What do we understand when it is said that the Quran

is matchless and another like it cannot be produced?

==================== S T A R T ===================
Author: brother Kamil Mufti

'Ijaz comes from the word 'ijz which means inability.

It is the opposite of qudra (ability).

'Ujooz is used in Arabic to refer to an old woman who

is unable to perform much of the normal chores.

When the word is used with respect to the Qur'an,

'Ijaz ul-Qur'an, it means: to show the truthfulness
of Prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam)
in his claim of prophethood by the inability of the
Arabs and the subsequent generations to compete with
his miracle - the Qur'an.

A mu'jiza is an out of the ordinary occurrence

joined with a challenge that can not be matched,
something human beings can not bring a like for.
'Out of the ordinary' means it can not be linked
to the usual causes (asbab).

The word mu'jiza does not appear in the Qur'an

itself, the hadith, or the statements of the
Shahaba or the tabi'een.

The first time it appeared was in the third century

after hijra. The first one to write on the subject
was Muhammad bin Zayd al-Wasti (d. 306 A.H.) and
after him Abdul-Qahir al-Jirjani (d. 471).

The reason this challenge was given to the kuffar

was because they claimed they could bring something
similar to it.

And when Our verses are recited to them, they say:

We have heard this; if we wish we can say the like
of this. This is nothing but the tales of the
ancients.

In this Aaya the Qur'an presents the challenge to

the Arabs and thereafter five aayat were revealed
to challenge them.

The Arabs were challenged by the Qur'an in five

places in Surah Yunus, Isra, Hud, and Tur which were
revealed in Macca and this verse of al-Baqara which
was revealed in Madina.

Were they revealed in some order? Two opinions are

held by the scholars:

(a) They were revealed in a decreasing order: first

they were challenged to bring the entire Qur'an,
then ten surahs, then a single surah.

(b) There was no order in which the verses of tahaddi

were revealed. The Qur'an presented the challenge of
bringing different amounts in different circumstances.
The challenge was to bring something similar to the
Qur'an (nau'), not of how much is to be brought
(miqdar).

Was this challenge just for the time in which it was

revealed, or does it stand today?

It stands today as well. Unfortunately, it is

misunderstood though. It is thought that if someone
takes up the challenge and writes a literary piece
in Arabic, it will be presented to a council of
unbiased Arabic linguists who will then judge between
the two. If they pronounce the Qur'an to be superior,
the challenge will not have been met, if they
pronounce the human literary piece to be better, the
challenge would have been met. This is an incorrect
understanding. Allah knows best. The challenge has
already been established on ALL the genrations of
Arabs and non-Arabs as the following argument
demonstrates.

The ancient Arabs were known for their eloquence

(balagha) and rhetoric (fasaha) and thence were
challenged by the Qur'an. This fact is recognized by
all the Arab linguists. Yet, they were unable to meet
it and bring a book like the Qur'an or even part of
it; therefore, those after them are even more
incompetent to meet the challenge. Therefore, the
fact that the ancient Arabs could not produce
something similar to it, even though there was a
great need to do so. Had they done so, the Qur'an
would have been proven wrong in the claim made in
this Aaya. Therefore, the fact that the ancient Arabs
did not meet this challenge is in itself a proof of
the Qur'anic inimitability.

Furthermore, the succeeding generations are unable to

do so even to a greater degree. This is the preferred
opinion of Imam Razi.

Also, the challenge is for Arabs and non-Arabs alike.

How come? If the Arabs can not meet the challenge,
the non-Arab 'ajamee's can not claim to meet the
challenge either. Hence, with this argument the 'ijaz
of the Qur'an is established on the non-Arabs of the
later generations as well.

One of the classical scholars, Al-Rummani wrote in his

essay on the subject:

"So if someone were to say: 'You rely in your

argumentation on the failure of the Bedouin Arabs,
without taking into account the post-classical Arabs;
yet, according to you, the Qur'an is a miracle for
all. One can find in the post-classical Arabs
excellence in their speech', the following can be
said in reply, 'The Bedouin had developed and had
full command of the complete grammatical structure
of Arabic but among the post-classical Arabs there
are none who can use the full structure of the
language. The Bedouin Arabs were more powerful in
their use of the full language. Since they failed
in the imitation of the Qur'an, so the post-classical
Arabs must fail to an even greater extent."

Some people present the idea that perhaps the

challenge of the Qur'an was met by someone in the
time of the Prophet, but the pages of history did
not preserve it?

Imam al-Khattabi (d.388 A.H.) responds to this

allegation very well in his essay on the same topic:

"This idea is completely incorrect. Ever since the

beginning, people have had the habit of reporting
important events to their succeeding generations,
especially the ones that people are looking after.
The Qur'anic challenge was well spread and well known,
and had someone met it, it would have been impossible
for it not to have reached us. If it was possible,
then it is also possible that many prophets were send
in that time, perhaps many scriptures were also
revealed, and they contained some Sharia other than
that of Muhammad, and none of this has been
transmitted to us. Just like these suppositions are
unfounded, it is also unimaginable that the Qur'anic
challenge was met without us knowing about it."
Some comedians have tried to produce some non-sense
which the Arabs have always made fun of like the
verses composed by Musailama the Liar.

With this argument it is established that the Quranic

challenge of inimitability can not be met. The fact
that the ancient Arabs did not meet it has rendered
all the coming generations unable to do so either.
Once we have established that the Qur'an is indeed
inimitable (mu'jiz), the question is after all, what
characteristics of the Qur'an are inimitable? What
qualities make the Qur'an a mu'jiza?

It is impossible for us human beings to encompass

these characteristics of the Qur'an completely. The
'ulama are united that the Qur'an is inimitable
(mu'jiz) and no one could bring anything similar to
it from the time it was being revealed till the Day
of Judgement. Based on the writings of our 'ulama
we can gather the following characteristics:

(1) al-'Aijaz al-Bayani:

(2) 'Ijaz al-'Ilmi (Scientific Miracle)

(3) Future Predictions

We will look at the first aspect in a little detail

as the other two have been dealt with in other places
in sufficient detail.

(1) al-'Aijaz al-Bayani is further divided into four

sub-categories:

(a) Inimitability of alfadh (words)

Any poet or man of letters can not claim that he has

not used an inappropriate word (ghayr-faseeh) in his
speech. Many times a person is forced to use an
inappropriate word to express himself, unlike the
Qur'an in which every word from Alhamdulillah to Qul
is such that it is impossible to substitute it with
another word. Arabic is a very rich language with a
large vocabulary. Therefore, in order to express
something several words can be employed. The Qur'an
chooses the most appropriate words to express its
meanings. We will illustrate this with an example.

In jahiliyya several words were used for death: maut,

halak, fana', hataf, sha'oob, himam, manoon, sam,
qadi'ah, hamhg, neet, food, miqdaar, jibaaz, qateem,
hallaq, talatil, talala, 'aool, jidah, huzra, and
khalij. But most of them contain the idea of the
pagans Arabs that a man becomes totally extinct after
death, because they did not believe in resurrection
and judgement. Therefore, all the names they used for
death carried this connotation. Had the Qur'an used
one of these words for death, it would have resembled
the pagan belief. So in order to express the reality
of death the Qur'an chose the most appropriate word
which captures the reality of death - tawaffi. This
is fasaha. The word means 'to receive something
completely'.

The usage of the word implies that on death the entire

human existence does not become extinct, but Allah
receives the soul and therefore, he is capable of
returning it to the body after making it anew. This
word was not used for death before the Qur'an. Ibn
Sayyida in al-Mukhassa presents pagan poetry using
different words for death, but he presented only the
verses of the Qur'an for tawaffi.

We can present other examples, but they are better

understood by people who have a good grasp of Arabic
grammar.

(b) Inimitability of tarkeeb (structure)

After the usage of words we will give one example of

the structure and placing of words. The Arabs
considered taking qisas from the murderer to be an
act of honour and there were several idioms famous
among them and considered to be faseeh. The Qur'an
expressed the same idea using ten letters of Arabic.

And there is life for you in al-Qisas.

Ar-Rummani wrote four benefits of this usage :

(1) there is greater usefulness of the Qur'anic

statement

(2) there is greater concision in the Qur'anic

statement

(3) the Qura'nic statement is not so formal in its

repetition of expressions

(4) the Qura'nic statement is better written with

more harmonious letters

(c) Inimitability of aslub (style)

This aspect of 'ijaz is easier to understand.

(i) The Qur'an does not follow the rules of poetic

rhymes, yet the ecstasy it produces is sweeter than
poetry. Man due to his aesthetic nature feels greater
pleasure and sweetness in poetry than in prose. The
secret being harmony produced by the arrangement of
the words. Rhyming words produce pleasure which is
created by poetic meters (ozan of the sh'ar). If it
is coupled with qafia and radeef it increases the
beauty of the couplets.

Different languages have different principles for the

meters, radeef, and qafia. The ancient Arabs limited
themselves to the forms of qafia and wazan set by
Khalil and others. In Arabic qaboor and kaboor are
considered to be of the same qafia. Now the Qur'an is
inimitable in that it does not follow the rules of
poetry, yet its prose is sweeter than poetry.
Therefore, not only Arabs, but non-Arabs also hear it
and feel a rapture of joy by the harmonious rhythms.
These harmonious rhythms can be felt but they can not
be explained by human beings.

(ii) The scholars of balagha have explained three

types of asloob: khitabi, adabi, and 'ilmi. They
are used differently under different circumstances.
It is not possible to combine all of them in one
statement. You can understand this with an example:
when you are delivering a speech you adopt a different
asloob. When you are writing prose, you adopt a
different asloob. When you are writing a scholarly
article the asloob is different. But the Qur'an
combines all three.

(iii) The Qur'an addresses illiterate Bedouins as

well as learned scholars. The asloob of the Qur'an
impresses everyone of them. The Qur'an draws proofs
from simple everyday occurrences to convince a common
person of tauheed, risala, life after death, and
other beliefs. But it also contains material for the
sophisticated and minded and scientifically inclined.

(iv) When ordinary human beings repeat something, it

looses its strength and effect. On the other hand
Qur'anic repetition of the same incident is equally
forceful and meaningful without losing its sweetness.

(v) The Arabs were eloquent in their vivid

descriptions of a horse, camel, young girl,
a king, or a war. The Qur'an does not discuss
these subjects, yet it maintains the highest
level of fasaha.

(vi) The Qur'an is true in its entirety. Unlike

poetry, there is no falsehood in it. A poet has
to rely on exaggeration and falsehood to make
his work effective. This is why Lubaid and Hassan
lost the effectiveness of their poetry after they
accepted Islam.

(d) Inimitability of nadm (composition)

These are just a few aspects we have been able to

discuss in brief. For more details, please refer
to 'Uloom ul-Qar'an by Taqi Usmani in Urdu, and "The
Truth Revealed" by Rahmatullah Kairanwi and Usool
at-Tafseer by Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips in English.

(2) 'Ijaz al-'Ilmi (Scientific Miracle)

The heaven I created by might, and, verily, I am

expanding it.

In Arabic moos`ioon indicates an ongoing action

occurring at the present time and will continue in
the future. The expansion of the universe was not
discovered until Edward Hubble made a 100' diameter
telescope in 1927. There are several good works in
English detailing this aspect so we will not discuss
it here in detail.

(3) Future Predictions

The Romans have been defeated in the nearest land;

and after their defeat they will conquer, within a
few years.

Bid' means any number from 3-10. In 616 CE Persians

defeated the Romans taking away Syria and Egypt. In
622 CE the Romans (Byzantine) won decisively over
the Persians at the battle of Issus, regaining their
lost land. Also, other works in English have dealt
with this aspect.

Now there are many other aspects of the Quranic

inimitability, but the constraint of space limits us.
A point worth mentioning is that some 'ulama hold all
these aspects to be from 'ijaz, but some others have
raised a serious objection to this understanding.

These 'ulama say that when the Qur'an challenged the

Arabs it must have been with something they had
perfected themselves in and took great pride in. The
only thing was their fasaha and balagha. If someone
says the 'ijaz of the Qur'an was in the scientific
information it contained. That is not true because
the ancient Arabs did not have much knowledge of
science. If someone says, it was with the Sharia it
gave, or with the knowledge of the Ghaib, they did
not perfect themselves in these fields either. Also,
the 'ijaz is for the entire Qur'an, whereas there are
many verses that do not talk about science, medicine,
Sharia, or Unseen events which would imply they are
not mu'jiz, which is not true. Therefore, these 'ulama
hold 'ijaz of the Qur'an to be its fasaha and balagha.

As far as how do we present the Qur'an to the

non-Arabs, their answer is simple. We establish the
truthfulness of the Qur'an using other proofs, not
through its 'ijaz with which the ancient Arabs were
challenged. The accurate prediction of future events,
the scientific information, the perfect Sharia
it presents, all of these may be used to establish
the truthfulness of the Qur'an. Allah knows best.