THE CHALLENGE OF THE QUR’AN

The Challenge of The Qur’an ~ 282 ~ outstanding poets used to be honoured after annual gatherings by having their works hung on the wall of the entrance to the Kabah, so that the public could read them, the whole year round. Before his acceptance of Islam, Labid once composed a poem in reply to the Quran which was thus displayed. Shortly after this, a Muslim brought some verses from the Quran and hung them alongside Labid’s poem. The following day, when Labid read them, he was so moved that he declared that they must be the work of some superhuman mind, and, without further ado, he embraced Islam. But this was not the end of the matter. Famous as he was as an Arabian poet, he was so greatly impressed by the literary excellence of the Quran that he decided to give up writing poetry altogether. When asked why he did not continue to write poetry, he replied, ‘What? After the Quran?’ Once, when asked by Umer, the Second Caliph, to recite a poem, he said, ‘When God has given me such compositions as are enshrined in the Quran, it does not behove me to recite poems.