ABSTRACT
Muslim dogma to the Qur ) an. No human
speech and particularly no Arabic speech
can match the divine speech, of which the Qur
) an consists in form and content.
The term itself does not occur in the
Qur ) an. But the concept of inimitability
finds its Qur ) anic basis in a number of
verses that challenge and defy the
opponents of the Prophet to produce
something like the Qur ) an, if only a sura
or verse: ‘Say: ‘‘If men and jinn banded
together to produce the like of this
Qur ) an, they would never produce its
like, not though they backed one
another’’’ (17.88). Such verses were called
by Muslim exegesis ‘Verses of Chal-
lenge’ (ayat al-Tahaddi). In some of
these verses, the context is an accusation
by enemies of the Prophet that
Muhammad had invented a text, which
he falsely claimed to be revelation: ‘Or
do they say, ‘‘Why, he has forged it’’?
Say: ‘‘Then produce a sura like it, and call on whom you can, apart from God,
if you speak truly’’’ (10.38). Treatises
written after the third/ninth century
developed a consistent theology of pro-
phetic miracles. All prophets through-
out history had to provide miracles as
divine proof to their audiences that they
were true prophets: Moses, in con-
frontation with the Pharaoh, changed
his staff into a serpent and parted the
Red Sea; Jesus raised the dead. Muhammad’s proof of his prophethood
was the inimitable Qur ) an. The inimit-
ability of the Qur ) an was not only roo-
ted in its pure eloquence, but also
referred to the Qur ) an’s foretelling of
the hidden and the unseen, in other
words, to the prophetic (in the narrow
sense) parts of the Qur ) an. The effect of
Qur ) anic recitation is described by the
Qur ) an itself: ‘God has sent down the
