The Quran—The Miracle Given to the Prophet

had been heard before. This was how an ancient Arab poet described the impermanence of the world: Even if he enjoys a long period of a secure life, every mother’s son will finally be carried aloft in a coffin. The Quran put the same idea in the poignantly succinct words: “Every soul shall taste death.”184 Killing and plundering presented a major problem in ancient Arabia. Specific phrases had been coined to express the idea that only killing could end the killing, and these were considered highly eloquent in pre-Islamic days. “To kill some is to give life to the whole,” one of them went. “Kill more, so that there should be less killing” and “Killing puts an end to the killing” were other examples. The Quran said, “In [this law of] retribution there is life for you, O people of understanding.”185 In pre-Quranic days, poetry was essential in Arabic and other world languages. Poetical expression of ideas was given pride of place in the literary arena. The Quran, however, left this beaten track and used prose instead of poetry. This in itself is proof that the Quran came from God, for in the 7th century A.D. who save God—who knows the future just as He knows the past—could know that prose rather than poetry should be chosen as the medium for divine scripture that was to last for all time. The Quran was addressed to future generations, and soon poetry would become less important as a mass