Why did God send Moses (peace be upon him) with the [miraculous] staff, white hands, and the power of magic, [whereas) he sent Jesus with the power of healing and Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny) with the [power of] speech and oration?

The Imam Abu al-J:Iasan replied:

This is because when God sent Moses (peace be upon him), what prevailed among the people of his time was magic. Thus, he brought them from God something that no one among them could perform, and which rendered their magic null and void; and with that He established the proof for them. And God sent Jesus (peace be upon him) at a time when chronic illnesses had appeared and people needed the medical sciences. Jesus brought them from God something the like of which they did not have, and by means of which he raised them from the dead, and healed the blind and the lepers, with Gods leave. Thus, he established the proof for them.
And God sent Mul)ammad (peace be upon him and his progeny) at a time when the
art of oration and poetry was prevalent among the people of his time. Thus, he brought them from God his exhortations and his wisdom, which rendered speeches null and void, and he established his proof for them.٥

The Prophet performed other miracles besides the Quran, such as splitting the moon, the serpent which spoke, and the pebbles which praised God. But the Quran is the greatest of these miracles, and the strongest in establishing the proof, for the Arabs, who were ignorant of the natural sciences and the mysteries of the universe, may have doubted these other miracles and attributed them to causes of whose accu‌ racy they were ignorant. The nearest of these causes to their mind was magic, to which they would have attributed these miracles. However, they were not likely to doubt the eloquence of the Quran and its inimitability because they understood the tech‌ niques of eloquence and comprehended its mysteries. Moreover, those other mys‌ teries were transitory and did not have a lasting effect. In no time they would be‌ come a narrative, transmitted from one generation to the next, and leaving the door wide open for doubt. But the Quran is here for eternity, and its miracle is continu‌ ous over the generations. I shall discuss, in particular, the miracles of the Prophet, other than the Quran, and thereby devote some attention to those among contempo‌ rary authors and others who deny them.

The Quran as a Divine Miracle

Every intelligent person to whom the call of Islam has reached knows that Mul,larnmad (peace be upon him and his progeny) announced to all mankind the call to accept Islam, and through the Quran, established for them the proof [of the claim to prophethood] and challenged them, with [the Qurans] inimitability, to produce its like, even by helping each other in so doing. Then he lowered this and challenged them to produce ten suras [like those in the Quran]. And, finally, he challenged them to produce only one sura like it.٦
Had that been possible, it would have behooved the Arabs-especially those among them who excelled in eloquence-to take up the Prophets challenge and invalidate his proof by matching it. Indeed, it would have behooved them to counter one sura of