In order to demonstrate the incapacity and impotence of people to imitate it...

In order to demonstrate the incapacity and impotence of people to imitate it, it issued the following universal proclamation: "Were all of mankind to come together and wish to produce the like of the Qur’an, they would never succeed, however much they aided each other." (17:88) It then modifies the challenge and reduces its scope by saying: "Do people imagine that this Qur’an is not from Us, and that you, Oh Prophet, are falsely attributing it to Us?

Tell them that if they are speaking truly they should produce ten surahs resembling the Qur’an, and that they are free to call on the aid of anyone but God in so doing." (11:13) Then, at a third stage, the scope of the challenge is reduced still further: the deniers are called on to produce only a single surah resembling the Qur’an: "Oh people, if you doubt the heavenly origin of this Book which We have sent down to Our servant, the Prophet, produce one surah like it." (2:23) Since we know that some of the shorter surahs consist only of a few brief sentences, this final challenge constituted a definitive proof of the human being's inability to imitate the Qur’an.

It is remarkable that the Prophet who thus challenged the Arabs to a kind of literary contest, despite all their literary resources, was someone who had never in the course of the forty years of his life participated in any of their literary competitions or acquired any superiority in eloquence over this own people.

Let us not forget that this challenge was issued to a people whose leaders were threatened by the devastating attacks of the Qur’an, their lives, their property, their ancient customs, their ancestors, their whole social position. If it had been at all possible for the Arabs to respond to the challenge of the Qur’an, they would have taken it up immediately, with the unstinting aid of the masters of eloquence that were by no means rare in that age.

Thus they would have invalidated the proofs of the Qur’an and won an everlasting victory. Furthermore, as a matter of general principle, if one consistently follows and studies the style of a certain form of speech, he will ultimately be able to imitate it. But the Qur’an forms an exception to this rule: however much one tries to practice the use of the Qur’anic style, he will never be able to create something resembling the Qur’an.

This reveals to us a significant truth: mere learning and study can never give us the capability to imitate the Qur’an.