For the tyrants...

For the tyrants, there is no concept of a reward for good deeds, while he imagines that his evil deeds will go unpunished.[^5] The religious and pious men, on the other hand, tremble at the very thought of the Supreme Lord calling them to account and punishing them for the injustice they are guilty of while they hope for a reward for their good deeds and redemption through intercession and Divine Mercy.[^6] This combination of fear and hope acts as a major deterrent against their committing evil deeds and at the same time acts as an incentive to do good deeds.

Despite this restraint, if anyone commits a sin, the penitent sinner hopes, as a Grace, for the Mercy of the Almighty Lord.[^7] Religion is nothing but a reminder to man that he is accountable and shall be punished for his evil deeds while his good deeds would bring in suitable rewards both in this life and in the afterlife.[^8] God propagates the religion – a code of conduct in this life- through His chosen Apostles, Prophets, Deputies, and Saints.

In order to distinguish them from pretenders, God bestowed the power of miracles upon His chosen ones. The pretenders could not match the miracles performed by God’s chosen ones and were fully exposed as frauds.

Another reason for the miracles is that after God had sent His Messengers and Messages, no soul which denied the Messenger or the Message should say:‘If Allah had guided me, I would have been one of the righteous’, or ‘If I were allowed to go back to life again, I would lead a righteous life’.[^9] Whenever tyrants committed great atrocities, God sent His chosen Apostles, Prophets, Deputies, and Saints with miracles in order to relieve the oppressed, and to re-establish harmonious and peaceful life and to confound the tyrant.

The miracles, therefore, were in accordance with the need of the time so that man may be confronted with something more superior and wondrous than the bet of his latest achievements. But, when men saw the Apostles in a human form leading an ordinary life, they assumed that the Apostles were not different from ordinary men.[^10] Therefore, they demanded that the Apostles should perform some miracles (do something super-natural).

The miracles were such that they excelled far beyond and were superior to man’s achievement of the time. Imam as-Sadiq (a.s.) said that miracles were endowed on the Divinely appointed persons as proof of their veracity that they were indeed sent by an Omnipotent Lord.