Expert Highlights ‘Unmatched Literary Miracle’ of the Quran
Forough Parsa, a faculty member at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies in Tehran, spoke on 29 October at a scholarly meeting titled “The Language of the Quran’s Miracle: A Review of Bassam Saeh’s Book.”
She said Muslim scholars have long identified multiple dimensions of the Quran’s miraculous nature, including prophecies such as the victory of the Romans referenced in the verse “Ghulibat al-Rum.”
Parsa quoted Syrian scholar Bassam Saeh, saying: “The doubts and accusations raised in the West about the Quran led me to re-examine my own lifelong reading of it and to emphasize the miraculous aspects of the Quran.”
She explained that the Quran’s miracle has been discussed through various lenses. One, she said, is the Quran’s scientific references, such as “the pairing of plants, the birth of stars, the expanding universe, and gravity,” ideas that gained popularity in the 14th century.
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The literary miracle, she added, is another dimension. Some scholars point to the number and arrangement of words, while others highlight eloquence and rhetoric. “Bint al-Shati stresses that the rhetorical miracle of the Quran is accepted by most scholars,” Parsa noted.
According to Parsa, the book she was reviewing focuses on the Quran’s “miraculous language,” particularly its rhetorical dimension.
She said the Quran has been studied from multiple linguistic perspectives in the modern era. While some view the Quran as a medium of communication, she added, others argue that its language is symbolic—or even a unique form of Arabic specific to the era of revelation.
Parsa said the Quran repeatedly affirms that it was revealed in clear Arabic. “In verse two of Surah Yusuf, God says: We have sent it down as an Arabic Quran so that you may understand,” she said.
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Addressing claims by some Orientalists that the Quran is not Arabic, she said Christian and Western writers had advanced such ideas without credible evidence. “In my book, I showed that their arguments are not logical and, in many cases, they offer no real argument at all,” she stated.
Parsa said Saeh, whose book was originally written in Arabic and later translated into English and Persian, responded extensively to such claims.
Saeh argues that the Quran cannot be reduced to human authorship. “If we say the Quran is the Prophet’s words, then we must assume he possessed absolute genius—and he rejects this idea,” she quoted.
She said Saeh describes the Quran’s linguistic rhythm as timeless and believes that every surah has a distinct structure that does not overlap with others. “We also encounter the miracle at the level of vocabulary,” she said, quoting Saeh.
Parsa concluded by emphasizing one of Saeh’s key metaphors: “The language of the Quran is like an ocean. The deeper you dive, the more unreachable its depths become, and every verse is an undiscovered island filled with signs.”
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