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The inimitability of the Qur'an (i'jaz al-Qur'an)

Ideas Words

إعجاز القرآن

The doctrine that the Qur'an is inimitable and that humans cannot produce its like; for Sunni scholars it is the Prophet ﷺ's greatest miracle. In al-Shifa, Qadi Iyad counts four agreed aspects — its eloquence and fine composition, its arrangement unlike Arab forms of speech, its news of the unseen, and its accounts of past nations despite the Prophet being unlettered — and reports the view that the Arabs were turned away from imitating it (sarfa) and the view that its like was within human power in kind but never granted to them.

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Scripture and its sciencesProphets

Summary

The inimitability of the Qur'an (i'jaz al-Qur'an) is the doctrine that the Qur'an cannot be matched by human beings and is the Prophet's greatest sign of the truth of his prophethood. Qadi Iyad devotes several sections to it in chapter four of Part One of al-Shifa, stating that God's Book contains many aspects of inimitability which, when their kinds are classified, come down to four. 1 It is closely tied to the idea of the miracle and to the Qur'anic challenge.

First aspect: composition and eloquence

Iyad holds that the Arabs were masters of eloquence and "knights of speech" — the Bedouin with his weighty diction, the townsman with his clear rhetoric — and that the Qur'an came and dazzled their minds, challenging them for "some twenty years" to bring a sura like it, which they did not do despite their eagerness to defeat it. 1 2 3 4 He cites al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's saying on hearing it that it had sweetness and grace, and stories of Bedouins who prostrated at its eloquence. 5 Within this aspect he points to the concision of a single verse rich in meaning, the coherence of long narratives such as the story of Joseph, and the varied but equally fine wording when a story is repeated. 6 7

Second aspect: its wondrous arrangement

The second aspect is its wondrous arrangement and unusual style, unlike every Arab form of speech, with no equal before or after it in prose, verse, rhymed prose, rajaz or poetry; he relates al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's debate with Quraysh in which he denied it was poetry, soothsaying, madness or sorcery. 7 8

Third and fourth aspects: the unseen and the past

The third is its news of the unseen which came true, such as the Byzantines' victory after defeat and people entering Islam in crowds. 9 The fourth is its account of past generations, vanished nations and abandoned laws, though his people knew he was unlettered, neither reading nor writing; the People of the Book would question him and revelation came with the answer. 10 11 Iyad says these four aspects are clear and beyond dispute. 12

Further aspects

He then lists aspects counted by other imams: the awe that seizes its hearers, even those who do not understand it; reports of those who tried to imitate it and were overcome by awe, as told of Ibn al-Muqaffa' and of Yahya ibn Hakam al-Ghazal; its preservation through the ages; that its reciter never tires of it; its gathering of sciences unknown to the Arabs; and the ease of memorising it. 13 14 15 16 He considers most of these to fall under eloquence and not to deserve counting as separate aspects. 17

Disagreement over the cause of the incapacity

Iyad reports two positions: that of the proponents of sarfa, that imitation was within human power but they were turned away from it, and that of some Sunni scholars, that its like is of a kind humans could produce but God never gave them the ability, before or after. He quotes Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni that the Arabs' abandoning the contest despite every motive, accepting death, captivity and humiliation instead, is the plainest sign of incapacity. 18

For young visitors

The Arabs were proud of their poetry and speeches. When the Qur'an came, it challenged them to make one sura like it, and they could not. Qadi Iyad explains why Muslims count this as the Prophet's greatest miracle.

Research notes

  • An academic view of the history of the doctrine (al-Baqillani, al-Jurjani, the Mu'tazila) has not yet been added from its own sources; see al-Baqillani's I'jaz al-Qur'an.

Connections

Explore the connections

Mentioned in
al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa
Related to
Verse-endings (fawasil)· Miracle (mu'jiza)· The Quranic challenge (al-tahaddi bil-Quran)

People and things also explored

al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa· Miracle (mu'jiza)· Invoking blessings on the Prophet (al-salat 'ala al-nabi)· Love of the Prophet (mahabbat al-nabi)· Muhammad· Can prophets commit minor sins?· Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa'· Nur al-Yaqin fi Sirat Sayyid al-Mursalin

Sources

  1. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.265
  2. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.266
  3. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.267
  4. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.268
  5. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.269
  6. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.270
  7. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.271
  8. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.272
  9. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.275
  10. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.277
  11. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.278
  12. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.279
  13. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.281
  14. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.282
  15. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.283
  16. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.286
  17. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.287
  18. al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa — al-Qadi Iyad, with al-Shumunni's Muzil al-Khafa' an Alfaz al-Shifa' beneath it (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 2 vols) , p.380
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The inimitability of the Qur'an (i'jaz al-Qur'an)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/ijaz-al-quran/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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al-Shifa bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa

Qadi Iyad ibn Musa al-Yahsubi of Ceuta's (d. 544 AH) book on the Prophet's standing and his rights over his community, arranged in four parts: God's honouring of him in word and deed (with his qualities and miracles); what people owe him — faith, obedience, following, love, reverence, invoking blessings on him and visiting his grave; what is impossible for him and which human states may befall him, which the author calls 'the heart of the book'; and the legal rulings on one who disparages or reviles him. Ibn al-Imad says nothing like it had been written before.