A Short Comment on Inimitability of the Quran and The End Verses of the Surah Night Journey (17)

·        "Say, 'Even if all mankind and jinn came together to produce something like this Quran, they could not produce anything like it, however much they helped each other.'"(17:88)

·        "Say, Bring you then ten chapters like unto it, and call whomsoever you can, other than God, if you speak the truth!"(11:13)

·        "Or do they say he has fabricated it? Say bring then a chapter like unto it, and call upon whom you can besides God, if you speak truly!"(10:38)

·        "Or do they say he has fabricated it? Nay! They believe not! Let them then produce a recital like unto it if they speak the truth."(52:34)

·        "And if you are in doubt concerning that which We have sent down to our servant, then produce a chapter of the like." (2:23)

Today I just quote the last verses of the surah Night Journey (17).  The only point that I wish to add is a comment about these verses that are repeated in the Quran in different ways: “Say, ‘Even if all mankind and jinn came together to produce something like this Quran, they could not produce anything like it, however much they helped each other.’”  Before connecting to the Quran, I always wondered what this means, because in my ignorance I was thinking that there is a host of literary works that can be even more interesting that the Quran.  The fact is that those who know Arabic commonly believe that Quran’s language is inimitable in terms of its rhetorical device and literary value and has evolved Arabic literature after being recited to Arabs:

“The literary quality of the Qur'an has been generally acknowledged by Muslim and some non-Muslim scholars and intellectuals, and there is evidence that Muslims accepted Islam on the basis of evaluating the Qur'an as a text that surpasses all human production. Whilst western views typically ascribe social, ideological, propagandistic, or military reasons for the success of early Islam, Muslim sources view the literary quality of the Qur'an as a decisive factor for the adoption of the Islamic creed and its ideology, resulting in its spread and development in the 7th century. A thriving poetic tradition existed at the time of Muhammad, however, according to Afnan Fatani, a contemporary scholar of Islamic studies, Muhammad had brought, in spite of being illiterate, something that was superior to anything that the poets and orators had ever written or heard. They did not question this, what they rejected was Qur'an's ideas, especially monotheism and resurrection. Numerous scholars devoted time to finding out why the Qur'an was inimitable. The majority of opinions was around eloquence of the Qur'an both in wording and meaning as its speech does not form to poetry nor prose commonly expressed in all languages. Thus, it is understood that the inimitability of the Qur'an resides in this third genre in which words have been arranged in a particular way accompanied with flawless meaning that humans are unable to reproduce.” (Wikipedia, I'jaz [miraculous]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'jaz)

The point that I wish to add is this: this is one of the strangest things that I experienced and see clearly now.  When I read the verses with disbelief in the past, they seemed repetitive and common place to me.  I never pondered that these are verses recited by Mohammad, a prophet, who was illiterate and couldn’t write or read, and it was impossible for him to create its authority, consistency, and revelatory wisdom.  Now that I read the Quran differently--with faith in God, it comes to me self-evident that an illiterate person couldn’t go around and invent these verses.  I understand that it was impossible.  And I understand that even now it is impossible.  The impossibility comes from the aura, the expression, its absolute authority, its consistency and coherency.  The impossibility comes from the fact that the tone does not belong to human-beings, it is not sentimental, it is not overtly emotional or cruel.  The Quran’s language is even and the sense of “mercy” and “forgiveness” or “punishment” in it has nothing to do with human needs.  It is not a mortal human emotion speaking in the Quran.  This is striking to me now, but I was blind to it before. 

If we can talk about the unconditional love and mercy, it only belongs to God, the needless immortal benevolent ineffable being, who invented being, benevolence, and mercy for us.  God’s mercy in the Quran is not the neediness mercy of a dying being like us.  Our love is smeared with need through and through.  At best, we need love, if not love for need.  The maturity we can come with is to separate these two from each other: I need you because I love you, not that or hope not that I love you because I need you.  But the self-sufficient God doesn’t need us or anything else.  “In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy.  “Say, ‘He is God the One, God the eternal. [Samad: other commonly held interpretations include ‘self-sufficient’ and ‘sought by all’ (Razi).] He begot no one nor was God begotten.  No one is comparable to God.’” (112:1-4)

We can’t imagine and conceive this kind of love.  The language of the Quran is the language of eternal God, who clearly keeps us on our toes to remember that we are so inherently ingrained in need to God that if we don’t abandon our little egoistic self, the arrogance to be metaphysically autonomous, and don’t arrive at complete sense of devotion in nothingness to God, inherently we punish ourselves and this punishment is reiterated in the Quran, as the last warning and this very warning is God’s mercy.  It is like a child is falling off the edge of a cliff and you tell him or her, "you are falling, you are falling", out of mercy.  This mercy to warn us is the voice of God in the Quran and doesn’t fit our sentimental and romantic ears, because we are now in the grip of New Age good and "positive" feelings and if anyone tells me: look, "you are falling", it will hurt my feelings and I would probably say: Are you talking to ME, be nice and give love, not hate!

When the Quran states, no one can imitate the language of the Quran, it is a sheer fact, no one could, and no one can, and no one will be able to do it, because the authority behind the words in the Quran is not human subjectivity and human subjectivity can’t imitate God’s voice without falling into seamless cruelty or vain sentimentality or utter adoration of pleasure and beauty of bodies, and an inconsistent prose. 

“[Prophet], they ask you about the Spirit. Say, ‘The Spirit is part of my Lord’s domain. You have only been given a little knowledge.’ If We pleased, We could take away what We have revealed to you– then you would find no one to plead for you against Us– if it were not for your Lord’s mercy: His favor to you has been truly great. Say, ‘Even if all mankind and jinn came together to produce something like this Quran, they could not produce anything like it, however much they helped each other.’ In this Quran, We have set out all kinds of examples for people, yet most of them persist in disbelieving. They say, ‘We will not believe for you [Muhammad] until you make a spring gush out of the ground for us; or until you have a garden of date palms and vines, and make rivers pour through them; or make the sky fall on us in pieces, as you claimed will happen; or bring God and the angels before us face to face; or have a house made of gold; or ascend into the sky– even then, we will not believe in your ascension until you send a real book down for us to read.’ Say, ‘Glory be to my Lord! Am I anything but a mortal, a messenger?’ The only thing that kept these people from believing, when guidance came to them, was that they said, ‘How could God have sent a human being as a messenger?’ Say, ‘If there were angels walking about on earth, feeling at home, We would have sent them an angel from Heaven as a messenger.’ Say, ‘God is witness enough between me and you. He knows and observes His servants well.’” (17:75-95)

“[Prophet], anyone God guides is truly guided, and you will find no protector other than Him for anyone He leaves astray. On the Day of Resurrection We shall gather them, lying on their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf. Hell will be their Home. Whenever the Fire goes down, We shall make it blaze more fiercely for them. 98 This is what they will get for rejecting Our signs and saying, ‘What? When we are turned to bones and dust, how can we be raised in a new act of creation?’ Do they not see that God, who created the heavens and earth, can create the likes of them [anew]? He has ordained a time for them– there is no doubt about that– but the evildoers refuse everything except disbelief. Say, ‘If you possessed the very stores of my Lord’s bounty, you would hold them back in your fear of spending: man is ever grudging.’” (17:97-100)

“In the past, We gave Moses nine clear signs– ask the Children of Israel. When Moses came to [the Egyptians], Pharaoh said to him, ‘Moses, I think you are bewitched.’ He said, ‘You know very well that only the Lord of the heavens and earth could have sent these signs as clear proof. I think that you, Pharaoh, are doomed.’ So, he wanted to wipe them off the [face of the] earth, but We drowned him and those with him. After his death, We told the Children of Israel, ‘Live in the land, and when the promise of the Hereafter is fulfilled, We shall bring you to the assembly of all people.’” (101-4)

“We sent down the Quran with the truth, and with the truth it has come down– [Prophet], We sent you only to give good news and warning– it is a recitation that We have revealed in parts, so that you can recite it to people at intervals; We have sent it down little by little. Say, ‘Whether you believe it or not, those who were given knowledge earlier fall down on their faces when it is recited to them, and say, “Glory to our Lord! Our Lord’s promise has been fulfilled.” 109 They fall down on their faces, weeping, and [the Quran] increases their humility.’ Say [to them], ‘Call on God, or on the Lord of Mercy– whatever names you call Him, the best names belong to Him.’ [Prophet], do not be too loud in your prayer, or too quiet, but seek a middle way and say, ‘Praise belongs to God, who has no child nor partner in His rule. He is not so weak as to need a protector. Proclaim His limitless greatness!’” (17:105-111)

A Brief Reflection on What We Can Know/Do and What We Can't in the Surah Night Journey (17)

We can understand God, the ineffable, as we can understand Being, unsurmountable.  Our capacity in understanding God as the source of Being is the inner light granted to us, but it can easily be covered up by arrogance.  When I didn’t believe in God, and studied different philosophies and scientific discourses, I found them all insufficient: it came so obvious to me that Russell, Wittgenstein, Gödel, Goodman, Popper, Kuhn, Heidegger, Foucault,…were all saying that we can’t fathom it, but it never meant to me that reason or sciences and philosophy were vain.  On the contrary, in the spirit of Socrates, we approximate truth but never achieve it: “this never achieving Truth” is the condition of possibility of humanly understanding the “truth”, for us truth is always partial, not complete. 

When I started reading scriptures and especially the Quran, I realized that revelation is an essential part of truth that we can’t achieve on our own.  Our arrogance, our delusion that we CAN achieve the whole truth by our own reason alone, leads us astray.  Nonetheless, we can use our reason, if directed by God’s grace, to the straight path, without getting lost.

When I was disconnected from God’s revelations, I was considering ideologies and sciences for the way out, but these ideologies can never tell us what course of action to take ethically.  Their ethics is always groundless and this is the place that our whims, desires, and arrogance take hold in us.

The Quran, first and foremost, reminds us of God—take no other god: science, any ideology, or any idol as one’s god.  I didn’t understand this point, and so, I easily disconnected from the Quran.  It seemed to me God is too demanding and authoritative to remind us again and again that if we worship any other god but God, we will be punished and suffer.  My arrogance was a hindrance.  I assume the arrogance of Russell and Chomsky, Marx, Sartre, and Foucault, and the like was the major obstacle for them.  The arrogance comes from a deep disbelief that draws a veil on our heart not to connect to revelations.  We needed historical proof, we needed “evidence”—that why if we worship any god-idol-ideology-science but God, we will fall.  In both ontogenetic (my individual) and phylogenetic (our species) senses—if these terms are applicable to our self-understanding—we can potentially see now why, if we are willing and our arrogance again doesn’t draw a veil on our eyes and hearts.  

Without revelations, we can’t find our way about.  We end up in canceric growth, quantification of the world based on utility, and hedonism.  We see ourselves as random events on this planet, who has no ontogenetic spiritual path but to increase itself in phylogenetic sense: survival.  We shall die from inside (our essence) and simultaneously we shall disconnect from outside (the universe and God)—the arrogance will appropriate everything for the self and pleasure.  In almost two centuries we have seen the ramification of secular ideology.

In reading the surah “Night Journey”, I am now in a different mindset.  I hear the message differently.  Revelations don’t tell us the mystery of the scientific working of the world, it is our tasks to look for proximate and ultimate causes---with constant remembrance of and asking guidance from the ineffable God and unsurmountable Being.  What we CAN know for sure is what course of action to take based on spiritual-ethical directions given to us by revelations: 

“Set up no other god beside God, or you will end up disgraced and forsaken.  Your Lord has commanded that you should worship none but God, and that you be kind to your parents. If either or both of them reach old age with you, say no word that shows impatience with them, and do not be harsh with them, but speak to them respectfully and lower your wing in humility towards them in kindness and say, ‘Lord, have mercy on them, just as they cared for me when I was little.’  Your Lord knows best what is in your heart. If you are good, God is most forgiving to those who return to Him.  Give relatives their due, and the needy, and travellers– do not squander your wealth wastefully: those who squander are the brothers of Satan, and Satan is most ungrateful to his Lord– but if, while seeking some bounty that you expect from your Lord, you turn them down, then at least speak some word of comfort to them.  Do not be tight-fisted, nor so open-handed that you end up blamed and overwhelmed with regret.  Your Lord gives abundantly to whoever He will, and sparingly to whoever He will: He knows and observes His servants thoroughly.

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty (a) ––We shall provide for them and for you––killing them is a great sin.  And do not go anywhere near adultery: it is an outrage, and an evil path.  Do not take life, which God has made sacred, except by right: if anyone is killed wrongfully, We have given authority to the defender of his rights, but he should not be excessive in taking life, for he is already aided [by God].  Do not go near the orphan’s property, except with the best [intentions], until he reaches the age of maturity. Honor your pledges: you will be questioned about your pledges.  Give full measure when you measure, and weigh with accurate scales: that is better and fairer in the end.  Do not follow blindly what you do not know to be true: ears, eyes, and heart, you will be questioned about all these.   Do not strut arrogantly about the earth: you cannot break it open, nor match the mountains in height.  The evil of all these actions is hateful to your Lord.” (17:22-38)

(a): “When the sun is shrouded in darkness, when the stars are dimmed, when the mountains are set in motion, when pregnant camels are abandoned, when wild beasts are herded together, when the seas boil over, when souls are sorted into classes, when the baby girl buried alive is asked for what sin she was killed, when the records of deeds are spread open, when the sky is stripped away, when Hell is made to blaze and Paradise brought near: then every soul will know what it has brought about.” (81:1-14)