Posted by David K on June 13, 2101 at 15:48:46:

Suuratu l-Baqara, 2:23-24:
ãAnd if ye are in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto Our slave (Muhammad), then produce a surah of the like thereof, and call your witness beside Allah if ye are truthful. And if ye do it not - and ye can never do it - then guard yourselves against the Fire prepared for disbelievers, whose fuel is of men and stones. (Pickthal)ã

Baha'u'llah also states that the verses He has revealed are by themselves sufficient testimony to the truth of His claim: ãO people, if ye deny these verses, by what proof have ye believed in God? Produce it, O assemblage of false ones. ã
ãNay, by the One in Whose hand is my soul, they are not, and never shall be able to do this, even should they combine to assist one another. ã (Tablet of Ahmad)

I canât understand the meaning of these verses. Yes, chapters like Suuratu r-Rahman (55), with its calculated rhyming (and "then which of the favors of your Lord will ye deny?"), have had me very excited. And yet I have found no need for explaining even the most pleasing parts by attributing them to God. The Person (or people; the Qur'an may be a work of multiple hands) who wrote Suuratu r-Rahman was certainly talented, but there is no evidence for divine authorship in the style of the Qur'an. Is the Qur'an unique? I think it is - and so are the plays of Shakespeare and the music of Mozart (Leopold Mozart regarded his son's music as proof of God, but that was a personal opinion). The Qur'an is a unique work in a time and place of outstanding poets, but so are Shakespeare's works unique in a time and place of outstanding poets. I challenge you to produce a single scene like those of Shakespeare, and I am not hesitating in making this challenge, for I know full well that you can never do it. Yes, there have been several attempts at making scenes, even whole acts, similar to those in Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet, but they are not it - the real Shakespeare is always recognized as such, never to be imitated. However all this doesnât mean that Shakespeareâs works were ãrevealedä.
Any comments?

Thanks,
David

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