The conditions it was considering were various and different; the groups of those it was addressing were numerous and remote from each other; the aims of its guidance were graded and various.
Its structure, and expositions, and replies, and addresses were based on these foundations. Yet despite this, its smoothness of style and lack of defect, its mutual proportion and harmony, demonstrated its perfection.
Witness to this is that according to the science of rhetoric, the Qur’an has a characteristic not present in other speech: if you listen to other speech, you will see the speaker (or writer) behind it, or you will find him within it. Style is the mirror of man.
O dream-questioner! You asked for conciseness, so I have made an indication. If you want a detailed exposition, that is beyond my capabilities! A fly cannot behold the sky. For of the forty sorts of miraculousness, only one is the eloquence of the word-order; and an exposition of it did not fit in Isharat al-I’jaz.
My hundred-page commentary was insufficient for it. Rather, I want a detailed exposition from spirit-inspirations like yourself!
The Fanciful, Lust-Exciting Genius-Style Hand of Western Literature
Cannot Reach Up To the Healing, Light-Scattering, Guidance-Laden,
Eternal Literature of the Qur’an
A state of mind pleasing to the mature and perfected with their appreciation of meaning, does not gratify the childish, whimsical, and dissolute,
It does not entertain them. In consequence, those raised amid base, dissolute, carnal and lusty pleasures will not experience spiritual pleasure.
Looking with the ‘novel-based’ view of modern literature, which issued from Europe, they will neither see nor experience the elevated subtleties, the majestic virtues, of the Qur’an.
Their touchstone cannot assay those virtues. There are three areas in which literature promenades; it roams within their bounds:
Either love and sorrow, or heroism and valour, or depiction of reality. In foreign literature, it does not seek the truth in heroism; it rather instils a desire for power by applauding mankind’s cruelties.
As regards sorrow and love, it does not know true love; it injects into the soul a lust-exciting thrill.
In the question of depicting reality, it does not look on the universe as Divine art; it does not see it with its hue of the Most Merciful.
It rather approaches it from the point of view of ‘Nature,’ and depicts it thus; and it cannot be freed from this.
For this reason, what it inculcates is love of ‘Nature.’ It instils in the heart a