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THE
QURAN IS SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHER
SPEECHES,
WHETHER
DIVINE OR UNDIVINE
Parables
to understand why the Quran is
superior to all the other Divine
Scriptures and why it is supreme
over all speech and writings:
A
king has two forms of speech, two
forms of address. One is that he
speaks on his private telephone to a
common subject regarding some minor
matter, some private need. The other
is that he speaks, on account of
being the supreme sovereign, supreme
head of the religious office and the
supreme ruler of people, to an envoy
or high official of his with the aim
of promulgating his commands; he
speaks through an exalted decree
manifesting his majesty.
A
man holds a mirror towards the sun.
He receives, according to the
capacity of the mirror, light
containing the seven colors by which
he establishes a connection with the
sun. When he directs the
light-filled mirror towards his dark
house and his roof-covered garden,
he will benefit from the sun, not in
accordance with the quality of sun’s
light, but according to the capacity
of the mirror to reflect it.
Another
man, however, opens up broad windows
out of his house or out of the roof
of his garden, thus securing the way
for a direct benefit from the sun.
He gets the light of the sun
directly and continuously and speaks
to it in gratitude as if to say: ‘O
fine sun, beauty of the world and
beauty of the skies who gilds the
earth with your light and makes the
flowers smile! You have furnished my
little house and garden with your
heat and light the same as you have
done for them-the skies, earth and
flowers.’ Whereas the man with the
mirror cannot speak to the sun like
that. He has to be content with the
light and heat the sun reflects
through his mirror.
So,
look at the Quran through the lens
of these two parables and see its
miraculousness and understand its
holiness. The Qur’an declares: ‘If
all the trees on the earth were to
become pens and all the seas ink,
and if they were to write the words
of Almighty God, they would never
finish them.’ The reason why the
Quran has been given the greatest
rank among infinite words of God is
this:
The
Quran has originated in the Greatest
Name of God and in the greatest
level of every Name. That is, each
Name of God has infinitely different
levels of manifestation.3 It is the
Word of God an account of His being
the Lord of the Worlds. It is God’s
decree on account of His being the
Deity of all creatures. It is a
Divine address on account of God’s
being the Creator of the heavens and
the earth. It is a speech of God in
regard to His absolute Lordship. It
is an eternal address in regard to
His universal Divine Sovereignty. It
is a ledger of the favors of the
All-Merciful One from the point of
view of His all-embracing,
comprehensive Mercy. It is a
collection of communications at the
beginnings of which are sometimes
ciphers in respect of the sublime
majesty of His Divinity. It is a
wisdom-infusing Holy Scripture
which, having originated from the
all-comprehensive ‘field’ of the
Divine Greatest Name, looks to and
examines the all-embracing domain of
the Supreme Throne of God. It is for
these reasons that the title of Word
of God has been given to the Quran
as it deserves it perfectly.
As
for the other Divine Words, some of
them are of the kind of Divine
speech which is manifested for a
particular regard under a minor
title and through the particular
manifestation of a particular Name;
it results from a particular
manifestation of Divine Lordship, or
of Divine Sovereignty, or of Divine
Mercy. The Divine Words vary in
degrees with respect to
particularity and universality. Most
inspiration is of this kind, but it
varies greatly in degrees. For
example, the most particular and
simple is the inspiration God sends
to animals. Then comes the
inspiration occurring to ordinary
people. Then the inspirations coming
to ordinary angels, to saints and to
greater angels, respectively. It is
for this reason that a saint who
offers supplications without
mediation directly through the
telephone of the heart ‘connected
to God’, says: ‘My heart reports
to me from my Lord’. He does not
say: ‘It reports me from the Lord
of the Worlds’. Also, he can say:
‘My heart is a mirror, a Throne,
of my Lord’. Never does he say,
‘My heart is the Throne of the
Lord of the Worlds’. This is
because a saint can receive of the
Divine address according to his
capacity and to the degree of how
many of the seventy thousand veils
between a man and God he has been
able to remove.
Thus,
just as the decree of a king which
he issues on account of his being
the supreme sovereign is higher and
more exalted than his insignificant
conversation with a common man; and
just as directly benefiting from the
sun in the sky is very much greater
than benefiting from its reflection
in a mirror; so in the same degree
is the glorious Quran superior to
all speech and all books. After the
Quran, at the second level, other
Divine Scriptures-Divine Books and
Pages-are superior to all other
speech and books, each according to
its own degree. They have their
shape from the same point of
superiority as the Quran has. If all
the fine words-epigrams, wise
sayings-of all men and jinn which do
not issue from the Quran were to be
collected, they still could not
attain to the sacred rank of the
Quran.
Other
reasons why the Quran cannot be
compared with other words and
speeches
This
is because speech is of different
categories, and in regard to
superiority, power, beauty and
fineness, has four sources:
Its
source is not only the occasion as
some literary people have wrongly
supposed. So consider in speech, ‘Who
said it? To whom did they say it?
Why did they say it? On what
occasion did they say it?’ Do not
consider only the speech itself.
Since speech derives its strength
and beauty from these four sources,
if the Quran’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
rank of the speaker. Then it may be
irresistible, and have an effect
like electricity, increasing in
superiority and power. For example:
‘O
earth! Swallow your water and,
O sky! be cleared of clouds
and stop the rain!’
(11:44)
‘O
heaven and O earth! Come both
of you, willingly or
unwillingly! They said: “We
come obedient!”’
(41:11)
That
is: ‘O heaven and O earth! Come
willingly or unwillingly, and submit
yourselves to My Wisdom and Power.
Come out of non-existence; 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 the duties You have assigned to
us.’ Thus, consider the sublimity
and force of those compelling
commands which bear an irresistible
power and will, and think about
whether man’s conversation with
inanimate objects in the form of
commands like, ‘O earth, stop! O
heaven, rent asunder! O world,
destroy yourself!’ can be
comparable with them! Indeed, how
can wishes and insensible commands
originating from man be comparable
with the compelling commands of a
supreme ruler owning all the
essential qualities of rulership?
The difference between the
compelling command of ‘March!’
which a supreme commander gives to a
mighty, obedient army and that of an
ordinary private is as great as the
difference between the commander and
the private themselves. Consider
first the force and superiority of
the commands in the verses, His
command, when He wills a thing, is
to say to it ‘Be!’ and it is
(Ya Sin, 36.82), and When
We said unto the angels: Prostrate
yourselves before Adam (al-Baqara,
2.34), and then the human words in
the form of orders, and see whether
the difference between them is not
like that between a firefly and the
sun!
Consider
a master’s description of his work
while doing it, and an artist’s
explanation of his artistry while at
work, and a benefactor’s
exposition of his goodness while
doing it, that is, while in a
position of combining actions and
words, if each says in order to
describe his work both to the eye
and the ear, ‘Look! I have done
this, I am doing it this way. I have
done it for this purpose. I have
done it the way it must be’, you
may see its difference from the mere
words without actions.
For
example:
Have
they not then observed the sky
above them, how We constructed
it and adorned it: there are
no rifts therein. And the
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. And 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, which
are like illustrious fruits of
Paradise sparkling like stars in the
‘skies’ of the Quran, introduce
with perfect eloquence many proofs
of the Resurrection derived from the
observable part of the universe
which is in action, and concluding
with So will be the raising of the
dead, silence those whom the sura
reports at the beginning as denying
the Resurrection. How different this
is from the people’s discussion of
the happenings with which they have
little concern? The difference is
greater than that between living
flowers and imitations of them.
Since it would be too lengthy to
explain the verses mentioned, I will
interpret them very briefly:
The
sura begins by reporting the
unbelievers’ denial of the
Resurrection. In order to convince
them of the truth of the
Resurrection, the sura says:
‘Do
you not observe the sky above you,
how We have constructed it; how
ordered, how magnificent it is? Do
you not also see how We have adorned
it with the sun, the moon, and
stars, with no rifts therein?
Further, do you not notice how We
have spread out the earth for you
and how wisely We have furnished it?
Having fixed the mountains on it, We
protect it against the invasion of
the oceans. Moreover, do you not see
how We have created on it all kinds
of multi-colored and beautiful pairs
of vegetation and pasturage? We have
embellished the whole of the earth
with such beautiful things. Do you
not see again how We send blessed
water from the sky and We give
growth thereby to gardens and
orchards, grains and lofty trees
like date-palms bearing delicious
fruits, with which We provide Our
servants? Also, do you not notice
that We quicken the dead earth with
that water and bring about thousands
of resurrections? It is the way We
cause that vegetation to grow on
that dead earth that We will raise
you from the dead on the Day of
Judgment, when the earth will die
and you will rise out of it alive.’
Thus, how exalted is the eloquence
those verses display in proving the
Resurrection-only one out of
numerous aspects of which I have
been able to point to-above the
words which human beings use in
proving a claim!
In
order to convince refractory
opponents of the Quran of its
miraculousness through objective
reasoning and verification, from the
beginning of this treatise I have
left many excellencies of the Quran
unmentioned. I have been weighing
that sun against ‘candles’. I
hope there is no further need to
discuss its miraculousness. From
now, therefore, I will point out its
incomparable rank in the name not of
verification, but of truth.
When
compared with the Quran, all other
words are like the tiny reflections
of stars in a glass in comparison
with the stars themselves. In fact,
how far are the meanings which human
minds picture in the mirrors of
their thoughts and feelings, from
the words of the Quran, each of
which describes an unchanging truth!
How great is the distance between
the angel-like, life-giving words of
the Quran, which is the Word of the
Creator of the sun and moon, and
diffuses lights of guidance, and the
stinging words originated by ‘bewitching’
souls and affected manners, which
incite the desires of people! When
compared with the Quran, the words
of human beings are like stinging
insects in comparison with blessed
angels and other luminous spirit
beings. This is not a mere
assertion; rather, as is apparent in
our discussions in the Words written
so far, it is a conclusion based on
evidences.
Indeed,
how far are the words of human
beings full of fancies and
fantasies, from the words and
phrases of the Quran, the eternal
Divine address, which originated
from the Supreme Throne of the Most
Merciful One and came in
consideration of man as an
independent being superior to all
other creatures in the universe, and
is founded upon the Knowledge, Power
and Will of God. Its words and
statements are each the source or
shell of a pearl of guidance, and
the source of truths of faith, and
the mine of an Islamic principle.
How great is the distance between
the words of human beings, with
which we are all familiar, and the
Quran which, like a blessed tree
under which the whole universe lies,
has produced the leaves of all
Islamic spiritual values and moral
perfections, and public symbols and
rules, and principles and
commandments, and opened into the
flowers of saints and purified
scholars, and yielded the fruits of
the Divine truths and the truths and
realities concerning the Divine laws
of the creation and operation of the
universe, and the seeds or stones in
the fruits which have grown into ‘trees’
as principles of conduct and
programs of practical life!
All
the peoples and all the lands of the
world have benefited from the gems
of truth which the wise Quran has
exhibited in the market of the
universe for fourteen centuries.
During this long history, neither
too much familiarity with it, not
the abundance of its truths, nor the
passage of time, nor the great
changes and upheavals in the life of
mankind, has been able to make
people indifferent to its invaluable
truths and authentic forms, nor has
it been able to damage and devalue
them or extinguish its beauty and
freshness. This is miraculous by
itself.
If
someone were to appear with a claim
to have produced a likeness of the
Quran, and arranged some of the
Quranic truths into a book on his
own, and then claim to have brought
about a book similar to the Quran,
it would be an act of stupidity like
the following:
Suppose
there were a master-builder who
constructed a magnificent palace of
diverse kinds of jewels which he
positioned all symmetrically with
one another, and embellished it
proportionally to the particular
position of each jewel and the
general design of the palace. If one
whose occupation is to build
ordinary buildings and who knows
nothing of the jewels, design, and
embellishments of the palace, were
to enter it, and destroying the
arrangement of the jewels and the
design and embellishment of the
palace, give it a new form like
those of ordinary buildings and hang
on it some beads which would please
children, and then announce, ‘Look!
I am more skilful than the builder
of that palace, and have more wealth
and more valuable adamants than him!’,
it would be an infinite nonsense,
even a delirium.
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