Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
15. The Qur’an—The Prophet’s Miracle
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Khuwaylid, Nadr ibn al-Harith, Ibn al-Rawandi,
Abu’l ‘Ala’ al-Ma’rri, Ibn al-Muqaffa’, Al--
Mutanabbi, and many others, have tried their hand
at it but their efforts, like Musaylimah’s
extraordinary reference to “God’s blessing upon
pregnant women, extracting from them a sprightly
life, from between the stomach and the foetal
membrane”
10
look ridiculous when compared with
the literary majesty of the Qur’an.
But the greatest substantiation of the Qur’an’s claim
that no one would be able to write a work like it
11
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 Qur’an was
revealed, no one has been able to produce a work
that excelled the Qur’an. The standard that the
Qur’an set has never been improved upon. Arabic
has remained on the course that the Qur’an set for
it. If the Qur’an had ever been bettered, Arabic
would not have remained stable as it has. It would
have received a new impetus, and set out on a fresh
course.
