The status of saints and their miracles in light of the Holy Quran and the Hadith

 Miracle of Hadhrat Umar Farooq (May Allah be well pleased with him)

There is a Tradition in Imam Baihaqui’s Dalail Un Nubuwwah, Mishkaatul Masabeeh and Zujajatul Masabeeh:

Translation:  It has been narrated on the authority of Hadhrat ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar that Hadhrat ‘Umar (May Allah be well pleased with them) had sent an army for a military campaign.  He had appointed a person as the leader of this army, who was called "Sariya."  While Hadhrat ‘Umar (May Allah be well pleased with him) was giving a sermon, he started saying:  O Sariya!  To the mountain!  After this, a message-bearer came and said:  O Commander of the faithful!  We were fighting against our enemies.  They had almost defeated us. When we heard someone calling out: O Sariya!  To the mountain!  We stood with the mountain at our back and Almighty Allah gave them a crushing defeat.  (Dalaail Un Nubuwwah, Hadith No. 2655; Mishkaatul Masabeeh, Babul Karamaat; Zujajatul Masabeeh, Babul Karamaat)

This Tradition shows many miracles of Hadhrat Umar (May Allah be well pleased with him). One is that being in Madina, he saw a battle being fought in Nahavand (Iran, then Persia), another miracle is that he made the people fighting in Nahavand hear his voice without any apparent means of communication and yet another is that because of his intervention, victory became the lot of Muslims. 

This isn’t the only miracle expressed at the hands of Hadhrat ‘Umar Farooq (May Allah be well pleased with him).  He wrote a letter to the river Nile and the river obeyed his order.  As related by Imam Tabari (May Allah shower His mercy on him):

Translation: When Egypt was conquered, the natives came to Hadhrat ‘Amr bin A’as (May Allah be well pleased with him) and said:  Indeed!  This river desires one virgin every year and we throw one girl into the river.  If we don’t do so, the river will stop flowing which will make the cities desolate and people will be struck by famine.  Hadhrat ‘Amr bin A’as (May Allah be well pleased with him) let this be known to the Caliph, Hadhrat ‘Umar Al Farooq (May Allah be well pleased with him).  He sent a letter that Islam has declared former evils as wrong and sent him a chit on which he had written:  I start with the name of Allah who is the most benevolent and the most merciful.  From the slave of Allah, ‘Umar bin Khattab to river Nile…. O river!  If you flow with your own wish, then we don’t need you and if you flow with the command of Allah, then start flowing with the command of Allah. 

He wrote that this letter should be dropped into the river.  When it was done, the same night, the river started flowing with a water level 16-yards high and the level increased by 6 yards every year.

(Ar Riyadh Un Nadhra Fi Manaqibi ‘Ashra, Al Babuth Thani Fi Manaqibi Ameeril Mo'mineen Abi Hafs ‘Umar bin Khattab)

If there is a problem with the water level of a river or so, no one will write a letter to a river.  If someone does it, then nobody expects that the river will follow the order and fulfill the needs.

But here, what is happening is out of the ordinary.  This is a miracle of Hadhrat ‘Umar Al Farooq (May Allah be well pleased with him) that he sends a letter to the river and the river follows its orders to the letter.