But this appears to be exaggerated and the reason cannot accept it, for many of men’s words resemble those of the Qur’an. What is the reason for their saying this?

T h e A n s w e r : There are two schools of thought concerning the miraculousness of the Qur’an.

The prevailing and preferred school states that the subtle qualities of eloquence and meaning in the Qur’an are beyond human power.

The second, and less preferred, school states that it is within human ability to dispute one of the Qur’an’s Suras, but Almighty God has prevented this as a miracle of Muhammad (PBUH). Like a man may rise to his feet, but if a prophet tells him that he cannot and he is unable to, then it is a miracle. This opinion is called the Sarfa School. That is, Almighty God prevented men and jinn from successfully disputing a single of the Qur’an’s Suras. According to this school, scholars who state that a single of its words cannot be disputed, are correct. Because since on account of its miraculousness Almighty God prevented them, they could not so much as open their mouths to dispute it. And even if they had done so, they could not have uttered a word.

However, according to the first-mentioned prevalent and preferred school of thought, that statement of scholars has the following subtle aspect: the All-Wise Qur’an’s phrases and words look to one another. It sometimes happens that a single word looks to ten places; in it are ten relationships and ten fine points of eloquence. We have pointed out examples of some of