The Qur’an of miraculous expression revives the past, which, in the view of heedlessness and misguidance, is a lonely and frightful realm, a dark and ruined cemetery. It transforms the past into living pages of instructions, a wondrous animated realm under the Lord’s direct control, a realm that has significant relations with us. By transporting us back to those times or displaying them to us, the Qur’an teaches us in its elevated miraculous style. In the same style, it shows the universe’s true nature. The misguided see it as an unending, lifeless, lonely, and frightful place rolling in decay and separations, while believers see it as a book of the Eternally-Besought-of-All, a city of the Most Merciful One, a place to exhibit the works of the Lord’s art. In it, lifeless objects become animate beings performing their particular duties and helping one another in a perfect system of communication.

The following is a persuasive response to the objections raised about repetitions in the Qur’an. [1]

My dear, faithful brothers (and sisters). Confused and ill-expressed though it is—because of my distressing situation—the following is a reflection on an aspect of the Qur’an’s miraculousness. Unfortunately, I cannot put it into [proper] words. However poor in wording, because it deals with the Qur’an it will lead to reflection. It may be likened to the wrapper over a bright, invaluable gem. So consider the gem being offered, not its ragged covering. I wrote it swiftly and concisely, during a few days in Ramadan while I was very ill and malnourished. Please forgive any shortcomings.

My dear, faithful brothers (and sisters). The Qur’an issues, first of all, from the greatest and most comprehensive rank of the Eternal Speaker’s universal Lordship. It is addressed, first of all, to the comprehensive rank of the one who received it in the name of the universe. Its purpose is to guide humanity from the time of its revelation until the end of time. It therefore contains entirely meaningful and comprehensive explanations about the Lordship of the Creator of the universe, Who is the Lord of this world and the Hereafter, Earth and the heavens, and eternity; and about the Divine laws pertaining to the administration of all creatures.

This discourse is so comprehensive and elevated, and therefore so inclusive and miraculous, that both the simplest (the majority) and the most intelligent (the minority) people are perfectly satisfied with what it says. It addresses and is revealed to every age and all levels of understanding and learning not as a collection of historical stories to give lessons, but as a collection of universal principles. While describing the punishments of the people of ‘Ad and Thamud and Pharaoh for their sins, and with its severe threats against wrongdoers, it warns all tyrants and criminals, especially those of our own time, of the consequences of their tyranny and wrongdoing. By mentioning the final triumphs of such Prophets as Abraham and Moses, it consoles wronged believers.

The Qur’an of miraculous expression revives the past, which, in the view of heedlessness and misguidance, is a lonely and frightful realm, a dark and ruined cemetery. It transforms the past into living pages of instructions, a wondrous animated realm under the Lord’s direct control, a realm that has significant relations with us. By transporting us back to those times or displaying them to us, the Qur’an teaches us in its elevated miraculous style. In the same style, it shows the universe’s true nature. The misguided see it as an unending, lifeless, lonely, and frightful place rolling in decay and separations, while believers see it as a book of the Eternally-Besought-of-All, a city of the Most Merciful One, a place to exhibit the works of the Lord’s art. In it, lifeless objects become animate beings performing their particular duties and helping one another in a perfect system of communication.

This most glorious Qur’an, which enlightens and instructs angels, jinn, and humanity most pleasingly in Divine Wisdom, has such sacred distinctions as: each letter brings an unknown number of merits; all jinn or humanity, even if they joined together, cannot produce something equal to the Qur’an; it speaks to all people and the universe in the most proper way, and is continuously inscribed easily and pleasantly in the minds of millions of people; however frequently it is recited, it never bores or tires; despite its similar sentences and phrases that might cause confusion, children can memorize it easily; and it gives pleasure and tranquillity to the sick and the dying, for whom listening to even a few [human] words causes great discomfort. The Qur’an causes its students to gain happiness in both worlds.

Observing the illiteracy of the one who communicated it, and without giving itself unnecessary trouble and becoming pretentious or ostentatious, the Qur’an preserves its stylistic fluency and purity and never ignores the level of understanding of the most common people. Also, it instructs people in the wisdom and extraordinary miracles of the Divine Power lying under all familiar events in the heavens and Earth, and thereby displays a fine aspect of miraculousness within the grace of its guidance.

The Qur’an shows that it is a book of supplication and invocation, a call to eternal salvation, and a declaration of God’s Unity, all of which require reiteration. Therefore it repeats one sentence or story, gives numerous meanings to many different groups or categories of addressees, treats with compassion even the smallest and slightest things and events, and includes them in the sphere of its will and control. It seeks to present universal principles by paying attention to particular events, related to the Companions, that are connected with establishing Islam and legislating its laws and like seeds, thereby producing many important fruits. All of this constitutes another aspect of its miraculousness.

The repetition of needs requires reiteration. Also, the Qur’an answers many questions asked repeatedly during the 23 years of its revelation and seeks to satisfy all levels of understanding and learning. To prove that all things are controlled by a Single One Who will destroy the universe and replace it with the extraordinary world of the Hereafter, and to establish a mighty and all-comprehensive revolution in human minds that will show the Divine rage and wrath in the name of the results of the universe’s creation and in the face of human injustice and wrongdoing that anger and bring the universe, Earth, and the heavens to fury, the Qur’an repeats some sentences and verses. These are the conclusions of innumerable proofs and have a weight as great as that of thousands of conclusions. So, making repetitions for these purposes must be—and is—an extremely powerful aspect of miraculousness, an extremely elevated virtue of eloquence, and a beauty of language in conformity with the subject matter’s requirements.

For example, as is explained in the Fourteenth Gleam of the Risale-i Nur and included in The First Word, In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, which comes at the beginning of every sura (except one) and—together with that in Surat al-Naml—is repeated 114 times, is a truth linking the Earth to God’s Supreme Throne and all spheres of the universe, and illuminating the universe. As everybody is in constant need of this, it is worth repeating millions of times. We need it not only every day like bread, but at every moment, just as we need air and light.

Your Lord is He Who is the All-Honorable with an irresistible might, the All-Compassionate, which has the strength of thousands of truths, is repeated eight times in Surat al-Shu‘ara’, which tells of the Prophets’ final triumph and salvation and their rebellious peoples’ ruin. If, on behalf of the results of the universe’s creation, in the name of God’s universal Lordship, and to instruct people therein, and whereas the Lord’s Might and Dignity require the wrongdoers’ ruin and His Compassion demands the Prophets’ triumph and salvation, this sentence were repeated thousands of times, there still would be a need for it. It would be a concise and miraculous aspect of the Qur’an’s eloquence.

Which of Your Lord’s bounties will you two deny? (55:13) and Woe on that day to the deniers (77: 15), which are repeated several times in their respective suras, exclaim before Earth, the heavens, the ages, and in the face of humanity and jinn, their ingratitude, unbelief, and wrongdoing. They also proclaim their violation of the rights of all creatures, which brings the heavens and Earth to rage, spoils the results of the universe’s creation, and indicates contempt and denial of Divine Sovereignty’s majesty. If these two verses were repeated thousands of times, in a universal teaching related to thousands of issues, a need for them still would remain. It would be a conciseness in majesty and a miraculousness of eloquence in grace and beauty.

Al-Jawshan al-Kabir, a well-known supplication of the Prophet derived from the Qur’an, consists of 100 sections. Each section ends with: Glory be to You. There is no god but You, the Protector, One in Whom refuge is sought. Save us from the Fire. These sentences affirm God’s Unity, the greatest truth in the universe. They also show three mighty duties of all created beings toward the Lord. These are the following:glorification, praise, holding Him to be All-Holy and free of defect, exalted above what polytheists wrongly attribute to Him; a supplication for humanity to be saved from eternal punishment (our most vital concern); and an aspect of our servanthood to God (the most necessary result of our helplessness before God). Thus it would be insufficient even if repeated thousands of times.

The Qur’an makes reiterations because of such essential needs and realities. As required by the occasion, demanded by eloquence, and to facilitate understanding, it sometimes expresses the truth of Divine Unity 20 times in one page, whether explicitly or implicitly. It does not bore; rather, it enforces the meaning and encourages.

Suras revealed in Makka and Madina differ from each other in eloquence and miraculousness, elaboration or conciseness, for the Makkans were mainly Qurayshi polytheists. Given this, the Qur’an had to use forceful, eloquent, and concise language with an elevated style, and reiterate certain points to establish its truths. The Makkan suras repeatedly express the pillars of belief and the forms or categories of Divine Unity in a forceful, emphatic, concise, and miraculous language. They do so not only in one page, verse, sentence, or word, but also in one letter, changing the word order, using (or not using) definite articles, or mentioning or omitting certain words, phrases, and sentences. They prove the world’s beginning and end, the Divine Being, and the Hereafter in so powerful a way that geniuses of the science of eloquence have been amazed. The Makkan suras’ most elevated eloquence and miraculous conciseness are discussed in The Twenty-fifth Word and my Isharat al-I‘jaz, which explain 40 aspects of the Qur’an’s miraculousness and its miraculous wording.

The suras revealed in Madina, during Islam’s second phase, mainly address believers, Jews, and Christians. As required by circumstance, guidance, and eloquence, they explain the Shari‘a’s laws and commands—not Islam’s pillars of belief and elevated principles—in a simple, clear, and detailed language. In a unique, matchless style particular to the Qur’an, they usually end their explanations with a sentence or phrase related to belief, Divine Unity, or the Hereafter to make the Shari‘a’s laws universal and secure obedience to them through belief in God and the Hereafter.

To discover the elevated aspect of eloquence and what sorts of merits and subtleties are in the verses’ conclusions, such as God is All-Powerful over all things; God knows all things; He is All-Honorable, All-Wise; He is All-Honorable, Most Compassionate,·refer to the Second Ray of The Twenty-fifth Word’s Second Light.

While explaining Islam’s secondary principles and social laws, the Qur’an abruptly draws its audience’s attention to elevated, universal truths, from the lesson of the Shari‘a to the lesson of Divine Unity, and changes from a plain style to an elevated one. This shows that it is a book of law and wisdom, a book of creeds, belief, reflection, invocations, prayer, and call to the Divine Message. By offering its aims of guidance on every occasion, the Qur’an’s Madinan suras display a brilliant miraculousness of eloquence and purity of language different from the styles of the Makkan suras. Sometimes it uses two words, for example, in the Lord of the Worlds and your Lord, to declare the manifestation of God’s Names in all creatures, and their manifestation in one being, respectively. Doing so expresses the former within the latter. Sometimes when it fixes an atom in the eye’s pupil, it uses the same “hammer” to fix the sun in the heavens and make it an eye of the heavens.

For example, after beginning with: He created the heavens and Earth, the verse ends with:He causes the night to enter into the day and the day to enter into the night; He has full knowledge of what is in the breasts·(57: 4-6). This means: “Together with the magnificent creation and administration of Earth and the heavens, He has full knowledge of what occurs in the hearts.” The simple style of speech aimed at ordinary people is manifested as an elevated and appealing address for the guidance of all.

[1] 1A mountainous district of Afyon province (western Turkey) where Said Nursi was kept under surveillance for years. (Tr.)