QURAN

predecessors as a unique vehicle for divine guidance and salvation, one which will retain its validity until the end of time. There are no additions to the Quranic text by human beings and therefore there is no question of revising it as far as the original text is concerned. The only need could be in re-application of the verses in the present context. For example; today, in the age of democracy, there is no religious persecution so the commandments pertaining to the behaviour of the believers in the face of persecution will find no application in the present democratic situations. Quranic Challenge The Quran challenged its doubters to produce a book like it. No one has been able to take up this challenge, and produce anything comparable to the Book of God. The greatest substantiation of the Quran’s claim that no one would be able to write a work like it (17: 88) 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 it. Its standard has never been improved upon and Arabic has remained on the course set for it by the Quran. The impact that the Quran has had on Arabic is like that of a writer who produces a work of unsurpassable literary excellence at the very beginning of a language’s history. After such a figure has made his mark, no lesser writer can change the face of the language. Anyone who knows Arabic can appreciate the unique quality of the Quran’s style as compared to that of any other work of Arabic literature. The Quran is written in a divine style vastly superior to anything humans can aspire to. Thus with all the above points to prove that it is word of God, one should read it with the understanding that God is directly addressing man. The objective of the Quran is to make man aware of the creation plan of God. That is, to tell man why God created this world; what is the purpose of settling man on earth; what is required from man in his life on earth and what he is going to confront after death. The purpose of the Quran is to make man aware of this reality, thus serving to guide man on his entire journey through life into the afterlife. o The Quran challenged its doubters to produce a book like it. No one has been able to take up this challenge, and produce anything comparable to the Book of God.