An amazing site defending the Intimitable Qu’ran. Here is the introduction to the site:
The Qur’an can only be described as a unique expression of the Arabic language. This is due to its unique literary form, linguistic genre, matchless eloquence and its unparalled frequency of rhetorical features. The uniqueness of the Qur’ans language forms the backdrop to the doctrine of I’jaz al-Quran, the inimitability of the Qur’an, which lies at the heart of the Qur’an’s claim to being of divine origin. The Qur’an states,
“If you are in doubt of what We have revealed to Our messenger, then produce one chapter like it. Call upon all your helpers, besides Allah, if you are truthful” Qur’an Chapter 2 Verse 23.
According Qur’anic Exegetes these verses issue a challenge to produce a chapter (surah) that imitates the Qur’an’s unique expression. The tools needed to meet this challenge are the finite grammatical rules and the twenty eight letters that make-up the Arabic language; these are independent and objective measures available to all. The fact that it has not been matched by Arabic literary critics since it emerged to this day does not surprise most scholars familiar with the Arabic language and that of the Qur’an.
The inability of any person to produce anything like the Qur’an, due to the uniqueness of its language, is the essence of the Qur’anic miracle. A miracle is defined as “events which lie outside the productive capacity of nature”. The argument posed by Muslim Theologians and Philosophers is that if, with the finite set of Arabic linguistic tools at humanity’s disposal, there has been no effective challenge to try and imitate the Qur’an, then providing a naturalistic explanation for the Qur’an’s uniqueness is not sufficient. This is because the natural capacity of any author is able to produce the varying expressions known in the Arabic language. The development of an entirely unique expression is beyond the scope of the productive nature of any author, hence a supernatural entity, God, is the only sufficient comprehensive explanation.
It is the purpose of this wesbite to explain how the Qur’an achieves this unique expression thereby explaining the miracle of its inimitability.
