(29:48) *** *** Then how is it that this book (Quran) is...
(29:48) *** *** Then how is it that this book (Quran) is full of the foremost and the latest sciences? And whatever is necessary for mankind, a variety of sciences. Is there any room for doubting that it is sent only by Almighty God? It is before your own eyes that Muhammad (‘s) passed forty years of his life in Mecca. He has not come from any other place. Is there anyone who can claim that he had a teacher or he went to a school? So these sciences are definitely not his own.
Necessarily they are from Almighty God. How nice has someone expressed this in these couplets: How wonderful that my beloved never went to any school. Nor he wrote anything and yet he has become equal to two hundred teachers. Secondly, the Quran challenges the Arabs who were considered at the pinnacle of eloquence: Join all of you together and try to compose even a Chapter like a Chapter of this Quran.
Say: If men and jinn should combine together to bring the like of this Quran, they could not bring the like of it, though some of them were aiders of others. (17:88) *** *** Eternal miracle for an everlasting religion Every messenger had a miracle with him. When he passed away, his miracle also went away with him. For example, when Moosa (‘a) used to cast his staff, it turned into a serpent, when he hit a rock with his staff, twelve springs gushed therefrom. Isa (‘a) used to enliven the dead.
But when he ascended to the heavens his miracle also went away with him. But in the case of Muhammad (‘s), his miracle remains till the Day of Judgment and that miracle is the Holy Quran. Just as his religion (Islam) is present, it will on the Day of Resurrection, testify his truthfulness that the one who brought it (Quran) is the messenger of God, sent by God Himself.
It is impossible for one who never attended any school to compose even a verse like that of Quran; which is full of eloquence and rhetoric. Each verse testifies to the fact that he is the last Prophet. Who is a Prophet? Difference between a Prophet and a Messenger ‘Messenger’ has an added specialty over a Prophet. It denotes one who gives news (Naba) and who has been given the news. Prophet means the ‘sent one’ (Mursal).
We have a tradition of Imam Sadiq (‘a) wherein it is mentioned that people asked him the difference between a Messenger and a Prophet. He said, “A Messenger is one who hears the voice but does not see the angel who is giving him the news from the unknown.