Our Creed
Qur’an which Allah revealed to me.” The Qur’an is a miracle
unlike any other given before. It is preserved, recited
continuously, infinitely deep, perfect in meaning, and
eternal. Further, Allah the Exalted states in it, “Falsehood
cannot approach it” (41:42) and “Had it been from someone
other than Allah, they would have found in it a great deal
of discrepancy” (4:82). When Ja`far ibn Abi Talib g recited
Surah Maryam to Najashi, he was deeply affected. He sent
seventy Christian scholars to the Prophet a who heard
Surah Yasin and began to cry recognizing it to be divine.
This occurred then and continues to occur today. For every
miracle, two things are needed. First, it is given to one
claiming prophethood and clearly incapable of causing
the event. Second, his people are invited to bring something
like it to establish their helplessness as well. Thus, it
becomes clear that the miracle was a divine act.
The Qur’an is a literary masterpiece and one the Prophet
a was incapable of authoring. He was never trained in
language or the literary arts, and he was proudly declared
by Allah and the prophets before him as an “ummi” (illiterate).
Do not make the mistake of thinking the Qur’an is like
other masterpieces. For example, William Shakespeare was
a trained master playwright. Yet, his works contain historical
and geographical mistakes. They were almost certainly
changed as editors applied their discretion in compiling
what was passed to them from the memories of actors.
Recent analysis of the plays suggests they were not written
by him alone, but with help from another. In contrast, the
Qur’an is free of any type of error and preserved from
change. It came spontaneously from the Prophet a without
preparation, revision, or practice and has not yet been fully
understood or replicated by another, nor can it be. Analysis
of the Qur’an from tafsir and language experts bears witness
to its miraculous nature. Every letter of it divine with a
source that could only be the spring of prophethood.
More impressive was the reaction of the Prophet’s contemporaries,
the Arabs to whom the challenge of the Qur’an
was first issued. Allah the Exalted declares, “If you are in
doubt about what We have revealed to our Servant then
bring a surah similar to this.” (2:23) and “Say O Prophet, ‘If
mankind and the jinn gathered in order to produce the like
of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like of it, even if
they assist one another’” (17:88). Being experts in their own
language, the Arabs alleged it was magic or supra-human
assistance. This is an admission of its perfection. For had
they noted human error or literary mistakes, they would
have pointed that out instead. From its words and syntax
to its style and overall system, they found nothing in its
over six thousand verses to criticize. Even the Orientalists
of today no longer claim the Prophet a was an imposter
looking for some secondary gain and so made up the
The Qur’an is a miracle
unlike any other given
before. It is preserved,
recited continuously,
infinitely deep, perfect
in meaning, and eternal.
Qur’an with an alternative motive. Rather, they are only left
with alleging he was afflicted by prolonged meditation or a
psychiatric disorder. This allegation is easily refuted with a
cursory glance at his seerah and his accomplishments. From
the time when the Arabs generally possessed the highest
of literary skill, and throughout the subsequent fourteen
centuries, the challenge of imitating the Qur’an remains
unfulfilled. Had even one person done so, the zeal of the
non-Muslims would have preserved and propagated it to
no end. How could they not have when they have always
outnumbered the Muslims? Or, had one person done so,
others surely would have as well. Thus, the inability of the
claimant to prophethood and his people to produce the
Qur’an establishes it as a divine act.
Besides the Qur’an, the Prophet a was given many other
miracles. Some of them manifested in the objects around
him. For example, the splitting of the moon, a tree coming
closer to him, stones speaking, the yearning of a palm tree
trunk, the complaining of a female camel, a cooked sheep
informing him of it being poisoned, and the shading of
clouds as he traveled. Although most of these events were
conveyed to us as single narrations, in their entirety, they
convey certainty of the occurrence of miracles by his hand.
His character, too, was proof of his prophethood. For
example, when he first received revelation, he returned to
his wife, Khadijah j, who consoled him, reminded him
of his good character, and believed in his prophethood
before anyone else. She said, “You keep good relations with
your kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve
your guests generously and assist the deserving.” Likewise,
his closest friend, Sayyiduna Abu Bakr g believed in him
without asking for any proof for he had known his char-
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