{We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and within themselves until it will become clear to them that it is the Truth. Does it not suffice that your Lord is Witness over all things?}[Quran 41:53]
Muslims are taught that throughout the ages, Allah Almighty has sent a prophet to every nation as a warner and a bearer of glad tidings; He says what means:
{Verily! We have sent you (O Muhammad) with the Truth, a bearer of glad tidings and a warner, and there is not a nation but a warner has passed among them.} [Quran 35:24]
Each prophet was wisely selected by Allah in order to be the best person for the task. He was then provided by Allah with miracles as proof of his truthfulness and his message. These miracles were wisely selected by Allah in order to be in the same field as that which the people that the prophet was sent to excelled in so that they could fully comprehend the magnitude of these miracles.
For instance, the people during the time of Moosaa (Moses), may Allah exalt his mention, excelled at magical trickery. Their rulers would surround themselves with the most powerful of these wizards as a sign of power. This is why Allah made the miracles of Moosaa, may Allah exalt his mention, similar to their magical trickery (changing a stick into a snake, the parting of the sea... etc.) but of a much greater magnitude than anything they could ever hope to accomplish for they were not tricks, but actual physical miracles.
The people at the time of the prophet ‘Eesa (Jesus), may Allah exalt his mention, excelled in matters of medicine. For this reason, his miracles were of a medical nature (raising of the dead, healing the blind...etc.), but of a degree that his people could never hope to imitate. Similarly, one of the major miracles of Islam was a new and unheard-of type of literature similar to Bedouin poetry but far beyond anything they could ever hope to match, although they certainly tried. This new literature was called the Quran.
The Arabic language, as can be attested to by any of it's scholars, is a very rich and powerful language. The Bedouin people of the Arabian desert were, in general, illiterate people with very little scientific knowledge. The thing that set them apart, however, was their mastery of poetry. Spending their days as they did in the desert watching their sheep graze got quite boring, and so they alleviated their boredom by continually composing and refining poetry. They would spend entire years composing and refining their poetry in anticipation of a yearly face-down of the poetic compositions of their peers from all over their lands. The fact that they were illiterate forced them to also train themselves in the memorization of works of literature to such an extent that they were able to memorize complete works from a single recitation. Even in matters of leadership, one of the major criteria for selecting the leaders of the various Bedouin tribes was the individual's prowess in literary composition and memorization.
The Arabian Bedouins took great pains to make their poetry as compact and picturesque as humanly possible, constantly expanding the language along the way. A single word could convey complete pictures. The Quran, however, has put even these great efforts to shame. One would notice that when a Muslim translates a verse of the Quran, he usually does not say, "The Quran says such and such" but rather "An approximation of the meaning of what the Quran says is such and such." One really needs to know the language to comprehend this.
In the English language, we find that the words mustang, colt, mare, pony, stallion, bronco, etc., all refer to the same thing, which is a horse. Each one of these words conveys a slightly different mental picture. The mental picture we get when we hear the word colt is slightly different than the picture we get if we hear the word mare. In a similar manner, the Arabic language has progressed in such a fashion as to make it possible to convey such mental pictures in as concise and picturesque a format as possible. It is not at all uncommon to find over three hundred words that refer to the same thing in the Arabic language. Each one of these words gives a slightly different picture than the others.
Many centuries of this constant refinement eventually lead to a very complex and rich vocabulary, and the primary miracle of Muhammad, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), may Allah exalt his mention, the Quran, was in exactly this field.
In the noble Quran, we find a challenge from Allah to compose a literary work on a par with this Quran, if it is indeed the work of mankind, but nobody could do so. The Quran continued to reduce it's challenge until the challenge finally became to compose a single verse comparable to the Quran, but still people could not. This, in addition to the fairness, justice, and logic of the Quran, eventually won them over and slowly more and more people became Muslims.
"Well then, if the Koran were his own (Muhammad's) composition other men could rival it. Let them produce ten verses like it. If they could not (and it is obvious that they could not), then let them accept the Koran as an outstanding evidential miracle." [Mohammedanism, H. A. R. Gibb, Oxford University Press, p. 42]
"In making the present attempt to improve on the performance of my predecessors, and to produce something which might be accepted as echoing however faintly the sublime rhetoric of the Arabic Koran, I have been at pains to study the intricate and richly varied rhythms which - apart from the message itself - constitute the Koran's undeniable claim to rank amongst the greatest literary masterpieces of mankind... This very characteristic feature - 'that inimitable symphony,' as the believing Pickthall described his Holy Book, 'the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy' - has been almost totally ignored by previous translators; it is therefore not surprising that what they have wrought sounds dull and flat indeed in comparison with the splendidly decorated original " [The Koran Interpreted, Arthur J. Arberry, Oxford University Press, 1964, p. x.]
"The Koran admittedly occupies an important position among the great religious books of the world. Though the youngest of the epoch-making works belonging to this class of literature, it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect which it has produced on large masses of men. It has created an all but new phase of human thought and a fresh type of character. It first transformed a number of heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula into a nation of heroes, and then proceeded to create the vast politico-religious organizations of the Muhammadan world which are one of the great forces with which Europe and the East have to reckon today " [G. Margoliouth, Introduction to J.M. Rodwell's, The Koran, New York: Everyman's Library, 1977, p. vii]
" A work, then, which calls forth so powerful and seemingly incompatible emotions even in the distant reader - distant as to time, and still more so as a mental development - a work which not only conquers the repugnance which he may begin its perusal, but changes this adverse feeling into astonishment and admiration, such a work must be a wonderful production of the human mind indeed and a problem of the highest interest to every thoughtful observer of the destinies of mankind ... Here, therefore, its merits as a literary production should perhaps not be measured by some preconceived maxims of subjective and aesthetic taste, but by the effects which it produced in Muhammad's contemporaries and fellow countrymen. If it spoke so powerfully and convincingly to the hearts of his hearers as to weld hitherto centrifugal and antagonistic elements into one compact and well-organized body, animated by ideas far beyond those which had until now ruled the Arabian mind, then its eloquence was perfect, simply because it created a civilized nation out of savage tribes, and shot a fresh woof into the old warp of history." [Dr. Steingass, quoted in T.P. Hughes' Dictionary Of Islam, p. 526-528]
Many claims have been made against Muhammad, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ), in that day and this. Among them are the claims that he was a lunatic, a liar, or deceived by the devil. If Muhammad was a lunatic or a liar, then we have to wonder how all of his prophesies came true. Further, if he was a deceived by Satan then we are faced with another problem, for we know that all Muslims are taught that when reading the Quran they must first begin with the words "I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed one." and then follow this up with the words "In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful" So we have to wonder if Satan would inspire a man to teach mankind to seek refuge in God from Satan? Indeed this is the exact same accusation which was made against ‘Eesa, may Allah exalt his mention. Let us read he responded to this claim,
"But some of them (the Jews) said, He (Jesus) casteth out devils through Beelzebub (Satan) the chief of the devils. And others, tempting [him], sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house [divided] against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub " [Luke 11:15-18]
It has been the case throughout the ages that with all previous prophets, their miracle was separate from their book. Although we may claim that we have the "Torah" of Moosaa, may Allah exalt his mention, it is not possible now to bring Moosaa’s staff and see it perform miracles as it did in his time. Similarly it is not possible today to see ‘Eesa, may Allah exalt his mention, raise the dead as he did so many centuries ago. However, since the message of Islam was the final message of God to mankind, therefore, the book of Islam itself was made the main miracle of Islam and it has continued to renew it's challenge to mankind throughout the ages.
What does this mean? Nowadays, the number of people who can appreciate the literary content of the Quran has dwindled and this challenge no longer has the same impact it did fourteen hundred years ago. However, as we have seen in the verse quoted at the beginning of this article, Allah Almighty has promised to continually renew the challenge of the Quran throughout the ages. So how will it be renewed?
Recently, a new field of study has opened up to scholars. People nowadays are fascinated with science. This is the age of technology and scientific discovery. For this reason, mankind has begun to study the religious scriptures of mankind from a scientific point of view in order to challenge the scientific claims made in these scriptures. Many works have been published on this topic. In this article, I will give a brief taste of these matters and then leave it up to the interested reader to learn more from any one of the many books which have been published in this regard.
