The Qur'an cannot be compared with other words and speeches, for there are different categories of speech. In regard to superiority, power, beauty, and fineness, speech has four sources: the speaker, the person addressed, the purpose, and when it is spoken. Its source is not only the occasion, as some literary people have wrongly supposed. So do not consider only the speech itself. Since speech derives its strength and beauty from these four sources, if the Qur'an's sources are studied carefully, the degree of its eloquence, superiority, and beauty will be understood. Since speech is first considered according to the speaker, if it is in the form of command and prohibition it contains a will and power proportional to the speaker's rank. Then it may be irresistible and have an effect like electricity, increasing in superiority and power.

"O Earth, swallow your water, o sky, cease (your rain)!" (11:44)

O heaven. O Earth. Come both of you, willingly or unwillingly. They said: "We come obedient." (41:11)

That means: "O heaven and Earth, come willingly or unwillingly, and submit yourselves to My Wisdom and Power. Come out of non-existence and appear as places where My works of art will be exhibited." They answered: "We come in perfect obedience. We will carry out, by Your leave and Power, all duties You have assigned us."

Consider the sublimity and force of those compelling commands bearing an irresistible power and will, and think about the commands we direct toward inanimate objects: "O Earth, stop. O heaven, rend asunder. O world, destroy yourself." Can such commands be compared with His? How can our wishes and insensible commands be compared with the compelling commands of a supreme ruler having all of rulership's essential qualities?

The difference between a supreme commander's compelling command to march to a mighty, obedient army, and that of an ordinary private is as great as the difference between the commander and the private. Consider the force and superiority of the commands in: His command, when He wills a thing, is to say to it "Be," and it is (36:82), and When We said to the angels: "Prostrate yourselves before Adam"(2:34) with human orders, and see whether the difference between them is not like that between a firefly and the sun.

Consider how masters describe their work while doing it, how artists explain their artistry while working, and how benefactors discuss their goodness while doing it. We see the result of their combined actions and words. If they say that they have done that in a certain way and for a certain purpose, and in the way it must be done, you can see its difference from mere words without action.

From Sura Qaf:

Have they not observed the sky above them, how We built and adorned it? There are no rifts therein. Earth We have spread out, and have flung firm hills therein, and have caused of every lovely kind to grow thereon. A matter of insight and reflection, and a teaching and reminder for every servant who always turns to God in penitence and worship. We send down from the sky blessed water whereby We give growth unto gardens and the grain of crops, and lofty date palms with ranged clusters. Provision for the servants; and therewith We quicken a dead land. So will be the raising of the dead. (50:6-11)

The descriptions in the verses introduce, with perfect eloquence, many proofs of the Resurrection derived from the observable part of the universe, which is in action. By concluding with So will be the raising of the dead, they silence those whom the sura says deny the Resurrection. How different this is from the people's discussion of happenings with which they have little concern. The difference is greater than that between real and plastic flowers. I will interpret these verses very briefly.

The sura begins with the unbelievers' denial of the Resurrection. To convince them of its truth, the sura asks: "Don't you see how We constructed this ordered and magnificent sky; how We adorned it with the sun, the moon, and stars, with no rifts therein; how We spread Earth out for you, and how wisely We furnished it? Having fixed mountains thereon, We protect it against the oceans' invasion. Don't you see how We created on it all kinds of multicolored and beautiful pairs of vegetation and pasturage and then embellished Earth with them; how We send blessed water from the sky so that gardens and orchards may grow thereby, as well as grains and lofty trees like date palms bearing delicious fruits, with which We provide Our servants; how We quicken the dead soil with that water and bring about thousands of instances of resurrection? In the same way that We cause vegetation to grow on the dead Earth, We will resurrect you on the Day of Judgment, when Earth will die and you will rise out of it alive!" How exalted is the eloquence displayed in these verses that prove the Resurrection, how superior to the words we use to prove a claim!

Concluding my use of objective reasoning and verification to convince unbelievers of the Qur'an's miraculousness, I point out its incomparable rank in the name of truth.

When compared with the Qur'an, all other words are like tiny reflections of stars in a glass in comparison with the stars themselves. In fact, how far are the meanings that human minds picture, in the mirrors of their thoughts and feelings, from the Qur'an's words, each of which describes an unchanging truth! How great is the distance between the Qur'an's angel-like, life-giving words, the Word of the Creator of the sun and moon, which also diffuses the lights of guidance, and the stinging words originated by bewitching souls and affected manners that incite desire! When compared with the Qur'an, our words are like stinging insects in comparison with angels and other luminous spirit beings. This is not a mere assertion; rather, as is apparent in our discussions in The Wordswritten so far, it is a conclusion based on evidence.

How far are our words, full of fancies and fantasies, from the Qur'an's words and phrases. This eternal Divine address, which originated from the Most Merciful One's Supreme Throne, came in consideration of humanity as an independent being superior to all other creatures, and is founded upon God's Knowledge, Power, and Will. Each word and statement is the source of a pearl of guidance and of the truths of belief, as well as the mine of an Islamic principle. How great is the distance between our familiar words and those of the Qur'an.

Like a blessed tree under which the universe lies, the Qur'an has produced the leaves of all Islamic spiritual values and moral perfections, public symbols and rules, principles and commandments. It has burst into blossoms of saints and purified scholars, and yielded fruits of Divine truths, truths and realities concerning the Divine laws of creation and the operation of the universe, and fruit pits that have grown into "trees" as principles of conduct and programs of practical life.

Every person and land has benefited from the gems of truth exhibited by the Qur'an for 14 centuries. During that time, neither too much familiarity nor the abundance of its truths, neither time's passage nor the great changes and upheavals in human life, have made people indifferent to its invaluable truths and fine, authentic styles. Nor have these things damaged or devalued them, or extinguished its beauty and freshness. This is miraculous by itself.

If someone were to claim to have produced a likeness of the Qur'an, arranged some Qur'anic truths into a book and claimed to have brought about a book similar to the Qur'an, it would be like the following: Suppose a master-builder built a magnificent palace of various jewels, all laid in a symmetrical manner, and embellished it proportionally to each jewel's position and the palace's general design. Then imagine that an ordinary architect, knowing nothing of the palace's jewels, design, and embellishments, were to enter it and destroy the master-builder's work to make it look like an ordinary building. Suppose this person hangs some beads on it that please children, and then says: "Look! I am more skillful than the original builder and have more wealth and more valuable adornments." Could anyone take such an absurd claim seriously?