He is saying: “If you do not manage to do so, you already know that it is the truth; therefore fear Allah lest you deny it, and the punishment He has promised the deniers should overtake you.” This is an invitation to the path of his Lord by means of kindly exhortation, after He had first called them with wisdom—that is, by debating with them in the most excellent manner.

The second matter is His statement: “and you will never be able to do so” ⦗al-Baqarah 24⦘. The particle lan negates the future, and so the report is confirmed that, for all time to come, they will never produce even a single surah comparable to it, just as He had already declared. Before the verse, add: “The surah also contains an address to the disbelievers in Mecca that makes this clear, in His words:”

“Say: If mankind and jinn were to band together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce its like, even if each supported the other.” ⦗al-Isrāʾ 88⦘

With this declaration He made the challenge universal, rendering all creation incapable and stating definitively that, even if every one of them were to assemble, they could not bring forth anything like this Qur’an, even were they to back and assist one another. This challenge and summons is directed to all creatures, and everyone who has ever heard the Qur’an—specialist and layman alike—has heard it and knows that they have never produced any counter-text, not even a single surah. From the moment he was sent until today the matter remains exactly so, despite what is known