The Quran—The Miracle Given to the Prophet

THE QURAN—THE MIRACLE GIVEN TO THE PROPHET a work equal to the Quran made over the centuries. But, unfortunately, all attempts have failed dismally. Musaylimah ibn Habib, Tulayhah ibn Khuwaylid, Nadr ibn al-Harith, Ibn al-Rawandi, Abu’l ‘Ala’ al-Ma’rri, Ibn al-Muqaffa’, Al-Mutanabbi, and many others, have tried their hand at it but their efforts, like Musaylimah’s extraordinary reference to “God’s blessing upon pregnant women, extracting from them a sprightly life, from between the stomach and the foetal membrane”182 look ridiculous when compared with the literary majesty of the Quran. But the greatest substantiation of the Quran’s claim that no one can write a work like it183 comes from what Ernest Renan has called the “linguistic miracle” of the Arabic language. As with every other language, masters of Arabic—great poets and writers—have appeared over the ages. But, in the 1500 years since the Quran was revealed, no one has been able to produce a work that excelled in the Quran. The standard that the Quran set has never been improved upon. Arabic has remained on the course that the Quran set for it. If the Quran had ever been bettered, Arabic would not have remained stable as it has. It would have received a new impetus and set a new course. The Quran’s impact on Arabic is like that of a writer who produces a work of unsurpassable literary excellence at the beginning of a language’s history. After such a figure has made his mark, no lesser writer can change the face of the language. The Quran was revealed in the Arabic current