One thing that I often hear from Atheists is the argument of "tangible proof."  "There is no tangible proof," the atheist will say.  I ask, "Are you deaf?  Are you blind? Do you have no nerve endings, so that you cannot feel?"  There have been plenty of miracles throughout time. 

 

People saw, heard, or felt those miracles.  Historical records exist that verify the historicity and validity of those miracles.  The Miracle of Moving the Mokattam Mountain is one such tangible event.  This event left us with several historical results that verify its validity.

 

The purpose of God in his plan of salvation is not to leave himself without a witness in the Middle East. His sovereign choice is that his witness be located in Egypt where the largest surviving, and therefore the most important, Dhimmi Christian community in the Middle East lives on: "In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border” (Isaiah 19: 19); "The Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, blessed is Egypt My people" (Isaiah 19: 25a). Every one thousand years, Christ makes his powerful statement in Egypt corroborating this prophecy. He seems to declare out loud that his witness in Egypt shall remain for the following one thousand years, or till his second coming in glory, whichever occurs first.

 

The first millennium was characterized by a series of persecutions of the Coptic Church of Egypt by the Romans, the Chalcedonian Byzantines and the Muslims. This miracle occurred at the end of the first millennium in the tenth century in the reigns of the Fatimid Muslim caliph al-Muizz (952-975) and the Coptic Patriarch Ephraem the Syrian (the 62nd Patriarch -- 975-978). The Muslim caliph had a finance minister called Jacob-ibn-Killis, who had changed his religion from Judaism to Islam in order to get a high position in the government. Jacob hated Christians and Christianity. He strove to prove that Christianity is a false religion. He requested that a debate be arranged with Coptic representatives in the court of the caliph. The Caliph granted him the debate. He failed the debate, and the top Coptic theologian, Bishop Sawires Ibn el-Muqaffa’, prevailed. This infuriated him greatly, and he walked out of the debate determined to do whatever he could to obliterate Christianity from Egypt. In order to accomplish that, he spoke to the Muslim caliph about Jesus’ teaching to his disciples in Matthew 17: 20: “For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” He advised the caliph to have the Christians of Egypt prove the truthfulness of their religion by moving a huge mountain called al-Muqattam at the outskirts of the city of Cairo. The caliph summoned the Coptic Patriarch Ephraem and gave him three choices: either to move the mountain; or all the Copts of Egypt convert to Islam; or all the Copts be dispossessed and exiled. Upon his request, the Patriarch was granted three days in order to prepare for what was to be done. The Patriarch then ordered the Christians of Egypt to fast every day to sunset, and to continually offer prayers that the Lord may protect his Church from final annihilation. The Church kept vigil and prayer for three days and three nights. In the morning of the third day, the Patriarch was totally exhausted. He dosed off briefly in the ancient church of St. Mary, known as the hanging church, where he was maintaining vigil (this church still stands till this day in Old Cairo). He saw a vision of St. Mary, the Theotokos. She gave him detailed directions to find a man on whose hands the Lord would move the mountain. He followed her directions and found that man who was a poor tanner called Simeon clothed in filthy rags. Simeon was one-eyed. He plucked out his other eye when a woman tried to seduce him, as he understood Jesus’ teaching of Matthew 5: 29 literally. He used to carry water jugs to provide water to the elderly, the handicapped, and the destitute—the brothers of the Lord (Matthew 25: 35,40). Simeon informed the Patriarch of what was to be done.

 

The Patriarch informed the caliph that the Lord would move the mountain. The caliph took all the prominent men of his court and his private guards and went to the vicinity of the mountain. The Patriarch took Simeon the tanner in his filthy rags, his bishops and a large congregation of the Copts and went to the foot of the mountain. After celebrating the divine liturgy, he and all the people bowed down crying out to the Lord and saying "Lord have mercy." At that moment, the earth shook, and a loud noise was heard as the rocks at the base of the huge mountain began to fracture. As the Patriarch and the congregation raised their heads up, the mountain was lifted up to the sky, as if by invisible hands, till the sun shone through underneath it. As they bowed down glorifying the might of the Lord, the mountain came down. They did that three times, and the Mountain rose and descended three times following their movement. This frightened the caliph, his court, and his troops. He ran to the Patriarch trembling with fear and begged him to stop, as he now knew for certain that Christ was true. As a result of this miracle, Christianity was spared in Egypt, and the conditions of the Copts were greatly improved during the reign of that caliph. New churches were built and ruined churches were repaired. Al-Muizz favored the Copts so much that he ordered the tearing down of a mosque that was built facing the church of Anba Shinuda in Old Cairo. Despite Muslim denials, there is a strong historical circumstantial evidence that al-Muizz converted to Christianity, was baptized, abdicated the throne to his son, al-Aziz, and spent the latter part of his life in a desert monastery.2 In fact, his son, al-Aziz married a Melkite Christian woman, favored the Copts in high administrative positions, permitted the building of new churches and restoration of old ones, and lifted the heavy tax burden off the Copts.

 

Other Accounts:

 

http://www.samaanchurch.com/en/miracle_en.php

 

http://www.wisdomlib.org/christianity/compilation/miracles-of-the-living-god/d/doc4735.html

 

http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/synexarion/simon-popeabraam.html