Chapter 18 Eighteenth sign: The Messenger's greatest and eternalmiracle is the Qur'an

 Chapter 

18

Eighteenth sign: The Messenger's greatest and eternalmiracle is the Qur'an

The Messenger's greatest and eternal miracle is the Qur'an, which en-compasses hundreds of proofs of his Prophethood and whose miracu-lousness aspects have been proved.

288

Here we mention only a few signi-ficant points in this respect, as follows:

288.See Said Nursi, The Words, vol. 2.

107

 

First point:

Question:

 The Qur'an's miraculousness mainly lies in its eloquence,which can be comprehended only by one out of a thousand discerningscholars. Should not everyone be able to glimpse this miraculousness ac-cording to their own understanding?

 Answer:

 The Qur'an has a different kind of miraculousness for every-one and indicates this in the most perfect way. To people of eloquenceand rhetoric, it shows its miraculous eloquence; to poets and orators, itdisplays its miraculous and uniquely exalted style, one that cannot beimitated although it is liked by everyone. The passage of time does noteffect its freshness, so it is always new. Its metrical and rhythmical proseand its verse have the greatest nobility and charm.To soothsayers and foretellers, the Qur'an's miraculousness consists of the reports it gives about the Unseen. To historians and chroniclers, itsmiraculousness is the information it relates about past nations, futureconditions and events, and the Intermediate World and the Hereafter. Tosocial and political scientists, it presents the miraculousness of its sacredprinciples, which comprise the Shari'a. To those engaged in the know-ledge of God and the Divine laws of nature, the Qur'an shows its miracu-lousness in its sacred Divine truths. To those following a spiritual way tosainthood, it manifests the profound, manifold meanings in its versesthat rise in successive motions like waves of the sea.In short, the Qur'an shows its aspects of miraculousness to everyone by opening a different window. Even those who just listen to it and canderive a very limited meaning from it agree that the Qur'an sounds likeno other book. Any ordinary person who listens to it says: "This Qur'anis either below other books in degree—which is utterly impossible, andwhich even its enemies [and Satan] do not claim—or above them all andtherefore a miracle." Now, we explain the aspect of miraculousness per-ceived by an ordinary person who simply listens to it.The miraculous Qur'an challenges the world and stirs up two kinds of feelings: First, its friends desire to imitate its style and to speak and writelike their beloved Qur'an. Second, its enemies acquire a passion to criti-cize and dispute, as well as to nullify its claim of miraculousness by com-peting with its style. Under these two influences, millions of books have been written in Arabic—and we still have them. Whoever listens to eventhe most eloquent and rhetorical of them will say that the Qur'an soundslike none of them.

108

 

Another miraculous aspect that it shows to illiterate people is that itsrecitation does not bore anyone. An illiterate person, even one who doesnot comprehend the Qur'an's meaning, undoubtedly would say uponhearing it recited: "If I hear a most beautiful and famous couplet two orthree times, it starts to bore me. But this is not true with the Qur'an, forthe more I listen, the more pleasant it becomes. It cannot be a humancomposition."The Qur'an shows its miraculousness even to children learning it byheart. Although the Qur'an has many similar verses and passages thatmight cause confusion, children memorize it easily even though theycannot retain a single passage about something else for long. For thosewho are sick and close to death, who are disturbed by the slightest noise,the Qur'an's recitation and sound becomes as sweet and comforting asthe water of Zamzam, thereby displaying another aspect of its miracu-lousness. For those who can see but cannot hear or learn, one of the al-most classes of people to whom the Qur'an shows its miraculous qualit-ies without depriving any of them, there are other signs.

289.For example, Hafiz 'Uthman's copy features many related words that correspondto each other on different pages. If the sheets beneath their dog being the eighth(Surat al-Kahf ) are pierced, with a slight deviation it will go through Qitmir (Suratal-Fatir), thus giving the dog's name. Mukhdarun and mukhdarin (they will be brought before us) in Surat al-Saffat correspond to each other and to the one found inSura Ya Sin twice, one below the other. Mathna (in pairs) occurs three times in theQur'an; that the two of them correspond to each other, one at the beginning of Suratal-Fatir and the other toward the end of Sura Saba', cannot be by chance. Many simil-ar examples exist. Sometimes the same word occurs almost in the same place on fiveor six pages. I once saw a Qur'an in which similar passages, written in red ink, facedeach other on facing pages. This pointed to a different kind of miracle. Later, I no-ticed many more passages on various pages significantly facing each other. Since theQur'an's verses and chapters were arranged at the Prophet's direction and later oncopied through Divine inspiration, its design and calligraphy are miraculous. Anyslight deviation is the result of human acts. Furthermore, each long or medium Mad-inan sura repeats Allah in a very significant manner: five, six, seven, eight, nine, oreleven times on both sides of a sheet or on two facing pages—a beautiful and signi-ficant numerical proportionate. Although the Qur'an has all the features of persuas-ive eloquence (e.g., rhythm, rhyme, and artistic style) that capture our attention, it al-ways provides sublime seriousness, serenity of mind, and the peace of being in Hispresence to those who remember and supplicate God. Other kinds of persuasive elo-quence often disturb, for their elegance intrudes upon one's peace of mind and un-dermines seriousness and inward concentration. For the last 8 or 9 years I have readImam Shafi'i's famous supplication daily. Although it is the most graceful, meaning-ful, and eloquent one of its kind, and even ended a season of drought and famine inEgypt, I came to see that its rhymed and metrical wording interrupts thesupplication's solemnity. I therefore deduced that the Qur'an's miraculously genuine,natural, matchless, and unique rhythm and rhyme preserves peace and solemnity.Those who remember and supplicate God feel this miraculousness in their hearts,even if their minds do not realize it. Another miraculous aspect is that the Qur'anshows the belief of the highest and brightest degree possessed by God's Messenger,the object of the Greatest Divine Name's manifestation. Like a sacred map, it detailsthe sublime truths of the Hereafter and the Lord's kingdom and shows us, in a natur-al way, how exalted is the true and comprehensive religion of Islam. It also conveysthe address of the universe's Creator as the Lord of creation, with all His glory andmajesty. Therefore, as the Qur'an states: Say: If all humanity and jinn were to cometogether to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like of it(17:88). All such attempts are worth almost nothing in comparison, as the Qur'an can-not be imitated, due mainly to the three essential aspects mentioned above. At theend of each page, its verses become complete with a beautiful rhyme. Another sign of its miraculousness, this fine aspect is due to the fact that its longest verse (Mudayana[loan business]) provides the norm or standard length for pages, while Surat al-Ikh-las (Sincerity) and Surat al-Kawthar (Abundance) do the same for its lines.

110

 

Second point:

As magic was widespread during Moses' time, his miracles were of thatnature. As medicine was in demand during Jesus' time, his miracles wereof that kind. When Muhammad was raised as a Prophet, four arts werepopular in Arabia: eloquence and fluency in writing and speaking, po-etry and oratory, soothsaying and divination, and knowledge about thepast and cosmology.When the miraculous Qur'an came, it challenged all experts in thesefour fields. First, it brought people of eloquence to their knees as theylistened to it in total admiration. Second, it shocked poets and orators somuch that they bit their fingers in amazement and removed their mostcelebrated Seven Poems, which until then were written in gold and hungon the Ka'ba's walls. Third, it forever silenced soothsayers and magicians by making them forget their knowledge of the Unseen and causing their jinn to be expelled from the heavens. Fourth, it saved those who knewsome history and cosmology from myths and fabrications, and instruc-ted them in the reality of past events and the illuminating facts of cre-ation. Thus these four groups, kneeling before the Qur'an in absolute as-tonishment and awe, became its students and never tried to challenge it.

Apossiblequestion:

 How do we know that nobody has disputedwith the Qur'an or that such a challenge is impossible?

Answer:

 If this were possible, someone would have tried it. Actually,the Qur'an's opponents needed such a challenge, for they felt that it en-dangered their religion, life, and property. Thus they would have chal-lenged the Qur'an if they could have done so. Many unbelievers and hy-pocrites were ready to advertise such a contest, just as they spread mali-cious propaganda against Islam. If any challenge had been successful, itwould have been recorded (with exaggeration). But all history bookshave come down to us, and none of them contains anything other than afew nonsensical lines of Musaylima al-Kadhdhab (the Liar), a self-pro-claimed (and false) Prophet. They never dared to challenge it, althoughthe Qur'an challenged them for years in a way that provoked and an-noyed them, as follows:Come on and produce a like of this Qur'an. Let an unlettered man, likeMuhammad the Trustworthy, do so. If he cannot, let the most know-ledgeable and well-versed in writing try. If he cannot, gather all of yourlearned and eloquent people and let them work together. Call upon yourgods and goddesses. If you still cannot produce anything, use of all

111

 

 books of the highest eloquence, and let all unbelievers to come untilDoomsday use your experiences in their attempt. If even then you can-not do so, try to produce the like of only

 suras

. If you cannot do this,make a composition from baseless stories and imaginative tales to matchonly the Qur'an's metrical verse and eloquence. If you cannot, produceonly one chapter. If you cannot do even this, produce a short chapter, orelse your religion, lives, properties, and families will be at stake in thisworld and the Hereafter!With these eight alternatives, the Qur'an has challenged and silencedall people and jinn for the last centuries. Instead of preferring the easiestway (open challenge), the unbelievers living during the early days of Islam chose the hardest way (warfare) and so jeopardized their lives,properties, and families. If someone could have met even the easiest con-dition of this challenge, no people of wisdom, especially those living atthe Prophet's time and the Qurayshi intellectual elite, would have beenforced to choose warfare. In summary, as Jahiz put it, they had to resortto struggle by the sword since challenge by words was impossible.

Question:

 Some discerning scholars maintain that no Qur'anic

 sura

,verse, sentence, or word can be disputed and that no one has ever doneso successfully. This sounds exaggerated and hard to accept, as manyhuman-produced words bear some resemblance to the Qur'an.

Answer:

 There are two opinions on the Qur'an's miraculousness. Theprevailing opinion is that its eloquence and meaning's virtues are bey-ond human capacity. The other one says that one can challenge and com-pete with a

 sura,

 but that God Almighty prevents it as a miracle of Muhammad. For example, if a Prophet told someone who could stand:"You will be unable to stand" and this came true, it would be considereda miracle of the Prophet. This school is known as Sarfa, which teachesthat the All-Mighty prevents people and jinn from producing even a

sura.

 If this were not true, they might challenge one

 sura.

 Thus scholarswho maintain that not even a word of the Qur'an can be challenged arecorrect, for the All-Mighty prevents this on account of the Qur'an'smiraculousness.In the view of such scholars, however, there is a subtle point: AllQur'anic words and verses are interrelated. Sometimes a word is relatedto other occurrences, thus bearing relationships and providing instancesof eloquence. In my

 Isharat al-I'jaz

 (Signs of Miraculousness), a key to theQur'an's interpretation, I show some examples drawn from the initialverses of 

 Surat al-Fatiha

 and

 Surat al-Baqara

.

112

 

For example, one can place a most important gem in the most properplace in the decorative pattern of a well-ornamented palace's wall onlyafter knowing the whole design. Likewise, placing the eye's pupil in itscorrect location entails knowing all of the body's functions and complexorganization as well as its relationship with the eye's function. In just thesame way, the foremost people of science and profound truth demon-strate numerous relationships between the Qur'an's words and eachword's manifold relationships with other verses and expressions. Schol-ars of the mysteries of letters go even further, proving that each letter of the Qur'an has many inner meanings that, if explained fully, might coverpages.Since the Qur'an is the Word of the Creator of everything, each wordmay function as the core or heart of an ideal body made of hidden mean-ings placed around it or as the seed of an ideal tree. Therefore, althoughsome human-made words may be similar to those of the Qur'an, placingthem properly by means of considering all relationships between [andamong] the Qur'anic words calls for an all-comprehending knowledge.

113

 

Third point:

God Almighty once inspired in my heart a brief reflection on theQur'an's miraculous nature. I give its translation (from the original Arab-ic) below:Glory be to God, Who Himself witnesses to His Oneness; Who has dis-closed the qualities of His Grace, Majesty, and Perfection through theQur'an; and Whose six sides are luminous and contain neither misgivingnor doubt. Supported by God's Throne of Sovereignty, from which itholds the light of Revelation, it leads to the happiness of the two worldsand aims at the light of Paradise and eternal bliss. Above it shines theseal of miraculousness, beneath it lie the pillars of proof and evidence,and inside it is pure guidance. It urges minds to seek its confirmationthrough such warnings as:

 Will they not comprehend and reflect?

 The spir-itual pleasures it bestows upon the heart makes the conscience testify toits miraculousness. From which side or corner, then, could the arrows of doubt invade such a miraculous Qur'an?The miraculous Qur'an includes the content of all books given to allProphets as well as of all saints and monotheists regardless of path, tem-perament, and time. In other words, all people of heart and intellectmention the Qur'an's laws and fundamentals in their books in a way thatshows their affirmation, and so are like roots of the "celestial tree of theQur'an."The Qur'an is truly a Revelation. The Majestic One Who revealed itproves this via the miracles He created at Muhammad's hands. Even theQur'an's own miraculousness shows that it comes from God's ExaltedThrone. Lastly, Prophet Muhammad's anxiety when the Revelation began, his half-conscious state when receiving it, and his unmatched sin-cere respect and devotion to the Qur'an all prove that it is Revelation, de-rived from past eternity,

290

and entrusted to the Prophet.The Qur'an is pure guidance, since its opposite (unbelief) is obviouslymisguidance. Of necessity, the Qur'an is the source of the light of belief,for the opposite of this light is darkness. The Qur'an is the spring of truths into which neither imagination nor superstition can find a way.The truthful world of Islam shaped by its Revelation, the well-foundedlaw it presents, and the highest virtues that it manifests all testify to itscomplete truthfulness vis-à-vis the Unseen and the visible worlds.The Qur'an shows the way and guides people to happiness in bothworlds. Whoever doubts this should read it once and heed its words. Its

114

 

perfect and life-giving fruits demonstrate that it is deeply rooted in truthand true vigor, for a fruit's vigor indicates a tree's life. Just look at howmany perfect, vigorous, and luminous fruits—people of sainthood, pur-ity, and profound learning—it yields in each century. Through the con-viction and intuition coming from countless indications, the Qur'an is soesteemed and sought after by people, jinn, and angels that its recitationcauses them to gather around it like moths.In addition, all people of the profoundest knowledge agree that theQur'an is confirmed and fortified by rational proofs. Such geniuses of philosophy as Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroës), and espe-cially the most learned theologians, prove the truth of the Qur'an's fun-damentals with their own methods of reasoning. Humanity's verynature, so long as it remains unspoiled, affirms the Qur'an's truth, foronly its light can satisfy a person's conscience and place his or her heartplaced at rest.The Qur'an is an everlasting miracle that continually unfolds its mira-culousness. It never fades or perishes like other miracles, nor does it ageover time. The Qur'an's guidance is so inclusive and comprehensive thatArchangel Gabriel and young children listen to it side by side, both de-riving their lessons. Such a brilliant philosopher as Ibn Sina sits before itknee to knee with ordinary reciters to receive its teaching. Sometimes or-dinary reciters, by virtue of their purity and strength of belief, derivemore benefit than Ibn Sina.The Qur'an's guidance provides such penetrating insight that the uni-verse can be seen and comprehended like a book's pages. Like a watch-maker who opens and describes a watch down to its smallest part, theQur'an expounds the universe with all of its spheres and particles.Above all, it states that "There is no deity but God" and declares HisOneness.

290.Past eternity (azel) is not, as people imagine, just the starting-point of time andtherefore essential for a thing's existence. In fact, past eternity is like a mirror that re-flects the past, present, and future. Excluding themselves from time's passage, peopletend to imagine a limit for past time that extends through a certain chain of things.They call this past eternity. Such a method of reasoning is neither right nor accept-able. The following subtle point may clarify matters. Imagine that you are holding amirror. Everything reflected on the right represents the past, while everything reflec-ted on the left represents the future. The mirror can reflect only one direction, since itcannot show both sides simultaneously while you are holding it. To do that, youhave to rise so high above your original position that left and right become one, andthere is no longer any difference between first and last, beginning or end. (Tr.)

115

 

O God, make the Qur'an our companion in the world and our confid-ant in the grave, our intercessor in the Hereafter and our light on the Sir-at Bridge, a veil and protection against Hellfire, a friend in Paradise, anda guide and a leader to all goodness. O God, illumine our hearts andgraves with the light of belief and the Qur'an, and brighten the evidenceof the Qur'an for the sake of him to whom You sent it. Upon him and hisFamily be peace and blessings from the Compassionate and SolicitousOne. Amen.

116