THE CHALLENGE OF THE QUR’AN

The Challenge of The Qur’an ~ 296 ~ in the whole of human history (p.228). There is such compelling evidence of his being a messenger of God that even Sir William Muir, the distinguished Orientalist, has accepted him as such, albeit indirectly. In his book, The Life of Mahomet he speaks of how ‘Muhammad, thus holding his people at bay, waiting, in the still expectation of victory, to outward appearance defenceless, and with his little band, as it were, in the lion’s mouth, yet trusting in His Almighty power whose messenger he believed himself to be, resolute and unmoved—presents a spectacle of sublimity paralleled only in the sacred records by such scenes as that of the Prophet of Israel, when he complained to his Master, “I, even I only, am left.’”4 Another prediction of the Quran worth mentioning here is the overpowering of the Iranians by the Greeks (who at that point formed part of the eastern Roman Empire). This is recorded in the thirtieth chapter of the Quran. “The Greeks have been defeated in a neighbouring land. But after the defeat, they shall themselves gain victory within a few years.” The Persian empire, known as the Sassanid empire, lay to the east of Arabian