Third point: The Qur’an has unique, original styles that are both novel and convincing. Its styles, which still preserve their originality, freshness, and “bloom of youth,” do not imitate and cannot be imitated. To cite a few examples:

The muqatta‘at:

The cipher‑like muqatta‘at, the disjunct, individual letters (e.g., Alif‑Lam‑Mim, Alif‑Lam‑Ra, Ta‑Ha, Ya‑Sin, Ha‑Mim, and ‘Ayn‑Sin‑Qaf, with which some suras begin), contain five or six gleams of miraculousness. For example, they comprise half of each category of the well‑known categories of letters—emphatic, whispered, stressed, soft, labio‑linguals, and kalkale (ba, jim, dal, ta, qaf). Taking more than half from the “light” letters and less than half from the “heavy” letters, neither of which are divisible, the Qur’an has halved every category.

Although it is possible to halve all categories, existing together one within the other, in one out of 200 probable ways, taking half from each category cannot be the work of a human mind. Chance could not have interfered in it. Together with these disjunct letters at the beginning of certain suras as Divine ciphers displaying five or six further gleams of miraculousness like this, scholars well‑versed in the mysteries of letters, as well as exacting, saintly scholars, have drawn many mysterious conclusions and discovered such truths that they consider these letters to form a most brilliant miracle. Since I am unable to discover and demonstrate their secrets as clearly, I only refer readers to the five or six gleams of their miraculousness explained in Isharat al‑I‘jaz.

Now I shall discuss briefly the Qur’anic styles followed in its suras, aims, verses, sentences and phrases, and words.

Consider Surat al‑Naba’:

Surat al‑Naba’ describes the Last Day and the Resurrection, as well as Paradise and Hell, in such an original and unique style that it convinces the heart that each Divine act and the work of Divine Lordship in this world proves the Hereafter’s coming and all its aspects. In the interest of space, I mention only a few points.

At the start of the sura, it proves the Day of Judgment by:

I have made Earth a beautiful cradle spread out for you, and the mountains bulwarks of your houses and lives full of treasures. I have created you in pairs, loving and familiar with each other, I have made the night a coverlet for your repose, the daytime the arena in which to gain your livelihood, and the sun an illuminating and heating lamp, and from the clouds I send down water as if they were a spring producing the water of life. I create easily and in a short time from the one, same water all the flowering and fruit‑bearing things which bear all your sustenance. Since this is so, the Last Day, which is the Day of Final Judgment, awaits you. It is not difficult for Us to bring about that Day. (78:6‑17—not exactly translated but interpreted [Tr.])

Following in the same strain, the sura implicitly proves that on the Last Day the mountains will be moved and become as a mirage, the heavens rent asunder, Hell made ready, and the people of Paradise given gardens and orchards. It means: “Since He does all these things before your eyes on Earth and mountains, He will do their likes in the Hereafter.” In other words, the mountains mentioned at the sura’s beginning have some relationship with the Hereafter’s mountains, and the gardens with the gardens mentioned at the sura’s end and with those in the Hereafter. Study other points from the same view, and see how elevated its style really is.

From Surat Al‑‘Imran:

Say: O God, the Owner of Sovereignty: You give sovereignty to whom You will and You withdraw sovereignty from whom You will. You exalt whom You will and You abase whom You will. In Your hand is the good. Surely You are powerful over all things. You cause the night to pass into the day, and You cause the day to pass into the night; You bring forth the living from the dead, and You bring the dead from the living. And You give sustenance to whom You will without measure. (3:26‑30)

The Divine acts and operations in this world, the Divine manifestations in the alternation of day and night, the Lordship’s control of the seasons, the Lordship’s acts in life and death, and the world’s changes, renewals, transformations, and convulsions are expressed in such a vivid and elevated style that it captivates the minds of the attentive. Since a little attention is enough to see this brilliant, elevated, and comprehensive style, I will go no further.

From Surat al‑Inshiqaq:

When heaven is split asunder and heeds (the command) of its Lord in submission, as in truth it must. And when Earth is leveled, and casts out all that is in it and becomes empty, and heeds (the command) of its Lord in submission, as in truth it must. (84:1‑5)

These verses express in a most elevated style to what extent the heavens and Earth submit to and obey Almighty God’s command. To accomplish and conclude a war—strategy, fighting, enrolling, and mobilizing soldiers, and so on—a commander‑in‑chief establishes two offices. After the fighting is over, he wants to use these offices for other business. However, the offices request him in the tongue of their staffs: “O commander, let us clean up and remove the bits and pieces of the former business, and then honor us with your presence.” They do so, and then say to the commander: “Now we are at your command. Do what you wish, for whatever you do is right, good, and beneficial.”

Similarly, the heavens and Earth were built as two arenas of testing and trial. Following the end of this period of trial for conscious beings, the heavens and Earth will expel the things connected with that trial at God’s command. Then will they call: “O Lord, we are at Your command, so use us for whatever You wish. Our due is to obey You, for whatever You do is right and true.” Based on this understanding, reflect upon the verses’ elevated style and meaning.

From Sura Hud:

O Earth, swallow your water. O sky, withhold (your rain). And the water subsided. And the matter was accomplished. And (the Ark) came to rest upon (the mount) al‑Judi, and it was said: Away with the wrongdoing folk. (11:44)

To point to a drop from the ocean of this verse’s eloquence, I will show an aspect of its style through the mirror of an analogy. After victory, a commander orders one of his armies to cease fire and the other to remain where it is. He announces: “The job is well done. The enemy is defeated, and our flag is raised on the highest tower in the enemy’s headquarters. Those aggressive wrongdoers have received their deserts and have gone to the lowest of the low.”

Similarly, the King Who has no equal ordered heaven and Earth to annihilate Noah’s people. After they did so, He decreed: O Earth, swallow your water. O heaven, stop, for you have completed your duty. The water subsided. The ark came to rest upon the mountain as if setting up a tent. The wrongdoers received their due.

Consider how sublime this style is. The verse says that like two soldiers, heaven and Earth heed God’s commands and obey Him. The style suggests that the universe is indignant and that the heavens and the Earth are furious with humanity’s rebellion. Moreover, it warns humanity that its rebellion against the One Whose commands heaven and Earth obey is unreasonable and that people must not rebel. The verse expresses a very powerful restraint. In a few sentences, it describes a global event like the flood, with all its truths and results, in a concise, miraculous, and beautiful manner. Compare other drops of this ocean to this one.

Now consider the style apparent through the window of the Qur’an’s words: And for the moon We have determined mansions till it returns like an old shriveled date‑stalk (36:38). Look at like an old shriveled date‑stalk. What a fine style it displays: One of the moon’s mansions is the Pleiades. The verse compares the moon in its last quarter—the crescent—to an old shriveled date‑stalk. The comparison gives the impression that behind the sky’s dark veil is a tree, one pointed shining stalk of which tears the veil and shows itself with the Pleiades like a cluster hanging from that stalk, and other stars like the glittering fruits of that hidden tree. If you have taste, you will appreciate what a proper, beautiful, fine, and noble style this is, especially for desert‑dwellers whose most important means of livelihood is the date palm.

From Sura Ya Sin:

And the sun runs its course to a resting place destined. (36:37)

The expression runs its course is a noble image. By reminding us of Divine Power’s systematic, magnificent, free acts and operations in alternating day and night as well as summer and winter, it makes the Maker’s might and greatness understandable, turns one’s attention toward the Eternally‑Besought‑of‑All’s messages inscribed on the season’s pages by the Pen of Power, and makes known the Creator’s Wisdom.

By using lamp in He has made the sun a lamp (71:16), the Qur’an opens a window on a particular meaning: This world is a palace, and its contents are humanity’s and other living things’ food and necessities of life. The sun is a lamp illuminating this palace. By making the Maker’s magnificence and the Creator’s favors comprehensible in this way, the sentence provides a proof for God’s Unity and declares the sun (which the polytheists of that time viewed as the most significant and brightest deity) to be a lifeless object, a lamp subdued for the benefit of living beings.

In lamp, the verse signifies the Creator’s mercy in His Lordship’s might and greatness, reminds us of His favor in His Mercy’s vastness, suggests His munificence in His Sovereignty’s magnificence, and thereby proclaims His Oneness. It also teaches that a lifeless, subjected lamp is unworthy of worship. By indicating Almighty God’s systematic, amazing acts in alternating night and day as well as winter and summer, it suggests the vast Power of the Maker, Who executes His Lordship independently.

Thus the verse deals with the sun and moon in a way to turn our attention to the pages of day and night, summer and winter, and the lines of events inscribed on them. The Qur’an mentions the sun not in its own name but in the name of the One Who has made it shining. It ignores the sun’s physical nature, which does not benefit us, and draws our attention to its essential duties: to function as a wheel or spring for the delicate order of Divine creation and making, and as a shuttle for the harmony of Divine design in what the Eternal Designer weaves with the threads of night and day. When you compare other Qur’anic words with these, you see that each word, even if common, is a key to the treasury of fine meanings.

In sum, the vividness and extraordinariness of the Qur’an’s styles would sometimes entrance a Bedouin with one phrase, who would then prostrate without even being a Muslim. Once Proclaim openly and insistently what you are commanded (15:94) engendered this very reaction. When asked if he had become a Muslim, he answered: “No. I prostrate before the phrase’s eloquence.”