Wasu masu suka da suka suna cewa, duk da cewa Alƙur'ani ƙwararren aikin adabi ne, hakan ba ya nufin cewa yana da ikon allahntaka. Suna ganin cewa kowace wayewa tana da nata ayyukan adabi marasa misali, kamar Sonnets na Shakespeare a Turanci da Iliad na Homer a Girkanci, kuma Alƙur'ani bai bambanta da su ba. Sai dai wannan ra'ayi yana watsi da bambance-bambance masu yawa tsakanin Annabi Muhammad ﷺ da Shakespeare.416
Some critics argue that while the Qur’an is a literary masterpiece, this does not mean that it is supernatural. They claim that every civilization has its unequaled works of literature, such as Shakespeare’s Sonnets in English and Homer’s Iliad in Greek, and the Qur’an is no different. However, this view ignores a myriad of major differences between the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and Shakespeare:416
Ba kamar Annabi Muhammadﷺ ba, Shakespeare ya samu ilimin harshen Girka da na Latin, kuma tare da malamansa, yana da damar shiga ɗakunan littattafai waɗanda ya dogara da su wajen rubuce-rubucensa.
Unlike the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, Shakespeare was educated in both Greek and Latin and had, alongside his mentors, access to libraries of books that he built on for his own writings.
1. Shakespeare ya samu abin rayuwarsa a matsayin marubucin wasan kwaikwayo na sana'a, yana ci gaba da inganta sana'arsa tare da kowane wasan kwaikwayo da ya shirya, yayin da aka taba ruwaito cewa Annabi ﷺ bai taba furta ko da baiti guda cikakke na waka ba a cikin rayuwarsa duka,417 haka kuma ba zai yiwu ba a mayar da wata kalma ta Alkur'ani don gyara inganci da zarar an fadi ta ga manyan masu sauraronsa na Musulmi da wadanda ba Musulmi ba.
1. Shakespeare earned a living as a professional playwright and continued refining his craft with each dramatic production, while the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was never reported to utter a single full couplet of poetry in his entire life,417 nor was it possible for him to retract any word of the Qur’an for quality control once it was spoken to his vast Muslim and non-Muslim audiences.
2. An yi waƙoƙin sonnet tun shekaru aru-aru kafin Shakespeare, yayin da Alƙur'ani yana da tsarin rubutu na musamman wanda ya bambanta da kowane salon rubutu ko magana da manyan mawakan Larabawa suka yi amfani da shi.418
2. Sonnets were known and produced for centuries before Shakespeare, while the Qur’an had a unique compositional structure that differed from every pattern of writing or speech used by Arabia’s master poets.418
3. Ba kamar Shakespeare ba, wanda salon rubutunsa da kalmominsa suka bayyana a dukkan rubuce-rubucensa, Annabi Muhammad ﷺ ya kawo wa duniya Alkur'ani wanda salonsa ya bambanta da na Hadisi—maganganun yau da kullum na Muhammad ﷺ. Duk da cewa abokan zamaninsa sun lura da wannan, an gudanar da fiye da gwaje-gwaje goma sha biyu tun daga lokacin domin tabbatar da hakan a zahiri. Stylometry shi ne nazarin kididdiga na bambance-bambance a salon adabi domin bambance wani marubuci da wani.
3. Unlike Shakespeare, whose hallmark style and vocabulary permeate all his writings, the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم brought the world a Qur’an whose style differs from the Hadith tradition—the everyday statements of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. While this was noticed by his contemporaries, more than a dozen experiments have since been conducted to establish this objectively. Stylometry is the statistical analysis of variations in literary style to discriminate between one writer and another.
An yi amfani da shi wajen bambance wasiƙun Bulus na gaskiya da na jabu a cikin Sabon Alkawari, kuma don tabbatar da cewa Hadisi da Alƙur'ani dole ne marubuta biyu daban-daban ne suka rubuta su. Masu binciken Alƙur'ani sun tilasta wa kansu yarda cewa ba zai yiwu wani mutum ya yi irin wannan kame-kamen harshensa tsawon rayuwarsa ba.
It has been utilized to distinguish between the authentic and pseudonymous letters of Paul in the New Testament, and to prove that the Hadith and the Qur’an must have had two different authors. Researchers of the latter were forced to accept that it would be impossible for any human being to employ such extensive self-policing of their language for a lifetime.
Misali, sun gano cewa kashi 62% na kalmomin da ke cikin Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, wani babban tarin Hadisi, ba sa bayyana a cikin Alƙur'ani, kuma kashi 83% na kalmomin Alƙur'ani ba sa wanzuwa a cikin Hadisi.419
For instance, they found that 62% of the words from Ṣaḥīḥ al- Bukhārī, a voluminous collection of Hadith, do not appear in the Qur’an, and 83% of Qur’anic terms do not exist in Hadith.419
4. Waƙoƙin soyayya (sonnets) na Shakespeare ba su kasance masu fasaha iri ɗaya ba a ko'ina, sai dai suna da sassa masu haske na musamman. Sabanin haka, Larabawa waɗanda suka yi alfahari sosai da naqd (sukar adabi)
4. Shakespeare’s sonnets were not uniformly eloquent, but instead had segments of distinct brilliance. In contrast, the Arabs who took great pride in their naqd (literary critique)
Wannan al'ada, wadda a cikinta suke suka bincika waƙoƙin juna sosai don gano zaɓin kalmomin da bai dace ba, bai taɓa gano wata aya a cikin Alƙur'ani da za a iya inganta ta ba.420
tradition, a genre in which they brutally scrutinized each other’s poetry to identify suboptimal word choices, never identified a single passage in the Qur’an that could be improved.420
5. Shakespeare da abokan aikinsa ba su taɓa ɗaukar aikinsa a matsayin wanda ba za a iya kaiwa ga irinsa ta ƙoƙarin ɗan Adam ba; ya kasance dai, a wajen wasu, zakara ne a filin gasa tsakanin masu cancanta. Hakika, Farfesa Hugh Craig na Jami'ar Newcastle ya sanya Shakespeare a matsayi na bakwai cikin manyan marubutan wasan kwaikwayo masu yaren Ingilishi, a bayan Webster, Dekker, Peele, Marlowe, Jonson, da Greene.421 Sabanin haka, Alƙur'ani ya kunyatar da masu musunsa, ya kalubalance su a kowane hali su yi ƙoƙarin ƙirƙirar wani abu da ya yi kama da shi kawai;422 kuma wannan ƙalubale ba a taɓa cika shi ba. Kamar yadda Allah yake cewa, {Idan kuna cikin shakka game da abin da Muka saukar wa bawanmu [Muhammad] ﷺ, to ku kawo sūrah guda irinsa, kuma ku kira shaidunku baya ga Allah, idan kun kasance masu gaskiya. Amma idan ba ku yi ba—kuma ba za ku taɓa iya ba—to ku ji tsoron Wuta, wadda makamashinta mutane ne da duwatsu, an shirya ta domin kafirai.}423
5. Shakespeare and his peers never considered his work beyond the reach of human effort; it was but the champion—to some—in an arena of worthy competitors. In fact, Professor Hugh Craig of Newcastle University ranked Shakespeare as the seventh-greatest English-speaking playwright, behind Webster, Dekker, Peele, Marlowe, Jonson, and Greene.421 In contrast, the Qur’an shamed its deniers and challenged them at every turn to try to create anything that merely resembled it;422 and this challenge has never been met. As Allah says, And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our servant [Muhammad], then produce a sūrah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. But if you do not—and you will never be able to—then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.423
6. Shakespeare ya ji daɗin 'yancin ƙirƙira da ake da shi a cikin labari na almara. Amma game da Alƙur'ani, nishaɗi ba shi ne manufarsa ba.
6. Shakespeare enjoyed the creative liberties of fictional storytelling. As for the Qur’an, entertainment is not its goal.
Yana magana kan ilimin tauhidi, falsafa, tarihi, da fikihu—tattaunawa masu tsauri da fasaha waɗanda yawanci ba sa jan hankalin jama'a.
It addresses theology, philosophy, history, and law—stiff technical discussions that do not ordinarily have mass appeal.
Alkur'ani ya tabbatar da gaskiyoyi masu sarkakiya game da wanzuwa, kuma ya koyar da ɗabi'a mai zurfi da daidaito tare da kyau da ladabi mai ban mamaki. Ya kuma fallasa munanan al'adu da suka zama al'ada, ya bayyana munafunci da ke cikinsu. Dukan waɗannan labarai masu ɗaci ba a cika tsammanin za su samu karɓuwa sosai ba. Alkur'ani kuma yakan maimaita jigogintsa sosai (don dasa da ƙarfafa tsarin ɗabi'unsa), wata dabara da mawallafa masu basira sukan guje ta, amma tare da irin wannan bambancin fasaha a kowane lokaci, wanda ke barin wadatar salon maganarsa ba tare da lahani ba.
The Qur’an asserted complex existential truths and taught a nuanced morality with a remarkable blend of precision and graceful elegance. It deconstructed prevalent wrongs that had become normalized and revealed the hypocrisy within—all uncomfortable narratives that would not be expected to garner widespread embrace. The Qur’an also repeats its themes quite often (to inculcate and reinforce its value system), a technique that skilled authors generally try to avoid, but with such artistic variation each time that leaves its rhetorical richness unblemished.
7. Ba kamar nishaɗin da ya dace da dandali a Landan a ƙarni na sha bakwai ba, Alƙur'ani a matsayinsa na littafin addini dole ne ya taɓa zuciyar matasa da tsofaffi, zuciyar mutanen zamanin dā da na zamani, halayen gabas da na yamma, da waɗanda suka fi karkata ga ruhaniya da waɗanda suka fi karkata ga hankali. Idan aka yi nazari kan tasirin Alƙur'ani a kan faɗin zukata da tunani iri-iri, a duniya baki ɗaya da kuma tsakanin tsararraki, babu wani littafi a tarihin ɗan Adam da ya burge irin wannan kewayon mutane mai faɗi kamar sa.
7. Unlike the entertainment suitable for a stage in London in the seventeenth century, the Qur’an as a religious text had to resonate with the young and the old, the premodern and postmodern mind, the eastern and western personality, and the spiritually versus intellectually inclined. When analyzing the effect of the Qur’an on the vast spectrum of hearts and minds, across the globe and across generations, no other text in human history has fascinated such a wide range of people.
A Amurka a yau, misali, gasar karatun Alkur'ani za ta sami halartar dukkan sassan al'ummar Musulmi. A daya bangaren kuma, wasan Turanci na Shakespeare ba zai sami wani yabo ba daga talaka, sai dai ya jawo hankalin masu ilimin jami'a daga tsakiya zuwa sama kawai.
In America today, for instance, a Qur’an recitation competition will be attended by all segments of the Muslim community. On the other hand, an English play by Shakespeare will find almost no appreciation among the common man and only attract the college-educated middle-to-upper class elite.
8. Shakespeare ya yi shekaru da dama yana tunani kafin ya yanke shawarar abin da zai saka da abin da zai bari a cikin ayyukansa. Ku kwatanta wannan da Annabi Muhammadu ﷺ, wanda yake isar da ayoyi daga Alkur'ani a matsayin amsa ga tambayoyin mutane da ba a shirya ba. Misali, akwai surori goma sha uku a Alkur'ani da suke farawa da "Kuma suna tambayar ka [ya Annabi] game da..., ka ce..."424 Haka kuma, Annabi ﷺ yakan karɓi sabbin wahayi na Alkur'ani a cikin mawuyacin yanayi, wani lokacin yana zub da jini bayan an kai masa hari ko yana makokin 'yan uwansa da suka rasu, musamman game da abubuwan da suka faru ba da jimawa ba. Shin bai kamata irin wannan "samuwa" ta Alkur'ani ta kasance tana da bambanci a fasahar magana tsakaninta da waɗanda aka rubuta a ƙarƙashin hasken kyandir cikin natsuwa, bayan abubuwan sun wuce kuma hargitsin zuciya ya lafa ba?
8. Shakespeare had decades of deliberation to decide what to include and omit from his works. Contrast this with the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, who would convey verses from the Qur’an in response to people’s unscripted inquiries. For instance, there are thirteen passages in the Qur’an that begin with “And they ask you [O Prophet] about… Say…”424 Furthermore, he صلى الله عليه وسلم would receive fresh Qur’anic revelations in the most stressful conditions, at times while bleeding after an attack or mourning his deceased relatives, specifically pertaining to events that had just taken place. Should not such spontaneous “productions” of the Qur’an necessitate a disparity in eloquence between them and those written under serene candlelight, after the events have unfolded and the emotional turbulence has quieted?
9. Shakespeare dole ne ya rubuta ayyukansa a jere, yana ginawa daga tushe, kamar yadda kowane marubuci yake yi, kuma yana da 'yancin yanke tun farko yadda kowane wasan kwaikwayo zai fara da kuma yadda zai ƙare. Al-Qur'ani kuwa, an haɗa shi kamar wasan jigsaw a cikin shekaru ashirin da uku. Tsarin Al-Qur'ani a yau ba ya nuna tsarin lokacin saukarsa, sai dai wurin da aka tsara kowane ayoyi daga baya a cikin sūrarsa. Wannan na nufin cewa Al-Qur'ani ba wai kawai ya nuna daidaito mai ban sha'awa a tsarinsa ba, duk da cewa an faɗe shi ba a rubuce ba, amma an tsara shi ta hanyar ƙara-ƙara da aka saka a tsakiya, na jigo daban-daban da tsawo daban-daban, da yawa daga cikinsu sun yi magana kan al'amuran waje marasa tsammani nan take, duk da haka hakan bai taɓa karya kyakkyawan tsarinsa ba.
9. Shakespeare must have written his works in a linear fashion, building from the ground up, just as any author would, and was free to decide from the onset how each drama would begin and end. The Qur’an, however, was assembled like a jigsaw puzzle over twenty-three years. The order of the Qur’an today does not reflect the chronology of its revelation, but rather the later designated location for each passage within its respective chapter. This means that the Qur’an did not just exhibit fascinating consistency in its structure,425 despite being spoken not written, but was somehow designed with interspersed additions, of various themes and lengths, many of which addressed unpredictable external events impromptu, and yet all this never disrupted its seamless tapestry.
Duk da cewa yana iya zama da wuya ga mutane da yawa su fahimci yadda kowane aikin harshe zai iya zama mu'ujiza, al-Bāqillānī (d. 1013)
While it may be difficult for many people to grasp how any work of language can be miraculous, al-Bāqillānī (d. 1013)
…a ya rubuta a cikin littafinsa, I‘jāz al-Qurʾān (Mu’jizar Alƙur’ani), cewa ya isa mutum ya duba yadda masu sauraron farko na Alƙur’ani suka mayar da martani. Maimakon su fi shi a fannin da suka fi ƙarfi a kai, wato su samar da wani abu kamar Alƙur’ani, ta haka za su kawo ƙarshen addininsa tun yana jariri, ta hanyar “kawai” amsa ƙalubalensa, sai suka kashe dukiya mai yawa suna ƙoƙarin bata sunansa, kuma suka yi ƙoƙari babu gajiyawa don hana ko aya ɗaya ta Alƙur’ani ta isa kunnuwa da zukatan baƙi masu ziyartar Makka.
argues in his book, I‘jāz al-Qurʾān (The Inimitability of the Qur’an), that it suffices to consider the reaction of the Qur’an’s first audience. Instead of outperforming the unlettered man in what was their strongest suit, thereby ending his religion in its infancy by “simply” responding to his challenge of producing something like the Qur’an, they spent fortunes trying to smear his name and worked tirelessly to prevent a single Qur’anic verse from reaching the ears and hearts of visitors to Mecca.
Sun yuɗe ɗabi'unsu na jarumta da girman kabilanci—lamarin da yake babban abu ga larabawan farko—domin su yunwata da mabiyansa, su azabtar da magoya bayansa, kuma a ƙarshe su yaƙi 'yan uwansu na kabila. Bayan kasa da kalamansu, sai suka ji tilas su kama takubba. Ba don kawai manyan mawakansu, kamar Labīd ibn Rabīʿah, sun karɓi Musulunci kuma sun daina waƙa ba, sai kuma don suna cewa a sirri cewa kwatanta Alƙur'ani ba zai yiwu ba.
Sa'ad da aka tambayi al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah—babban maƙiyin Musulunci har zuwa mutuwarsa—ya soki Alƙur'ani, sai ya amsa: "Me zan iya cewa? Babu wani mutum a cikinku da ya fi ni sanin nassi ko waƙa, ko ma waƙoƙin aljannu. Na rantse da God, abin da yake faɗa ba ya kama da ɗayan waɗannan abubuwa. Na rantse da God, maganarsa da yake furtawa tana da daɗi, kuma wata kyakkyawar ƙaya tana shawagi a kanta. Sassanta mafi girma suna da amfani, zurfinsu kuma yana kwarara ba tare da ƙarewa ba. Yana mamaye, ba a mamaye shi ba, kuma tabbas zai murkushe duk abin da ke ƙarƙashinsa."427
They disavowed their codes of chivalry and tribal honor—a massive undertaking for early Arabs—to starve his followers, torture his supporters, and ultimately wage wars against their fellow clansmen.426 Failed by their words, they felt compelled to reach for their swords. It was not just because their great-est poets like Labīd ibn Rabīʿah were now converting to Islam and retiring from poetry, but due to them echoing in private that rivaling the Qur’an was impossible. When al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah—a staunch enemy of Islam until his death—was asked to critique the Qur’an, he responded, And what can I possibly say? There is not a single man among you who is more versed in prose or poetry than I, or in the poems of even the jinn. By God, what he says bears no resemblance to any of these things. By God, his statement which he utters has a sweetness to it, and a charm hovers over it. Its highest parts (surface meanings) are fruitful and its depths gush forth without end. It dominates and cannot be dominated, and it will certainly crush all that is beneath it.427