I was browsing some articles and I came across an excellent piece regarding the eloquence of the Qur’an. This is a subject that I have recently started reading about more and more, and I really wish that it is something that was highlighted to me much earlier on.
We have had a number of articles about the eloquence of the Quran, mostly by Br. Nouman. The paper below is written by Hamza Tzortzis.
According to both Muslim and Non-Muslim scholarship, the Qur’an cannot be described as any of the known forms of Arabic speech; namely poetry and prose. Taha Husayn, a prominent Egyptian Litterateur, during the course of a public lecture summarised how the Qur’an achieves this unique form…
Abstract:
The inability of any person to produce anything like the Qur’an, due to its unique literary form is the essence of the Qur’anic miracle. A miracle is defined as “events which lie outside the productive capacity of nature”. The argument posed by Muslim theologians and philosophers is that if, with the finite set of Arabic linguistic tools at humanity’s disposal, there is no effective challenge; then providing a naturalistic explanation for the Qur’an’s uniqueness is incoherent and does not explain its inimitability. This is because the natural capacity of the text producer, or author, is able to produce the known literary forms in the Arabic language. The development of an entirely unique literary form is beyond the scope of the productive nature of any author, hence a supernatural entity, God, is the only sufficient and comprehensive explanation. It is the purpose of this article to explain how the Qur’an achieves this unique literary form, thereby explaining the miracle of its inimitability.
Source
Download the article:
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Pingback: POEMS, POETS, RHYMES AND POETRY » Blog Archive » The Unique Literary Form of the Qur’an
Amatullah
November 19, 2008 at 11:12 AM
I’ve also been searching for articles on balaaghah, I haven’t found much in English. Alhamdulillah there are a few great scholarly articles on http://www.islamic-awareness.org by Dr. Mustansir Mir and MAS Abdul Haleem. They can be found in this section: http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Q_Studies/
Marya
November 20, 2008 at 10:26 PM
We were blessed in southern California this week to have Br. Hamza come and speak on this topic. If you would like audio from any of his speeches here, please let me know.
Also, I thought Muslim Matters might be interested in his latest article regarding homosexuality, especially because of the huge furor about the banning of gay marriage in California. You can read it here: http://hamzatzortzis.blogspot.com/2008/11/homosexuality-is-not-unnatural-but-its.html
Pingback: Introduction to the Intellectual Challenge of the Qur’an | MuslimMatters.org
Khan
November 28, 2008 at 5:44 PM
Assalamu alaikum
Sr Marya, would it be possible for you to provide links to Br Hamza’s speeches that were held in SoCal ? Jazakillah.