such a declaration can only be made by someone who is absolutely certain of it. Were he subject to doubt or mere conjecture, he would never venture to say something whose falsity might be exposed, leaving him disgraced and causing people to withdraw their trust.

If, then, he does assert it with unwavering conviction, that conviction can only have come from Allah’s own disclosure to him, for nothing in the ordinary branches of knowledge enables a person to know that all created beings are unable to produce speech like his unless he has first realized that such speech lies beyond human capacity. Knowing this, in turn, necessarily means that it is a miracle. We know it to be so even though our knowledge itself is not extraordinary; nevertheless, genuine knowledge entails the reality of the thing known—otherwise it would be ignorance. Accordingly, under every possible consideration, the Qur’an must be miraculous.

As for the particulars, it may be said: the very arrangement and style of the Qur’an are astonishing and exquisite, belonging to none of the familiar genres of expression. No one has ever produced anything comparable. It is neither poetry, nor rajaz verse, nor oratory, nor epistolary writing; its composition resembles no form of human speech, whether Arabic or non-Arabic. Its eloquence and clarity themselves are wondrous, a break with all convention, unmatched in the words of any creature. To lay this out in full detail would require lengthy exposition, accessible only to one who reflects and contemplates deeply.