systems’  and ‘Process of Creation and Conquest of Nature’  and many other articles on this subject that natural laws are mainly two types i.e. physical laws and social laws. Both types of laws are regulated by Allah. Regulation of Physical laws may be or may not be related to human actions/inactions; but regulation of social laws is always related to actions/ inactions of the relevant people. Both physical laws and social laws are fixed and unchangeable. As both types of laws are acts of Allah and Allah’s sunnah/ acts are based on fixed principles, and as such are unchangeable, physical and social laws are fixed. “And the ‘amr’ of Allah is a decree determined” (al-ahzab-38). “and you will not find in Our way/ sunnah any alteration” (Isra-77).

Social laws are operated on the basis of fixed principles which are relating to conduct of the relevant people; similarly physical laws are operated through fixed principles.

Miracle is not something operating outside the ambit of principles of social laws or physical laws. I mean whenever a miracle happens, it does not violate the operational conditionality attached with such social law or physical law. For instance, social law operates on the basis of operational conditionality related to conduct of the relevant people; if people use to act in a certain way, they pass through certain social conditions; if the way of action is changed, social conditions would be changed accordingly. We would not find a single miracle which would have changed social conditions of the people without people changing their conduct. In fact, miracles have nothing to do with social matters. We cannot find a single miracle in the history which has changed people’s social conditions. Actually miracles which we find in the history are related to physical laws only; they are not related to social laws. Social laws are regulated by Allah on the basis of social conduct of the relevant people. Every prophet has worked hard to change conduct of the people so that social conditions of the people might have been changed. No prophet has taken resort to miracle to change social conditions of the people without people changing their conduct. Change in the conduct of the people is reflected through the institutions established by the people. As establishment of institutions is an eventual/gradual process which cannot be brought about overnight, change in the conduct of the people cannot be brought about overnight. Social laws have never been  subjected to a process called miracle. Sending down angels during ‘ghazwa e badr’ was not a social event; it was an event related to physical law (the angels added to physical power of the Muslims. This miracle occurred only after the Muslims adopted 'tawakkal' along with required action. It may please be noted that Muslims undertook this war after getting minimum required strength; it implies that minimum required strength is necessary to undertake war).

We can find many examples in the history that Physical laws have been subjected to miracles. In fact, miracles are initiated only in relation to physical laws; miracles are not initiated in relation to social laws. As mentioned earlier, physical laws are regulated by Allah on the basis of fixed principles; it means miracles cannot violate the principles which are the basis of physical laws; miracles are initiated on the basis of fixed principles of physical laws. Miracles are no exception to physical laws. Now the question arises if miracles do not violate principles of physical laws, why they are called miracle and how they are different from normal operation of physical laws.

 Actually miracles are initiated only to strengthen faith of the people into Omnipotent Allah; miracles are initiated when there are no resources available to the people to obtain the desired result which is brought about through that miracle. In this way, an unexpected happening like miracle strengthens the people’s faith in Allah’s Omnipotence. The question is if resources are not available, how the desired results are brought about through miracle without violating principles of physical laws. One answer is that missing resources may be made available through the future technology which is made available to bring about the desired result. This was what happened in case of our Nabi’s (saww) ‘journey of meraj’. As we have described in the article ‘Concept of Time and Meraj’, in the age of our Nabi (saww), technology was not advanced enough to manufacture a vehicle to travel in future time. But when Allah desired  His Prophet to travel in future time, Allah arranged for vehicle from future time ; burraq’ was a future technology transport which was carried by Gabriel (a.s) to our Nabi (saww) from the future time. This vehicle enabled our Nabi (saww) to travel through seven skies into future time; ‘burraq’ was arranged so that our Nabi’s (saww) travel to future time may be conducted without violating principles of physical laws. Otherwise, if violation of principles of physical laws would be  desirable, there was no need to arrange for ‘burraq’; our Nabi (Saww) may be made travel into future time without ‘burraq’.

We may conclude that both social laws and physical laws have fixed principles which are unchangeable. Miracles do not violate fixed principles working in this universe. Miracles are not related to social laws which are regulated by Allah on the basis of conduct of the relevant people. Miracles are related to physical laws which are not related to conduct of the people. However miracles do not violate principles of physical laws either; miracles operate keeping within ambit of principles of physical laws.