The Words | 25. Word | 460
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Second Point: The Qur'an caused a transformation in social life in this world in so luminous, happy, and truthful a fashion, and brought about such a revolution in both men's souls, and hearts, and spirits, and minds, and in their personal lives, social lives, and political lives, and continued and directed that revolution, that every minute for fourteen centuries its six thousand six hundred and sixty-six verses have been recited with deep reverence by the tongues of at least one hundred million men, and it has trained men, purified their souls and cleansed their hearts, and has caused spirits to unfold and progress, given direction and light to minds, and vitality and happiness to life. For sure, such a book has no like; it is a wonder, a marvel, a miracle.

Third Point: The eloquence the Qur'an has demonstrated from that age till now is illustrated by the following: it caused Labid's daughter to remove from the walls of the Ka'ba the famous verses written in gold of the most celebrated poets called the Seven Hanging Poems, and to declare while doing so: "Beside the verses of the Qur'an these no longer have any value!"

Also, when a bedouin poet heard the verse,

Therefore expound openly what you are commanded1 

being recited, he bowed down in prostration. When asked if he had become a Muslim, he replied: "No, I was prostrating before the eloquence of this verse."

Also, thousands of brilliant scholars and learned literary figures like the geniuses of the science of rhetoric, 'Abd al-Qahir Jurjani, Sakkaki, and Zamakhshari, all reached the conclusion that, "The Qur'an's eloquence is beyond man's power, he could not achieve it."

Also, although from that time it has continuously issued a challenge provoking conceited and egotistical orators and poets, proclaiming in a way which will sting their pride: "Produce the like of one single Sura or be resigned to ignominy and ruin in this world and the next!", the obdurate orators of that time gave up disputing it verbally, the short way of producing the like of one Sura, and chose the way of the war, which was lengthy and threw their lives and property into peril, thus proving that it was not possible to take the short way.

Also, millions of Arabic books are in circulation, written since that time by the Qur'an's friends through the desire to resemble and imitate it, and by its enemies, driven to combat and criticize it, and such works are being written and have improved through the meeting of minds and ideas, but if even the most common man should listen to them, he would declare that none of them have reached it, saying: "The Qur'an does not resemble these and is not of their level. It is either lower than all of them or higher. No one in the world, no unbeliever, nor an idiot even, can say that it is lower, which means that the degree of its eloquence is above all of them."

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1. Qur'an, 15:94.

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