“Then bring ten fabricated surahs like it, and call upon whomever you can besides Allah, if you are truthful.”

“But if they do not respond to you, then know that it was sent down with Allah’s knowledge and that there is no deity worthy of worship except Him. Will you then submit?”

Their inability to produce anything comparable demonstrates, all the more, the inability of others to do so. It thus becomes clear that all creation is incapable of producing anything comparable to it, and that it is a clear sign attesting to the Messenger’s mission and to Allah’s oneness.

Likewise, His words, “But Allah bears witness to what He has sent down to you,” follow the passage beginning, “We have revealed to you,” and ending, “so that people would have no argument against Allah after the messengers.” It has been reported that some of the disbelievers said, “We do not testify that Muhammad is a messenger,” whereupon Allah Most High said, “But Allah bears witness to what He has sent down to you.”

A better explanation, however, is that when He said, “so that people would have no argument against Allah after the messengers,” He denied that creation had any argument against the Creator. He then stated: Yet Allah’s proof against creation stands established through His testimony to the Messenger’s mission. He bears witness to what He has sent down to you; He sent it down with His knowledge. Thus, creation has no argument against Allah; rather, His is the conclusive proof. It is He who has guided His servants through what He sent down.

In light of the foregoing, His words, “He sent it down with His knowledge,” mean that it contains His knowledge of what has been, what will be, and what He has disclosed. This, too, is evidence that it is true. For if he reports matters of the unseen that none but Allah knows, this indicates that Allah informed him of them.