Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
15. The Qur’an—The Prophet’s Miracle
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to the expression of profound intellectual thought.
For another five hundred years this situation
continued. The Normans conquered England in
1066 and, when the founding father of the English
language—Geoffrey Chaucer—was born around
1340, the official language of their court was still
French. Chaucer himself had a command of Latin,
French and Italian, besides his native English. This,
along with his great gifts of scholarship, enabled
him to make English into an academic language. To
use Ernest Hauser’s words, he gave the English
language a “firm boost” with his Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer transformed a dialect into a language,
paving the way for fresh progress in times to come.
For two hundred years English writers and poets
followed Chaucer’s guidelines. When William
Shakespeare (1558-1625) appeared on the scene,
English took another step forward. His dramas and
poems set a new literary standard, enabling English
to march further forward. The coming of the
scientific age two hundred years later had a
tremendous impact on every stratum of society.
Language now began to follow the dictates of
science. Prose became more popular than poetry,
