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The Miraculousness of the Quran in Its Meaning Is Greater Than Its Miraculousness in Its Wording

Question

Assalamu Alaikum One of the biggest proofs for Islam and the Quran being true is reading the meaning of the Quran, as when reading it one can understand that it is from Allah. My question is, why did some scholars limit the miraculous nature of the Quran to only style and eloquence, and said that the meaning of Quran wasn’t a miracle? I find this very strange as so many non Muslims who don’t know Arabic have become Muslim after reading Quran translation and being convinced that it’s the truth.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

The miraculousness of the Quran is not limited to the linguistic eloquence of its wording; rather, this is only one of the aspects of the miraculousness of the Quran. Otherwise, the miraculousness in the meanings of the Quran is greater and more superior than the miraculousness of its wording.

Ibn Taymiyyah  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  him said in Al-Jawab As-Saheeh:

The fact that the Quran is a miracle is not in respect to its eloquence and rhetoric only, or its structure and style, or in terms of informing of the unseen only, or in terms of the fact that no one can claim to bring the like of it, or in terms of anyone being able to object or oppose the Quran in anything; rather, it is a miraculous Sign from several aspects:

1. In terms of its wording

2. In terms of its structure

3. In terms of its rhetoric about the meaning of the word

4. In terms of its meanings that it told us about Allah, His Names, His Attributes, His Angels, and other things.

5. In terms of its meanings that it told us about the unseen in the past and the unseen about the future

6. In terms of what it informed us about the Day of judgment (and the Hereafter),

7. In terms of what it contains of certain pieces of evidence and rational measures, which are the examples that are given (in the Quran), such as the Sayings of Allah (which mean):

• {And We have certainly diversified for the people in this Quran from every [kind] of example, but most of the people refused [anything] except disbelief.} [Quran 17:89]

• {And We have certainly diversified in this Quran for the people from every [kind of] example; but man has ever been, most of anything, [prone to] dispute.} [Quran 18:54]

• {And We have certainly presented for the people in this Quran from every [kind of] example - that they might remember. [It is] an Arabic Quran, without any deviance that they might become righteous.} [Quran 39:27-28]

The miraculousness of the Quran in its meaning is greater than its miraculousness in its wording, and the inability of all the rational people from among different nations of coming up with similar meanings to it, is greater than the inability of the Arabs of bringing a wording like it.

For more benefit on the miracles of the Quran, please refer to Fatawa 91361, 97212, 252952, 354688, 7601 and 8187.

Allah Knows best.

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