The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1552 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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,
ad
th
, and legend many miracles are attributed to him, some of which are reminiscent of New Testament narratives.
In E. religions, miracles are extremely common—so much so that they almost cease to be objects of wonder
(Lat.,
miraculum
). They surround the births of teachers or holy people, and are particularly associated with
siddha
and
iddhi
powers. Such powers would be expected of a living manifestation of the divine (
avat
ra
), as, e.g., in the contemporary case of Satya
Sai Baba
. The Sikh Gur
s condemned appeal to miracles, mainly because they saw them as exploitation of the credulous. Nevertheless, many miracles are told of the Gur
s themselves.
Miracle Plays
:
Mi‘r
j
(Arab., ‘ascend’). The ascension of
Mu
ammad
to heaven on a night journey, which becomes connected to the night journey to Jerusalem (see
ISRA'
), so that the ascension takes place, not from
Mecca
(as perhaps in some early
ad
th
), but from Jerusalem. Mu
ammad travelled on
Bur
q
, and, accompanied by
angels
, visited the seven
heavens
, finding paradise in the seventh. Before the throne of
All
h
, he conversed with God about
al
t
. Despite some discussion about whether these events were in a dream, or in a spiritual experience (and
S
f
s
often take them as symbols of the soul's ascent to God), Muslims in general regard them as matters of fact.

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