Tafsir

1. It means that the miraculous Qur'an recited by the unlettered Prophet is in itself a clear proof of its being revealed by Allah Ta’ ala. Allah's practice is such that if a person falsely claims to be a prophet, He does not let him show any miracle. Therefore, had there been, God forbid, something forged by the Holy Prophet ﷺ in the Qur'an, Allah would have put a seal on his heart, and he would have never been able to come up with such a miraculous discourse.

Commentary

The first verse conveys Allah Almighty's reply to those who held the prophethood and messenger-ship of the Holy Prophet ﷺ to be false, the Qur'an to be wrong and forged. The reply is based on a divine rule that miracles or events occurring against normal course which cannot be performed by ordinary human beings are created and shown through prophets, by Allah Almighty's Grace, to prove their prophethood, without any discretion of the prophets themselves.

Although some magicians also do perform such magical tricks, but obviously neither the prophets nor the magicians can perform any of these things without Allah Almighty's intent and scheme. He allows the magicians to perform their tricks as a measure of test and trial. However, to differentiate between magic and miracle and between a magician and a prophet, the rule devised by Him is that no false claimant of prophethood can perform any magical trick successfully; magical tricks can be performed successfully by one until he claims prophethood, but the magic vanishes as soon as one lays a false claim of prophethood.

When Allah Ta’ ala bestows prophethood and messenger-ship on anyone, He also favours him with miracles and makes those miracles highly visible. Thus He provides physical and decreed proof of his prophethood. And He also confirms him in His Divine Book.

In view of this rule, it should be understood that the Noble Qur'an is such a miracle that all the humans and all the jins of this world are unable to produce even one verse comparable to the verse of the Qur'an. Their inability to do so was proved in the days of the Holy Prophet ﷺ and continues till today. Such an open and obvious miracle cannot be accomplished by a false claimant of prophethood. The Holy Prophet's claim to ` wahy' and messenger-ship is, therefore, correct and true, and those who hold it to be incorrect and forged are misguided calumniators.