The Miracle
Know that the way to know the Prophets is the Miracle; it is an extraordinary matter, it happens in compliance with the claim of the one who claims Prophethood, and it is clear of being discredited by something similar. Any matter that is strange but is not extraordinary is not a Miracle. Likewise, whatever is extraordinary but is not accompanied with the claim of Prophethood is not called a Miracle, like the extraordinary matters that happen to the Waliyys, those who follow the Prophets. That is not a Miracle, rather it is called a Karamah. Likewise whatever is possibly opposed by its likes is not a miracle, like magic, for magic is opposed by magic of its likes.
The Miracle is of two categories: a category that takes place after the people’s challenge to the one who claims Prophethood, and a category which happens without any challenge. The first is like the camel of Salih, the one that came out of the boulder. His people challenged him with that. They said, “If you are a Prophet sent to us for us to believe in you, then bring a camel for us out of this boulder, and its calf,” so he brought a camel out of the boulder for them with its calf. They were amazed, so they believed in him; because had he been a liar in saying that Allah sent him, then he would not have performed this strange extraordinary matter which no one among the people was able to oppose with its likes.
Therefore the evidence was established against them, and they had no valid option except acceptance in the heart and faith in him, because the intellect dictates the truthfulness of the one who performs such a matter. Those who oppose a Miracle are unable to perform something like it to discredit it, so anyone who does not accept it in his heart and stubbornly opposes it is considered someone who deems the value of intellectual evidence as nothing.