The Qur’an An Abiding Wonder
The Qur’an —The Prophet’s Miracle
~ 89 ~
place in the literary arena. The Qur’an, however, left
this beaten track, and used prose instead of poetry.
This in itself is proof that the Qur’an came from
God, for in the 7th century AD who, save God –
who knows the future just as He knows the past –
could know that prose rather than poetry should be
chosen as the medium for divine scripture that was
to last for all time. The Qur’an was addressed to
future generations, and soon poetry was going to
become less important as a mass medium of
communication. Rhetorical language was also very
much in vogue before the Qur’an, but for the first
time in literary history, the Qur’an introduced a
factual rather than a rhetorical style. The most
famous topics for literary treatment had previously
been military and romantic exploits. The Qur’an, on
the contrary, featured a much wider spectrum,
including matters of ethical, legal, scientific,
psychological, economic, political and historic
significance within its scope. In ancient times,
parables were a popular mode of expression. Here
too, the Qur’an trod new ground, adopting a more
direct method of saying things. The method of
reasoning employed in the Qur’an was also
considerably different from that used in pre
