manage ten which are truly like the Qur’an’s Suras, so put it together out of stories and fictitious tales; just produce the like of the word-order and eloquence. Don’t write a long Sura, just a short one. But if you can’t do this, your religion, lives, property, and families will all be in danger, both in this world and in the next!”

Thus, with these eight alternatives, the Wise Qur’an has challenged and silenced men and jinn, not for twenty-three years, but for one thousand three hundred. Nonetheless, in those early times, those unbelievers did not have recourse to the easiest way, dispute or contest, but chose the most fearsome way, that of war, putting their lives, possessions, and families into danger. That means, to dispute it was not possible.

And so, would not any intelligent person, particularly the people of Arabia at that time and the Quraysh, who were very clever have ensured that one of their literary men composed a Sura similar to one of the Qur’an’s and so be saved from the Qur’an’s attacks; would they have abandoned the short and easy way, cast all they possessed into peril, and travelled the way most fraught with difficulties?

I n S h o r t : As the famous Jahiz put it: “Dispute with words was not possible, so they were compelled to fight with the sword.”

I f i t i s a s k e d : Some learned scholars have said that not one of the Qur’an’s Suras, but not a single of its verses can be disputed, nor even a single sentence, nor a word, nor have they been disputed.