If it is claimed that it was fear of the Muslims...

If it is claimed that it was fear of the Muslims, who became so numerous as to be greatly feared, that prevented men from reporting such opposition, the answer is that fear alone does not necessitate the disruption of report in every way. It only prevents men from doing so openly. Do you not see that the excellences of the Commander of the Faithful (`Ali) were widely transmitted, in spite of the great fear of those who disclosed them of the Umayyads?

It would rather have been natural for the enemies of Islam to report such opposition, or at least do so in secret among themselves. Furthermore, the great increase of Muslims happened after the Migration (hijrah). It would, therefore, have been possible to report it before that time, and during the Prophet's stay in Mecca. Had opposition then been widely reported, no Muslim power would have been capable of concealing it. It may be argued that opposition did not occur during that time.

This, however, would itself be an argument in support of the miraculous nature of the Qur'an. For even though Islam grew in power in Medina, the people of `rejection of faith' (kufr) had their own strong and vast domains. The Persian Empire was strong still, and Byzantine and other domains were just as vast. Naturally then, opposition should have arisen.

As for the argument for the lack of opposition due to impossibility: we know that any action not executed by its doer, when all conditions for its execution are present, must by necessity be because of his inability to do so. If this be true - and we know that the Arabs talked much about the Qur'an, yet did not oppose it in spite of their great need to do so - we can conclude that they were unable to oppose it.

If we add to all this the fact that the Arabs were in the habit of undertaking many hardships, such as war, in order to achieve their aims - yet that they did not oppose the Qur'an, although there was no [apparent] reason for them not to do so - then it becomes certain that [the real reason they did not oppose it was because] they were incapable of such opposition.

They were a people of proud and arrogant nature, yet the Prophet called upon them to abandon their religions: to relinquish their high status, dissociate themselves from their own forefathers, fathers and sons, and even to fight against anyone who opposed the new faith, even if he were to be one of their closest relations.