The book cannot be imitated.
The text dares its critics to produce one sura like it, and the tradition treats the fact that nobody did as the standing miracle. It is close to the only one Islam claims: the Quran declines to give the Prophet the sort of wonders it gives Musa and Isa.
The doctrine is called i'jaz al-Quran and it does real work: it is the argument for the Prophet's truthfulness that does not depend on witnesses. The Quran itself makes the challenge, escalating from ten suras to one. What makes the claim hard to evaluate from outside is that it is a claim about Arabic — about a register that is neither the poetry nor the rhymed prose of the period and that native ears found unplaceable. Translations are consequently not the Quran at all in Muslim usage; they are called interpretations, and they are printed facing the Arabic. This is also why a memorizer in Jakarta or Kano learns the sound of a language they may not speak.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideasSign in to open the first thread. Everything here is attributed.