Indeed, more than one person took it upon himself to challenge the Qur’an, yet each produced words that only unmasked his own impotence, thereby confirming the very claim the Qur’an had made—that none of creation can bring forth anything like it. Among the most notorious attempts was the so-called “Qur’an” of Musaylimah the Liar, such as his rhyme:

“Ya ḍifdaʿu binta ḍifdaʿayn, niqqī kam tanniqqīn; lā al-māʾa tukaddirīn, wa lā al-shāriba tamnaʿīn; raʾsuki fī al-māʾi, wa dhanabuki fī al-ṭīn” (O frog, daughter of two frogs, croak as much as you croak; you neither muddy the water nor bar the drinker—your head is in the water, your tail in the mud).

They also know full well that their own capacity did not change before hearing the Qur’an and after hearing it: they did not suddenly find themselves powerless to do what they had formerly been able to do, as the prophet Zechariah found himself unable to speak after once having been able to do so.

Moreover, both intelligent believers in Muhammad and his rational deniers agree on this much: his aim was that people confirm him, not reject him. At the same time, he was among the most insightful, best informed, and most aware of the message he brought—certain to attain his goal, whether one calls him truthful or (as the deniers claim) a liar. For anyone who summons people to so momentous a cause, persists until they respond—willingly or unwillingly—so that his call prevails and his religion spreads with such reach, is by any standard one of history’s great men.

With that intent, while still in the very first stage of his mission in Mecca, with but a handful of followers, he boldly announced a report, declaring categorically that even if humankind and jinn combined their efforts to produce the like of this Qur’an, they would never produce its equal—neither in that era nor in any era to come.