Fourth gleam: This relates to the Qur’an’s extraordinarily comprehensive subject matter. It deals with humanity and its duties, the universe and its Creator, the heavens and Earth, this world and the next, and the past, future, and eternity. It explains all essential matters related to our creation and life, from correct ways of eating and sleeping to issues of Divine Decree and Will, from the universe’s creation in 6 days to the functions of winds alluded to in such oaths as: By the (winds) sent forth (77:1) and By the (winds) that scatter (51:1).

It discusses so many other topics: from God’s intervention in our heart and free will: (God) stands between a person and his [her] heart (8: 24), and But you will not unless God wills (76:30) to His grasp of the heavens: The heavens shall be rolled up in His “right hand” (39:67); from Earth’s flowers, grapes, and dates: We made therein gardens of palms and vines (36:34) to the astounding event described in When Earth is shaken with a mighty shaking (99:1); from heaven’s state during creation: Then He comprehended in His design the sky when it was smoke (41:11) to its splitting open and the stars being scattered in endless space; from building this world for testing and trial to its destruction; from the grave, the other world’s first station, to the Resurrection, the Bridge, and eternal happiness in Paradise.

It also discusses the past, including: When your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify of themselves, (saying): “Am I not your Lord?” They said: “Yes, assuredly. We testify.”—lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: “Of this, we were unaware” (7: 172), the creation of Adam’s body and the struggle between his two sons, the Flood, the drowning of Pharaoh’s people, and the Prophets’ life‑stories, to what will happen on the Day of Judgment: When some faces shall be radiant, gazing upon their Lord (75:22).

The Qur’an explains all such essential and important matters in a way befitting an All‑Powerful One of Majesty, Who administers the universe like a palace, opens and closes the world and the Hereafter like two rooms, controls Earth like a garden and the heavens like a lamp‑adorned dome, and in Whose sight the past and future are like day and night or two pages, and eternity like a point of present time.

Like a builder describing two houses he has built and listing what he will do, the Qur’an is—if one may express it—a list or program written in a suitable style for the One Who has built and administers the universe. The Qur’an announces that it is the Word of the Creator of the universe. It contains no trace of artifice, pretence, or unnecessary trouble, and no strain of imitation, trickery, or deception. It does not pretend to speak in another’s name. Like daylight announcing to be from the sun, with its absolutely genuine, pure, clear, solemn, original, and brilliant style, it declares: “I am the Word of the Creator of the universe.”

Can the Qur’an belong to someone other than the Maker, the Bestower of Bounties, Who has decorated this world with the most original and invaluable works of art and filled it with the most pleasant bounties? It resonates throughout the world with cries of acclamation and commendation, litanies of praise and thanks, and has made Earth into a house where God’s Names are recited, where God is worshipped and His works of art are studied in amazement. Where can the light illuminating the world be coming from, if not from the sun? Whose light can the Qur’an be, other than the Eternal Sun’s, which has unveiled and illuminated the universe’s meaning? Who could dare to produce a like of it?

It is inconceivable that the Artist Who decorated this world with the works of His art should not address humanity, who appreciates and commends that art. Since He knows and makes, He will speak. Since He speaks, He will speak through the Qur’an. How could God, the Lord of all dominion Who is not indifferent to a flower’s formation, be indifferent to a Word resonating throughout His dominion? Could He allow others to appropriate it, thereby reducing it to futility and to nothing?