Not one of them has been able to attain the level of the Qur'an. Should a common man even listen to them, he is sure to say: "The Qur'an does not resemble these other books, nor is it in the same class as they. It must be either below them or above them." No one —no unbeliever or fool— in the world can say that it is below them. Hence its degree of eloquence is above all of them. Once a man read the verse.
All that is in the heavens and the earth extols and glorifies God ¹⁷
He said: "I cannot see any miraculous eloquence in this verse." He was told: "Go back to that age like the traveller, and listen to the verse as recited there." Imagining himself to be there before the revelation of the Qur'an, he saw that all the beings in the world were living in an unstable, transient world in empty, infinite and unbounded space, in confusion and darkness, lifeless and without consciousness and purpose. Suddenly he heard this verse proclaimed by the tongue of the Qur'an and the verse removed a veil from in front of the universe and illumined the face of the globe; this pre-eternal speech, this eternal decree, gave instruction to all conscious beings, drawn up in the ranks of succeeding centuries, in such fashion that the cosmos became like a vast mosque. All of creation headed by the heavens and the earth, was engaged in vital remembrance of God and proclamation of His glory, was joyously and contentedly fulfilling its function.
All of this our traveller observed. Thus tasting the degree of the elo¬quence of the Qur'an, and comparing the other verses to it by analogy, he understood one of the many thousands of wise reasons for the conquest of half the globe and a fifth of humanity by the eloquent murmuring of the Qur'an. for the uninterrupted continuance of its respected and magnificent monarchy for fourteen centuries.
Fourth Point: The Qur'an has demonstrated such a veracious sweetness that whereas the repetition of even the sweetest thing induces disgust, it has from earliest times been accepted by everyone and even become proverbial that repeated recitation of the Qur'an, far from inducing disgust and weariness in men of sound heart and pure taste, on the contrary increases its sweetness.
The Qur'an demonstrates, moreover, such a freshness, youth and origi¬nality, that even though it has lived for fourteen centuries and passed through many hands, it retains its freshness as if it had only just been revealed. Every century sees the Qur'an enjoying a new youth, as if it were addressing that century in particular. Similarly, scholars of every branch of learning, even though they keep the Qur'an constantly at their side in order to benefit from it. and perpetually follow its method of exposition, see that the Qur'an maintains the originality of its style and manner of explanation.
Fifth Point : One wing of the Qur'an is in the past, and one is in the future, and like its root and one wing are the agreed truths of the former prophets and it confirms and corroborates them, and they too confirm it with the tongue of unanimity, so too all the true Sufi paths and ways of sainthood whose fruits like the saints and purified scholars, who receive life from the Qur'an, show through their vital spiritual progress that their blessed tree is living, effulgent, and the means to truth, and who grow and live under the protection of its second wing, testify that the Qur'an is pure truth and the assembly of truths and in its comprehensiveness, a matchless wonder.
Sixth Point: The Qur'an's truthfulness and veracity show that its six aspects are luminous. Indeed, the pillars of argument and proof beneath it; the flashes of the stamp of miraculousncss above it; the gifts of happi¬ness in this world and the next before it, its goal; the truths of heavenly rev¬elation, the point of support behind it; the assent and evidence of innumera¬ble upright minds to its right; and the true tranquillity, sincere attraction, and submission of sound hearts and clean consciences on its left all prove that the Qur'an is a wondrous, firm, unassailable citadel of both the heav¬ens and the earth.
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17. Qur'an. 57:1.