Subtleties and Allusions

1. The Difference Between Divine Grace and Miracle

A “miracle” (muʿjiza) does not contradict the system of causality, because a miracle does not mean negating the principle of causality or breaking existing causes, but rather breaking the norm. Indeed, breaking or contradicting causality is against reason, but breaking norms is not. In miracles and breaking norms, hidden causes are concealed from our view.

An extraordinary act, if accompanied by challenge and claim, is a miracle; otherwise, it is a divine grace (karāma).(329) Therefore, the extraordinary acts of the Imams (a.s.) to prove their Imamate are miracles; but if they are only to fulfill a need, such as quenching someone’s thirst or relieving someone’s hunger, it is a “divine grace” (karāma).

According to some theological books, miracles are not exclusive to proving prophethood and can also be used to prove claimed Imamate.(330) Amīn al-Islām al-Ṭabrisī also says: “…it could be a miracle of Mary (a.s.) indicating her purity and innocence…, as clear evidence indicates its permissibility”.(331)

2. The Status of Miracles

A “miracle” (muʿjiza) is not of the acquired knowledge type that someone can learn. Miracles are connected to the sanctity of the human spirit, which is God’s vicegerent, and can never be learned through thought like ordinary knowledge. If the spirit becomes a manifestation of God’s active will, a person with such status will possess the power of divine grace and miracles. Just as God breathed the spirit into the human body after creating all its organs and limbs, Jesus (a.s.) also created the form of a bird with all its internal and external organs and limbs, along with its systems of imagination, fantasy, and motivational and perceptual senses, and then breathed into it, and that bird came to life by God’s permission.

3. Women and Spiritual Perfection

A careful examination of the Qur’an’s perspective regarding Mary (a.s.) clearly shows why Islam considers women to reach maturity several years before men and brings them under its educational guidance, and why God addresses them and requires worship from them. Indeed, women’s readiness for education and acceptance of knowledge, if not greater than men’s, is certainly not less.

Perfection is not exclusively in executive matters, such that one might object why Islam does not entrust executive roles to women in the same way it does to men. In all executive matters concerning women, and in centers where the presence of both men and women is permissible, including academic, educational, medical centers and others, it is better if women take positions serving other women. Regarding war, the prohibition of women’s presence is in offensive jihad, not in defense, and even in defense, it is better that a woman commands the army and mobilization of women.

If a woman is not equal to a man in the dimension of thought and intellect, she is stronger than man in matters of education, preaching, intimate discourse with God, and matters of the heart, and can traverse the path more completely. And while the instruction “pray during your menstrual days”(332) is specific to women, firstly, women enter the realm of religious matters several years before men, and this early maturity of several years before men can compensate for the missed worship during menstruation; secondly, even during the days when prayer is prohibited, by performing ablution, sitting facing the direction of prayer, and engaging in remembrance, she can receive the reward of prayer.(333) Thus, there is a way to compensate for women’s incomplete worship, just as saying the four glorifications thirty times compensates for the shortcoming in a traveler’s prayer.(334)

Note: Some objections regarding women’s perfection and their critique and responses will be discussed under the verse “Men are the managers of women”.(335)