ABSTRACT
Muslims believe that the Quran is the uncreated Word of God which has existed in his presence from all eternity as ‘the mother of the Book’ (43.4), ‘the preserved tablet’ (85.22). It was brought down to the nearest heaven one Ramadan on the ‘Night of Power’ (97.1) and delivered orally to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel (2.97) over a period of twenty-three years. The Prophet and his Companions committed the revelations to memory and recited them when they performed the prayers. The recitation had a profound effect on some of the hearers (17.107) but others dismissed Muhammad as merely a magician (10.2), poet (21.5) or soothsayer (69.42), and accused him of forgery (25.4f). Those who rejected the revelations as forgeries were repeatedly challenged to produce something similar (2.23, 10.28, 11. 13). Their failure to do so led the believers to claim that the Quran is inimitable, and that its inimitability (ijaz) is proof of its divine origin.
