Analysis of the Pivotal Role of the Prophet's (S.A.W.) Illiteracy in Proving the Inimitability of the Qur'an

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Religions, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute

2 Associate Professor, Department of Qur'anic Interpretation and Sciences, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Qur'anic Interpretation and Sciences, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute

4 Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute

10.22081/jqr.2025.70408.4127

Abstract

Scholars of the Qur'anic sciences disagree on the number and centrality of the inimitability (i‘jāz) of the Qur'an. To resolve this disagreement, the present article refers to the Qur'an using a descriptive-analytical method and attempts to present a rational criterion for inimitability. An examination of the verses of the Qur'an shows that the Qur'an emphasizes illiteracy (being ummī) to prove its inimitability. By regarding illiteracy as the pivot – on which the verses of the Qur'an emphasize – rationally there remains no doubt that the Qur'an was sent by God and that man is incapable of bringing forth anything like it. Similarly, bringing forth anything like the Qur'an in terms of eloquence and rhetoric, the melodiousness of the Qur'an, its lofty doctrines, the lack of discrepancy, the news of the unseen, and even from the ṣarfa (transforming, turning away) point of view, is not rationally possible. In other words, assuming doubt about the possibility of bringing something similar to the Qur'an by a non-illiterate, there is no doubt that an illiterate person alone, without connecting to the source of revelation, is incapable of bringing such a scripture as the Qur'an.

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History

  • Receive Date: 28 November 2024
  • Revise Date: 15 April 2025
  • Accept Date: 17 April 2025
  • Publish Date: 22 December 2025

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