27 Aug 2019
[Shri Anil asked: Given below is an excerpt from the Quran, Chapter 54, verses 1-8. The Hour has come near, and the moon has split (in two) - And if they see a sign, they turn away and say, “continued magic.”- And they denied and followed their inclinations. But for every matter is a time of settlement- And there has already come to them of information that in which there is deterrence – Extensive wisdom – but warning does not avail them- So leave them, O Muhammad. The Day the Caller calls to something forbidding - Their eyes humbled, they will emerge from the graves as if they were locusts spreading - Racing ahead toward the Caller. The disbelievers will say “This is a difficult Day.”]
Swami replied: Here, moon represents the mind and the splitting of the moon means the splitting of the mind resulting in the state of doubt where there are two equally-strong and opposing concepts. A miracle can be done by both God and Satan. We cannot identify God only through a miracle. Only when a miracle is supported by excellent spiritual knowledge, does it indicate God. The atheist considers the miracle to be magic. Even though miracles are common to both God and Satan, the miraculous power of Satan is from God alone. The miracles of Satan are called ‘black magic’ in order to distinguish them from God’s miracles. God created Satan because a villain is also needed in the divine drama.
The atheist neither believes in God nor in Satan. But the theist will not call even the miraculous power of Satan as magic. The ignorant theist believes even ordinary magic to be a miracle. The ignorant atheist believes the miracles of both God and Satan to be ordinary magic. Both these ignorant souls are extreme. The golden middle path is the theist who recognizes the unimaginable miracles of both God and Satan, on one side and the magic performed by a magician, on the other side. A miracle is genuine and is the unimaginable power of God. Magic is a false trick and is created by the intelligence of the magician, who is only a human being. Magic appears to be a miracle but it is only an illusion. When a genuine Human Incarnation performs a miracle, it is a miracle of God. It is neither the miracle of Satan nor the magic of a magician. The fraud Human Incarnation may belong to the side of Satan or to the side of a magician. Any miracle is actually done by the unimaginable God, who is invisible. He can become visible in the form of a genuine Human Incarnation. Even the genuine miracle performed by the topmost devotee of God, belongs to the side of God. The miracles performed by Satan and his followers, are also ultimately done by the unimaginable God alone. God is the sole support for the divine drama.
Jesus was a genuine Human Incarnation of God. But He was misunderstood by the priests and the majority of the public following the priests. They thought that He was a fraud Human Incarnation performing miracles with the help of Satan. The atheists, as usual, misunderstood Jesus to be a clever human being performing magic tricks. Jesus was crucified by the priests and their followers, who believed in miracles, but they had misunderstood Jesus to be a follower of Satan doing black magic. This was a very serious misunderstanding, which led to the crucifixion of Jesus. Black magic is a genuine miracle, but it is wrong in its purpose. The magic performed by a clever human being is not as serious as black magic. So, if a clever person does some magic and cheats the public, he can be punished, but there is no need to sentence Him to death.
Mohammad knew very well that Jesus was a true Incarnation who did genuine miracles, which were certainly not black magic and certainly not magic tricks. His idea was that it is better to misunderstand a Human Incarnation to be an ordinary human being doing magic than to misunderstand Him to be a follower of Satan doing miraculous black magic. That way, even if the rulers and administrators arrest the Incarnation, they would only give Him some minor punishment and not sentence Him to death. With this thought, Mohammad called Jesus as a clever person doing magic. His intention was to avoid the killing of any Human Incarnation in the future. This is the essence of the quoted paragraph, which represents the concept in a very condensed manner.
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