The Open Challenge Of Holy Quran To Disbelievers

All the superlative quality attributes such as Power, Might, Strength, Wisdom, Foresight, Planning, Management and so on are associated with Allah Almighty in Islam. For Muslims, He is the Supreme in everything and everything that is created by Him is resultantly unmatchable and unsurpassable. In everything there are His Signs and everything points towards His Lordship.

In Quran Allah says:

“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?” (41:53)

The signs of Allah Almighty are spread all across the universe, what it requires is someone keen enough to ponder over them and realize that these signs are magnificent in every respect and only the Supreme Creator can have such signs. One of such great signs of Allah Almighty is the Holy Quran.

Quran is the greatest miracle of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from every aspect. More than 1400 years have passed yet no one has been able to deny the messages and declarations in Quran or refute any of them. The lines below discuss the one great challenge which Quran puts to the non-believers but before that it is important that one knows a little about the time in which Quran was revealed.

Arabs Prior To Revelation of Quran:

Before the revelation of Quran, the Arabs were illiterate people who had no scientific knowledge or any kind of enlightenment. They would fight each other, oppress women, enslave people and exploit others. However, there was one thing for which Arabs were renowned throughout the world. It was the eloquence of Arabs in speech, both in poetry and in the form of prose. All over the world Arabs were known for this intellectual trait of theirs and they had no match when it came to being poetic or debating with someone in great prose. Thus, the eloquence of Arabs in poetry and prose was their pride and they considered themselves unmatchable in this regard.

The Challenge Given By Quran:

When Islam came and the Quran was revealed, it was quite natural that the Arabs resisted it and retaliated against it. Quran refused their way of living, the multiple gods they prayed to, the evils which they committed and the crude mentality they had towards others and life. All these things put a great dent in the arrogance of Arabs, however, the one thing that dented them the most was the decorated prose of Quran. Arabs who took pride in the eloquence in their speech when came across Quran they were startled and shocked as the perfect amalgam of poetry and prose in which Quran was revealed was something which they had never seen or heard in their lives from anyone.  Thus the initial reaction of Arabs was that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has somehow managed to forge Quran. To which Allah Almighty replied in Quran:

“Or do they say: “He (Prophet Muhammad) has forged it (this Quran)?” Nay! They believe not! Let them then produce a recitation like it if they are truthful.” (52:33-34)

In this ayah, Allah Almighty clearly challenges the non-believer to produce a recitation like Quran. Arabs were illiterate but not stupid that they wouldn’t understand the fact that they could never produce a verse like it. Thus, none of the people was able to rise up to the challenge of producing something that looked like Quran in terms of its poetics, keeping aside the immense wisdom and guidance it had for mankind.

This was an open and greater challenge for the disbeliever and they failed miserably in rising up to the challenge of producing a book like Quran. Allah made the challenge simpler for them as mentioned in Quran:

“And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant, then produce a Surah like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (if there are any) besides Allah if your (doubts) are true.” (2:23)

Note:  You are encouraged to learn the Holy Quran, if you are interested in reading the Quran in Arabic. For that, you can take benefit of Quran Reading’s online Quran Tutoring Classes to improve your Quran Reading Skills.

In this ayah of Quran, Allah Almighty brought the challenge to the level of a single Surah. The disbelievers who did not believe in Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the message He brought, they tried to refute and defy Him in any way possible, however, when it came to the challenge of bringing about a Book like Quran they failed at it miserably. Moreover, to prove to them that every word of Quran is the word of Allah and thus it did not have any intellectual equivalent to the smallest possible unit, Allah Almighty challenged them to produce a single Surah if they can. The disbelievers could not even do that, thus, proving that in its challenge Quran stands apart and above.

There was a time when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) started preaching in the start and the people started calling Him a magician. People thought that He brought people close to Him with some kind of spell and all the miracles which took place at His hand were also a work of magic. Thus, when it came to Quran they also thought that it was a book that was written by some supernatural help and was a product of spells and supernatural amalgam. Allah Almighty in Quran even challenged that as well by saying:

“Say: If the whole of mankind and Jinns were to gather together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support.” (17:88)

In this ayah another challenge is put forward to the disbelievers and that is of producing something like Quran even by taking help from Jinns. The Jinns are supernatural creatures who are thought to have greater power and knowledge than humans, therefore, Allah Almighty puts both humans and Jinns combined to the challenge and asks them to produce something combined with their collective intellect. Allah says that even if they both supported each other they could not produce something like Quran, which proves the fact that it is neither the word of man nor of Jinns, rather it is the word of Allah who is All-Wise and of Greatest Intellect.

Conclusion:

In short, if we keep the wisdom and knowledge which the verses of the Quran embody aside, even then it is no less than a miracle because the construction of it in terms of its poetic merits is unmatchable and no single book has been produced before or since the revelation of Quran that could stand with it in this regard. The production of something like Quran still stands as an open challenge to all those who do not believe or doubt the Quran.