terrupted transmission, so do, to a greater extent, the reports concerning the miracles of the Prophet of Islam. But, as we have just explained, the reports on the miracles of the earlier prophets are not confirmed to have been transmitted without interruption in the succeeding periods; hence, the claim is invalid.
Moreover, the Prophet of Islam confirmed many of the miracles of earlier prophets, and then claimed that he was superior to all of them, and that the line of prophets ended with him. This claim necessitates that his miracles should be more extraordi‌ nary than those that occurred before him, for it would be unreasonable for anyone to claim superiority over others while confessing that he is inferior to them in some of the attributes of perfection. Does it stand to reason for someone to claim that he is the most learned of all physicians, and, at the same time, concede that some of the other physicians are able to cure a disease that he is unable to cure? Reason rules against this. It is because of this that we see that most of the false prophets denied that miracles could occur. They repudiated all the miracles of past prophets and en‌ deavored to explain away the verses which mention the occurrenct: of miracles, lest the people ask them for something similar, and their incapacity would thereby be exposed. Some ignorant persons and those who mislead simple folk have written that the verses of the Quran include things which deny any miracle for the great Prophet except the Quran. They maintain that the Quran is his only miracle to the exclusion of any other, and that it is the only proof of his prophethood. We shall now tum to the verses they have quoted as proof and discuss their arguments; then we shall point out their error.
One of these verses is [what] God says:

Naught hinders Us from sending signs [al-ayat]save that the folk of old denied them. And We gave Thamild the she-camel-a clear portent-but they did wrong in respect to her. We send not divine signs, save to warn (Q. ١٧:٥٩).

The above passage, they assert, shows clearly that the Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) did not bring any divine sign except the Quran. The reason for not sending other signs is that the earliest of bygone communities [to which prophets were sent] denied the divine signs that were sent to them.
The response is as follows.
The signs which the verse repudiates, and which were denied by the earlier com‌ munities, were only the divine signs that the communities demanded from their pruphets. Therefore, the verse simply indicates that the Prophet did not comply with the unbelievers in producing the divine signs they specified. It does not deny that he did not perform any miracles at all. That the signs intended here are only those which were demanded is indicated by the following.
First, the word ayat is the plural of aya, meaning "a sign." The word in the [Ara‌ bic] verse is the definite plural, preceded by the definite article al- (the). There are three possible meanings of the word in its present context. One is the generic mean‌ ing that would apply to every sign. This would entail that the verse denies the occur‌ rence of any sign that confirms a prophets claim. The corollary is that sending a prophet is futile, for there is no benefit in sending him without a clear proof of his veracity. In other words, to impose on people the obligation to acknowledge him creates a situation whereby the people have been asked to perform a duty of which