Surah/Quran Like It Observations
- philhoraia
- Mar 9, 2023
- 2 min read
(Chronological Order)
S 17:88 Say: If man and jinn came together to bring the like of this quran, they would not bring the like of it, even if they were an assistant to one another.
S 10:38 Or do they say: He has fabricated it? Say: Bring a surah the like of it and invoke whom you can instead of Allah if you are truthful.
S 11:13 Or they say: He has fabricated it. Say: Then bring ten surahs the like of it, fabricated, and invoke whom you can instead of Allah if you are truthful.
S 52:33-34 Or do they say: He has made it up? Rather, they do not believe. So let them bring a hadith the like of it if they are truthful.
S 2:23 And if you are in doubt about what we have sent down upon our slave then bring a surah of the like of it and invoke your witnesses instead of Allah if you are truthful.
In S 17 the author denies that, were man and jinn to come together to bring the like of this quran, they would. This is something like the 50th surah, so not the whole quran so far. In S 10 the author calls people to bring a surah, one, and to invoke a witness or two, if they're truthful. In S 11, ten are called for. In S 52, a hadith is called for. Finally, in S 2 it's back to one surah. But here the author says: of (or from) the like of it. Did he think that there was a body of literature that was like it from which one might bring something? The author fluctuates between one and ten surahs. Why? Why does he go from quran to surahs to hadith to surah? The author calls for people to invoke deities as witnesses, 'if they're truthful'; shouldn't the Muslims too invoke their deity, namely Allah, as their witness? And what exactly might his audience have understood by 'surah'? Might he have meant a chapter, called a surah, from a book, also called quran, of one or other of the other competing 'prophets' in the Arabian Peninsula?
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