though they were eloquent Arabs, accomplished orators and masters of rhetoric. Yet all proved incapable of matching it and could produce nothing like it in any respect:

Either their speech and natural abilities did not enable them to compose words matching the Quran in the majesty of its expression, the wondrous excellence of its composition, and the beauty of its meanings; or this lay within their capacity and power, given their natural abilities and constitution, but they were prevented and turned away from it, so that this would be a sign of his prophethood and proof against them of his truthfulness; or their inability concerned only knowledge of the accounts of the past and reports of events yet to occur that were brought together in the Quran. On every one of these possibilities, their inability was evident and their failure to meet the challenge established.

This was in addition to the signs they witnessed and his other miracles, witnessed at his hands, which lay beyond the course of nature and defied customary patterns: the pebbles glorifying Allah in his palm; the tree trunk’s yearning cry when he left it; the mountain trembling beneath him, then becoming still when he struck it with his foot; the tree being drawn toward him, branches and roots and all; the camel prostrating before him; and the gushing forth of