The facets of the Qur’an’s inimitability are ten.
- Its peerless composition, unlike any arrangement ever known in the language of the Arabs or of others, for it is in no respect the composition of poetry. Concerning this, the Lord of Might, Who alone composed it, says: “We did not teach him poetry, nor would it befit him” (Qur’an 36:69).
Muslim relates that Unays, the brother of Abū Dharr, said to Abū Dharr: “I met a man in Mecca who follows your religion and claims that Allah has sent him.” I asked, “What do people say about him?” He replied, “They say: poet, soothsayer, sorcerer.” Now Unays himself was one of the poets. Unays continued: “I have heard the words of the soothsayers, and this is not their speech; and I have set his words against the accepted metres of poetry, yet no line fits them as poetry. By Allah, he is truthful and they are the liars.”
Likewise, ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah acknowledged that it was neither sorcery nor poetry when the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—recited to him, “Ḥā Mīm. A revelation from the Most Merciful, the Compassionate …” (Fussilat), as will be explained in its proper place. When ʿUtbah, possessed as he was of consummate command of the tongue and of eloquence, confessed that he had never heard the like of the Qur’an, his very words constituted an admission of its miraculous nature for himself and for his peers, who prided themselves on eloquence and on the ability to speak in every genre and form.
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Its mode of expression, which differs from every mode known to the Arabs.
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The majestic force that no created being could ever attain. Reflect upon this in Sūrat Qāf—“Qāf. By the Glorious Qur’an …” to its end; in His words, exalted be He, “The whole earth will be but His handful on the Day of Resurrection …” to the end of that sūrah; and likewise in His saying, “Do not suppose that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do …” to the close of that sūrah.
Ibn al-Ḥaṣṣār said: Whoever knows that Allah—glorified and exalted—is the Truth, knows that such grandeur cannot rightly appear in the speech of anyone else. Not even the greatest kings on earth could fittingly declare, “To whom belongs the dominion today?” nor could anyone say, “He sends the thunderbolts and strikes with them whom He wills.”
Ibn al-Ḥaṣṣār added: These three qualities—composition, mode of expression, and majestic force—permeate every sūrah; indeed, they permeate every single verse. By their conjunction, the sound of each verse and each sūrah is distinguished from all human speech, and through them the Qur’an issues its challenge and renders opponents powerless. Moreover, each sūrah possesses these three qualities in a distinctive fashion, without