There are two strands to this claim:
- They were diverted even though they possessed the power to meet the challenge; had they attempted it they would nonetheless have failed.
- They were turned away from attempting it, while it remained within their reach; had they set to work, it is conceivable that they might have succeeded.
Ibn ʿAṭiyyah remarks:
“The point of challenge in the Qur’an lies in its matchless composition, the soundness of its meanings, and the uninterrupted flow of eloquent expression.
“Its miraculous nature springs from the fact that Allah, exalted is He, has encompassed all things in knowledge—speech included. By His all-embracing knowledge He knew precisely which word ought to follow the one before it so as to unfold meaning after meaning, and so on from the opening of the Qur’an to its close. Human beings, however, are beset by ignorance, forgetfulness, and distraction; it is self-evident that no human being has ever possessed such encompassing knowledge. Hence the order of the Qur’an reaches the absolute summit of eloquence.
“Viewed from this angle, the assertion is void that the Arabs were capable of producing something equal to the Qur’an in perfect eloquence but that, once Muḥammad—peace and blessings be upon him—appeared, they were somehow turned away from doing so and thus became helpless. The truth is that producing anything comparable to the Qur’an has never been within the capacity of any created being.
“Human limitation is plain: the most eloquent of them will compose a sermon or an ode, expend his utmost effort, and then polish it for a whole year. It is then passed to another gifted individual, who amends and refines it again; even after that, further revisions remain possible. Yet if a single word were plucked from the Book of Allah and the tongues of the Arabs were set loose to find a better substitute, they would never succeed.”
Among the Qur’an’s tokens of eloquence is that the Almighty, exalted be His remembrance, combines in one verse two commands, two prohibitions, two factual statements, and two glad tidings—His saying: “We inspired the mother of Moses, ‘Nurse him…’ ” (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:7).
Likewise, the opening of Sūrah al-Māʾidah contains a command to fulfill covenants and a prohibition against breaking them; it grants a general permission, then issues exception after exception, and finally proclaims His wisdom and power—matters that none but Allah can encompass. In the same passage He speaks of death, the regret of missing out, the Hereafter with its reward and punishment, the triumph of the saved and the downfall of the criminals, warning against being beguiled by this world and describing its paltriness beside the abode of permanence: “Every soul shall taste death, and you will only be paid your full wages on the Day of Resurrection” (Āl ʿImrān 3:185).
He further recounts, within half a verse, the stories of the early and the later peoples, the destiny of the self-indulgent, and the fate of the doomed: “Among them were those upon whom We sent a storm of stones; among them were those whom the blast seized; among them were those whose land We made to sink; and among them were those We drowned” (al-ʿAnkabūt 29:40).