Transliteration:( Qul la'inij tama'atil insu waljinnu 'alaaa any ya'too bimisli haazal quraani laa ya'toona bimislihee wa law kaana ba'duhum liba 'din zaheeraa )
"Say, 'If the men and Jinn all agree together to bring the like thereof, they would not be able to bring the same and even if in them one may be a helper of the other.'" [187]
The polytheists of Arabia had claimed, “If we want, we can produce something like the Holy Qur’an.”
Here, this claim is clearly refuted.
If man cannot produce anything like the sun or the moon, then how could he ever produce anything like the Holy Qur’an?
Thus, these Arabs made every possible effort to do this, but they failed to produce even a single verse like that of the Holy Qur’an.
It should be remembered that even the angels are included in the concept of jinn in this context—because they too are invisible to the human eye (Tafseer Roohul Bayaan).
The tafsir of Surah Al-Isra verse 88 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Isra ayat 86 which provides the complete commentary from verse 86 through 89.
(17:88) Say: “Surely, if mankind and jinn were to get together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they will never be able to produce the like of it, howsoever they might help one another.”[105]
105. This challenge occurs at several other places in the Quran: (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 23); (Surah Yunus, Ayat 38-39); (Surah Al-Momin, Ayat 13-14); (Surah At-Toor, Ayat 33-34). At all these places, this has been cited as an answer to the charge of the disbelievers that Muhammad (peace be upon him) has himself invented the Quran but is presenting it as Allah’s Word. Besides this, the same has also been refuted in (Surah Yunus, Ayat 16): “Say also, had not Allah willed that I should recite the Quran to you, I could not have recited it to you, nor could I have been able to give you any information about it: already have I lived a lifetime among you before its revelation. Do you not use your common sense?”
Now let us turn to the three arguments contained in these verses as a proof that the Quran is the Word of Allah.
(1) The Quran is such a miracle in regard to its language, style, arguments, themes, topics, teachings and prophecies that it is beyond any human power to produce the like of it, as if to say, “You say that a man has invented this but We challenge that even the whole of mankind combined cannot produce a Book like this: nay, even if the jinns, whom the mushriks worship as deities and whom this Book openly attacks, should come to the help of the disbelievers, they cannot produce a Book like this to refute this challenge.
(2) As regards to the charge that Muhammad (peace be upon him) has himself invented this Book, the Quran refutes their claim, as if to say” Muhammad is one of you and not a foreigner. He has lived among you for forty years before the revelation of the Quran. Did you ever hear words like those of the Quran from him even a day before his claim of Prophethood, or did you ever hear him discussing themes and problems contained in the Quran? If you consider the matter from this point of view, it will become obvious to you that the sudden change which has come about in the language, ideas, information, style and the way of thinking of Muhammad, could not take place without divine guidance.
(3) Can you not see that after the recital of the Quran, he does not disappear but lives among you? You hear other things than the Quran from him. Do you not notice that the distinction between the two different styles of expression is so obvious that no man can successfully adopt the two styles at one and the same time. The distinction can also be noticed, even today, between the language of the Quran and that of the traditions of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Anyone well versed in the Arabic language and literature notices the difference which is so marked that one can categorically say that these modes of expression cannot belong to one and the same person. For further reference please also see (Surah Yunus, Ayat 16) note 21.
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