More On The Qur’an Challenge & The Linguistic Uniqueness Of The Qur’an

This post, is going to be taken from Dr. Ahmed Bassam Saeh’s book, al-Muʿjizah Iʿādat Qirāʾat al-Iʿjāz al-Lughawī fī al-Qurʾān al-Karīm (The Miracle: A Re-reading of the Linguistic Inimitability in the Noble Quran).

In this work, Dr. Saeh explores the unique linguistic features of the Quran, arguing that its language represents a new form of Arabic that, while adhering to grammatical rules, and how it differs from poetry and pre quran revelation arabic and Quran’s Arabic, as well as the language of the Prophet’s sayings. He supports his thesis with linguistic and statistical analyses, comparing Quran’s language to classical Arabic poetry, Hadith, and contemporary Arabic.

Uniqueness of Language and Structure

The Quran introduced a completely new linguistic personality that had never been seen in Arabic before. This is not just a matter of vocabulary or rhetorical beauty but the invention of a new linguistic system: new phrases, expressions, and compositions that broke away from pre-Islamic poetic and prose norms. The Quran did not imitate the sajʿ of oratory nor the meter of poetry. It created its own unique structure that has not been reproduced.

The challenge, then, is to produce language that:

• is Arabic, yet unlike any Arabic known before,
• introduces new syntactic constructions and new semantic combinations,
• innovates without violating Arabic norms.

Inimitable Rhythmic System

The Quran created a new rhythmic identity that differs from poetry and prose. This rhythm:

• is based on the fāṣilah, not on traditional rhyme or meter,
• shows internal consistency within each surah,
• varies across surahs to give each one a unique sound profile,
• is integral to meaning and cannot be separated from it.

To meet the challenge, a competitor must create:

• a new rhythm in Arabic prose that does not borrow from known systems,
• a cohesive surah-level rhythm that functions aesthetically and semantically,
• a fāṣilah-like cadence that reinforces theme and structure.

Density of Novel Expressions

The Quran is filled with expressions and phrases not found elsewhere in Arabic neither before nor after it. Dr Saeh shows that even short surahs like al-Aʿlā and al-Layl contain dozens of expressions unique to them, and to the Quran as a whole. This is not a stylistic quirk it is a linguistic phenomenon.

Any response to the challenge must demonstrate:

• novel, self-contained phrases that are not recycled from classical Arabic,
• a level of expressive originality sustained throughout the text,
• usage of expressions that bear layers of meaning and remain interpretable across time.

Semantic Multi-dimensionality

Quran’s language is open-ended and timeless. The expressions maintain core meaning but are semantically open to unfolding circumstances. They:

• resonate with multiple interpretive possibilities without contradiction,
• allow application to diverse contexts without losing original anchorage,
• reveal renewed insights in each generation.

A rival composition must:

• convey ideas with the same semantic openness,
• maintain clarity while allowing interpretive depth,
• resist closure while remaining internally coherent.

Integration of Message and Form

The Quran doesn’t just present truths; it embodies them linguistically. The form is the message. The unity of theme, expression, sound, and rhythm gives it an unparalleled integrative structure. Surahs cannot have verses swapped or reorganised without disturbing the flow. The meanings themselves arise from the linguistic structure, not just the words.

A true challenger would have to:

• create a self-integrated text where form and content are indivisible,
• ensure that every stylistic choice serves the message organically,
• produce a structure that collapses if altered just as the Quran does.

New Technical Lexicon

The Quran introduced an entire system of terms never known before in Arabic literature:

• sūrah, āyah, tanzīl, tilāwah, fāṣilah, kitāb, muṣḥaf, and more
• These are not borrowed but coined to fit a novel epistemic framework

The Challenge Includes:

• creating a new technical lexicon for a new mode of revelation,
• embedding this lexicon seamlessly in the text,
• ensuring these terms redefine religious experience for the reader.

Transcendence of Human Literary Intentions

Dr. Saeh repeatedly stresses that the Quran is not a product of literary intention, it is not designed to please critics, conform to literary schools, or meet aesthetic norms. It stands outside human aims. It created new genres, new emotional registers, and a new theological presence through language.

A valid response to the Quran must:

• emerge outside the boundaries of known literature,
• inaugurate a new literary or expressive genre,
• create a new way of thinking through linguistic form.

The Quran challenge is not to write beautiful Arabic. It is to do what the Quran did, create a new mode of expression within Arabic that no one before or after has done, that redefines language from the inside, and that transforms the reader’s aesthetic, emotional, intellectual, and moral imagination, all at once. The challenge is not about imitation, it is about inauguration. And no human, in fourteen centuries, has done that.

Disjunction Between Linguistic Personalities of Surahs

The comparative study between al-A‘la and al-Layl shows that despite shared thematic zones and rhythmic consonance, their linguistic personalities do not converge even once at the level of expression or syntactic construction.

Each surah generates its own internal linguistic world, not by varying subject matter alone, but by deploying wholly distinct and unrepeated phraseologies, structures, and lexical combinations. This divergence is not superficial. Even with identical metrics of length (eight lines, seventy-one to seventy-two words), the syntax, rhythm, and phraseology are singular to each surah. Furthermore, the majority of expressions in each surah do not appear elsewhere in the Quran, over 80% of the phrasal constructions in both al-A‘la and al-Layl are absolutely exclusive.

This phenomenon leads to a crucial observation: the Quran does not recycle linguistic material in the way that all human texts inevitably do. Instead, it generates for every surah an internal syntactic and stylistic logic that resists duplication even within the text itself. No other book achieves this.

Discontinuous Expressive Innovation

The Quran’s phraseology is not a reorganisation of pre-Islamic idioms but a shock of jiddah,  utter novelty,  in expression and syntactic structure. This novelty is not cosmetic. It affects the semantic content of the expressions and transforms the very cognitive framework through which language means.

We find constructions like:

• من ذا الذي – rather than simply من الذي
• هل عسيتم – an unfamiliar coupling of interrogative and modal expectation
• وإن كلاً لما – a deeply original structure that shifts temporal and distributive semantics
• ويكأنه – a cry of wonder condensed into a previously unknown structure

None of these expressions were in use among the Arabs prior to the Quran. Their deployment shattered expectations and demanded reconfiguration of syntactic norms. These expressions are not derivable from prior usage; they constitute a new linguistic paradigm internal to the Quran itself.

Divinely Syntatic Logic

This novelty is not arbitrary. It is systematised, and its internal consistency is recognisable. The Quran possesses a kind of “second grammar” that both expands and transcends the classical Arabic grammatical frame.

The Prophet himself had to ask Jibril for the meaning of some expressions, such as in خذ العفو وأمر بالعرف وأعرض عن الجاهلين. This demonstrates not just difficulty, but a break in the human speaker’s intuitive grasp of familiar language. The listener is placed at the threshold between comprehension and semantic reconfiguration.

Fused Thematic Modes Without Artificial Transitions

Unlike any other book, the Quran fuses multiple thematic axes (theological, cosmological, ethical, historical, psychological) within a single verse or passage, without structural rupture or need for explanatory transitions.

This was pointed out  by Al-Ghazali and reflected in the cited verses, the Quran moves from cosmic signs to ethical obligation to narrative all in one breath, and without the kind of fragmentation or artificial partitioning found in human texts.

This seamlessness is not a product of literary convenience; it reveals a deep ontological structure in which language is no longer constrained by linearity or topical hierarchy. The Quran thus operates as a total discourse, encompassing multiple dimensions of meaning within compact, rhythmic, and rhetorically unified units.

Rhythmic System and the Function of the Qur’an’s Fāṣilah

The Quran’s rhythm is not borrowed from poetry, nor is it reducible to saj‘ (rhymed prose). The fāṣilah, the word ending each verse, behaves with consistency but is not governed by rhyme in the poetic sense. Its rhythmic flow emerges from extended vowel endings, especially nūn and mīm or tanwīn, but it functions within a rhythmic matrix that is sui generis. Even in long surahs like al-Baqara, which exhibit multiple internal variations in fāṣilah, there is an underlying rhythmic spine that gives each surah its unique sonic personality.

Unlike poetry, the Quran’s rhythm does not conform to a strict metre. Unlike saj‘, it is not governed by predictable symmetrical rhyming. The fāṣilah is syntactically and semantically integrated, not ornamental. Its recurrence creates a rhythm not only of sound but of meaning, marking closures and semantic intensifications, even in very long verses.

Further, the impossibility of transferring a verse from one surah to another without disrupting the rhythmic integrity demonstrates that each surah’s rhythm is sealed. This proves that the divisions between verses were not human interpolations but intrinsic to the speech-event of revelation.

Integrated Expressive Totality

Each surah possesses a holistic identity, rhythmically, thematically, syntactically, and expressively. There is no duplication of expressive form across surahs. Even when subject matter is repeated, the Quran always re-voices it in new words, structures, and rhythms. The attempt to replace a verse from Taha into al-Baqara about the splitting of the sea visibly ruptures the flow. The rhythmic flow collapses. The expressive unity fractures.

This indivisibility is unique. All human compositions allow for patching, summary, paraphrase, and modularity. The Quran resists these mechanisms. Its expressive system is self-contained, indivisible, and irreducible.

Terminological Self-Consciousness and Structural Naming

No pre-Islamic text had a name for what we call “book,” “chapter,” or “verse.”

The Quran not only introduces these names (Quran, sura, ayah, mushaf, tilawa, tarteel) but does so within its own body. These are not external labels. They are internal designations, and the Quran refers to itself using them. No other book has named itself, its chapters, and its verses in this way, and no pre-existing literary system had provided these terms.

This meta-discursivity, whereby the book constructs and organises its own formal reality, is part of its inimitability.

New Linguistic Universe Rooted in Old Grammar

The Quran does not invent a language. It does not step outside of Arabic. But it performs a radical operation within it: it takes the existing grammatical, lexical, and rhetorical structures and expands them beyond their recognised limits, while never violating their integrity.

It builds an entirely new expressive universe from the raw materials of the old in the words of Middleton Murry, it is not a triumph in language, but a triumph over language.

This operation would have been impossible through poetic or rhetorical talent alone. The Quran exhibits a consistency of expressive rupture that no poet, rhetorician, or orator, however skilled, has managed to achieve not before it, and not since.

From all the, structural, rhythmic, semantic, lexical, syntactic, and expressive it is clear that the Quran is not a text among texts, but a new genre of being in language. It is a unique linguistic feature that created an Arabic that had never been spoken before. The Quran is not miraculous because of one feature but because of a total system that defies imitation, even as it remains intelligible and penetrates the heart.

Its miracle lies in its capacity to be both Arabic recognisably, deeply, structurally Arabicc and at the same time, something no Arabic had ever been. This is why it could not have come from Muhammad ﷺ ,or any human and why the challenge it presents remains unanswered to this day.

The Quran Challenge

The Quran being revealed gradually over the span of twenty-three years was a new phenomenon, something that had never occurred with any of the previous revealed books. As is known to those familiar with those noble books, they were revealed to the prophets all at once.

But more important than that is the fact that none of those books ever witnessed a single instance where the people to whom they were revealed were challenged to bring something like them, or even something resembling a small part of them, unlike the Quran, which repeatedly did this in many verses. This adds other dimensions to its uniqueness, distinctiveness, and special nature. Observe how the challenge progressed, from calling for a book like it, to calling for just a single chapter like it:

“Who is more unjust than one who fabricates lies against Allah, or says, ‘It has been revealed to me,’ when nothing has been revealed to him, and who says, ‘I will bring down something like what Allah has sent down?'” (al-Anam: 93)

“Let them bring a discourse like it, if they are truthful” (at-Tur: 34)

“Say: If all mankind and jinn gathered together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to support one another” (al-Isra: 88)

“Say: Then bring ten chapters like it, fabricated” (Hud: 13)

“And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our servant, then bring a single chapter like it” (al-Baqara: 23)

“Or do they say he has fabricated it? Say: Then bring a chapter like it, and call upon whomever you can” (Yunus: 38)

And if we were to pause at each chapter individually, and consider that the number of new linguistic phenomena and unique features discovered in each chapter exceeds the number of words in that chapter, we would begin to realise the magnitude of the surprise or shock that the Quran’s unique linguistic personality caused to the Arabs at that time.

For example, in a short chapter like al-Fatiha, which consists of 29 words, there are no fewer than 58 of these new features. In Surah an-Nas, which has 20 words, there are no fewer than 33; in Surah al-Falaq (23 words), no fewer than 38; and in Surah al-Ikhlas (15 words), no fewer than 22. And so it is in the rest of the chapters.

This gives us some understanding of the shock that the Quran delivered with its unique language, and the impact that this shock had on someone like Utbah ibn Rabi’ah when he heard the Prophet ﷺ recite to him, for the first time, just thirteen verses yet, so stunned was he by what he heard that he could not absorb more than the last verse that was recited to him.

This linguistic “shock” that struck the early Arab was similar to the electric shocks that doctors use today on a patient whose heart has stopped beating, in the hope of bringing them back to life.

And Allah the exalted is His majesty and wisdom intended this thunderous linguistic shock to bring life back to the dead heart of pre-Islamic Arab ignorance, before they could return to the Quran, listen to it anew, absorb its meanings, grasp its novelty and distinction, and submit to its miraculous nature.

Many of their hearts softened upon hearing this new language, and surrendered immediately upon hearing the first verses of revelation, accepting Islam. In fact, some hearts were too weak to bear such a powerful shock. Some people, upon hearing verses of the Quran, gave out a final gasp and passed away. As-Suyuti mentions a list compiled of those who died while hearing the Quran.

Do not be surprised by this. Perhaps you can imagine with me one of these moments of death. Imagine one of us is told by a friend that when he returns home, he will find a great public figure sleeping in his bed. Let us imagine who that figure might be it could be the president of his country, or its king, or perhaps the president of the most powerful nation in the world.

So he returns home in the evening, opens the door, walks in, still dismissing the idea as a silly joke. But then he is struck by the scent of a strange perfume he has never smelled in his home before. Doubts begin to form. Then he peeks into his bedroom and is shocked to see a lump under his bedcover. His heartbeat accelerates.

He reaches out with a trembling hand to lift the cover and finds a human head that truly resembles the head of that person. Still clinging to the thought that it is just a joke, he assumes the head is a model or a fake prop placed by someone to complete the prank.

But he is stunned and recoils in horror when he sees a human hand emerge from under the cover to greet him, and is then startled by a voice he recognises as belonging to that person, saying: “I am so-and-so. Pleased to meet you, Bassam.”

How many of us have hearts strong enough to endure such a surprise?

So what if the surprise was with Allah? What would someone feel upon hearing that a man claims to be a prophet, and that he has what he alleges to be words revealed to him sent down from the Creator of the heavens and the earth through a wondrous angel? That person might insist at first that such a thing is impossible, then rush to that “pretender” to listen to him and refute what he sees as a great lie. But then he hears the first verse, and his heart starts racing as he senses something extraordinary in it.

Still, he stubbornly resists. Then he hears the second verse, and he trembles and shivers, still trying to convince himself that it cannot be the language of God.

Then he hears the third, and the fourth, and the shock keeps hitting him, one after the other, until he begins to collapse, and suddenly finds himself, in the crisis of confronting this bewildering new language, face to face with Allah.

And do you really think that all the hearts of the Arabs despite the toughness and resilience given to them by the desert were equally capable of bearing such a shock?

The New Literary Art – The Literature of the Surah

This new literary art that suddenly descended upon the Arabs from the sky did not fall under the art of oration, which the Arabs knew well and excelled in. Nor did it belong to the rhymed prose of soothsayers, which the Arabs also knew, and from which only a few scattered examples have reached us even then, we are not certain of their authenticity. Nor did it belong to the art of letters, which the Arabs had known in a very limited scope, due to how few among them knew how to write. Nor did it belong to poetry, which they had mastered, and from which more than twenty thousand verses have reached us.

This new Quran’s form did not belong to any of these literary arts. Instead, it had its own artistic identity, which invites us to call it a new genre altogether: the literature of the surah.

This new literature of the surah had its own distinct artistic structure, as we will see its own compositions, arrangements, vocabulary, terminology, rhythms, rhymes (endings), linguistic linkages, and independent methods of recitation and tajwid.

The Artistic Distinctiveness of Surah Openings

One of the remarkable features that made this heavenly literary form different from all human literary arts was the nature of its chapter openings.

The openings of the surahs are completely unlike anything the Arabs were familiar with in the past or present from the openings of poems, speeches, letters, inscriptions, maqamat, essays, reflections, treatises, or book chapters.

If we survey the openings of the 114 surahs that make up the Quran, we find that most of them if not all are entirely different from any known opening in the literary arts familiar to the Arabs and perhaps even to non-Arabs.

If we classify these openings from most to least frequent, we get the following:

1. 29 surahs open with mysterious letters (huruf muqatta‘at), which the Arabs have never been able to definitively explain. Interestingly, 28 of them are in the first 50 surahs. The 29th is Surah 68 (al-Qalam), after which none of the surahs begin in this way.
2. 15 surahs begin with an oath.
3. 14 surahs begin with a past tense verb. But 12 of these verbs point not to the past but to the present or even the future an uncommon and challenging use in Arabic. For example, in Surah al-Nahl: “The command of Allah has come” means it is imminent. In Surah al-Furqan: “Blessed is He” means He is constantly blessed. The 13th verb is transitive but has no object, as in Surah al-Ma‘arij: “A questioner asked about a punishment to fall,” where the verb “asked” remains without a direct object. The 14th verb is in third person but actually means “you,” as in Surah ‘Abasa: “He frowned and turned away,” meaning “You frowned and turned away.”
4. 10 surahs begin with a direct call using the unique form “O you who…” (ya ayyuhā), which is different from the way calling is normally expressed in Arabic or even in hadith, where one usually sees just “ya” or “ayyuhā” alone.
5. 7 surahs begin with the adverb of future time “idha” (when). All seven are found in the last quarter of the Quran, starting with Surah al-Waqi‘ah. Uniquely, this word doesn’t carry the conditional meaning it normally has in Arabic, but refers only to future events: “When the Event happens,” “When the sun is wrapped up,” “When the sky is cleft.” Sometimes, it even points to the present or past, like in Surah al-Munafiqun: “When the hypocrites come to you,” though they had already come, and in Surah al-Nasr: “When the help of Allah comes,” even though that help had already occurred.
6. 6 surahs begin with glorification or praise of Allah or a command to do so, such as: “Praise be to Allah,” “Exalted is He,” “Glorify the name of your Lord” a form unknown to Arabs before Islam.
7. 5 surahs begin with a singular imperative verb: “Say.”
8. 4 surahs begin with an indefinite noun: “A declaration,” “A chapter,” “Woe.”
9. 4 surahs begin with the emphatic particle “inna” joined with the pronoun “we” (nā), used in the Quran to refer to Allah in the singular, not plural, sense. All four are in the last sixth of the Quran, beginning with Surah al-Fath: “Indeed, We have opened for you a clear opening.”
10. 3 surahs begin with a verse made up of a single word: “The Merciful,” “The Inevitable,” “The Striker.”
11. 3 surahs begin with a present tense verb, affirmed or negated, but none of them point to the future instead they refer to a past that continues into the present: “They ask you,” “He glorifies,” “He was not.”
12. 2 surahs begin with the particle “lā” (no). But this “lā” is different from the usual negative in Arabic; here, as many commentators say, it means “indeed.” As in: “No, I swear…”
13. 2 surahs begin with “qad” for certainty: “Certainly successful,” “Certainly heard.” This is not normal in Arabic unless it is joined with “la” (laqad).
14. 2 surahs begin with a negative rhetorical question: “Did We not…”
15. 2 surahs begin with the interrogative “hal” (is?), but it is not really for asking it means certainty, like “Indeed”: “Has there come…” (meaning “Indeed it has”).
16. 1 surah begins with a verbal noun: “Sending down of the Book…”
17. 1 surah begins with a relative pronoun: “Those who disbelieved…”
18. 1 surah begins with “ʿamma” (About what are they asking…).
19. 1 surah begins with the interrogative hamzah (A-): “Have you seen the one who denies the judgment?”
20. 1 surah begins with a prepositional phrase with no subject: “For the familiarity…”
21. 1 surah begins with the basmalah: “In the name of Allah…”

Now, do writers in any of the known literary genres begin their writings with an oath? Or with a past tense verb that actually refers to the future? Or with the calling formula “O you who…”? Or with an indefinite noun? Or with “qad”? Or with a verbal noun? Or a relative pronoun?

To answer, In Volume 1 of Wahy al-Qalam, a brilliant work by Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafi‘i, one of the greatest Arabic literary authors of the twentieth century. I quickly surveyed the openings of the essays in this book, and they came in this order:

“It was said in al-Waqidi’s history,” “The day of Eid came,” “How badly we need…,” “I went out to witness nature…,” “The bride’s beauty was as if…,” “When the summer blazed…,” “How beautiful the earth is…,” “It was said during the exam…,” “Two sheep gathered on the eve of Eid…,” “ʿIsmat the son of so-and-so Pasha, a child…,” “On the steps of the bank, the boy slept…,” “So-and-so, the son of the prince…,” “This woman had a luminous face…,” “She had a poetic being…,”

“The announcer called out during Hajj…,” “The messenger of ʿAbd al-Malik said…,” “People scattered left and right…,” “A group of hadith scholars sat…,” “Abu Muʿawiyah the blind said…,” “Ahmad ibn Ayman entered…,” “Her owner said as he told me…,” “A noble lady wrote to me…,” “These three literary men…,” “The young man said…,”

“The government widow, as we agreed to call her…,” “Abu Khalid al-Ahwal the ascetic said…,” “Abu Yahya Malik ibn Dinar finished…,” “He loved her and she loved him…,” “It was as if he had stretched himself on the sea…,” “We translated a poem about the devil…,” “How can the fracture of love be mended…,” “She sat on the shore of Shatibi…,” “She sat after a long night…,” “Can this be possible?” “The woman of tragic beauty said to me…”

Now, how many of these thirty-five openings resemble Quran’s surah openings? Even those that seem similar at first glance are actually not.

The past tense verbs in all 26 examples from al-Rafi‘i refer to real past time. But in none of the 15 surah openings do they do that. And the one time al-Rafi‘i uses an interrogative hamzah (“Can this be possible?”), it is genuine, or at least rhetorical. But the one instance in the Quran (“Have you seen the one who denies the judgment?”) is not a question it is a statement: “Let Me show you…”

The Unique Identity of the Surah

As we saw earlier, the Quran uses the defective verb kāna (“was”) to mean “indeed” (inna). This new usage occurs at least 190 times. Yet this meaning is found nowhere outside the Quran not even in hadith.

But more astonishing than the meaning is the distribution of the verb across the surahs. It is normal to find kāna once in a short surah like al-Ikhlas: “And there is none comparable to Him.” But in this case, the verb does not simply mean “was” it means “was, is, and never will be.”

So what should we expect in a long surah like al-Baqara, which takes up about one-twelfth of the entire Quran? The answer: nothing! Nor in Aal ʿImran, nor in al-Ma’ida, al-Anʿam, al-Aʿraf, al-Anfal, or al-Tawba. Not a single occurrence across the first 16 surahs nearly half the Quran.

Then suddenly, out of this vast plain, a towering peak appears: Surah al-Nisa’, where the verb occurs 53 times only to vanish again for the next 12 surahs. Then it reappears intensely in Surah al-Isra’ (17) with 27 occurrences, disappears for 7 surahs, then returns in Surah al-Furqan (25) with 11 occurrences, then vanishes again for 7 more until reappearing in Surah al-Ahzab (33) with 26 times, and so on.

This supports the view taken in this study: that each surah of the Quran has its own source, its own linguistic identity that distinguishes it from the others, making it difficult for verses to be confused or mixed between surahs.

More importantly, this pattern acts as an authenticating signature for each surah. It supports the current arrangement of the surahs and refutes the idea of any human interference in their order contrary to the claims of some Orientalists. This points strongly to the divine origin of the surah order, and affirms that the Quran has remained in its present form since the time of the Prophet ﷺ.

Some Orientalists claim that differences in style between Makki and Madani surahs prove that the Prophet ﷺ authored the Quran, saying that anyone’s style would naturally evolve over time. But the presence of this verb kāna dozens of times in one Madani surah like al-Nisa’, and not at all in other Madani surahs before or after it, combined with the complete absence of the verb in a similarly long Makki surah like al-Anʿam, undermines their argument.

The linguistic personality of each surah is another strange and wondrous phenomenon in the Quran. Each surah, no matter how short, contains vocabulary not found in others, and exclusive linguistic patterns and structures. It has its own rhythm and end-rhyme structure that distinguish it from the rest.

The phrase “clear signs” (ayat bayyinat) appears 8 times in the Quran, while “clarified signs” (ayat mubayyanat), a rarer expression, appears only twice and both in Surah al-Nur. The verb “tore” (mazzaqa) appears 4 times, all in Surah Saba’. The expression “free from” (hashā) occurs twice both in Surah Yusuf. “Persistent” (mustamir) occurs twice both in Surah al-Qamar.

Forms of the root t-m-th (related to untouched women) occur twice both in Surah al-Rahman. Forms of istankafa (to disdain) appear three times all in Surah al-Nisa’. The verb rāgha (to sneak or go quietly) appears three times twice in Surah al-Saffat, each time followed by a different preposition giving it a different meaning.

The phrase “mighty and wise” (ʿazīzun ḥakīm) appears 13 times 5 in al-Baqara, 4 in al-Anfal and then disappears entirely after Surah Luqman. The phrase “And Allah is not unaware of what you do” appears 6 times 5 in al-Baqara, once in Aal ʿImran, and never again.

The phrase “Indeed He is the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful” appears twice both in al-Baqara. “The Mighty, the Forgiving” appears three times once each in Surahs Sad, al-Zumar, and Ghafir. And these are just a few examples.

Abd al-Khaliq Udhaymah discovered that the word kallā (No, indeed not!) occurs only in Makki surahs and only in the second half of the Quran. Four out of five quadriliteral or five-letter rare words in the Quran are found in Surah al-Insan: zamhareer, qamtareer, zanjabeel, and salsabeel. All simple four-letter roots appear only in the second half of the Quran, except for zukhruf.

Do Surah Personalities Overlap?

Sometimes, while memorising short surahs, one feels close to slipping out of one surah into another that shares a similar rhythm or end-rhyme, like between al-Mursalat and al-Naziʿat, or between al-Takwir and al-Inshiqaq, or between al-Aʿla and al-Layl.

Such slips may make one think that the personalities of two surahs blend together, their boundaries blur, and one melts into the other. But this is only the illusion of rhythmic flow similarity not the reality of structural overlap. Each surah retains its own linguistic identity, structure, rhythm, and divine tone distinct and unreplicable.

The Inclusiveness of the Quran

Al-Ghazali already addressed it in his book How to Approach the Quran, describing what can be called the “comprehensiveness of the Quran verse” the way multiple themes overlap in a single verse, a phenomenon that has never occurred before the Quran and will never occur after.

He writes: The Quran is not a technical book divided into separate sections with no overarching vision. Rather, it speaks of the universe while building belief, speaks of the universe while shaping character, and mixes all of that together in a wondrous way. Looking at the universe, reality, and history leads to belief, affirms tawhid, and shapes moral character.

Take the verse: “O mankind, worship your Lord.” This is tawhid and a call to return to God. But it continues: “Who created you and those before you so that you may become mindful. Who made the earth a resting place for you, and the sky a canopy, and sent down water from the sky and brought forth with it fruits as provision for you. So do not set up rivals to Allah while you know” (al-Baqara: 21–22).

Look how the Quran presents the universe and its signs while refuting shirk and laying down the foundation of tawhid and this is in Madinah. We find the same in Makkah:

“It is Allah who made the night for you to rest and the day bright. Indeed, Allah is full of bounty to people, but most people do not give thanks. That is Allah, your Lord, the Creator of all things; there is no god but Him. How then are you deluded? Thus are those deluded who deny Allah’s signs” (Ghafir: 61–63).

So the themes of the Quran are not divided as if one belongs to theology, another to ethics, another to history. Rather, through our own thinking, we may find that a single verse or passage touches on multiple themes Allah, the universe, reward and punishment, human nature, belief, and ethics all held together in an extraordinary unity not found outside the Quran.

Fear of Declaring the Novelty of the Quran’s Language

For centuries, exegetes, poets, and critics hesitated to openly express their conviction that the Quran came with a new language. And those who dared to say it stopped at just the statement itself, without analysing or proving the novelty of that language. Perhaps one reason for this caution was their fear of criticism from grammarians and linguists, many of whom, unfortunately, were harsh and rigid in their approac adopting the strictness of grammar rules in their dealings with others.

Their fear of these harsh critics, and their concern over being accused of implying that the Quran departs from Arabic, outweighed their courage and desire to affirm its groundbreaking linguistic nature. Sometimes, just acknowledging one new word in the Quran was enough to be accused of heresy or ignorance.

Listen to what the great exegete al-Shawkani says in Fath al-Qadir, discussing the word al-fāsiqīn in al-Baqara: 26:

“Ibn al-Aʿrabi claimed that the word ‘fāsiq’ was never heard in the speech of the pre-Islamic Arabs or their poetry. This claim is invalid. Many great linguistic authorities such as Ibn Fāris, al-Jawharī, and Ibn al-Anbārī have affirmed that it is indeed part of their language.”

This intellectual censorship imposed itself sometimes unconsciously on grammarians, linguists, and exegetes, preventing them from fully exploring and formulating a complete theory of the Quran’s linguistic revolution and unique literary identity. Scholars were left speaking vaguely about the rhetorical miracle and miracle of composition, as did the three leading judges and critics: al-Bāqillānī, ʿAbd al-Jabbār, and al-Jurjānī.

Confusing Inimitability with Eloquence

Even though Al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH) declared in his book Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān, in response to the claim of ṣarfah, that the Quran’s language was completely new “Since no similar speech was found before it, this invalidates the argument of ṣarfah” he still interpreted this novelty as merely the dense beauty of its expressions, not the innovation of expressions themselves. He says this repeatedly in the book. For example, he comments on verses from Surah Yā Sīn (37–39):

“Each word is independently beautiful, fully eloquent. If the verse consists of pure eloquence and rhetorical mastery, how could it not surpass the familiar, outstrip the known, and rise above the speech of all creation?”

And strangely, in another place he claims that the miracle of the Quran lies in the human inability to uncover the secret of its miraculousness. If we were ever to uncover that secret, it would no longer be a miracle:

“The miracle lies in what cannot be learned, acquired, or produced. Anything that can be learned and produced is not a valid basis for a miracle.”

Al-Jurjānī’s Theory of Composition

Al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/474 AH) was preoccupied with the issue of naẓm (composition), a concept hinted at earlier by al-Bāqillānī and before him by al-Jāḥiẓ. ʿAbd al-Jabbār refined it by focusing on linguistic relationships between words in his book Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān, and al-Jurjānī finally turned it into the centrepiece of his influential Dalāʾil al-Iʿjāz.

Even so, al-Jurjānī only focused on the beauty of Quran’s composition not its newness, which is what we have been seeking.

In Dalāʾil al-Iʿjāz, he analyses a verse like “And they made the jinn partners with Allah” (al-Anʿām: 100), and writes:

“It is not hidden how the word order here putting ‘partners’ before ‘jinn’ has power, beauty, and a captivating pull. You would not find this if you reversed it. Saying ‘They made the jinn partners with Allah’ lacks this elegance. The reason is that the word order adds another meaning: not only did they make partners from the jinn, but that no one deserves to be a partner with Allah at all inn or otherwise.”

Al-Jurjānī’s focus was mainly on the precision of Quran’s expression the effects of word order, conjunctions, ellipses, resumptions, and so on while preserving the elegance of composition. But he did not attempt to address the newness of these compositions, expressions, or words.

A New Arabic Language

As-Suyūṭī nevertheless preserves a few courageous statements by early critics and linguists who recognised that linguistic and stylistic renewal is one of the core aspects of Quran’s inimitability perhaps even the greatest.

Ibn Saraqah (d. 415 AH) said: “Scholars differed over the source of the Quran’s inimitability. They mentioned many valid explanations. But none captured even a tenth of it. Some said it is due to brevity with eloquence. Others said clarity and fluency.

Others said perfect arrangement and composition. But some said: its inimitability lies in how it belongs to no known genre neither poetry nor prose, nor sermons nor speeches though its words are Arabic and its meanings are familiar. It is in Arabic, but it belongs to a category beyond their known expressions and rhetorical modes.”

Despite such clear declarations, we still find throughout centuries of our scholarly tradition fabricated stories trying to deny that the Quran came with a new language as though bringing something new would somehow diminish the Quran. Some of these stories are so weak and absurd they collapse on inspection.

This intellectual resistance was not only aimed at linguistic renewal but extended to scientific inimitability as well. Some hardliners shut the door on anyone trying to talk about Quran’s scientific foresight. And this attitude traces back to earlier scholars like al-Shāṭibī (d. 790 AH), who strongly attacked scientific interpretation.

The Quran certainly did not come with a language alien to Arabic that is precisely where the miracle lies. It emerged from Arabic, built on its rules and roots, yet surpassed its limits. It developed the norms of Arabic without destroying them, and opened paths the Arabs never imagined.

The miracle of the Quran is not that it created a language out of nothing, but that it brough about a new language from within the old one rising far above it.

Miracles are not bound by rules. For the Quran’s miracle to be a miracle, it must go beyond all human standards.

As the English critic Middleton Murry once said: “Great literary creation is not a triumph of language, but a triumph over language.” That is exactly what the Quran achieved a triumph over Arabic, using Arabic. Or to put it more precisely: a triumph with the language, over the language.

The Rhythm and End-Phrases (Fawasil) of the Quran

If we were to impose rigid laws on rhythmic flow, we would first have to dissect it, cut it into pieces in the lab like a cadaver meaning we would have to kill it and anatomise its delicate form in order to grasp its truths. In doing so, the art would turn into science, and we would lose the very beauty we seek to discover and capture in this art. In other words, we would lose beauty the very moment we discover it.

This was the same reason that always held me back from studying what has come to be known as the fāsilah in the Quran a feature that corresponds to the sajʿ in prose and the qāfiyah (rhyme) in poetry despite it being one of the most significant and unique artistic features of the Noble Book.

The Quran’s fāsilah has its own unique and completely different rules compared to sajʿ in prose or rhyme and rawī in poetry, and its meanings change with its variations. It is not merely a decorative rhyme for its own sake; rather, it serves deeper purposes and is distinguished from rhyme and poetic endings by several unique characteristics, the most important of which are:

1. The Quran consistently adheres to the fāsilah at the end of each verse, regardless of the verse’s length. A single verse can span an entire page, whereas sajʿ in Arabic writing before and after the Quran has always been confined to short sentences of no more than a few words.
2. Most of the Quran’s fawāsil end in elongated sounds (e.g. ʿaẓīm, qadīr, yusabbiḥūn, ʿālamīn, mubīn, muḥsinīn, raḥīm, sabīlā, ghurūrā). Many of these end in the letter nūn or a nunated consonant. Al-Zarkashī explained this by saying that the frequent endings with vowels and soft consonants, and the addition of nūn, serve the purpose of making the recitation more melodious and tuneful.
3. Most surahs adopt a primary fāsilah or rhyme scheme, which they begin with and largely maintain. Some surahs move to other end-phrases mid-way but consistently return to the initial rhyme, maintaining a unified structure. For instance, although long surahs like al-Baqara occasionally shift to rhymes ending in sīr, ʿab, ʿaq, ʿar, ʿam, or ʿad, they always return to the dominant ending, typically a wāw or yāʾ followed by nūn or mīm (-ūn, -īn, -īm), sometimes ending in lām or dāl. This makes the Quran’s fāsilah structurally closer to poetic rhyme than to prose sajʿ, without making it part of either category.
4. The essential element of the fāsilah is not the final letter, as in prose rhyme, but rather the rhythm and meter. Therefore, the specific ending letter may not matter much. For example, verses 200, 201, and 202 of al-Baqara end in lāq, shār, and sāb they share rhythm and meter, though the final letters differ. The same is true for verses 213–215, which end in mustaqīm, qarīb, and ʿalīm.
5. A phrase is not considered a fāsilah unless it closes a verse. Some Orientalists claimed that Muslims themselves divided the Quran based on the occurrence of rhythmic phrases, choosing to end verses at aesthetically pleasing words. But this is easily refuted by both historical records from the period of revelation and by the structure of the Quran itself.

For instance, in As-Shuʿarāʾ, verse 49 says: “He said: You believed in him before I gave you permission. He is your chief who taught you magic. But you will know surely I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you all.”

Had the Muslims divided the text based on rhythm alone, they would have stopped at you will know, since that word matches the pattern of preceding and following fawāsil. But they did not.

Conversely, in the same surah, verses 92 and 93 are separated despite them being structurally close and semantically continuous:

And it will be said to them: Where are those you used to worship besides Allah? Can they help you or help themselves?

Why not make them one verse?

Or look at al-Zumar, verse 6:

Surely the pure religion is for Allah alone. And those who take others as protectors besides Him, saying: “We only worship them to bring us closer to Allah,” Allah will judge between them concerning what they differ about. Surely, Allah does not guide one who is a liar and ungrateful.

Had it been up to human judgment, the verse might have ended at differ about. But it continues to complete its thematic and rhythmic structure.

In contrast, verse 14 in the same surah ends with dīnī, which deviates from the typical fāsilah pattern in that surah most others end in -īn, -ūn, etc. Should we then assume this verse was incorrectly divided?

One more example: Maryam, verse 75:

Say: Whoever is in error, let the Most Merciful extend for him a rope of respite…

Why not end the verse at respite?

The answer is: because the Quran’s verse endings are not arbitrarily chosen by human ears they were divinely revealed.

6. Every surah has its own rhythmic flow, shaped in large part by the fāsilah. Even when the rhyme changes within a surah, a certain internal coherence remains, sustained by an artistic element beyond the scope of this current study. If you were to move a verse from one surah to another even if the topic is the same the disruption to rhythm would be immediate and obvious.

Take two verses from Taha, which describe the parting of the sea and Pharaoh’s pursuit:

“We revealed to Moses: Set out with My slaves. Strike for them a path through the sea, dry and safe. You will not fear being overtaken, nor shall you be afraid. Then Pharaoh followed them with his troops, but the sea overwhelmed them.”

Now compare this to al-Baqara, which includes similar content: “And recall when We saved you from Pharaoh’s people, who were afflicting you with grievous torment, slaughtering your sons and sparing your women… And when We parted the sea for you and saved you and drowned Pharaoh’s people while you looked on…”

Now try inserting the verse from Taha into al-Baqara in place of its own. The topic may be the same, but the rhythmic flow, the rhythmic harmony will noticeably falter.

Scholars, both classical and modern, have written extensively on the fāsilah al-Rummānī, al-Bāqillānī, al-Ṭūfī, Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, al-Kharūbī, al-Mukhallalātī, Mustafa Ṣādiq al-Rāfiʿī, Ibrāhīm Anīs, Muḥammad al-Mubārak, ʿĀʾishah ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Muḥammad Rajab al-Bayyūmī, Muḥammad al-Ḥasnawī.

Yet many of them, even as they explored this feature, could not avoid excessive subjectivity or aesthetic judgments disconnected from scientific precision. Nor did they uncover the complete set of rules that govern this deeply mysterious element of Quran’s composition.

Before moving to another topic, we must reassert this: the Quran is the only book in human history that possesses such a unique literary identity not in terms of subject or ideas or style, which all books differ in but in terms of its very form as a “book.” No other text resembles it in its structural and compositional features as a written artefact.

When comparing books, we might distinguish between one written in Arabic and one in English, or between books that are read left to right versus right to left. But these distinctions apply broadly to entire literary traditions. The Quran, by contrast, is a book unlike any other book by its genre, composition, internal system, and language.

The Shock of Novelty in Expression and Construction

The uniqueness of the Quran’s constructions and expressions, the novelty of its words, and the various relationships it created between these words often placed the Arabs, at the beginning of revelation, before a wave of confusion and questioning before they could finally settle on a meaning or a general sense. But even this “settling” was not always a final conclusion with a fixed meaning.

Often, the expression remained open to events, developments, and changing circumstances that the Muslims would later face. This openness is something we will explain in more detail when we discuss the Quran’s open-ended language.

Even the Prophet ﷺ himself was at times surprised and puzzled by some verses when they were revealed. As reported by ash-Shaʿbi: When Allah revealed: “Take what is given freely, command what is right, and turn away from the ignorant” (al-Aʿraf: 199), the Prophet ﷺ said: “What is this, O Jibril?” He replied: “I do not know until I ask the One who knows.” So he went, then returned, and said: “Allah commands you to pardon the one who wrongs you, give to the one who withholds from you, and keep ties with the one who cuts you off.”

So the Arabs were suddenly faced with a flood of new expressions and constructions almost every verse contained them. Some of these expressions quickly found their way into the speech of the people, whether consciously or not, such that Arabic after Islam wore a completely different robe from what it had before.

We would not be exaggerating to say that almost every construction or expression in the Quran was new to the Arabic language and perhaps still retains its novelty even today, since most of these expressions never made it into either old or modern Arabic usage at all.

Limits of Construction and Expression

It’s natural that when we study the constructions, expressions, word-patterns, and linguistic relationships in the Quran, we’ll sometimes face difficulty drawing clear boundaries between these elements. In this chapter, we will focus on the overlap between construction and expression.

We will not go back to the level of individual words, since that is a different category concerned with terminology and vocabulary, and we will not go forward into multi-word expressions beyond four words, which would push us into the realm of complex phrasal units (sabikah), a broader linguistic structure that can contain both constructions and expressions but is not contained by them.

Thus, we will limit ourselves here to expressions made up of two or three words, based on new grammatical or rhetorical relationships that had not existed in Arabic before the Quran.

Often, it is difficult to distinguish between construction and expression, so in this study we have agreed to use the word “construction” for those based mainly on relationships between prepositions, particles, or conjunctions, rather than between nouns and verbs. These constructions usually don’t convey complete meanings. As for the “expression,” it relies more on nouns and verbs and often delivers a full and clear meaning on its own.

Quran’s Construction

The Quran brought to the Arabs, all at once and within the short span of its revelation, thousands of new constructions and expressions scattered throughout both short and long surahs. Many of these entered the literary and spoken Arabic lexicon, but most remained exclusive to the Quran, their unique and distinctive nature preventing them from spreading into regular usage.

Read the following constructions, most of which are frequent in the Quran. Compare them with their approximate equivalents in ordinary Arabic, and you will quickly see how different they are from our human speech. For example:

1 – من ذا الذي vs. من الذي – Who then is it that… vs. Who is it that…
2 – هل عسيتم vs. هل يتوقع منكم – Is it expected from you… vs. Would it be expected of you…
3 – فإن لم يأتوا vs. فما داموا عاجزين – But if they do not bring… vs. As long as they are unable…
4 – بعد إذ vs. بعد أن – After when… vs. After that…
5 – وكذلك جعلنا vs. وهكذا جعلنا – And thus We made… vs. So that’s how We made…
6 – وإن كل لما vs. وكل واحد منهم – And indeed each one of them… vs. Every single one of them…
7 – أولم تكونوا أقسمتم vs. ألم تقسموا – Did you not swear… vs. Didn’t you swear…
8 – إن كاد ليضلنا vs. كاد أن يضلنا – He almost led us astray… vs. He was about to mislead us…
9 – أفأنت تكون vs. فكيف تكون – Will you be… vs. So how will you be…
10 – أو لو جاءتك vs. حتى لو جاءتك – Even if it came to you… vs. Even if it were to come to you…
11 – فلما أن جاء vs. فلما جاء – Then when he came… vs. When he came…
12 – إنا لَنَحن الغالبون vs. إنا سنغلبهم – Indeed, We are the ones who will prevail vs. We will defeat them
13 – فيما هن آمنين vs. آمنين هنا – Safe therein vs. Safe here
14 – قليلا ما vs. ما أقل – How little… vs. How few…
15 – إن هذا لهو vs. إنه حقا – Indeed, this is truly… vs. It is truly…
16 – أإنك لأنت vs. لا شك أنك – Is it really you who… vs. There is no doubt that you…
17 – إنا لمخرجون vs. هل سنخرج – We will surely be expelled vs. Will we be brought out?
18 – ويكأنّه vs. عجبا لهذا – Oh, it is as if… vs. How strange this is…
19 – أئن بعد ما وقع vs. فإذا وقع بعد ذلك – Will it be after it has come to pass… vs. Once it happens afterward…
20 – ثم أنتم هؤلاء vs. وها أنتم الآن – Then you are these people… vs. And here you are now…
21 – ها أنتم أولاء vs. انظروا كيف – Here you are, those ones… vs. Look how…
22 – ومن قبل ما فرطتم vs. وقد فرطتم قبل ذلك – Even before you neglected… vs. You had already fallen short before that…
23 – وما كان لكم أن vs. لا يجوز لكم أن – It was not for you to… vs. It is not permissible for you to…
24 – ما يكون لي أن vs. لا يجوز لي أن – It is not for me to… vs. It is not allowed for me to…
25 – وكاين من نبي vs. وكم من نبي – And how many a prophet… vs. And how many prophets…
26 – إنما ذلكم الشيطان vs. إنه الشيطان – That is only Satan… vs. It is Satan…
27 – أو لما أصابتكم vs. فإذا أصابتكم – Or when it afflicted you… vs. Then if it afflicts you…
28 – ولم يكن الله ليغفر vs. لن يغفر الله – And Allah would not forgive… vs. Allah will not forgive…
29 – ولو أنهم إذ ظلموا vs. ولو أنهم حين ظلموا – If only when they wronged… vs. Even if when they wronged…
30 – فلا وربك لا يؤمنون vs. أقسم إنهم لن يؤمنوا – But no, by your Lord, they will not believe vs. I swear they will not believe
31 – إلا تنفروا vs. إن لم تنفروا – If you do not go forth… vs. If you do not march out…
32 – هل لك إلى أن vs. أدعوك إلى أن – Would you like to… vs. Shall I invite you to…

Naturally, the number of new constructions is less than the number of expressions. Constructions, as we mentioned, are based on limited tools and particles, even with the Quran’s astonishing renewal and expansion of them. Expressions, on the other hand, are based on verbs and nouns, which are too numerous to count.

To make this clearer, let’s stop at twenty examples of new Quran;s constructions, chosen randomly. We will place them in their original verse contexts, then provide their meanings, to help you gauge the shock they would have caused in the ears of the Arabs when first heard.

1 – “وَلَوْ أَنَّ لَنَا كَرَّةً” – “If only we had a second chance” (al-Baqarah 2:167)
2 – “وَلَهُمْ فِيهَا مَا تَشْتَهِي أَنفُسُهُمْ” – “They will have in it whatever their souls desire” (al-Anbiya 21:102)
3 – “هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ” – “They will remain in it forever” (al-Baqarah 2:25)
4 – “وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ” – “And when We said to the angels…” (al-Baqarah 2:34)
5 – “ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ” – “That is because they used to disbelieve in the signs of Allah” (al-Baqarah 2:61)
6 – “لَا فَارِضٌ وَلَا بِكْرٌ عَوَانٌ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ” – “Neither old nor young, but in between” (al-Baqarah 2:68)
7 – “إِنَّهُ كَانَ وَعْدُهُ مَأْتِيًّا” – “His promise is always certain to come” (Maryam 19:61)
8 – “حَتَّىٰ إِذَا بَلَغَتِ التَّرَاقِيَ” – “Until it reaches the collarbones” (al-Qiyamah 75:26)
9 – “إِلَّا أَن تَأْتِيَهُمْ سُنَّةُ الْأَوَّلِينَ” – “Until there comes to them the pattern of those who passed before” (al-Kahf 18:55)
10 – “لَمَّا آتَيْتُكُم… لَتُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ” – “If I give you… you must believe in him” (Aal Imran 3:81)
11 – “وَلَوْ تَرَىٰ إِذْ يَتَوَفَّى” – “If only you could see when the angels take their souls” (al-An‘am 6:93)
12 – “أَلَا سَاءَ مَا يَزِرُونَ” – “How evil is what they bear” (al-An‘am 6:31)
13 – “فَلَوْلَا إِذْ جَاءَهُم بَأْسُنَا” – “Why did they not humble themselves when Our punishment came to them?” (al-An‘am 6:43)
14 – “ثُمَّ إِذَا أَنتُم بَشَرٌ تَنتَشِرُونَ” – “Then suddenly you become humans spreading around” (al-Mu’minun 23:79)
15 – “إِذَا لَهُم مَّكْرٌ فِي آيَاتِنَا” – “Then, suddenly, they plotted against Our signs” (an-Naml 27:48)
16 – “هَل لَّكَ إِلَىٰ أَن تَزَكَّىٰ” – “Would you like to be purified?” (an-Nazi‘at 79:18)
17 – “وَأَنتَ عَنْهَا غَافِلٌ” – “You are heedless of it” (Sad 38:26)
18 – “وَاجْعَل لَّنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ سُلْطَانًا” – “Grant us from Yourself an authority” (an-Nisa 4:75)
19 – “أَوَلَوْ كَانَ الشَّيْطَانُ لَهُمْ وَلِيًّا” – “Even if Satan was their ally?” (al-A‘raf 7:30)
20 – “أَئِنَّا لَفِي خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ” – “Will we truly be in a new creation?” (as-Sajdah 32:10)

Did you enjoy this linguistic journey? Have you realised that most of these constructions remain exclusive to the Quran even today? That they are almost impossible to replicate in our ordinary written or spoken Arabic, no matter how varied our styles are? The same can be said about expressions in the Qur’an too.

Quran’s Expression

An expression is built from a relationship between two or more words usually nouns or verbs. This relationship may be direct or may involve the use of particles or prepositions. As mentioned before, expressions are more frequent in the Quran than constructions. Most consist of two or three words, sometimes four, and may contain particles in between. A single word cannot constitute an expression unless it is composed of multiple elements (like attached pronouns or particles).

The new expressions in the Quran are extremely numerous there is hardly a verse that doesn’t contain at least one. We can grasp their frequency by simply looking through a small random sample from limited pages of the Quran:

1 – بادئ الرأي – Bādiya ar-raʾy – At first glance / At first thought
2 – عميت عليكم – ʿUmiyat ʿalaykum – It was hidden from you / You were blinded to it
3 – فلا تبتئس – Fa-lā tabtaʾis – So do not be distressed / Do not grieve
4 – كان في معزل – Kāna fī maʿzilin – He was in isolation / seclusion
5 – اعترك بسوء – Iʿtarāka bi-sūʾ – Evil befell you / You were afflicted with harm
6 – أوجس منهم خيفة – Awjasa minhum khīfah – He felt fear from them inwardly
7 – هذا بيان للناس – Hādhā bayānun li-n-nās – This is a clear message for the people
8 – من فورهم هذا – Min fawrihim hādhā – Immediately / Without delay
9 – ولا تلون على أحد – Wa lā talwūna ʿalā aḥadin – And you did not turn to look at anyone
10 – ضاق بهم ذرعاً – Ḍāqa bihim dharʿan – They were greatly distressed / Overwhelmed
11 – يوم عصيب – Yawmun ʿaṣīb – A difficult day / A hard day
12 – اتخذتموه وراءكم ظهريّاً – Ittakhadhtumūhu warāʾakum ẓihriyyan – You cast it behind your backs in disregard
13 – اعملوا على مكانتكم – Iʿmalū ʿalā makānatikum – Act according to your position / Do as you please
14 – الآن حصحص الحق – Al-ān ḥaṣḥaṣa al-ḥaqq – Now the truth has become clear
15 – إلا بشق الأنفس – Illā bi-shiqqi al-anfus – Except with great difficulty / Only with exhaustion
16 – فألقوا السلم – Fa-alqaw as-silm – So they offered peace / submitted
17 – المثل الأعلى – Al-mathalu al-aʿlā – The highest example / loftiest comparison
18 – شرح بالكفر صدراً – Sharaḥa bi-l-kufri ṣadran – Whose heart is open to disbelief
19 – بالتي هي أحسن – Bi-l-latī hiya aḥsan – With what is best / in the best manner
20 – تولى كبره – Tawallā kibrahu – He took the lead in it / bore its burden
21 – ليس عليكم جناح – Laysa ʿalaykum junāḥ – There is no blame upon you
22 – دعوا ثبوراً – Daʿaw thubūran – They cried out for destruction / ruin
23 – هباء منثوراً – Habāʾan manthūrā – Scattered dust / particles dispersed
24 – تحية وسلاماً – Taḥiyyatan wa salāman – A greeting and peace
25 – صديق حميم – Ṣadīqin ḥamīm – An intimate friend / close companion
26 – ما ينبغي لهم – Mā yanbaghī lahum – It is not suitable / appropriate for them
27 – وقع القول عليهم – Waqaʿa al-qawlu ʿalayhim – The word (of punishment) came into effect upon them
28 – بلغ أشده – Balagha ashuddahu – He reached his full strength / maturity
29 – خائفاً يترقب – Khāʾifan yatarabbaṣ – Afraid and watchful / apprehensive
30 – خير وأبقى – Khayrun wa abqā – Better and more lasting
31 – قد أوتيت سؤلك – Qad ūtiyta suʾlaka – You have been granted your request
32 – يرجع بعضهم إلى بعض القول – Yarjiʿu baʿḍuhum ilā baʿḍin al-qawl – They will turn to one another with words / discussing among themselves
33 – جزاء الضعف – Jazāʾa aḍ-ḍiʿf – Double the recompense / punishment
34 – مثنى وفرادى – Mathnā wa furādā – In pairs and singly
35 – مثنى وثلاث ورباع – Mathnā wa thulātha wa rubāʿa – In twos, threes, and fours
36 – يبدي ويعيد – Yubdī wa yuʿīd – He originates and repeats / brings back
37 – أنّى لهم التناوش – Annā lahumu at-tanāwush – How can they reach it now? / How can they grasp it from afar?
38 – عذب فرات – ʿAdhbun furāt – Sweet and fresh (water)
39 – ملح أجاج – Milḥun ujāj – Salty and bitter (water)
40 – ما يملكون من قطمير – Mā yamlikūna min qaṭmīr – They do not possess even the thin skin of a date seed
41 – يوم القيامة – Yawm al-qiyāmah – The Day of Resurrection
42 – ولا ينبئك مثل خبير – Wa lā yunabbiʾuka mithla khabīr – None informs you like the All-Aware
43 – سراً وعلانية – Sirrā wa ʿalāniyah – In secret and in public
44 – دار المقامة – Dāru al-muqāmah – The home of permanence / final abode
45 – ذات الصدور – Dhāti aṣ-ṣudūr – Knower of the hearts / possessor of the inner selves
46 – طمسنا على أعينهم – Ṭamasnā ʿalā aʿyunihim – We blinded their eyes / covered their vision
47 – قاصرات الطرف – Qāṣirātu aṭ-ṭarf – Restrained in gaze / modest in look
48 – ولات حين مناص – Wa lāta ḥīna manāṣ – And it is no longer time to escape
49 – وعزّني في الخطاب – Wa ʿazzanī fī al-khiṭāb – And he overwhelmed me in argument / was forceful in speech
50 – رجلاً سلماً لرجل – Rajulan salaman li-rajul – A man completely surrendered to another
51 – آسفونا – Āsafūnā – They angered us / caused us grief
52 – فتولى بركنه – Fa-tawallā bi-ruknih – So he turned away in pride / withdrew with arrogance
53 – إنك بأعيننا – Innaka bi-aʿyuninā – You are under Our watchful eyes
54 – سدرة المنتهى – Sidratu al-muntahā – The Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary
55 – يحلفون على الكذب – Yaḥlifūna ʿalā al-kadhib – They swear upon falsehood
56 – ناشئة الليل – Nāshiʾatu al-layl – The rising of the night / early night hours
57 – أشد وطئاً – Ashaddu waṭʾan – More impactful / firmer in impression
58 – أقوم قيلاً – Aqwamu qīlan – More upright in speech / more just in word
59 – سبحاً طويلاً – Sabḥan ṭawīlan – A lengthy striving / prolonged effort

Now let us stop with another 25 selected expressions, most of which remain exclusive to the  idiom, although a few have found their way into everyday speech. After each, we again ask the same four questions as before:

• Would I ever say this in my own way?
• Have I seen it in pre-Islamic poetry or prose?
• If someone else said it, would I recognise it as being from the Qur’an?
• Could I, by chance, come up with it myself?

1 – تصريف الرياح – Taṣrīf ar-riyāḥ – “Turning and directing the winds”
2 – تقطعت بهم الأسباب – Taqaṭṭaʿat bihimu al-asbāb – “All means failed them”
3 – في شقاق بعيد – Fī shiqāqin baʿīd – “In deep opposition”
4 – الرفث إلى نسائكم – Ar-rafathu ilā nisāʾikum – “Sexual contact with your wives”
5 – أخذته العزة بالإثم – Akhadhathu al-ʿizzatu bi-l-ithm – “Pride led him to persist in sin”
6 – خاوية على عروشها – Khāwiyatan ʿalā ʿurūshihā – “Collapsed upon its foundations”
7 – على شفا حفرة – ʿAlā shafā ḥufrah – “On the edge of a pit”
8 – من عزم الأمور – Min ʿazmi al-umūr – “Of matters requiring resolve”
9 – وأحضرت الأنفس الشح – Wa uḥḍirat al-anfusu ash-shuḥ – “And greed is ever-present in the soul”
10 – وسوسة نفسه – Waswasa nafsahu – “He lost his senses”
11 – هدنا إليك – Hudnā ilayka – “We returned to You”
12 – أرأيتم – Araʾaytakum – “Tell me, what if…?”
13 – وأكاد أخفيها – Wa akādu ukhfīhā – “It is nearly hidden”
14 – حتى تكون حرضاً – Ḥattā takūna ḥaraḍan – “Until you are on the brink of ruin”
15 – فاصدع بما تؤمر – Faṣdaʿ bimā tuʾmar – “Proclaim what you are commanded”
16 – حمأ مسنون – Ḥamaʾun masnūn – “A sticky black mud”
17 – قصد السبيل – Qaṣada as-sabīl – “He sought the right path”
18 – إلى أجل مسمى – Ilā ajalin musamman – “Until a set time”
19 – من بين يديه – Min bayni yadayhi – “Before him” (past or future)
20 – من خلفه – Min khalfihi – “Behind him” (future or past)
21 – خلت من قبلكم – Khalat min qablikum – “Passed away before you”
22 – مجمع البحرين – Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn – “Where the two seas meet”
23 – أرذل العمر – Ardha li-l-ʿumur – “The most decrepit age”
24 – فأجمعوا أمركم – Fa-ajmiʿū amrakum – “Decide firmly among yourselves”
25 – فأدركتم فيها – Fa-adāraktum fīhā – “Then you turned on one another in it”

It is clear that the impression left by this list of expressions differs from that of the constructions. Expressions have always had a greater ability to seep into our language than constructions, because constructions resemble full structures and rely more on grammatical connectors, which are fewer and harder to imitate.

Expressions, on the other hand, are built more from nouns and verbs and the rich world of meanings between them making them more flexible and more likely to be borrowed or reused.

Still, most of the Qur’ans constructions and expressions remain too unique, too elevated, too strong to be absorbed by our formal or spoken language. They remain protected from being imitated just like the broader phrasing (sabikah).

Yet some expressions and even some constructions have entered our common vocabulary to the point that we nearly forget their Quran’s origins. 

And many more expressions and constructions remain candidates for entry into our language if only we learned to open our language more fully to the influence of the Quran.

The New Structure of Imagery In The Qur’an

The renewal introduced by the Quran in its expression did not stop at the level of language it went beyond that into the realm of rhetoric, introducing new dimensions to the structure of imagery and the relationships between its components that had never been known before. The Quran created forms of rhetorical expression that the Arabs had no precedent for, and which they were never able to imitate in their poetry or prose.

Imagery is a fundamental element of poetry when it is absent, poetry is nearly stripped of its poetic essence. Because the Quran was full of new artistic images, this became one of the key reasons the polytheists accused it of being poetry and labelled the Prophet ﷺ as a poet.

The Domination of Jahiliyyah Imagery Over Poetry

Before the revelation of the Qur’an, arab poets used to recycle the same metaphors and images. When one poet admired another’s image, he would borrow it, reshape it, and cast it in new poetic form or even keep it exactly as it was.

This influence of pre-Islamic imagery continued for many centuries in Arabic poetry, and even seeped into some modern poets and writers, and into the general speech and imagination of ordinary people.

So, in their praise of kings and princes, and in the metaphors and similes they used to describe them, or in their depictions of beloved women and descriptions of their features, or their portrayals of nature its stones, animals, and plants, and the flood of imagery it stirred in their minds all of this formed a fixed visual lexicon for the Arabic language, rarely expanded upon by poets or enriched with new material.

These images were drawn from a limited Arab environment: the brave was a lion, the coward an ostrich, the generous a sea, the miser a barren desert, the resentful a camel, the glutton a elephant, the wise a mountain, the beautiful a sun or moon, the noble a star, the lowly a hand, the reckless a butterfly, the gentle a lamb, the stubborn a beetle, the proud a peacock, the sly a fox, the harsh iron or stone. Hair was night, grey hair was day, the beloved’s teeth were pearls, her mouth a ring or a daisy, her lips red carnelian, her cheeks roses or apples, her tears pearls, her fingers jujube, her eyes narcissus, her figure a spear, her smile a daisy, her forehead the morning, her eyebrows a bow, and her sideburns either scorpions or clubs… and so on.

The Quran’s New Visual Lexicon

The Quran rose above these many inherited images, ignored them, and removed them from its expressive register. It introduced instead its own distinctive rhetorical lexicon filled with new imagery.

Just as it abandoned traditional linguistic constructions, it completely abandoned all well-known and lesser-known traditional metaphors found in the vast corpus of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. We almost never indeed, never find them in the Quran.

More importantly, the Quran introduced a radical revolution in the artistic structure of imagery itself. It stunned the Arabs with types of relationships between the elements of an image that were far more advanced, more intricate, and more layered than anything they had previously encountered relationships that outpaced their time by great distances.

Whereas imagery before Islam was limited in type, quantity, imagination, and the nature of its internal relations and was almost entirely confined to poetry, not prose the Quran broke out of all of these constraints.

The images were no longer the same, their dimensions no longer the same, nor were their components what they used to be. With this, the Quran carried the Arab imagination into a new era and confronted them, all at once, with an entirely new world of imagery never known to their poetry or prose in either form or function.

Try to slowly enjoy, reflect on, and feel with your own imagination and sensitivity. You will see that most of them lie beyond the reach of traditional rhetorical rules. They resist being measured by classical norms or analysed within the bounds of inherited theory:

“Then how patient they are with the Fire!” فما أصبرهم على النار (al-Baqara: 175)

“They are a garment for you and you are a garment for them” هن لباس لكم وأنتم لباس لهن (al-Baqara: 187)

“They ask you what they should spend. Say: what is surplus” ويسألونك ماذا ينفقون قل العفو (al-Baqara: 219)

“Your women are a field for you, so go to your field as you please” نساؤكم حرث لكم فأتوا حرثكم أنى شئتم (al-Baqara: 223)

“You would not take it unless you closed your eyes to it” ولستم بآخذيه إلا أن تغمضوا فيه (al-Baqara: 267)

“Humiliation was struck upon them wherever they were found, except with a rope from Allah and a rope from the people” ضربت عليهم الذلة أين ما ثقفوا إلا بحبل من الله وحبل من الناس (Aal Imran: 112)

“So do not incline completely [to one], leaving her like the suspended one” فلا تميلوا كل الميل فتذروها كالمعلقة (an-Nisa: 129)

“Wavering in between, belonging neither to these nor to those” مذبذبين بين ذلك لا إلى هؤلاء ولا إلى هؤلاء (an-Nisa: 143)

“Their example is like that of a dog: if you chase it, it pants; and if you leave it, it still pants” فمثله كمثل الكلب إن تحمل عليه يلهث أو تتركه يلهث (al-Aʿraf: 176)

“And you wished that the unarmed party would be yours” وتودون أن غير ذات الشوكة تكون لكم (al-Anfal: 7)

“Know that Allah comes between a person and their heart” واعلموا أن الله يحول بين المرء وقلبه (al-Anfal: 24)

“Do not dispute, or you will fail and your wind will be lost” ولا تنازعوا فتفشلوا وتذهب ريحكم (al-Anfal: 46)

“Satan beautified their deeds for them” وزين لهم الشيطان أعمالهم (al-Anfal: 48)

“If they incline to peace, then incline to it” وإن جنحوا للسلم فاجنح لها (al-Anfal: 61)

“They please you with their mouths, but their hearts refuse” يرضونكم بأفواههم وتأبى قلوبهم (at-Tawba: 8)

“The wealth you have acquired” وأموال اقترفتموها (at-Tawba: 24)

“He made the word of the disbelievers the lowest, and the word of Allah the highest” وجعل كلمة الذين كفروا السفلى وكلمة الله هي العليا (at-Tawba: 40)

“Their hearts doubted, so they wavered in their doubt” ﴿وارتابت قلوبهم فهم في ريبهم يترددون﴾ (at-Tawba: 45)

“You plunged as those before you plunged” وخضتم كالذي خاضوا (at-Tawba: 69)

“Their deeds were nullified” أولئك حبطت أعمالهم (at-Tawba: 69)

“A seal was placed upon their hearts” وطبع على قلوبهم (at-Tawba: 87)

“Then when the earth took on its decoration and was adorned, and its people thought they had power over it, Our command came to it by night or day and We made it as if mown” حتى إذا أخذت الأرض زخرفها وازينت وظن أهلها أنهم قادرون عليها أتاها أمرنا ليلاً أو نهاراً فجعلناها حصيداً (Yunus: 24)

“Then will come seven harsh years that will consume what you have saved for them” ثم يأتي من بعد ذلك سبع شداد يأكلن ما قدمتم لهن (Yusuf: 48)

“A covering from the punishment of Allah” غاشية من عذاب الله (Yusuf: 107)

“Say: be stones or iron, or any creation you think is greater” قل كونوا حجارة أو حديداً. أو خلقاً مما يكبر في صدوركم (al-Isra: 50–51)

“Say: Truth has come, and falsehood has vanished. Indeed, falsehood is bound to vanish” وقل جاء الحق وزهق الباطل إن الباطل كان زهوقا (al-Isra: 81)

“Do not keep your hand tied to your neck” ولا تجعل يدك مغلولة إلى عنقك (al-Isra: 29)

“My head has flared white with grey” واشتعل الرأس شيباً (Maryam: 4)

“He made the night as clothing, sleep for rest, and the day for rising”
وهو الذي جعل لكم الليل لباساً والنوم سباتاً وجعل النهار نشوراً (al-Furqan: 47)

“The word fell upon them because of what they did”
ووقع القول عليهم بما ظلموا (an-Naml: 85)

“We made the night for rest and the day to see”
وجعلنا الليل ليسكنوا فيه والنهار مبصراً (an-Naml: 86)

“Had We not tied her heart”
لولا أن ربطنا على قلبها (al-Qasas: 10)

“The example of those who take allies other than Allah is like the spider who builds a house. And the weakest of houses is the house of the spider”
مثل الذين اتخذوا من دون الله أولياء كمثل العنكبوت اتخذت بيتاً وإن أوهن البيوت لبيت العنكبوت (al-ʿAnkabut: 41)

“He struck for you a parable from yourselves…”
ضرب لكم مثلاً من أنفسكم (ar-Rum: 28)

“You cannot make the dead hear, nor make the deaf hear the call when they turn away fleeing”
فإنك لا تسمع الموتى ولا تسمع الصم الدعاء إذا ولوا مدبرين (ar-Rum: 52)

And so on, through a rich, varied tapestry of images.

Many rhetoricians were left perplexed when confronted with this astonishing reservoir of images, realising that it exceeded the bounds of their inherited theories many of which were borrowed from Aristotle. That is why we find them referencing poetry far more than Quran verses in their rhetorical books: poetry conformed more readily to Aristotelian standards, while Quran’s imagery did not.

The sheer volume of rhetorical devices what is sometimes referred to as badiʿ within the Quran alone surpassed what was known in any form of literature, whether poetry or prose. They would sometimes discover tens of rhetorical features in a single verse. Listen, for example, to what Ibn Abi al-Asbaʿ said according to al-Suyuti about a single verse:

“I have never seen speech like the saying of Allah:
‘O earth, swallow your water, and O sky, withhold’
يا أرض ابلعي ماءك ويا سماء أقلعي (Hud: 44).
It contains twenty types of rhetorical artistry in just seventeen words.”

The Linguistic Structures of the Quran

In the first part of this study, Dr Saeh presented numerous examples of the fixed linguistic patterns or expressive frameworks that governed Arabic literature, both its poetry and its prose.

These structures were followed by poets and orators alike and passed down through generations in their various forms of expression. So many verses in our Arabic poetic heritage begin with these familiar openings, which echo repeatedly throughout ancient and even at times modern poetry:

ومن يَكُ ذا…
(And whoever is…)

ألا ليت شعري هل…
(Oh, if only I knew whether…)

ألا انعم صباحاً أيها الربع…
(A peaceful morning to you, O deserted campsite…)

ولا عيب فيهم غير…
(And there is no fault in them except…)

خليلي مرا بي…
(My two companions, pass by me…)

أمن آل أسماء الطلول الدوارس…
(Are these the faded ruins from the family of Asma…)

يا صاحبي تلوما…
(My two friends, do you blame me…)

ودع أمامة…
(Leave Umamah…)

أهاجَكَ من أسماء رسم المنازل…
(Have the traces of dwellings stirred you because of Asma…)

أمن ذكر سلمى…
(Is it the memory of Salma…)

لمن طلل بين الجديّة…
(To whom belongs the campsite between al-Judayyah…)

ألا أيّها اللائم…
(O you who blame me…)

When one of these expressive structures appeared in the lines of an early poet like al-Muraqqish al-Akbar (d. 72 BH), such as in his use of the phrase “أم أنت غالب” (Or are you prevailing?) which includes the conjunction أم (or) followed by the independent pronoun أنت (you) and an active participle on the pattern فاعل in the line:

أغالبك القلب اللجوج صبابةً
وشوقاً إلى أسماء أم أنت غالب؟
(I wrestle with my stubborn heart out of longing and desire for Asma or are you the one prevailing?)

you find this precise structure passed from poet to poet after him in an astonishingly literal way. The expression preserves the exact form of the participle فاعل, just as it appeared in the original line. Later poets, both before and after Islam, continued to replicate this mould:

أتُنكرُ رسمَ الدارِ أم أنتَ عارفٌ
ألا لا، بل العرفانُ، فالدمعُ دارفُ
(Do you deny the trace of the home, or are you one who knows it?
No, rather it is familiarity, for the tears are flowing.)
– Hudbah ibn al-Khashram (d. 50 BH)

أبكرٌ أم أنتَ العشيّةَ رائحٌ
وفي الصدرِ من إضماركَ الحزنُ قادحُ
(Is it early morning, or are you the one leaving at dusk?
And within your chest, the hidden grief ignites.)
– Waraqah ibn Nawfal (d. 11 BH)

هل أنتَ مُحْتٍي الرّبعَ أم أنتَ سائِلٌ
بحيثُ أحالتْ في الركاءِ سوائلُه
(Are you the one visiting the campsite, or are you the one inquiring
where the streams have altered its shape in the lowlands?)
– Tamim ibn Abi Muqbil (d. 37 AH)

Then the Quran came and overturned all of these traditional expressive patterns completely. It introduced its own unique constructions, marked by a distinct structure that, as we have demonstrated, can be found in almost every verse. And yet, despite their internal consistency and coherence, these patterns remain impossible to imitate.

This impossibility is something each of us can experience personally. Try selecting a verse at random, then attempt to replace its words with ones of your own. You will quickly find that the result is either a sentence so awkward that it provokes laughter, or a statement that clearly reveals especially to any listener that the speaker has simply dressed human language in a framework that is not human in origin.

It is enough to examine just the first three verses of this surah. In them, we can identify no fewer than six new structural forms none of which have an equivalent in our formal written or everyday spoken Arabic.

None of us today could compose a sentence that matches them in grammatical or structural form without it becoming ridiculous, even if we tried to preserve the syntax and only replace the vocabulary.

Let us test this using the first structure in these three verses:

“الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ فَاطِرِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ جَاعِلِ الْمَلَائِكَةِ رُسُلًا أُولِي أَجْنِحَةٍ مَثْنَى وَثُلَاثَ وَرُبَاعَ”
(Praise belongs to Allah, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Maker of the angels as messengers, possessing wings two, and three, and four.)

Now try to replicate it with a human sentence of equal form, like:

“Glory be to the artist, designer of maps and paintings, who gives characters to beings of two types, and three, and four.”

Here, we are already forced to rely on familiar, common vocabulary two types, three, four in place of the original, fresh, and uniquely coined expressions “مَثْنَى وَثُلَاثَ وَرُبَاعَ”, which were unknown to pre-Islamic Arabs in this precise usage.

You are welcome to now try your skill with the remaining five constructions from the first three verses of the surah or indeed from any of the unique constructions throughout this surah and the rest of the Quran. Consider, for example:

“إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ”
(Indeed, Allah is powerful over all things.)

“مَا يَفْتَحِ اللَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ مِن رَّحْمَةٍ فَلَا مُمْسِكَ لَهَا”
(Whatever mercy Allah opens up for people, none can withhold it.)

“يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ”
(O people, remember the favour of Allah upon you.)

“هَلْ مِنْ خَالِقٍ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ”
(Is there any creator other than Allah who provides for you from the sky and the earth?)

“لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ”
(There is no god but He so how are you deluded?)

At first glance, the first of these may seem like a fairly ordinary sentence, not unlike our own expressive patterns. Someone may challenge the claim here and try to imitate it with a sentence such as: “Indeed, the government is powerful over all things.”

But it quickly becomes clear to them and to any ordinary listener, that this is not a natural expression in our spoken or written language. Whoever hears it will immediately feel that the speaker has departed from familiar human patterns. He may be using ordinary human vocabulary, but he has placed it within a structure that doesn’t belong to it, a structure with a Quran-like rhythm and arrangement. The use of the word “قديرة” (powerful, feminine form), for example, feels completely alien in this context. A natural sentence would instead be:

“The government is capable of everything”
“إن الحكومة قادرة على كل شيء”

using the more typical participle قادرة (capable) and placing the prepositional phrase على كل شيء (over all things) in its expected position after the predicate.