Healing Miracle of Christians
Question
I am a Muslim and I am in very much despair and confusion because even though Islam is always in my mind, everyday I go through (waswasas) i.e. ups and down I think and it affects my faith, and yes/no often comes in my thoughts about whether there is God or not, whether Muhammad (pbuh) was a prophet or not, but luckily I do recover from these. In our cable TV we have two channels that are run by Christians (miraclenet and god) that have played with my faith on Islam. They claim that they cure people by healing touch in the name of Jesus. And people who are cured also claim the same. Tell me what is that, is that black magic or is it a marketing or is it true? It is convincing many people of India especially the Hindus. These channels have tortured me with doubt. I am affected mostly by it because I have a bad tendency to know and watch other religion sites and channels. I badly want help from you people. Please help.
I want Islamic answer to healing touch and also the truth behind it.
Response
To be very honest with you, I do not know the reality of the act of curing people by touching. I have also seen it on local TV and have seen people on TV who have actually been cured. This is primarily because such 'miracles' exist in all religions or faiths. You can take Hindus or Muslims, and within Muslims, each sect, Sunnis, Shias, Ismailis, Bohras, you name it - all these sects either have holy men who have done such acts in the past, or still do similar ones today. In the same respect as you have quoted above, should these be claimed as miracles by the adherents of these religions or sects? And if they can be, should they form basis of our belief in that religion?
It is not bad to have the questions come to one's mind, but when one gets a doubt in their mind, one should try their best to find out a solution to the issue. For instance, if you ever come across the question of belief in Muhammad (pbuh) as a prophet of God, then you should strive to find the answer and satisfy yourself. Ask God to help you in such a task, make supplication so He satisfies your spiritual as well as intellectual needs, and then strive to find the answer. Our faith in our religion should not be blind, rather we should be satisfied and convinced why we believe in something. If there is a confusion, we must turn to God again and try our best to find the truth.
As for the second part, I do not think there is any religious significance to 'healing touch' or similar acts. Instead, I suggest that we be careful that we do not ascribe anything false to God and fall into wrong beliefs just because we see things like this. Lots of people do this and there is no way for us to verify whether these are from God or not. Neither are we required, nor does it seem rational, to base the foundations of our religion on the performances of some people. The people of Prophet Moses (pbuh) started worshipping a calf created by a magician. That calf, even though created by a man, made sounds similar to a real calf. Their belief was reprimanded by God Almighty:
This belief of theirs in the calf is reprimanded because any sane person could "see that it did not return to them a reply and that it did not control any harm or benefit for them", yet people would still believe that it was a god! There is nothing creative in these verses, it is pure reasoning and nothing more. Our belief in something should be based on strong reasoning and should not be blind. Neither should we believe in anything that we just find impressive, or something that we have always believed in, or something that we find closer to our wishes and desires.
As a result, I would suggest that you not take this seriously and instead concentrate on more rational approaches towards learning what God wants from us, how we should strive to get closer to Him, and how should we live this life of ours to be successful in the Hereafter.