This is the Qur’an’s miraculous eloquence, which originates in its words’ beauty, order, and composition; its textual beauty and perfection; its stylistic originality and uniqueness; its explanations’ superiority, excellence, and clarity; its meanings’ power and truth; and its linguistic purity and fluency. Its eloquence is so extraordinary that its eternal challenge to every individual to produce something like it, even if only a chapter, has yet to be answered. Instead, those geniuses who, in their self‑pride and self‑confidence, consider themselves equal to the task eventually have had to humble themselves before it.

First light

This Light has three rays.

First ray

This is the Qur’an’s miraculous eloquence, which originates in its words’ beauty, order, and composition; its textual beauty and perfection; its stylistic originality and uniqueness; its explanations’ superiority, excellence, and clarity; its meanings’ power and truth; and its linguistic purity and fluency. Its eloquence is so extraordinary that its eternal challenge to every individual to produce something like it, even if only a chapter, has yet to be answered. Instead, those geniuses who, in their self‑pride and self‑confidence, consider themselves equal to the task eventually have had to humble themselves before it.

I will now point out its miraculous eloquence in two ways:

First way: The people of Arabia were mostly unlettered at that time, and therefore preserved their tribal pride, history, and proverbs in oral poetry. They attached great importance to eloquence, and so any meaningful, unique expression was memorized for its poetical form and eloquence and then handed down to posterity. Eloquence and fluency were in such great demand that a tribe treated its eloquent literary figures as national heroes. Those intelligent people, who would govern a considerable portion of the world after Islam’s advent, were more eloquent than other nations. Eloquence was so esteemed that two tribes would sometimes go to war over a saying of a literary figure and then be reconciled by the words of another. They even inscribed in gold the odes of seven poets and hung them on the wall of the Ka‘ba.[1]

At a time when eloquence was in such demand, the Qur’an of miraculous explanation was revealed. Just as God Almighty had endowed Moses and Jesus with the miracles most suitable to their times, He made eloquence the most notable aspect of the Qur’an, the chief miracle of Prophet Muhammad.[2] When it was revealed, it challenged first the literary figures of the Arabian peninsula: If you doubt what We have sent down on Our servant, produce a sura like it (2:23). It defeated their intellectual pretensions and humbled them by continuing: If you cannot, and you certainly cannot, fear the Fire, whose fuel is people and stones, prepared for unbelievers (2:24).

Those self‑conceited people could not argue verbally with the Qur’an. Although this was an easy and safe course to obstruct and falsify its message, they chose to fight it with swords, the perilous and most difficult course. If those intelligent people, skilled in diplomacy, could have argued verbally with the Qur’an, they would not have chosen the perilous, difficult course and risked losing their property and lives. Since they could not, they had to choose the more dangerous way.

There were two powerful reasons for trying to produce something like the Qur’an: to refute its claim of Revelation (its enemies) and to imitate it (its friends). The result was, and continues to be, innumerable books written in Arabic. All people, whether scholars or not, who read such books are forced to admit that they do not resemble the Qur’an. So, either the Qur’an is inferior—friend and foe admit that this is inconceivable—or superior to all of them. There are no other options.

Question: How do we know that people have never dared to dispute with it, and that their cooperative effort failed?

Answer: If dispute were possible, some disputants would have appeared. Since so many people have opposed the truth, such an attempt would have found many supporters and been well known. When even an insignificant struggle arouses great curiosity, such a historic, unusual contest could not have been kept secret. Although the most insignificant and detestable objections concerning Islam have been circulated widely, nothing other than a few pieces of Musaylima the Liar have been narrated.[3] Whatever his oratorical skills, the historical record of his words show them as utter absurdities when compared with the Qur’an’s infinitely beautiful expressions. Thus the Qur’an’s miraculous eloquence is indisputable.

[1] These seven odes were called the Seven Suspended Poems.

[2] Moses was given the miracles of the staff and white hand, because in his time sorcery was in great demand. Jesus was given the miracles of raising the dead and healing certain illnesses, for in his time healing was highly favored.

[3] Musaylima the Liar claimed that he had been made a partner with the Prophet in authority and composed some “suras.” The Prophet rejected him, and Musaylima was killed during the battle of al-Yamama (633), which occurred during Abu Bakr’s caliphate. (Tr.)