Fifth gleam: This relates to the Qur’an’s extraordinarily comprehensive style and conciseness. It has five beams.

First beam: The Qur’an is so wonderfully comprehensive in style that a single sura may contain the whole ocean of the Qur’an in which the universe is contained. One verse may comprehend that sura’s treasury, as if most verses are really small suras and most suras are little Qur’ans. This miraculous conciseness is a great gift of Divine Grace with respect to guidance and easiness, for although everyone always needs the Qur’an, not all people read it. So that they are not deprived of its blessings, each sura may substitute for a small Qur’an and each long verse for a short sura. Moreover, all people of spiritual discovery and scholars agree that the Qur’an is contained in Surat al‑Fatiha, which is itself contained in the basmala (In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate).

Second beam: The Qur’an contains references to all knowledge needed by humanity.[1] Moreover, it gives people whatever they need, so that: Take from the Qur’an whatever you wish, for whatever need you have has been widely circulated among verifying scholars. Its verses are so comprehensive that the cure for any ailment and the answer for any need can be found therein. This must be so, for the Book that is the absolute guide of all perfected people who each day move forward in the way of God must be of that quality.

Third beam: The Qur’an’s expressions are concise but all‑inclusive. Sometimes it mentions the first and last terms of a long series in a way that shows all of it; other times it includes in a word many explicit, implicit, allusive, or suggestive proofs of a cause.

From Surat al‑Rum:

And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and Earth and the variety of your tongues and colors. (30:22)

By mentioning the universe’s two‑part creation—the creation of the heavens and Earth and the varieties of human languages and races—it suggests the creation and variety of all animate and inanimate beings as signs of Divine Unity. This also testifies to the All‑Wise Maker’s Existence and Unity, Who first created the heavens and Earth and then followed this with other links—from adorning the heavens with stars to populating Earth with animate creatures; from giving the sun, Earth, and moon regular orbits, as well as alternating day and night, to differentiating and individualizing speech and complexion in cases of extreme multiplication.

Since creating the vast heavens and Earth displays certain artistry and purposes, the artistry and purpose of a Maker Who founded universe on the heavens and Earth will be much more explicit in other parts of His creation. Thus, by manifesting what is concealed and concealing what is manifest, the verse displays an extremely beautiful conciseness. Also, more probably than all other things in existence, the amazing purposeful system of differentiation clearly manifests a deliberate order. Although one may suppose this system to be determined by chance, the links of creation point to their Designer.

The evidence beginning six times with Of His signs from so glory be to God both in your evening hour and in your morning hour (30:17), to His is the highest comparison in the heavens and Earth; He is the All‑Mighty, the All‑Wise (30:27), is a series of jewels, lights, miracles, and miraculous conciseness. However much I desire to show the diamonds in those treasures, I must, in the present context, postpone doing so.

From Sura Yusuf:

Then said the one who had been delivered, remembering after a time: “I will myself tell you its interpretation; so send me forth.” “Joseph, you truthful man...” (12:45‑46)

The narrative omits several events between so send me forth and Joseph, you truthful man: [So send me forth] to Joseph so that I may ask him about the dream’s interpretation. They sent him. He came to the prison and said: [Joseph ...]. In such a way does the Qur’an narrate briefly and to the point without any loss of clarity.

From Sura Ya Sin:

Who has made fire for you out of the green tree. (36: 80)

and, in the face of rebellious humanity’s denial of the Resurrection:

Who shall quicken the bones when they are rotted away? (36:78)

The Qur’an says: “The One Who originated them shall quicken them. The One Who creates knows all aspects of all things. Moreover, the One Who made fire for you out of the green tree can quicken decayed bones.” The part of the verse quoted deals with (and proves) the Resurrection from different viewpoints.

First, it reminds us of Divine favors. Since the Qur’an details them elsewhere, it only alludes to them here. It actually means: “You cannot escape or hide from the One Who made fire for you out of trees, causes them to give you fruits, provides you with grains and plants, has made Earth a lovely cradle containing all your provisions, and the world a beautiful palace containing whatever you require. You have not been created in vain and without purpose, and so you are not free or able to sleep in the grave eternally without being woken up.”

Second, in pointing to a proof of the Resurrection, it uses the green tree to suggest: “O you who deny the Resurrection, look at trees. How can you deny the Power of the One Who quickens in spring innumerable trees that died and hardened in winter? By causing them to blossom, come into leaf and produce fruits, He exhibits three examples of the Resurrection on each tree.” It points to another proof and means: “How can you deem it unlikely for One Who makes a refined and light‑giving substance like fire out of hard, dark, and heavy trees? How can you say that He cannot give a fire‑like life and a light‑like consciousness to wood‑like bones?”

It points out yet another proof: “Everything in the universe is subject to and depends on the decrees of the One Who creates fire when nomads rub two green tree branches together, and reconciles opposing natures to produce new things. How can you oppose Him and consider the Resurrection unlikely?” Moreover, it alludes to the well‑known tree near which Prophet Moses received the first Revelation and suggests that Muhammad’s cause and that of Moses are the same. Thus it refers indirectly to all Prophets’ agreement on the same essential points and adds yet another meaning to the compact treasures of that word’s meaning.

Fourth beam: The Qur’an’s conciseness is like offering the ocean in a pitcher. Out of mercy and courtesy for ordinary human minds, it shows the most comprehensive and universal principles and general laws through a particular event on a particular occasion. The following examples are only a few of many such concise examples:

The explanation of three verses in the First Station of The Twentieth Word.

Several things are suggested. Teaching humanity the names of all things means that men and women were given the potential to obtain all knowledge and science; the angels’ prostration before Adam and Satan’s refusal to do so signify that most creatures have been placed at our disposal, while harmful beings (e.g., Satan and snakes) will not be so docile. Mentioning the Israelites’ slaughtering of a cow means that cow worship (borrowed from Egypt and shown in the Israelites’ adoration of the calf made for them by the Samiri: 20: 85‑88) was destroyed by Moses’ knife. Mentioning that rivers gush forth from some rocks, that others split so that water issues from them, and that still others crash down in fear of God (2:74) states implicitly that subsurface rock strata allow subterranean veins of water to pass through them and that they had a role in Earth’s origin.

Each phrase and sentence of Moses’ story points to and expresses a universal principle.

For example, in: Haman, build for me a tower (40:36), the Qur’an means: “Pharaoh ordered his minister Haman: ‘Build a high tower for me. I will observe the heavens and try to find out through heavenly events whether there is a god such as Moses claims.’” Through this particular event and by tower, the Qur’an alludes to a curious custom of the Pharaohs: Worshippers of nature who lived in a vast desert without mountains, believers in sorcery and reincarnation because of unbelief in God, they cherished a deep desire for mountains and claimed absolute sovereignty like that of Divine Lordship over people. To eternalize their names and fame, they built mountain‑like pyramids for their mummified bodies.

From Sura Yunus:

So today We shall deliver you with your body. (10:92)

By mentioning Pharaoh’s drowning, the Qur’an suggests: “Since all Pharaohs believed in reincarnation, they mummified their bodies to eternalize themselves. Thus their bodies have survived until now. Although not mummified, the body of the Pharaoh who drowned while pursuing Moses with his army, was found prostrate beside the Nile in the closing years of the nineteenth century. This is an explicit Qur’anic miracle, which foretold it centuries ago in the verse in question.

From Sura Yunus:

[T]he folk of Pharaoh who were visiting you with evil chastisement, slaughtering your sons and sparing your women [to use them]. (2:49)

This verse mentions the Pharaohs’ evils and cruelties to the Israelites. It also implicitly refers to the mass murder of Jews in many places and times, and the notorious part played by some Jewish women in history:

You shall find them the most eager of men for life. (2:96)

You see many of them lying in sin and enmity, and how they consume the unlawful; evil is the thing they have been doing. (5:62)

They hasten about Earth to do corruption there; and God loves not the workers of corruption. (5:64)

We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Book: You shall do corruption on Earth twice. (17:4)

Do not make mischief on Earth, doing corruption. (2: 60)

These verses express the two general disastrous Jewish intrigues against humanity’s social life. The Jews have used compound usury, which has shaken human social life. Pitting labor against capital, they have driven the poor to struggle against the rich and have caused the building of banks and the accumulation of wealth through unlawful ways. Also, they usually have been the same nation who, to revenge themselves upon states or governments who have wronged or defeated them, have entered seditionist committees or participated in revolutions.

From Surat al‑Jumu‘a:

You of Jewry, if you assert that you are the friends of God, apart from other men, then long for death if you speak truly. But they will never long for it... (62:6‑7)

Revealed to refute an assertion of Madina’s Jewish community, these verses state that Jews, renowned for their love of life and fear of death, will not give up these traits until the Last Day. Humiliation and misery were stamped on them (2:61) states their general fate. Due to such general and awful aspects of their nature and fate, the Qur’an deals with them severely and criticizes them harshly. Compare with these other aspects of the Qur’anic account of Moses and the Children of Israel. Notice the many gleams of miraculousness behind the Qur’an’s simple words and particular topics, like the gleam of miraculous conciseness described in this beam.

Fifth beam: This relates to the Qur’an’s extraordinarily comprehensive aim, subject matter, meaning, style, beauty, and subtlety. When studied attentively, its suras and verses, particularly the former’s opening sections and the latter’s beginnings and ends, clearly show that it contains no trace of confusion. And this despite the fact that it contains all types of eloquence, all varieties of fine speech, all categories of elevated style, all examples of good morals and virtues, all principles of natural science, all indexes of knowledge of God, all beneficial rules of individual and social life, and all enlightening laws of creation’s exalted reasons and purposes.

Indeed, such a perfect and comprehensive work only can be the work of all‑powerful one who sets everything in a miraculous order. It only can be the extraordinary work of a source of miracles like the Qur’an, which sees and shows the truth, is familiar with the Unseen, and bestows guidance. Only the penetrating expressions of such a work can rend the veil of the commonplace over things and events, which causes the compound ignorance leading to unbelief (e.g., atheism and materialism), and shows the extraordinariness behind that veil. Only its diamond‑like sword of proof can destroy naturalism (the source of misguidance), remove thick layers of heedlessness with its thunder‑like cries, and uncover existence’s hidden meanings and creation’s mysteries, which are beyond the abilities of all philosophers and scientists.

Unlike other books, the Qur’an does not pursue a series of arguments gradually unfolded on certain interrelated subjects. Rather, its verses give the impression that each verse or each group of verses was sent separately at one time as the codes of a very solemn and important communication. Who, other than the universe’s Creator, can carry on a communication so concerned with the universe and its Creator as the Qur’an? Who can make the Majestic Creator speak and cause the universe to “speak” so truly? In fact, the universe’s Owner speaks and makes the universe speak most seriously and truthfully, and in the most elevated style, in the Qur’an.

No one can find any signs of imitation in it, for there are none. Supposing the impossible, that someone like Musaylima the Liar appeared and managed to make the All‑Mighty, All‑Compelling, and Majestic Creator of the universe speak as he wishes and make the universe speak to Him, there would be countless signs of imitation and pretence. Every manner of those who put on great airs, even in their basest states, shows their pretence. Consider the following verses, which declare this with an oath: By the star when it plunged, your comrade is not astray, neither errs, nor speaks out of caprice. This is naught but a Revelation revealed (53:1‑4).

[1] Such as explanations, aspects, and varieties of true knowledge, commands and prohibitions, promises and threats, encouragement and deterrence, restraint and guidance, stories and parables, Divine knowledge and commands, natural sciences, and the rules and conditions of our personal, social, spiritual, and otherworldly lives.