Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace
of Allah be upon him) is different from that of all the other Prophets, for He
is the Seal of the Prophets, and there is no prophet after him; his call is for
all of the jinn and mankind, and is to abide until the Day of Resurrection. So
it was appropriate that his greatest sign, that proves his sincerity and
truthfulness, should abide until the Day of Resurrection, preserved by Allah
and protected from change and alteration, to establish proof against the
stubborn and be believed in by those of sound hearts. So the greatest sign of
the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) is the Holy Qur’an
Concerning that the Prophet (blessings
and peace of Allah be upon him) said:
“There
is no Prophet but he was given signs because of which people believed in him.
That which I have been given is revelation that Allah has revealed to me, and I
hope that I will have the greatest number of followers on the Day of
Resurrection.”
Narrated by al-Bukhaari (7274).
What this means is that the Holy
Qur’an is the greatest of the signs given to the Messenger (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him). It is a miracle in the utmost sense of the word;
in other words, it is beyond people, and is in fact beyond the jinn and
mankind, to produce anything like it. Allah, may He be exalted, says
(interpretation of the meaning):
“Say:
‘If mankind and the jinn were together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they
could not produce the like thereof, even if they helped one another”
[al-Isra’
17:88].
Allah, may He be exalted, challenged
them to produce the like thereof, or to produce just ten chapters like its
chaptes, or to produce a single chapter only, like its chapters, even if it was
like the shortest chapter that does not take up more than a single line, such
as Sura al-Kawthar( the abundance) or Soorat al-Ikhlaas ( sincerity) and the
like.
Allah, may He be exalted, says
(interpretation of the meaning):
“Or
they say, ‘He (Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him))
forged it (the Qur'an).’ Say: ‘Bring you then ten forged Soorahs (chapters)
like unto it, and call whomsoever you can, other than Allah (to your help), if
you speak the truth!’”
[Hood 11:13]
“And if you (Arab pagans, Jews, and Christians) are in doubt concerning
that which We have sent down (i.e. the Qur’an) to Our slave (Muhammad
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)), then produce a Soorah (chapter) of
the like thereof and call your witnesses (supporters and helpers) besides
Allah, if you are truthful”
[al-Baqarah 2:23].
Allah, may He be exalted, has
truthfully told us that they will never be able to do any such thing, as He
says (interpretation of the meaning):
“But if
you do it not, and you can never do it, then fear the Fire (Hell) whose fuel is
men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers”
[al-Baqarah 2:24].
For more than fourteen hundred years,
the enemies of the Qur’an have been trying to meet this challenge, which is still
valid and still stands, and the Qur’an keeps telling them that their religions
are false and that they are regarded as foolish, and it warns them of the Fire.
This means that they have had a motive to produce something like it – namely
the motive to prove the Qur’an to be false and their desire to show it to be
false before people.
There is nothing to stop them from
doing that, and there is nothing to prevent them from speaking or writing or
responding to this challenge.Yet despite all that, we have never heard of
anyone among them – and they number in the billions, and include eloquent and
well-spoken people, literati, writers, scholars and the like…But we have never
heard of anyone among them who accepted this challenge and was able to produce
even a single line like the shortest soorah of the Holy Qur’an…
Apart from a few miserable attempts
made by some of the eloquent Arabs, which caused them to become a laughing
stock among their own people before they became a laughing stock among the
Muslims!
This challenge still stands until
today, and they keep hearing it and will continue to hear it until the onset of
the Hour.
The jinn and mankind are incapable of
producing anything like it.
After all that, how can it be right to
say that it is possible for any person to produce three lines written in an
elegant style that matches the eloquence of the Qur’an?!
This possibility is merely
hypothetical, as it has no existence in reality, because if that were possible
for them, why have they not done it?
So the challenge still stands:
“Let
them then produce a recital like unto it (the Qur'ân) if they are truthful”
[at-Toor
52:34]
