Refuting accusations against Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (part 2)
Why the Qur’an could not have been written by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Throughout history, sceptics have attempted to claim that the Qur’an was authored by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. This argument collapses under scrutiny, both from within Islamic tradition and from rational literary analysis. The Qur’an is unique in its coherence, structure, and impact, and it bears no resemblance to human composition.
As Allah Himself declares:
وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ ٱلۡهَوَىٰٓ إِنۡ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحۡيٞ يُوحَىٰ
“He does not speak from his own desire. It is but revelation revealed.” (al-Najm 53:3–4)
Revealed over 23 years, yet perfectly coherent
One of the most striking features of the Qur’an is that it was revealed gradually over 23 years, in response to specific incidents, yet the text in its entirety remains internally consistent and thematically unified.
- Mustafa al-Aʿzami pointed out that the Qur’an presents a sustained intellectual, legal, and moral framework unmatched in history (Studies in Early Hadith Literature).
- Neal Robinson (a non-Muslim academic in Discovering the Qur’an) observes that the Qur’an’s structure is “a complex unity” where themes interlock like woven threads, despite the piecemeal revelation.
The Qur’an itself challenges doubters:
أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانَۚ وَلَوۡ كَانَ مِنۡ عِندِ غَيۡرِ ٱللَّهِ لَوَجَدُواْ فِيهِ ٱخۡتِلَٰفٗا كَثِيرٗا
“Do they not reflect upon the Qur’an? If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found in it much contradiction.” (al-Nisāʾ 4:82)
Unmatched literary style
The Qur’an is neither poetry nor prose; it introduced a unique genre that defied existing Arabic categories.
- Al-Baqillani (d. 403H) in Iʿjaz al-Qur’an argued that its rhythm, sound patterns, and imagery are inimitable.
- Al-Razi (d. 606H) highlighted its precision of word choice: each term is uniquely suited to its context, impossible to substitute without loss.
- Arthur Arberry, a leading Orientalist translator, admitted: “It is a literary masterpiece of the highest order… a symphony that resists imitation.”
This unique style is why the Qur’an’s recitation grips even non-Arabic speakers. Its cadence, balance, and harmony cannot be replicated.
Imagery, rhythm, and sound
The Qur’an deploys vivid imagery that captures both heart and mind:
- The rising of dawn, the splitting of the sky, the shaking of the earth, described in rhythms that intensify the experience.
- Its sound patterning (sajʿ and tasjiʿ) produces solemnity in verses of warning and softness in verses of mercy.
For example:
وَٱلضُّحَىٰ * وَٱلَّيۡلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ * مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ
“By the morning brightness, and the night when it grows still — your Lord has not forsaken you, nor has He detested you.” (al-Ḍuḥā 93:1–3)
The sound echoes comfort, while the imagery conveys serenity.
Symmetry and structure
Modern studies highlight the Qur’an’s ring composition: chapters and sections are arranged symmetrically around central pivots.
- Michel Cuypers (The Banquet: A Reading of the Qur’an) shows how Surat al-Maʾidah (5) is a concentric structure with perfect symmetry, something unknown to the Prophet ﷺ’s contemporaries.
- Such literary architecture across a text revealed episodically over decades is humanly impossible.
Cuypers’ analysis of Surat al-Maʾidah
Cuypers demonstrates that the surah is composed of two large concentric structures:
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First major ring (vv. 1–11 ↔ vv. 109–120)
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Opens with contracts and lawful food (halal/haram) and closes with Jesus’s disciples and the heavenly banquet (maʾidah).
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Both ends deal with divine covenants and fidelity to God’s law.
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The “banquet” at the end mirrors the dietary laws at the start.
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Second major ring (the middle: vv. 12–108)
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Narratives about the Children of Israel, their covenants, betrayals, and punishments.
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Inward progression:
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vv. 12–26: covenant with Banī Isrāʾīl, breaking it.
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vv. 27–50: Cain & Abel story, legal punishments.
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vv. 51–86: relations with Jews and Christians.
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vv. 87–108: dietary laws, oaths, expiations.
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Central pivot (vv. 44–50): the command to judge by what Allah revealed (“Whoever does not judge by what Allah revealed — such are the disbelievers / wrongdoers / transgressors”).
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So the surah “revolves” around divine legislation and the need to uphold it. Everything else mirrors and reinforces this.
Why it is remarkable
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These patterns are not superficial. Cuypers maps verbal parallels, thematic echoes, and mirrored vocabulary across dozens of verses.
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This architecture stretches across 120 verses revealed piecemeal — yet when assembled, it fits into a unified literary design.
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For the Prophet ﷺ, unlettered and without access to textual editing tools, to construct such structures consciously over years would be humanly impossible.
Prophetic mission versus mental disorder
Orientalists sometimes argued the Qur’an was a product of hallucination. Muslim scholars firmly rejected this:
- Muhammad Abu Shahba stressed that the Prophet ﷺ united tribes, established law, governed with wisdom, and transformed society, bringing rights to women, the oppressed, as well as advocating for the conservation of natural resources, strategised and fought in battles… His achievements incompatible with mental illness (al-Sīarh al-Nabawiyyah fī Ḍawʾ al-Qurʾan wa al-Sunnah).
- His opponents called him poet, sorcerer, or soothsayer (Qur’an 52:29–30), but could not actually demonstrate any insanity in his words or behaviour, which have been meticulously documented and verified.
Transformation of history
The Qur’an did not remain mere text; it reshaped the world. Within one generation, it transformed fragmented tribes into a civilisation. This impact testifies that its origin could not be a human invention.
As Sayyid Qutb remarked in Fi Zilal al-Qur’an: “This Qur’an is not of this earth. Its nature, rhythm, and influence bear the breath of heaven.”
The claim that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ authored the Qur’an collapses under every lens: historical, literary, psychological, and spiritual.
- Revealed piecemeal yet internally consistent.
- Neither poetry nor prose, but a unique genre.
- Rhythmic recitation and imagery that moves both Arabs and non-Arabs.
- Symmetry and structure impossible to achieve consciously over decades.
- A transformative force that reshaped history.
Allah’s challenge remains:
قُل لَّئِنِ ٱجۡتَمَعَتِ ٱلۡإِنسُ وَٱلۡجِنُّ عَلَىٰٓ أَن يَأۡتُواْ بِمِثۡلِ هَٰذَا ٱلۡقُرۡءَانِ لَا يَأۡتُونَ بِمِثۡلِهِۦ وَلَوۡ كَانَ بَعۡضُهُمۡ لِبَعۡضٖ ظَهِيرٗا
“Say: If all mankind and jinn gathered to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they supported one another.” (al-Isrāʾ 17:88)
The Qur’an is the speech of Allah, and its preservation, power, and perfection are themselves proofs of its divine origin.
Was Muhammad a literary genius?
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The Prophet ﷺ was ummi (unlettered), known not to compose poetry and not trained in literature (Q 29:48). Even his opponents admitted: “He is not a poet” (Q 36:69).
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Pre-Islamic poets such as Imruʾ al-Qays or Zuhayr were celebrated masters of eloquence, yet none produced anything remotely similar in genre or effect. The Qur’an’s style is neither prose nor poetry, but unique.
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If it were simply “human genius,” then the Qur’anic challenge (bring a chapter like it – Q 2:23, Q 17:88) should have been met — but none has succeeded in 14 centuries.
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For those who argue that the Quran was a piece of genius, as famous poets, musicians and artists produce, a simple comparison with Shakespeare’s works which have been studied rigorously over the centuries shows the difference between human effort and divine revelation.
1. Length and scope
- Shakespeare’s longest play (Hamlet) is about 30,000 words. Each play has a linear structure: beginning → rising action → climax → resolution. Plays are self-contained units, and their unity comes from narrative progression.
- By contrast, in the Qur’an: Surat al-Māʾidah alone is about 11,000 words, and the Qur’an as a whole is about 77,000 words. But it was revealed piecemeal over 23 years in response to varied circumstances, not as a “script” or staged narrative. Yet, astonishingly, it maintains thematic unity and intricate concentric structures.
2. Literary structure
- Shakespeare: Uses five-act structure (derived from Aristotle’s ideas of drama). Symmetry appears in rhetorical devices (antithesis, chiasmus, couplets), but never across entire plays — let alone across multiple works. Shakespeare edited and revised his plays for performance.
- Qur’an: Exhibits ring composition at the scale of surahs (e.g., al-Maʾidah, al-Baqarah) and across the Qur’an as a whole. This means:
- Opening and closing mirror one another.
- Themes are arranged concentrically around a pivot.
- Vocabulary is echoed across distant sections.
This is structural symmetry across decades, without revision or redrafting.
3. Style and sound
- Shakespeare: Famous for blank verse (iambic pentameter), imagery, and rhetorical flourish. His genius lies in psychological depth and metaphorical richness. But his verse is recognisably human, in Elizabethan English, dependent on stage conventions, and often mixing prose with poetry.
- Qur’an: Neither prose nor poetry. Its sound patterns (sajʿ, rhythm, phonetic echoes) create an unparalleled effect in Arabic. Its recitation is considered an act of worship because of its sonic power — even non-Arabs often feel its impact. Classical Arab poets admitted they could not rival it.
4. Editing and authorship
- Shakespeare: Drafted, edited, and revised. Plays exist in multiple versions (quartos, folios), showing he worked and reworked them. He drew from earlier histories, myths, and stories, reimagining them with poetic flair.
- Qur’an: Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was unlettered (7:157), not known to write or compose literature. The Qur’an was revealed in real time, in diverse contexts, yet seamlessly integrated into a final coherent text, without posthumous editing of structure. The “ring designs” were only recognised centuries later when literary analysis advanced.
5. Influence and reception
- Shakespeare: His works shaped English literature, but their impact is cultural and artistic.
- Qur’an: Its words did not merely inspire; they transformed an entire civilisation, provided law, creed, ethics, and spiritual practice, and are memorised verbatim by millions worldwide to this day.
To put it plainly, Shakespeare is evidence of human creativity; the Qur’an is evidence of something beyond human.
Did any other religious text also inspire civilisations?
One might argue that the Bible or Bhagavad Gita also inspired nations, so the Qur’an’s influence doesn’t prove divine origin.
While, other texts shaped cultures, the Qur’an’s impact is unique in method:
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It was recited live, memorised, and codified in a single generation.
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Its linguistic inimitability was acknowledged even by opponents.
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It fused religious devotion, legal systems, and linguistic revolution simultaneously.
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In comparison, Biblical texts were written by multiple authors across centuries and only later compiled. The Qur’an’s unity of voice and vision is unmatched.
Can a coincidence explain the structure?
Couldn’t the Qur’an’s concentricity just be chance? Some might argue that modern scholars (Muslim or otherwise) are projecting ring structures or coherence onto the text.
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One small chiasm might be accidental. But when entire surahs (e.g., al-Baqarah, al-Māʾidah) and even the Qur’an as a whole display ring composition across thousands of words, coincidence is statistically implausible.
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Symmetry is demonstrated with verbal parallels, repeated phrases, and thematic correspondences — not subjective impressions. For example, the threefold refrain “Whoever does not judge by what Allah revealed…” (Q 5:44–47) clearly pivots the structure of Surat al-Māʾidah.
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Non-Muslim scholars (Cuypers, Neal Robinson, Raymond Farrin) independently identify the same concentric designs. This shows it isn’t an exercise in Muslim piety but observable literary fact.
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The Double Miracle of Surah Ar-uRm
Yet another reason why the Prophet could not have authored the Qur’an is that contained predictions. One of these, for instance, is found in the opening verses of Suray Ar-Rum. At a time when the Byzantine Empire had been crushed by the Persians and seemed on the verge of collapse, Allah revealed:
﴿غُلِبَتِ ٱلرُّومُ ﴿٢﴾ فِي أَدْنَى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَهُم مِّنۢ بَعۡدِ غَلَبِهِمۡ سَيَغۡلِبُونَ ﴿٣﴾﴾
“The Romans have been defeated, in the nearest land. But after their defeat, they will be victorious.” (30:2–3)
At the time, around 614–615 CE, the Byzantine capital of Jerusalem had fallen to the Persians, the True Cross was captured, and observers in Arabia mocked the Muslims for siding with the “People of the Book.” The Qur’an, however, made a bold prediction: within a few years (biḍʿi sinīn – usually understood as between 3 and 9 years), the Romans would turn the tide.
This itself is a miracle: at the time of revelation, the Romans were crushed, and no observer would have predicted their recovery. Yet within the specified period, they triumphed.
History records that this came to pass: by 622 CE Emperor Heraclius had rebuilt his forces, and by 627–628 CE the Byzantines decisively defeated the Persians at Nineveh and reclaimed Jerusalem.
Yet the miracle is double. Allah described the place of defeat as “في أدنى الأرض” (fī adna al-ard). The word adnā in Arabic has two meanings:
- Nearest – the closest Roman lands to Arabia, namely al-Sham (Greater Syria), particularly the Jordan Valley.
- Lowest – the lowest physical point on the earth’s surface. Remarkably, the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea basin lie about 400 metres below sea level, the lowest land depression on the planet.
At the time of revelation, neither Arabs nor Byzantines knew this geographical fact. It was only confirmed through modern scientific measurement. Thus, the Qur’an’s wording contains two layers of miraculous knowledge: a precise political prophecy that unfolded within the exact timeframe given, and a scientific reality about the earth’s geography unknown to the people of the 7th century.
Classical exegetes like al-Ṭabari and Ibn Kathir explained adna al-arḍ as “the nearest land to Arabia” (al-Sham). Modern scholars such as Mustafa al-Sibaʿi and Wahbah al-Zuḥaylī highlighted the second meaning as well, affirming the Qur’an’s precision. And non-Muslim scholars, including Neal Robinson, have acknowledged that this passage presents a remarkable case of accurate historical foresight.
The double miracle of Surat Ar-Rum therefore stands as a clear sign: no unlettered man in Makkah, surrounded by idol-worshippers and with no access to world affairs, could have foretold both the Roman resurgence and the lowest point on earth. It is a testimony to the Qur’an’s divine origin and its description of itself:
ذَٰلِكَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبُ لَا رَيۡبَ فِيهِ هُدٗى لِّلۡمُتَّقِينَ
“This is the Book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for the God-conscious.” (al-Baqarah 2:2)