Fourth point: The Qur’an’s wording is extraordinarily fluent and pure. As it is extraordinarily eloquent when expressing meaning, so also it is wonderfully fluent and pure in wording and word arrangement. One proof of this is that it does not bore the senses but rather gives them pleasure, even if it is recited thousands of times. A child can memorize it easily. Seriously ill people, even if troubled by a few words of ordinary speech nearby, feel relief and comfort upon hearing it. For dying people, it gives their ears and minds the same taste and pleasure as that left by Zamzam water in their mouths and on their palates.

The Qur’an does not bore the senses; rather, it feeds the heart, gives power and wealth to the mind, functions as water and light for the spirit, and cures the soul’s illnesses. We never tire of eating bread, but might tire of eating the same fruit every day. Similarly, reciting or listening to the Qur’an’s pure truth and guidance does not bore us.

Once the Quraysh[1] sent one of its eloquent leaders to listen to the Qur’an. When he returned, he remarked: “The Qur’an is so sweet and pleasing that no human tongue can resemble it. I know poets and soothsayers very well. The Qur’an is not like any of their work. We should describe it as sorcery so that our followers may not be deceived by it.” Even its most hardened enemies admired its fluency and eloquence.

It would take too long to explain such things. One who looks at the arrangement of the letters in:

Then, after grief, He sent down security for you, as slumber overcame a party of you. While another party lay troubled on their own account, moved by wrong suspicions of God, the suspicion of ignorance. They said: “Have we any part in the affair?” Say: “The affair wholly belongs to God.” They hide within themselves [a thought] which they reveal not to you, saying: “Had we had any part in the affair we would not have been slain here.” Say: “Even though you had been in your houses, those appointed to be slain would have gone forth to the places where they were to fall. [All this was] in order that God might try what is in your breasts and prove what is in your hearts. God knows what is hidden in the breasts [of people].” (3:154)

will see the miraculousness brought about by the letters’ extraordinary arrangement. Such an arrangement, subtle relationship, delicate harmony and composition show that the verse is not the work of a person or chance. Such an order may be for other unknown purposes. Since the letters are arranged according to a certain system, there must be a mysterious order and illustrious coherence in the choice and arrangement of words, sentences, and meanings. Those who notice and understand it will remark: “What wonders God wills. How wonderfully God has made them.”

[1] 1The Quraysh was the Prophet’s tribe.