non-Arabsknow orconceive.When the Qur'ānwasread, theidolaters
usedtoclosetheirears;someusedtomakenoise,whistlingandchant-
ing,sothat theymaynot heartheQur'ānandbebewitched'. Thenon- believers could not give any reasonable explanation to thisirresistible beautyandpoweroftheQur'ān.However,theyhadtofindsomeexcuse toputpeopleoffandtojustifytheiropposition.Theyinventedliesand said,The Qur'ān is nothing but poetry or magic.' God refuted their
statement:“ThereforeproclaimyouthepraisesofyourLord,forbythe
grace of your Lord you are no soothsayer, nor are you one possessed.”
TheArabswagedwarafterwartosilencetheProphetofIslam.Butthe
easiestwaywouldhavebeentoproduceashortsurah(likeal-Kawthar)
ofequalstandardandtheclaimoftheProphetwouldhavebeenrefuted.
Nosaneperson woulduseasword whenafewwordscouldservehis
purpose in a more effective way. Butthe Arabs preferred war and it
proves that they found the Qur'ān unanswerable.
TodiscovertheQur'ān’seloquence,non-Arabspeakerscanturntothe
sayingsof thoseArabswho wereexpertsinthelanguageofthosedays
andwhicharerecorded inhistory,andalsotothe presentdayauthors
whowriteonthissubject.FromthedaysoftheProphettillnow,allspe-
cialistsintheartofArabiceloquencehaveconfessedtotheunparalleled
eloquenceoftheQur'ānandhavebeenoverwhelmedinthefaceofit.For
example,the famouscontemporarywriter AbdulFattāhTabariwrites, “Arabhistorytellsus ofmany famousmen,knowledgeableinthebest poetryandprose,likeIbnal-Muqaffa,Jahiz,IbnAmid,Farazdaq,Bash-
shar, Abu Nuwas, Abu Tammam and so forth, but all of them have
shownhumilitywhenfacedwiththeQur'ān,andhaveofnecessitycon-
fessed that the great Qur'ān is not the word of man, but a Divine
revelation.”
Dr. Taha Husayn, the famous contemporary Egyptian writer, said,
“The Qur'ān transcends the limits of prose and poetry, because ithas
special qualities which cannot be found in any poem or prose. So the
Qur'āncannotbecalledpoetryorprose,ratheritshouldbesaid,`Itisthe
Qur'ān, that is all.'”