Iʿjāz al-Qur'ān (إعجاز القرآن)
Summary: The miraculous inimitability of the Quran — its status as a formal challenge to humanity that no one has been able to meet.
Key Vocabulary
- Taḥaddī (تحدّي) — challenge; issuing a formal dare
- ʿAjaza / Aʿjaza (عجز / أعجز) — to be unable to meet a challenge; to render powerless. Found in Urdu too: āja denā.
- Muʿjizah (معجزة) — a prophetic miracle: specifically something presented as a challenge that no one can replicate. The word shares the root ʿajaza — it is the thing that renders others incapable.
(source: surah_yusuf_session3.md)
The Challenge
The Quran is composed of the same Arabic letters the Arabs used every day. It is not a heavenly language inaccessible to humans — it is in their language, using their letters. The challenge (taḥaddī) is therefore:
"Bring something like it, using these very same letters."
The presence of the muqattaat at the opening of sūrahs makes this challenge explicit — as if to say: here are the very letters you know; now try.
The Arabs were afṣaḥ al-nās — the most eloquent of all people. Note the grammar: afṣaḥ al-nās is an ism tafḍīl (superlative form), followed by a genitive (al-nās), not preceded by min — which would make it merely comparative ("more eloquent than"). The superlative requires the genitive construction. (source: surah_yusuf_session3.md)
Yet they could not produce anything like the Quran. Their very inability (ʿajz) is itself a proof that the Quran is the waḥy of Allah.
What Counts as a Muʿjizah?
Many scholars hold that the Prophet's ﷺ muʿjizah is specifically the Quran — because it alone was presented as a formal challenge:
"Bring a sūrah like it. Bring ten āyāt like it."
Other supernatural events — the splitting of the moon, a single bowl of milk feeding an army — were not presented as challenges. Hence many scholars classify only the Quran as his muʿjizah in the technical sense, while the other events are considered signs or karāmāt but not muʿjizāt. (source: surah_yusuf_session3.md)
Grammatical Analysis (from the Commentary)
The commentary states:
"Their inability — although they were the most eloquent of the people — points to the fact that the Quran is the waḥy of Allah."
- Main verb: dalla (دلّ) — to point to / indicate
- Fāʿil (subject) of dalla: ʿajz al-ʿarab — the inability of the Arabs
- The parenthetical clause ("although they were the most eloquent") is circumstantial information; it does not change the grammatical subject
Teacher's encouragement: "Whenever you see a verb, immediately ask: where is the fāʿil? A fāʿil can be explicit or implicit. This analysis should become almost subconscious." (source: surah_yusuf_session3.md)