In Mabāḥith fī Iʿjāz al-Qur’ān by Dr. Muṣṭafā Muslim, he says that the Quran possesses a unique style that cannot be compared to any form of Arab expression, whether poetry, prose, or ordinary speech.
Style refers to the way words are selected and arranged, and the Quran’s style is unlike anything known to the Arabs, to the point that even eloquent poets such as Anīs testified that it did not belong to poetry or soothsaying.
He outlines several features of this style.
First, the Quran has flexibility and depth, offering guidance for ordinary people through promises and warnings, while also addressing thinkers with profound wisdom about creation, the universe, and existence. It speaks effectively to people of every age, remaining fresh and powerful even as human language evolves.
Second, the Quran employs vivid imagery that brings meaning to life. He gives the example of disbelievers being described as frightened donkeys fleeing a lion (al-Muddaththir 49–51), idols portrayed as powerless before even a fly (al-Hajj 73), and the scenes of the Day of Judgement depicted with overwhelming detail that stirs the emotions (al-Zumar 67–75).
Another feature is the Quran’s unique method of reasoning and argument. It can move seamlessly between tones of legislation, rebuke, forgiveness, supplication, and explanation of cosmic realities.
The verses about the captives of Badr (al-Anfal 67–69) begin with strong reproach but end with approval, something no human speech could combine in such a balanced manner. The Quran also builds arguments from simple human experiences, such as birth, farming, rain, fire, and death (al-Waqiʿah 57–74), elevating these familiar realities into proofs of great universal truths.
Dr. Muslim also notes that the Quran speaks to innate human experience, which is shared across times and places. Its style, like the universe itself, originates from Allah. Just as humans cannot create existence from nothing, they cannot produce a style like the Quran.
This was recognised by the Arabs themselves, who were masters of eloquence. Those who attempted imitation, such as Musaylimah, produced absurd and shallow speech, exposing its human origin. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq made clear that such imitations bore the obvious mark of human weakness and could never resemble the words of Allah.
The overall point is that the Quran’s style demonstrates its divine source. The distance between its composition and human speech is the same as the distance between the Creator and creation, confirming that it cannot be imitated.
Translation:
The Unique Style of the Quran
In language, the word style (uslub) is used to mean a long road. It is also used for a row of palm trees. Style can mean the road, the way, or the approach. It can also mean the method. It is said: so and so has taken up many styles of speech, meaning many varieties of it.
In the terminology of the scholars of rhetoric, style is the way of choosing words and arranging them to express meanings with the purpose of clarity and influence. Or it is the verbal expressions arranged to convey meanings.
The style of the Quran is its own way that is unique in how it composes its speech and chooses its words (Manahil al-Irfan by al-Zurqani 2/199). The scholars of old and later times agreed that the Quran has its own style that is different from the styles of the Arabs in writing, preaching, and composition.
The eloquent Arabs understood this difference in the style of the Quran from other forms of speech. Imam Muslim narrated in his Sahih that Anis, the brother of Abu Dharr, said to Abu Dharr: I met a man in Makkah who is upon your religion and he claims that Allah sent him. I asked: what do the people say about him? He said: they say, a poet, a soothsayer, a magician. Anis was one of the poets. Anis said: I have heard the words of the soothsayers, and his words are not like theirs. I measured his words against the meters of poetry, and no tongue after me was able to make it fit into poetry. By Allah, he is truthful and they are liars. (Sahih Muslim 2437a)
The scholars highlighted features of the style of the Quran that are unique to it. From these features are the following:
Flexibility and openness in interpretation.
In the style of the Quran, there is flexibility in interpretation and adaptability for many reflections in a way that no other style can match. This flexibility does not allow for clashing or contradictory opinions, but rather a flexibility that makes it broad in meaning like a spring that many visitors crowd upon, and all leave quenched and satisfied.
The style of the Quran soothes the hearts of the common people and suffices the elite. Its outward meaning guides the masses and fills their souls with encouragement and warning, with beauty that captures hearts in its expressions and images.
Its inner depth satisfies the hunger of philosophers for more wisdom and reflection. It unravels the great knots for them about the beginning of the universe, its end, its system, the precision of its creation, and its wondrous design.
This flexibility is one of the reasons for the everlastingness of the Quran. The Arabic styles over fourteen centuries have been altered and coloured in expression and thought, yet the Quran has remained everlasting with its unique style and special features, renewing with the ages, with its impact remaining profound across the generations until this day and until Allah inherits the earth and all upon it.
The style of the Quran was not difficult to understand for the Arabs among whom it was revealed, even though they had only their natural instinct and fine sense of beauty.
Those who came after them from among the people of knowledge and thought also understood it and interacted with it. Leaders of different sects understood it too in their ways of interpretation. Modern sciences have confirmed many of its truths that were hidden from earlier people, and with Allah is the knowledge of what is to come.
The speech of people does not hold all of that, not even part of it. The more specific a human text is in meaning, the closer it is to eloquence.
However one turns it, it will show only one face and one attribute, because eloquence in human speech is only clear explanation, and this cannot be clear except with a fixed meaning, and that meaning is restricted to its immediate purpose.
The scholars of the Salaf, may Allah be pleased with them, understood the noble verses:
“أيحسب الإنسان أن لن نجمع عظامه بلى قادرين على أن نسوي بنانه”
“Does man think that We will not assemble his bones? Yes indeed, We are able to shape his very fingertips” (al-Qiyamah: 3-4).
“والأرض بعد ذلك دحاها”
“And after that He spread out the earth” (al-Nazi‘at: 30).
They understood these verses differently from how later scholars understood them after the development of medical and astronomical sciences. It is not far from correct to say that time is the best interpreter of the Quran, because the Quran is the everlasting book for humanity that no generation can exhaust in uncovering its treasures of knowledge, wisdom, and truths.
The Quran’s style being reliant on imagery in expression.
From the clear features of the style of the Quran is its reliance on imagery to express meanings and ideas it intends to clarify, whether they are abstract ideas, ancient stories, or scenes of the Day of Judgement, and other fields.
The style of the Quran transports its reciter into the atmosphere of the image as if he sees before him the detailed features of a living scene. No doubt that the idea or meaning intended is closer to understanding and clearer in the mind than if it had been conveyed without these living images.
For example:
A. The meaning of strong aversion to the call of faith. If we try to express this idea in abstract words, we might say: they greatly turn away from the call to faith. The mind alone would understand this in a cold and still way.
But look at how the Quran portrays this meaning in this striking image:
“فما لهم عن التذكرة معرضين كأنهم حمر مستنفرة فرت من قسورة”
“So what is the matter with them that they turn away from the reminder, as if they were frightened donkeys fleeing from a lion” (al-Muddaththir: 49-51).
Here, the mind shares with the sense of sight, the power of imagination, the feeling of ridicule, and the sense of beauty. Ridicule of those who flee like wild donkeys fleeing from a lion, just because they are called to faith. Beauty is found in the moving image when imagination pictures wild donkeys being chased by a lion. This expression moves the feelings of the reader and makes his soul react to the image, while within it lies scorn for the rejecters.
B. The meaning of the incapacity of the idols worshipped by the polytheists besides Allah. This could be expressed in simple abstract words, like saying: what you worship besides Allah cannot create even the smallest thing. The mind receives this as a dull meaning.
But the Quran’s expression portrays it like this:
“يا أيها الناس ضرب مثل فاستمعوا له إن الذين تدعون من دون الله لن يخلقوا ذبابا ولو اجتمعوا له وإن يسلبهم الذباب شيئا لا يستنقذوه منه ضعف الطالب والمطلوب”
“O people, a parable is set forth, so listen to it. Those whom you call besides Allah will never create a fly, even if they gathered together for it. And if the fly takes something from them, they cannot recover it from it. Weak are the seeker and the sought” (al-Hajj: 73).
This makes the meaning come alive, showing it in successive moving images. They cannot create a fly. Even if they all gather together for it, they cannot. And if a fly takes something from them, they cannot recover it.
Then comes the judgement: weak are the seeker and the sought. This is the humiliating weakness that provokes sharp ridicule and deep contempt. And this is no exaggeration, nor is the eloquence here mere overstatement. It is a simple truth. These gods cannot create a fly, no matter how many they are. The fly is small and lowly, but the wonder in its creation is the same as in creating a camel or an elephant. The miracle of life is the same in the big and the small.
The miracle is not in creating the huge being, but in creating the tiny living cell. The artistry here is in linking the supposed sacredness of those false gods with something as lowly as the fly. Then not only is this link made, but multitudes are brought together, yet all are helpless before it. Then the image of them chasing after a fly to take back what it has taken, and failing, completes the picture of weakness and disgrace.
C. The meaning of the end of the universe, the reckoning of people for their deeds, the entry of the righteous into Paradise and the evil into Hell, the delight of the people of bliss, and the misery of the people of punishment. These can be understood in abstract form, but they are realities not yet seen. Expressing them in abstract words leaves the idea pale in the mind.
But the Quranic expression puts them in a vivid frame filled with movement, as if the reader lives in their atmosphere, his soul trembling at the horrors, submitting to the power of Allah, longing to join the blessed.
This is a scene of the Day of Judgement:
“وما قدروا الله حق قدره والأرض جميعا قبضته يوم القيامة والسموات مطويات بيمينه سبحانه وتعالى عما يشركون. ونفخ في الصور فصعق من في السماوات ومن في الأرض إلا من شاء الله ثم نفخ فيه أخرى فإذا هم قيام ينظرون. وأشرقت الأرض بنور ربها ووضع الكتاب وجيء بالنبيين والشهداء وقضي بينهم بالحق وهم لا يظلمون. ووفيت كل نفس ما عملت وهو أعلم بما يفعلون. وسيق الذين كفروا إلى جهنم زمرا حتى إذا جاؤوها فتحت أبوابها وقال لهم خزنتها ألم يأتكم رسل منكم يتلون عليكم آيات ربكم وينذرونكم لقاء يومكم هذا قالوا بلى ولكن حقت كلمة العذاب على الكافرين. قيل ادخلوا أبواب جهنم خالدين فيها فبئس مثوى المتكبرين. وسيق الذين اتقوا ربهم إلى الجنة زمرا حتى إذا جاؤوها وفتحت أبوابها وقال لهم خزنتها سلام عليكم طبتم فادخلوها خالدين. وقالوا الحمد لله الذي صدقنا وعده وأورثنا الأرض نتبوأ من الجنة حيث نشاء فنعم أجر العاملين. وترى الملائكة حافين من حول العرش يسبحون بحمد ربهم وقضي بينهم بالحق وقيل الحمد لله رب العالمين”
It is a magnificent and full scene. It begins with movement, then proceeds steadily until all motion ceases, silence falls, and awe and submission cover the space. The scene begins with the whole earth in the grasp of the Almighty, the heavens folded in His right hand.
This is an image that makes the senses tremble and imagination fail. Then comes the first trumpet blast, striking down all living on earth. We do not know how much time passes before the second blast, when suddenly all are standing, looking. Without noise or uproar, creation gathers. Everything in this scene happens in calmness.
Around the Throne of your Lord are angels, and noise does not befit such a place. “And the earth shines with the light of its Lord.” The earth of the gathering, shining with His calm light, almost transparent from the brightness. “And the Book is placed, and the prophets and witnesses are brought.”
All dispute is folded up, and they are judged with truth, none is wronged. “Every soul is recompensed for what it did, and He knows best what they do.” No need for words or raised voices. Thus the reckoning and reward are summed up, for the place is one of awe and majesty.
When the reckoning is complete and destiny is known, each group is led to its abode. “Those who disbelieved are driven to Hell in groups.”
When they arrive, its gates are opened, and its keepers confront them, reminding them of the messengers and the signs. They admit, but the word of punishment has come true. “Enter the gates of Hell to remain therein forever, how evil is the abode of the arrogant.”
And those who feared their Lord are driven to Paradise in groups. When they arrive, its gates are opened, its keepers greet them: “Peace be upon you, you have done well, so enter it to remain forever.” The people of Paradise raise their voices in praise: “Praise be to Allah who fulfilled His promise to us, and made us inherit the land to settle in Paradise wherever we will. Excellent is the reward of the workers.” (al-Zumar 39:67-75)
The scene closes with an ending that fills the soul with majesty: “And you see the angels surrounding the Throne, glorifying the praise of their Lord. And judgement is passed in truth, and it is said: Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.”
The Quranic style’s unique way of argument and reasoning.
The Quran has presented many varieties of speech in arguing with the disbelievers, correcting the deviations of the corrupt, promising its allies, warning its enemies, in ways that humans cannot encompass in such diversity and timing.
The human soul cannot move in moments between such different states, from one extreme to the other, unless the environment allows it. But in the style of the Quran, the movement in different directions occurs in close and successive moments, sometimes immediately following each other.
From a lawgiver legislating constitutions and systems with wisdom and calm, to threats and warnings for those who turn away, to a forgiver accepting the repentance of His servant, to a teacher showing how to call upon Allah with supplications that no mind would think of, to an establisher of great truths of the universe from what people see and know, then raising them gradually to the secrets of Allah’s ways in the universe.
Reflect on His words:
“ما كان لنبي أن يكون له أسرى حتى يثخن في الأرض تريدون عرض الدنيا والله يريد الآخرة والله عزيز حكيم. لولا كتاب من الله سبق لمسكم فيما أخذتم عذاب عظيم. فكلوا مما غنمتم حلالا طيبا واتقوا الله إن الله غفور رحيم”.
“It is not for a prophet to have captives until he has thoroughly subdued the land. You desire the goods of this world, but Allah desires the Hereafter. And Allah is Mighty, Wise. Were it not for a decree from Allah that had already gone forth, you would have been touched by a great punishment for what you took. So eat of what you have taken as booty, lawful and good, and fear Allah. Surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” (al-Anfal 8:67-69)
These verses were revealed after the release of the captives of Badr and accepting ransom from them. They began with disapproval and censure of this action, but soon ended by approving it and making it lawful, even making what was first censured into the basis for what came later.
Could the same human soul that would produce the beginning of this speech also produce its ending, in such closeness of time, moving from anger to approval and delight? If these two thoughts had come from the same soul, the second would have cancelled the first. But here both are recorded.
The approval is kept despite the earlier reprimand, making what was rebuked a permanent rule. Why would anyone describe and record the initial censure, spoiling the pleasure of what is then made lawful?
This is the unique way of the Quran in its style.
What psychologists understand from reading this text is that here we have two separate personalities, and that this is the voice of a master saying to his servant: “You have made a mistake, but I have forgiven you and permitted you.”
One of the distinguishing features of the style of the Quran is its method of reasoning by drawing attention to small events and familiar things that appear minor outwardly, but in reality they are vast truths that correspond to the great matters that the Quran uses them to prove. Reflect on the words of Allah:
نَحْنُ خَلَقْنَاكُمْ فَلَوْلَا تُصَدِّقُونَ، أَفَرَأَيْتُمْ مَا تُمْنُونَ، أَأَنْتُمْ تَخْلُقُونَهُ أَمْ نَحْنُ الْخَالِقُونَ، نَحْنُ قَدَّرْنَا بَيْنَكُمُ الْمَوْتَ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَسْبُوقِينَ، عَلَى أَنْ نُبَدِّلَ أَمْثَالَكُمْ وَنُنْشِئَكُمْ فِي مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ، وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمُ النَّشْأَةَ الْأُولَى فَلَوْلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ، أَفَرَأَيْتُمْ مَا تَحْرُثُونَ، أَأَنْتُمْ تَزْرَعُونَهُ أَمْ نَحْنُ الزَّارِعُونَ، لَوْ نَشَاءُ لَجَعَلْنَاهُ حُطَامًا فَظَلْتُمْ تَفَكَّهُونَ، إِنَّا لَمُغْرَمُونَ بَلْ نَحْنُ مَحْرُومُونَ، أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ الْمَاءَ الَّذِي تَشْرَبُونَ، أَأَنْتُمْ أَنْزَلْتُمُوهُ مِنَ الْمُزْنِ أَمْ نَحْنُ الْمُنْزِلُونَ، لَوْ نَشَاءُ جَعَلْنَاهُ أُجَاجًا فَلَوْلَا تَشْكُرُونَ، أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ النَّارَ الَّتِي تُورُونَ، أَأَنْتُمْ أَنْشَأْتُمْ شَجَرَتَهَا أَمْ نَحْنُ الْمُنْشِئُونَ، نَحْنُ جَعَلْنَاهَا تَذْكِرَةً وَمَتَاعًا لِلْمُقْوِينَ، فَسَبِّحْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الْعَظِيمِ
“We created you, so why do you not believe? Have you seen that which you emit? Do you create it, or are We the Creator?
We decreed death among you, and We are not to be outrun, that We may change your likenesses and produce you in what you do not know. And you have already known the first creation, so why do you not take heed?
Have you seen what you sow? Do you cause it to grow, or are We the Grower? If We willed, We could make it debris, and you would remain in regret, saying, ‘Indeed, we are in debt. Rather, we have been deprived.’ Have you seen the water you drink?
Is it you who bring it down from the clouds, or are We the Bringer? If We willed, We could make it bitter, so why are you not grateful? Have you seen the fire you kindle? Is it you who produce its tree, or are We the Producer? We made it a reminder and a provision for the travellers. So glorify the name of your Lord, the Most Great.” (al-Waqiʿah: 57-74)
Such indications appear repeatedly in the Quran, transforming the ordinary experiences of human beings and their repeated events into vast cosmic issues through which Allah reveals His universal laws.
Through them, the Quran establishes a comprehensive belief and a complete view of existence. It also makes these signs a method of reflection, a source of life for hearts and spirits, and an awakening for senses and feelings.
These phenomena are immense realities, but habit and familiarity dull human senses so they no longer perceive their significance. The human being is a creation of Allah, and the universe around them is from His creative power.
The miracle lies in everything that His hand brings into being. The Quran is His word, and so it draws them to these hidden miracles within themselves and spread out in the cosmos, to these wonders they know but fail to grasp as miracles, because they are heedless of where the miraculous lies within them.
The Quranic style touches them with these successive interrogative reminders to open their eyes to the great secret that is hidden, the secret of Allah’s power and His oneness. It points them back to their original acknowledgement in the covenant of the unseen, when Allah said:
أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ
“Am I not your Lord?” (al-Aʿraf 7:172)
The way the Quran addresses the human nature itself indicates its source. It comes from the same source as the universe. The manner of its construction mirrors the manner in which the universe was constructed, from the simplest elements forming the most complex beings. The Quran takes the simplest human experiences and uses them to build the greatest creed and the widest cosmic view. These are experiences familiar to every human being: reproduction, cultivation, water, fire, and death.
Which human being has not encountered these? Which human, no matter how primitive, has not witnessed a pregnancy, plant growth, a spring of water, a kindled fire, or the death of another?
This uniqueness in the Quranic style proves its divine source, for style is an imprint of the essence behind it.
Skilled writers, when they read a piece of prose or poetry, discern from their literary intuition and refined sense the state of mind of the author during writing. They may even go beyond the lines and extract qualities of his character and personality, judging him as emotional, strong-willed, knowledgeable, spiteful, hypocritical, or otherwise. This is an awareness deeper than the external sciences, which stop at judging style and structure.
If such insight is possible for skilled writers, then the Arabs, whose very life and culture revolved around eloquence, were even more attuned to what lay behind words. With their pure instinct, they could sense the reality of the essence from which a style emerged.
The Arabs who were connoisseurs of eloquence recognised the unique style of the Quran. They knew its uniqueness came from its source, not from human beings but from the Creator Himself. Just as humans cannot create from nothing, they also cannot produce a style that resembles the style of the Quran.
This realisation is what prevented the rational and eloquent among the Arabs from attempting to imitate the Quran. Those who tried became a laughingstock, because they attempted to step outside their human nature to imitate the divine essence.
Imam Ibn Kathir narrated in his Tafsir: “Abu Bakr al-Siddiq asked some of the companions of Musaylimah the Liar, after they had returned to Islam, to recite to him something from the Quran of Musaylimah. They asked him to excuse them, but he refused until they recited some of it so others might hear its falsehood.
They recited: ‘By those that grind, grinding. By those that knead, kneading. By those that bake, baking. By those that eat, eating with fat and butter. Verily, Quraysh are a people who transgress.’ And also: ‘O frog, daughter of two frogs!
Croak as you croak. Half of you in the water, and half of you in the mud. You neither muddy the water nor prevent the drinker.’ And similar nonsense. Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Woe to you! Where were your minds? By Allah, this did not come from a god.”
Abu Bakr perceived, with his refined sense, the psyche from which such words and structures emerged. Their composition bore the mark of a human nature, not of the Creator, the Exalted.
The difference between the noble Quran and human speech is like the difference between the Creator and the creation.
