Fifth Lecture
The Greatest Miracle of the Prophet of Islam

The Eternal Miracle

All Islamic scholars believe that the Holy Qur’¡n is the greatest miracle of the Prophet of Islam. The reasons for this statement are as follows:

The Holy Qur’¡n is a rational miracle which deals with people’s souls.

The Holy Qur’¡n is an eternal miracle.

The Holy Qur’¡n is a miracle that says aloud:

“If you say this book is not from God, then bring forth one like it.”

This challenge is explicitly stated in the Holy Qur’¡n:

قُل لَّئِنِ اجْتَمَعَتِ الإِنسُ وَالْجِنُّ عَلَى أَن يَأْتُواْ بِمِثْلِ هَذَا الْقُرْآنِ لاَ يَأْتُونَ بِمِثْلِهِ وَلَوْ كَانَ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ ظَهِيراً.

Say: If men and jinn should combine together to bring the like of this Qur’¡n, they could not bring the like of it, though some of them supported the other. [Qur’¡n 17:88]

Still on another occasion, The Holy Qur’¡n has eased the condition for such a challenge:

أَمْ يَقُولُونَ افْتَرَاهُ قُلْ فَأْتُوا بِعَشْرِ سُوَرٍ مِثْلِهِ مُفْتَرَيَاتٍ وَادْعُوا مَنْ اسْتَطَعْتُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ.

Or do they say: He has forged it. Say: then bring ten forged chapters like it and call upon whom you can besides Allah, if you are truthful. [Qur’¡n 11:13]

And later, the Holy Qur’¡n adds: if they did not accept this invitation, be aware that these verses are from God.

فَإِلَّمْ يَسْتَجِيبُوا لَكُمْ فَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا أُنزِلَ بِعِلْمِ اللَّهِ وَأَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ فَهَلْ أَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ.

But if they do not answer you, then know that it is revealed by Allah’s knowledge and that there is no god but He; will you then submit? [Qur’¡n 11:14].

Once again, the Holy Qur’¡n has set the least condition for challenges against it:

وَإِنْ كُنتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ مِمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَى عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِنْ مِثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاءَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ.

And if you are in doubt as to that which We have revealed to Our Servant, then produce a chapter like it and call on your witness besides Allah if you are truthful. [Qur’¡n 2:23]

In the next verse, the Holy Qur’¡n explicitly states:

فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا وَلَنْ تَفْعَلُوا فَاتَّقُوا النَّارَ الَّتِي وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْكَافِرِينَ.

But if you do it not and never shall you do it, then guard yourselves against the fire whose fuel will be men and stones and is prepared for the unbelievers. [Qur’¡n 2:24]

These continual challenges reveal the fact that the Great Prophet had relied heavily on the Holy Qur’¡n and presented it as his miracle despite the fact that he performed numerous other miracles mention of which can be found in the history books.

Since the Holy Qur’¡n is a living miracle which is available to all, we shall rely on it extensively.

How did the Infidels Show Their Weakness in Response to These Challenges?

It is worth noting that the Holy Qur’¡n put a lot of pressure on the infidels to encourage them to mount a response to its challenge because it did not like to give the infidels a chance to make excuses.

Expressions such as “If you tell the truth”… “You would never be capable of”… “Ask the whole world for assistance”… “Bring forth at least one S£rah like it”… “If you become an unbeliever, a burning fire is waiting for you”… all explain this truth.

Besides all this, the Prophet’s Holy wars against the unbelievers was not an easy job because Islam had endangered not only their religion to which they were inclined but also their economic and political interests. In short, even their very existence was severely jeopardized.

In other words, the advance of Islam had disturbed every aspect of their life. For this very reason, they had to fight back vehemently.

In order to weaken the Prophet of Islam, they decided to bring forth verses similar to those of the Holy Qur’¡n so that they could not be intimidated by it any more.

They asked all the eloquent writers among the Arabs to combat the Holy Qur’¡n but each time they took part in the competition they were the losers. The account of these failures is recorded in history books.

The Story of Wal¢d Ibn Mugh¢rah

Among those who were invited to this contest was Wal¢d Ibn Mugh¢rah, of the tribe of Ban£-Makhz£m who was quite well-known among the Arabs in those days for his penmanship and his literary style.

He was asked to deliberate on the Holy Qur’¡n and tell others about the impressions he got from it. Wal¢d asked the Prophet to recite some of the verses of the Holy Qur’¡n for him and the Prophet recited a part of the S£rah °¡-M¢m.⁽[1]⁾

These verses excited Wal¢d so much that he jumped up instantly and headed towards the tribe of Ban£-Makhz£m, saying vehemently, “I swear to God I heard some words from Mu¦ammad that are similar neither to the words of human beings nor of the fairies.” He then uttered the following:

“His statements have a special flavor and a unique beauty. Above them you would assume branches filled with fruits and their roots encompass deep meanings which dominate everything and are dominated by nothing.”

These remarks of Wal¢d caused the rumor among the tribe of Quraish that Wal¢d had been enchanted by Mu¦ammad(s).

Ab£-Jahl hurriedly went to his house, and told him what he had heard from the men of Quraish and invited him to a meeting they were holding.

Arriving in their company, Wal¢d asked them: Do you think Mu¦ammad is crazy? Have you observed any symptoms of madness?

The audience replied in unison that they did not, and then he asked them if they thought that he was a liar. Had he not been well-known among them as a trustworthy man?

Some of the Quraishi leaders replied “Then with what term shall we accuse him? Wal¢d thought for a moment and then replied: “Call him a wizard.”

Although they desired to drive away the masses that had been fond of The Holy Qur’¡n, this very appellation of “magic” was living proof of the supernatural attraction of the Holy Qur’¡n. They thus interpreted this attraction as “magic” when in reality these two are not connected, at all.

This is why the Quraish men spread the rumor that Mu¦ammad was a skillful wizard and that those verses were his magic. They advised the people to stay away from him and not to listen to his words.

However, they failed in every respect and those thirsty for the truth and those who found it, who were clean-hearted, gathered around the Holy Qur’¡n in the thousands and were satisfied with the content of its verses. The defeated enemies had to withdraw.

Today, too, like in the past, the Holy Qur’¡n invites all peoples to challenge it and it proclaims: If you are in doubt concerning the validity of these verses, and if you imagine they are man-made, then bring forth something like them. I invite you scientists, you philosophers, you literary men and you writers from all nations and tribes, to do so.

We know that the enemies of Islam, especially Christian priests, who see Islam as a revolutionary sect that is full of meaning, and who visualize Islam as a threat to their interests, spend millions of dollars every year to carry out their anti-Islamic propaganda. They carry out their obnoxious activities in Islamic countries under the pretext of cultural, scientific, medical and hygienic activities. Why have they not taken the short-cut by inviting Christian Arabs, and Arab scientists, poets, writers and philosophers to write and produce some Surahs like those of the Holy Qur’¡n, in this way, they could silence Muslims forever.

They would have done this under any circumstances if they could. Their weakness vis-à-vis this issue is a firm argument against the infidels and a living argument in favor of the miraculousness of the Qur’¡n.

THINK AND ANSWER

Sixth Lecture
A Brief Look at the Miracles of the Holy Qur’An

Why the Discontinuous letters?

We know that at the start of most Surahs of the Holy Qur’¡n we will find discontinuous letters, such as Alif, L¡m, M¢m [ALM], ALMR, and Y¡s¢n [YS].

In accordance with some Islamic narrations, God has used these letters to show that one eternal miracle of creation, i.e., the Holy Qur’¡n, is simply composed of letters and it is constructed in such a way as readily could be produced even by children. The very fact that such a masterpiece is composed of such simple letters, is a miracle in itself.

Now this question may be raised: How is the Holy Qur’¡n a miracle? Is it because of its eloquence and clearness or because of something else?

When the Holy Qur’¡n is looked at from different angels, different aspects of its miracle manifest themselves, including the following:

Eloquence and clearness: the words and lexical items in The Holy Qur’¡n have their specific attraction.

The content of the verses is extremely magnificent. The verses are free from superstitions.

Scientific miracles: this means the disclosure of issues which had not been attained in those dark days;

Vivid and explicit prediction of future events (the concealed news of the Holy Qur’¡n)

Lack of contradiction and unrelated issues

A complete discussion of these five issues would need a large space. However, a short reference to each one of them seems reasonable.

Eloquence and Clarity

We know that every discourse has two aspects: the words and the semantic content.

A discourse is called eloquent and clear when its words and morphemes are chosen in such a way that they show coherence and a lack of ambiguity. When the conditions are fulfilled, the text is deemed attractive.

The Holy Qur’¡n possesses these two distinctive features in such a way that up to now no one has ever been able to produce anything as attractive and elegant as its verses and Surahs.

In the previous lectures we read about the story of Wal¢d Ibn Mugh¢rah, the representative of the Arab infidels, who became so excited upon hearing the recitation of the Holy Qur’¡n that he ordered the Quraish leaders to describe the Holy Qur’¡n with the pejorative word “magic” and Mu¦ammad as a “magician.”

They used this expression repeatedly for the Prophet. Although they did so cast aspersions on the Prophet, in fact, it showed their admiration of him. This is because the word “magic” implied that the Holy Qur’¡n had a tremendous effect on the audience.

However, instead of accepting the Holy Qur’¡n as a miracle and believing in it, they went astray and called it sorcery.

There are many instances reported in the history of Islam of aggressive unbelievers who converted to Islam upon hearing the Holy Qur’¡n recited to them. This clearly shows that the eloquence and clarity of the Holy Qur’¡n was a sign of its miraculousness. For those familiar with Arab literature. The more they read the Holy Qur’¡n, the more they became fascinated and enchanted by its verses.

Qur’¡nic expressions are extremely well-arranged, accompanied with an elegant style, vividness, and lack obscurities or ambiguity.

It is worth mentioning that Arab literature in those dark ages was sublime and the poetry which has survived from the pre-Islamic era is still highly accomplished even today.

It is said that each year the most famous literary men of the °ij¡z used to assemble and present the best examples of their poetry in the `Uk¡¨ Market, which was a trade and literary center. The best poem was then regarded as “the poem of the year.” After this, they would write it down and post it in Mecca. When the Prophet started his mission, there had been seven such masterpieces which were collectively termed “the Seven Suspensions.”

However, upon the revelation of the Holy Qur’¡n, every one of those seven literary masterpieces lost its fame and were finally forgotten forever.

The interpreters of the Holy Qur’¡n elucidated its subtleties in their commentaries on the sacred verses, and one can see a range of such interpretations in related works.⁽[2]⁾

Familiarity with the Holy Qur’¡n reveals the complete sincerity and lack of exaggeration in the following statement uttered by the Prophet of Islam:

ظَاهِرُهُ أَنِيقٌ وَبَاطِنُهُ عَمِيقٌ؛ لاَ تُحْصَى عَجَائِبُهُ وَلاَ تَبْلَى غَرَائِبُهُ.

“The outward aspect of the Holy Qur’¡n is elegant and its content is deep. No one can enumerate the number of the miracles of the Holy Qur’¡n and its wonders would never be out-dated.”

The great student of the school of the Holy Qur’¡n, Imam `Al¢(s), regarding this issue writes in the Nahj al-Bal¡ghah:

فِيهِ رَبِيعُ الْقَلْبِ وَيَنَابِيعُ الْعِلْمِ وَمَا لِلْقَلْبِ جَلاَءٌ غَيْرُهُ.

“The spring of hearts lies in the Qur’¡n; rivers of knowledge spring from it. There is no polish effective for man’s heart and soul than this book.”