Day 35
The First Challenge in the Quran
TLDR:
Today, in our Be Qur'anic series, we explore Surah al-Baqarah, specifically focusing on ayah 23, which challenges humanity to produce a surah like the Qur'an if they doubt its divine origin.
This challenge highlights the Qur'an's unique, miraculous nature, contrasting it with physical miracles of prophets like Musa and Isa.
The Qur'an's perpetual miracle lies in its linguistic perfection and auditory impact, transcending generations without losing its essence, unlike visual miracles which diminish over time into mere stories.
The Qur'an, as an unparalleled linguistic masterpiece, confounded even the best poets of Prophet Muhammad's time, asserting its divine origin and enduring as the greatest miracle given to humanity.
Welcome to day 35 of Be Qur'anic, where we take short passages from the Qur'an daily, extract practical lessons from them, and apply them into our daily lives so that we can be more Qur'anic.
InshaAllah, today we continue our study of Surah al-Baqarah and we are now at ayah number 23. The ayah reads, "And if you are in doubt of what We have sent down upon Our servant, then produce a surah like it and call upon all your experts besides Allah if you are truthful."
This ayah is the first challenge in the Qur'an. Allah begins the surah by saying, "That is the book where there is no doubt in it, Hudan l-Muttaqeen, guidance for the people of Taqwa." This book, the Qur'an, there is no doubt on it. If you truly ponder, do deep reflection, tadabbur of the Qur'an, it will instil Taqwa in your heart and certainty of the Book.
But if you still have doubt, Wa-inkuntum fi-roib, then Allah challenges all of humanity. Produce a surah like it, like the Qur'an. You can try and get all the help that you can get from all over the world.
Another ayah, Allah challenges it, whether it is human beings or genies, get together, help each other, collaborate, try and produce a surah like it, try and produce an ayah like it, if you are truthful.
The Qur'an is the greatest guidance, the greatest miracle ever given to any of the prophets and this is the greatest miracle given to Prophet Muhammad. How is the Qur'an miraculous? If you just compare with other prophets you may think that the Qur'an is just a book, it's just a recitation.
Where's the magic in it? Where's the miracle in it? When you compare to the miracles of Prophet Musa, you compare to the miracles of Prophet Isa, Subhanallah, the miracles parting the Red Sea, bringing the dead back to life, shaping clay into the shape of a bird, blowing into it and it starts flying.
Those are magical miracles. The Qur'an, the scripture you recite. Where's the magic in it? Let's pause and think deeper about this. Look at the miracles of Prophet Musa, the sea parted and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.
That was a miracle for those people who were present. It is a miracle of the eye, something that you can see. When you see it, yes, it is miraculous. But once you transfer from seeing to storytelling, the first generation of Israelites, those that crossed the sea, they tell their children, "I crossed the sea with Prophet Musa, the sea parted."
The children listening to it, it's no longer a miracle, it's just a story. The children now passing into the next generation, to the next generation, it stops to become a miracle, but just a story. It was a miracle only for that generation.
It's the same with any miracles that are observable, that you see like the miracles of Prophet Isa, bringing the dead back to life. But the miracle of the Qur'an is auditory. It's something that you hear, you listen, you understand, you think deeply and Allah will open up the miracles to you.
Therefore, it remains a miracle until the end of time, because it is the same Qur'an that was recited by Prophet Muhammad, and it was a miracle back then. The same Qur'an can be recited by the next generation, and the following generation, the subsequent generation, every single generation from the time of Prophet Muhammad until Qiyamah, can read the Qur'an, and we are reading the same Qur'an, and we get exposed to the same miracle over and over.
So, that is one of the wisdom behind the Qur'an, being an auditory miracle as opposed to something that is visible, a visual miracle. You ask them, what is so miraculous about the Qur'an? First and foremost, the Qur'an was a linguistic miracle.
If you understand Arabic, then you would see the great structure of the Qur'an, the perfection of language. You cannot take away not even one letter from the Qur'an without affecting its meaning. It's perfect as it is.
You do not need to add any other word or letter to it to deliver the same message. It is precisely how God has wanted. Every single letter is where it is. One of the things about the Arabic language, even any language.
An eloquent message is where you precisely use the exact words. You don't have filler words, you know exactly what to say and how to say it. And this is precisely what the Qur'an is, the height of eloquence in language.
And this is why the Qur'an was stumped by the Qur'an. The Quraish, they were proud of their linguistic abilities. In fact, poets were the highest level of influences during the time of Prophet Muhammad.
And we have one of the best poets in Makkah, his name was Al-Waleed ibn Mughira. One of the things that he would do at night, he would sneak out from his house and go to Prophet Muhammad's house to listen to the recitation of the Qur'an.
And one night, he encountered Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl was also doing the same thing. They all were mesmerised by the Qur'an, they want to listen to the Qur'an. They met this outside of Prophet Muhammad's house.
listening to the Qur'an Abu Jahl asked Al-Waleed ibn Muqirah what you're doing here? And Al-Waleed said I'm doing what you're doing, we're all here to listen to the Qur'an. Now, bear in mind these are the harshest, fiercest enemies of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
Abu Jahl knowing that Al-Waleed is such a great poet, asked Al-Waleed ibn Muqirah what do you think of this Qur'an? And Al-Waleed said it is impossible that this is produced by humans. He said he is the best poet and even he couldn't produce something as eloquent as the Qur'an.
But Allah chose Prophet Muhammad, someone who is unlettered, someone who is known that he doesn't read or write. And Abu Jahl said then what is our response? What should we tell the people? And Al-Waleed ibn Mughirahh said that this is magic, this is magic, this is the work of a magician.
It is impossible that humans were to make it. And the challenge continues. 1400 years have gone by, no one has managed to produce a book like the Qur'an. Insha'Allah tomorrow we'll continue and deliberate more about this concept of the miraculous nature of the Qur'an and the first challenge from Allah.
But for today, know that what we have within us is the greatest miracle that Allah has ever given to humanity. If we read about the great miracles of the prophets of the past, know that within us we have access to the greatest miracle which is the Qur'an.
And we should be honoured that Allah has selected us to be the people of the Qur'an, reading the Qur'an, studying the Qur'an. Take our relationship with the Qur'an seriously.