The Devil turned and said: “The Qur’an resembles man’s word. It is similar to the way men converse. That means it is man’s word. If it were God’s Word, it would be appropriate  to  Him  and  altogether  out  of  the  ordinary.  Just  as  His  art  does  not resemble man’s art, so His Word should not resemble man’s word.”

I replied: “It may be understood as follows: apart from his miracles and special attributes, the Prophet Muhammad (UWBP) was a human being in all his actions, conduct, and behaviour. He submitted to and complied with the divine laws and commands manifested in creation. He too suffered from the cold, experienced  pain, and so on. His deeds and attributes were not all made out of the ordinary so that he could  be  the  leader  of  his  community  through  his  actions,  its  guide  through  his conduct, and instruct it through all his behaviour. If he had been out of the ordinary in all his conduct, he could not have been the leader in every respect, the complete guide for everyone, the “Mercy to All the Worlds” through all his attributes.

“In just the same way, the All-Wise Qur’an is the leader of the aware and the conscious, the guide of jinn and men, the teacher of those aspiring to perfection, and instructor of those seeking reality. It has necessarily, therefore, to be in a form similar to human conversation and style. For men and jinn take their supplications from it and learn their prayers from it; they express their concerns in its language, and learn from it the rules of social behaviour, and so on. Everyone has recourse to it. If it had been in similar  form to the divine speech that the Prophet Moses (Peace be upon him) heard on Mount Sinai, human beings could not have borne listening to it and hearing it, nor made it a point of reference and recourse. Moses (Peace be upon him), one of the five greatest prophets, could only endure to hear a few words. He said: “‘Is Your speech thus?’ God replied: ‘I have the power of all tongues.’”[1]

Next,  the  Devil  said:  “Many  people  speak  of matters  similar  to  those  in  the Qur’an in the name of religion. Isn’t it possible, therefore, that a human being did such a thing and made up the Qur’an in the name of religion?”

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[1] Suyuti, al-Durar al-Manthur, iii, 536.