and a poet—indeed, anything of that sort. Yet they themselves, and every sound-minded person who hears such words, know full well that they are sheer fabrications against him. Now, he challenged them time and again to produce something comparable, and that very challenge demolishes their allegation. It is therefore obvious that, had they been capable of answering it, they would certainly have done so; for whenever so strong and pressing a motive exists, if the ability is present the deed must inevitably follow. The same applies to the rest of mankind. This yields clear and certain knowledge for everyone that all the people of the earth are powerless—by contrivance or otherwise—to bring forth anything like this Qur’an. Such proof is even more conclusive than miracles of a type that may recur, like raising the dead, for no one has ever matched it.

That the Prophet ﷺ, while still at the very outset of his mission in Mecca and with only a few followers, would make so definitive a proclamation—affirming that, even were humankind and jinn to rally together, they would never produce the like of this Qur’an in his own time or in any future age—could only proceed from absolute certainty. A person who merely doubts or conjectures would never utter such a claim, fearing that his falsehood might be exposed and he disgraced, causing people to turn away from believing him. Since he spoke with unwavering assurance, that assurance had to come from Allah’s own disclosure to him. In ordinary human experience, no one can know that all creation is incapable of matching his speech unless he also knows that the speech itself lies beyond human capacity; and knowing that necessitates that it be a miracle.

The Noble Qur’an is indeed miraculous in many respects: in its wording, its composition, its unrivaled eloquence in aligning words with meaning; in the meanings embodied in its commands; in the truths it conveys about Allah, His names, attributes, angels, and so forth; in what it reveals of the unseen, both future and past; in its depiction of the Day of Resurrection; and in the definitive proofs it sets forth.