The Holy Qur’an as the Eternal Miracle || Imam Reza (A.S.) Network

By: Ali Reza Amini Mohsen Javadi
The Qur’an is the holy book of Islam and the foundation of Islamic teachings. Its letters, words, phrases, and sounds are all sacred and respected deeply by Muslims. Contrary to the case of the Bible, historically the Qur’an is totally within our sight and its history is as clear as limpid water. We even know which verse has been revealed on which occasion. In this regard, Muslims have written books which are called asbāb an-nuzūl [occasions of revelation].
The Muslims’ belief in the Qur’an is basically different from what is usually said about the Christians’ belief in the Bible. For Muslims, every word of the Qur’an is God’s Word while for most Christians the Bible is an interpretation of the religious experience of Jesus (‘a) which is necessarily affected by the people’s culture and language, and its words are not exactly the words as revealed from God. According to His Will, God chose the Arabic language for the guidance of mankind during the last period of prophethood: “Alif, Lām, Rā. These are the signs of the Manifest Book. Indeed We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur’an so that you may apply reason.”20
The source of all Islamic sciences—ranging from scholastic theology [kalām] and philosophy [falsafah] through jurisprudence [fiqh], law [ḥuqūq] and ethics [akhlāq]—is the Qur’anic verses. The Qur’an is available to us in the same form it was revealed to the first Muslims, and it has remained safe from any sort of distortion [taḥrīf]. This is based on the promise made by God to protect it: “Indeed We have sent down the Reminder and indeed We will preserve it.”21
In order to clarify the miracle of the Qur’an, three points must be settled: (1) its extraordinariness, (2) its proof of the Prophet’s

#7779;) claim, and (3) the failure of people in discrediting it. The extraordinariness of the Qur’an can be shown in a variety of ways: it is a miracle of means, a miracle of expression and a miracle of meaning.
1. A miracle of means: There is no doubt that the receiver of the Qur’an was a common man. His name was never heard among the scholars and men of letters of his time. He was Muḥammad ibn ‘Abdullāh

#7779;), grandson of ‘Abd Manāf, the chief of Quraysh, who was born in Mecca. For forty years he was with the people, he had never recited anything similar to what he recited after the age of forty when he was appointed as a prophet. His moral conduct and trustworthiness were known to everyone but he had no prior talent in composing words of wisdom, and he knew neither how to read nor how to write. The Qur’an describes him as “uninstructed” [ummī]: “So have faith in Allah and His Apostle, the uninstructed prophet, who has faith in Allah and His words, and follow him so that you may be guided.”22
Not only was the Prophet

#7779;) himself ummī but also in Mecca, where he came from, knowledge and learning were not prevalent. Arts were only expressed to glorify man’s bestial inclinations. Poets recited either lovely poems to incite sensual desires or epic songs to incite anger and vengeance. Given such societal conditions, there is no doubt that only through uncommon means was it possible for the prophet to recite such extraordinary words. If the Qur’anic verses were a product of his own thinking and upbringing, at least some years earlier, words similar to the Qur’an should have been heard from him.
Not only was the Prophet’s

#7779;) receipt of the Qur’an extraordinary but in essence the revelation of the Qur’an in such a state of affairs that existed in the Ḥijāz was also unusual and beyond expectation. The striking difference between the meaning and elegance of the expression of the Qur’an with the literary and scholarly works of those days was so evident that at one glance it could be discerned by every observer. The opponents of the Apostle

#7779;) were also aware of this fact, and thus, they were not saying, “These words are senseless or beyond methodical eloquence and fluency,” or “They are just similar to other Arabic literary works.” They were rather saying: “These words must not have come from Muḥammad; he must have learned them from someone else,” or “He is practicing magic,” or “He is possessed by the jinn [majnūn].”23 In the midst of these calumnies and allegations, an elegant acknowledgment and profound confession of the extraordinariness of the Qur’an is self-evident. In a beautiful expression in the Qur’an, we are told that if we doubt the divine origin of the Qur’an, we should look for another person like Muḥammad

#7779;) who could compose similar words: “And if you are in doubt concerning what We have sent down to Our servant, then bring a sūrah like it, and invoke your helpers besides Allah, should you be truthful.”24
However, you cannot do so. In fact, even if all humans join together and help one another in whatever way possible, still they cannot do so: “Say, ‘Should all humans and jinn rally to bring the like of this Qur’an, they will not bring the like of it, even if they assisted one another.’”25
2. A miracle of expression: The Qur’an is the peak of eloquence and fluency. That is, as acknowledged by great scholars of language, it conveys intended meanings through elegant and lucid expressions. The Arabs who used to hear Qur’anic verses during that time were acquainted with literary styles and methods of expression. The revelation of the Qur’an with such eloquence and fluency to a people who used to regard themselves as the masters of expression was a great challenge and it can be guessed what a revolution it brought in the literary circles of the day. They did everything they could, but they failed to keep secret their true feelings about the beauty of the Qur’an, and on many occasions they would recite verses of the Qur’an in private.
The orators and poets of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance [jāhiliyyah] who had truly surpassed the men of letters of the previous periods in eloquence and fluency became so helpless in facing the astounding elegance of the Qur’an that they had no option but to accuse the Prophet

#7779;) of practicing magic and call him a powerful sorcerer who dazzles the eyes and controls the hearts of people.
The Qur’an has special styles of expression which are neither common poetry nor prose. Its fluency and eloquence lie in the elegance of expressions and the use of parables. The elegance of poetry lies in its imaginativeness. Usually, the farther it is from reality, the sweeter it becomes to human taste. However, the Qur’an is devoid of the kind of whimsical and fallacious analogies prevalent in poetry. In spite of this, its elegance is captivating. How is it possible to speak elegantly, and at the same time, avoid any naïve simile and scenario-making? Who could create such elegance in speech without taking advantage of the strength of human imagination?
Even though we do not fathom the profundity of the eloquence and fluency of the Qur’an, we can sense its beauty and divinity. When we compare the sayings of Imām ‘Alī (‘a), who was the master of oration and whose words are the peak of eloquence [nahj al-balāghah]26, with a Qur’anic verse the beauty of the former compared to the latter is as the bezel to the gemstone.
The beauty of the Qur’an is not confined to the eloquence and fluency of its expression. In fact, the soothing melody of its sounds is also a manifestation of its miracle. The Qur’an has been essentially revealed in oral form. That is, it was made known in the form of sounds which later came out in written form. For this reason, it has an astounding harmony and its recitation is soothing to the ears and attractive to the hearts.
Beauty always pertains to the feelings, but there are diverse feelings. Beautiful love poetry incites the carnal feelings of man while an epic song stirs his sense of bravery. However, the Qur’an awakens the spiritual feelings in humanity. Its magnificence brings a person to the sublime world of spirituality, wipes the dust off his God-seeking nature [fiṭrah], and shows the sublime countenance of the divine spirit embedded in every individual.
3. A miracle of meaning: The Qur’an is a book of guidance and a luminous torch to the way of salvation. It teaches man everything he needs to know to attain felicity both in this world and the hereafter. That which is usually expected from such book is a set of programs and instructions, and not the discovery of the realities of existence. However, the technique of the Qur’an is to introduce essential instructions and injunctions through the unveiling of fundamental realities of the universe.
According to the Qur’an, the felicity of man cannot be attained without passing through the realities of life. For this reason, knowing God is the most essential reality of life, faith in the angels is an important reality in the field of action, and cognition of many other fundamental realities are all elements of man’s felicity. Based on the approaches of the Qur’an, it is only through knowledge and faith in the realities of existence that the felicity of man can be ensured. The topics of the Qur’an in introducing God, who is the Origin and Source of creation, are nature (which is the life domain of humanity), the hereafter (which is the final destination of life) and human beings themselves (who are the wayfarers in the path of salvation).
Regarding God, the human intellect cannot describe Him beyond a specified point: He is the One and Only God, who knows every particle in the universe; the overall Sovereign. The important point here is that it is the Qur’an that introduces God as far as it is comprehendible for man.
While having no similitude whatsoever to any of His creatures, the God of the Qur’an27 is so close to man that He can hear his whisper: “Certainly We have created man and We know to what his soul tempts him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.”28
Contrary to the God of philosophers,29 the God of the Qur’an gives attention to the world of humans. As such, man can seek His assistance and rely on Him. The Qur’an has many descriptions of the agents of Divine Action, i.e. the angels, which the human intellect cannot conceive of.
If man has taken some steps in the valley of knowing God through his deductive reasoning, he has nothing to say in the realm of unraveling the realities of his destination, such as the purgatorial world [‘ālam al-barzakh] and the Resurrection. This is while a considerable portion of the Qur’an, i.e. almost one-third, describes such fundamental realities in an elegant and pleasant, yet alarming, manner. How could these concepts and meanings, which become clearer to man with his intellectual growth, be a product of his mind?
Regarding the natural world in which we presently live, there are interesting passages in the Qur’an many of which are in conformity with the recent findings in natural sciences.
Moreover, a large part of the Qur’an deals with moral and juristic programs which have no parallel. Qur’anic ethics is not alien to the real life of humanity. In fact, it has been organized with the nature and limitations of human beings in mind. God knows that morality is observed only when it is inculcated in one’s mind that he shall enjoy everlasting benefit from behaving morally. People render sacrifice and give preference to others to enjoy worldly benefits only when they know that by doing so, they shall obtain everlasting favor like admission to paradise or winning the pleasure of God. This important point is remarkably stressed in the moral training and edification of the Qur’an. Whenever the Qur’an invites a person to help others, it says: “Who is it that will lend Allah a good loan that He may multiply it for him several fold? And Allah tightens and expands [the means of life], and to Him you shall be brought back.”30
God considers giving a loan to others the same as giving a loan to oneself because the benefits will always return to the giver. This point has been stated in the Qur’an many times. Is there any stronger motivation for doing good deeds? For anyone who reads the verses of the Qur’an and understands their meaning, his conscience will be awakened and he will be encouraged to do good deeds.
In the field of law and jurisprudence, the case is the same. The evidence of the greatness and merit of Qur’anic-based jurisprudence is the testimony of thousands of scholars for centuries in its solution to various legal problems.
In addition, notwithstanding the challenges to the Qur’an and strong motives of the enemies of Islam to discredit it, throughout history no one has been able to produce a verse even similar to the verses of the Qur’an. Thus, the miraculous elements of the Qur’an are all-encompassing and there is no doubt that it is a miracle. Because the Qur’an is an eternal miracle that captivates the hearts of all people, then Islam must also be a religion for all times because the Qur’an is the holy book of Islam.
Notes:
20. - Sūrah Yūsuf 12:1-2.
21. - Sūrah Ḥijr 15:9.
22. - Sūrah A‘rāf 7:158.
23. - Majnūn means that a person has connection with the jinn. The Arabs believed that the jinn could teach man and thus, they regarded the Qur’an as taught by the jinn!
24. - Sūrah Baqarah 2:23.
25. - Sūrah Isrā’ (or Banī Isrā’īl) 17:88.
26. - Nahj al-Balāghah

#7778;ubḥī Ṣāliḥ), Sermon 233, p. 354.
27. - That is, God as described in the Qur’an. [Trans.]
28. - Sūrah Qāf 50:16.
29. - That is, God as usually described in philosophy by philosophers. [Trans.]
30. - Sūrah Baqarah 2:245.