The unsurpassed eloquence of the Holy Qur’an

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
The unsurpassed eloquence of the holy Qur’an, whose challenge to mankind to bring the likeness of even a few lines of this heavenly scripture have remained unanswered.
In the pre-Islamic era, Arabia was a patchwork of tribes with no central authority. Each tribe has its leader whose opinions were taken as law. In such a system, only ethnic and tribal accords guaranteed the personal and social rights. War and bloodshed were rampant among the permanently feuding tribes, the overwhelming majority of which were polytheists and idol-worshippers, except for a few monotheistic clans, such as the Bani Hashem and the Bani Assad, who were known as Hunafa or followers of the creed of Prophet Abraham.
The holy Qur’an has referred to the names of three major idols of the pre-Islamic era including Laat, Uzza and Menaat. In those days certain Jewish tribes had settled in and around Medina, while the Arabs of Yemen, mostly adhered to Christianity, with some Christians settled in the Hijaz as well. Women had no status and respect, and immorality was so widespread that some men frowned upon the birth of daughters, while there were cases of a few burying alive their young infant daughters, for fear of shame if they reached womanhood and were to indulge in immoral act. At the same time, crimes such as stealing, looting, bloodshed, cruelty and cheating were widespread among the pagan Arabs, most of whom were illiterate.
The holy Quran, in several ayahs, presents a clear image of the corrupt society of Arabia in days before the Islam. There was one field in which the Arabs excelled and this was poetry and the eloquence of the language. This included the whole Arab community, whether the pagans of the Arabian Peninsula or the Christian Arab tribes settled in Syria and Iraq, and considered as vassals of the Byzantines and Sassanid Iran, respectively.
It was the habit of the Arab literati, whether of the Peninsula or of Syria and Iraq, to a gather at the annual Okaz fair to present the finest examples of poetry, with all its rhetoric and allegorical meanings. Of this the best were chosen and occasionally hung on the walls of the holy Ka’ba for a year. Of these the finest ones ever presented over the centuries, were seven in number and called Mo’allaqat as-Sab’a. It was in such a society that God chose Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) of the monotheist Bani Hashem clan as the Last and Greatest Messenger to mankind, and revealed to him the first few ayahs of the final heavenly scripture, the holy Qur’an.
During his almost 13-year preaching of the universal message of Islam in Mecca, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), received more than half of the 114 surahs of the holy Qur’an. These Meccan surahs are often short and reject the sordid thoughts and ways of the polytheists.
In these surahs, God answers the questions of the pagan Arabs and rejects their illogical demands on the Prophet to perform miracles they wanted to see. The Meccan surahs that mainly deal with the fundamentals of Islam, such as monotheism, prophethood, justice, ethical values, the wonders of creation, and the day of resurrection, are indeed – like the rest of the Qur’an – unrivalled masterpieces in terms of rhyme, tone, wisdom, meaning, purport, although these are not poetry.
It was the habit of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) to sit beside the holy Ka’ba and recite the holy Qur’an in a beautiful and eloquent tone so that the Arabs hear and understand the meaning and message of God's Words. The Prophet of Islam thus began conveying his heavenly messages in the midst of society where people’s minds revolved exclusively around eloquent speech and the composition of beautiful and attractive poetry and literary excellence.
Under these conditions, God equipped His prophet with a weapon, the Qur'an, which apparently belonged to the same category as the literary works of the age but possessed unique and astonishing characteristics that were beyond the capacity of the human being to reproduce. It is little wonder that the Qur'an was revealed in the most eloquent, articulate, and elaborate style the Arabic language has known.
The Qur'an has without doubt provided a level of linguistic excellence unparalleled in the history of the Arabic language. The effectiveness of the Qur'an was thus ensured by the fact that it represented a level of eloquence unattainable even by their most eloquent speakers.
When the Arabs first heard the Prophet reciting the holy Qur'an, they were awe-struck by its eloquence and listened in amazement. Never before in their life had they heard such a stunning and stately sermon. Their instincts convinced them that such a noble and impressive discourse could only be a divine diction, not a human creation. It was far more sublime and solemn than all their literature put together. The Qur'an proclaimed that it was not a man-made composition, and challenged its audience to present any composition that matches its style and elegance. It declared that humans would fail to produce a single composition to match its caliber, even if they joined hands and converged and coordinated their efforts. It threw the gauntlet in ayah 23 of Surah Baqarah, by saying: "And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our servant [Prophet Mohammad], then produce a Surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful.â€‌
The expert composers of Arabia heard the challenge, but could not come up with an answer. Compared to the Qur'an their literary endeavors appeared clumsy and childish. They felt like they were inexperienced novices. The distinguished and prolific poets seemed immature. The enthusiastic orators found themselves at a loss for words. They were humbled and humiliated by the words of the holy Qur'an. The masters of the Arabic language failed to find any flaw or lapse in the language of the Qur'an. They acknowledged defeat and expressed their inability to match it. Many were so mesmerized by its message that they embraced Islam right there and then. The internal evidence of the Quran is enough to dispel doubts.
When one reads it, it becomes clear that no man could have written it. And this miracle is eternal since it was not restricted to the days of the Prophet, but continues to remain unchallenged to this day, with even non-Muslim and Christian experts of Arabic prose and poetry admitting that it is beyond their individual or collective ability to produce even a few sentences matching its timeless eloquence and unrivalled wisdom.