hood, formed by such a collection, has the strength of a mountain. Now you have understood how unreasonable it is to regard as unstable and liable to fall that lofty, firm heaven, due to doubts arising from lack of understanding in particular matters and examples. Certainly those miracles concerning increase and plenty show that Muhammad the Arabian (Upon whom be blessings and peace) was the beloved official and honoured servant of One All-Compassionate and Munificent who creates all sustenance and provides all beings with it, for contrary to His practice, He sent him banquets of different varieties of food out of nothing, from the pure Unseen.
It is well-known that the Arabian Peninsula is a place where water and agriculture are scarce. For this reason, its people, and particularly the Companions in the early days of Islam, suffered want and scarcity. They were also frequently afflicted with thirst. Because of this, many important, evident miracles of Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) were related to food and water. Rather than being miracles proving his claim to prophethood, these wonders were on account of need and like divine gifts, dominical bounty, and banquets of the Most Merciful One for His Most Noble Messenger (UWBP). For those who saw the miracles had already assented to his prophethood. However, as the miracles took place, their belief increased and became more luminous.
EIGHTH SIGN
This section describes miracles which were manifested in connection with water.
Introduction: It is known that when events that take place among groups of people are related individually and not contradicted by others, it indicates the veracity of the reports. For by virtue of his very nature, man is inclined to call a lie a lie. In particular since the people in question were the Companions, who were more intolerant of lies than anyone else; if the incidents concerned God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and if the narrator was a renowned Companion, then certainly the narrator gives his report on behalf of all who witnessed the incident. However, all the miracles involving water that we will cite below were transmitted through many channels, entrusted by many Companions to thousands of precise scholars of the following generation, who in turn passed them down correctly to the great interpreters of the Law of the second century. They received them with complete seriousness and reverence, accepted them, then handed them down to the exacting scholars of succeeding centuries. Hence, the traditions have reached our times, passing through thou