BENEFIT 500: Busying Oneself with The Studies of Numerical & Scientific Miracles in The Qur'ān

Question: What is your advice to those who engage in what is called “numerical miracles” (Iʿjāz ʿAdadī), claiming to belong to Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jamāʿah, and asserting that they are defending the Qur'ān against those who attack it and allege deficiencies within it? Sheikh Najeeb Ash-Shar’abi ḥafidhahullāh: Our advice to such a person is that he should devote himself to the study of the sciences of the Qur'ān and the Sunnah, and abandon all else. Allāh, the Exalted, says: “Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord, and do not follow other allies besides Him. Little do you remember.” [Al-Aʿrāf: 3] And the Prophet ﷺ said: “Beware of newly invented matters, for every innovation is a bidʿah, and every bidʿah is misguidance.” [Narrated by Aḥmad (nos. 17144, 17145), Abū Dāwūd (no. 4607), At-Tirmidhī (no. 2676), and Ibn Mājah (no. 43), from the ḥadīth of Al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah As-Sulamī (may Allāh be pleased with him). At-Tirmidhī declared it ḥasan (good), Ibn Ḥibbān (no. 5) and Al-Ḥākim (nos. 329–333) authenticated it, and Adh-Dhahabī concurred. Al-Albānī also authenticated it in Al-Irwāʾ (no. 2455) and Aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah (no. 2735). Al-ʿAllāmah Al-Wādiʿī (may Allāh have mercy on him) cited it in Aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥ Al-Musnad mimmā laysa fī Aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥayn (no. 921)]. The Prophet ﷺ also said: “Whoever introduces into this matter of ours that which is not from it, it will be rejected.” [Narrated by al-Bukhārī (no. 2697) and Muslim (no. 1718) from the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah (may Allāh be pleased with her)] And in a narration of Muslim: “Whoever performs an act which is not in accordance with our affair, it will be rejected.” Ibn Masʿūd (may Allāh be pleased with him) said: “Follow and do not innovate, for you have been sufficed.” A poet said: All sciences but the Qur'ān are mere distractions, Except for ḥadīth and Fiqh in religion. True knowledge is what contains the words ‘He narrated to us’, All else is but the whispering of Satan. What is known as “scientific miracles” (Iʿjāz ʿIlmī) in the Qur'ān, as well as “numerical miracles” (Iʿjāz ʿAdadī), are newly-invented modern innovations, unknown to the Salaf or to the scholars of religion until our time—an age in which countless doors of whims, falsehoods, and temptations of doubts and desires have been opened to people, the likes of which did not exist before. Certain Hizbi, misguided, and empty-minded individuals have popularised what they call “scientific” and “numerical” miracles in the Qur'ān, to the point that some of their leading figures among the Ikhwān Al-Muflisīn (the “Bankrupt Brotherhood”) became known almost exclusively for this so-called miracle when their knowledge and virtue were mentioned! They have turned away from beneficial knowledge—the knowledge of the Qur'ān and the Sunnah. The scholars, however, rose against this innovation and warned against it, and their warnings are recorded and well known—among them: Al-ʿAllāmah Muqbil ibn Hādī Al-Wādiʿī, Al-ʿAllāmah Ṣāliḥ Al-Fawzān, our Shaykh Al-ʿAllāmah Yaḥyā Al-Ḥajūrī, and others. Among those who became famous for this so-called “miraculous” field and devoted themselves to it is ʿAbdulMajīd Az-Zindānī—whose condition is well known. We ask Allāh for safety and well-being. Al-ʿAllāmah Muqbil ibn Hādī Al-Wādiʿī (may Allāh have mercy on him) used to say: “ʿAbdulMajīd Az-Zindānī does not even understand the rulings regarding his wife’s menstruation!” Al-ʿAllāmah Ibn ʿUthaymīn (may Allāh have mercy on him) said—in Majmūʿ Fatāwā (vol. 26, p. 28): “As for scientific miracles, in reality, we do not deny them. We do not deny that the Qur'ān contains matters whose meanings have become clear in later times. However, some people have gone to extremes in this regard, until we have seen those who treat the Qur'ān as though it were a book of mathematics. This is an error. We say that exaggeration in proving scientific miracles is not appropriate, for such claims are often built upon theories—and theories change.