Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

The Quran challenges those who do not believe to produce a chapter or more like the Quran in several verses. These verses emphasize that the Quran is inimitable and that no one can produce a similar work.

Quran verses that challenge people to produce a similar work: 

• Quran 17:88 God says that even if all of humanity and the jinn worked together, they could not produce a chapter like the Quran.
• Quran 11:13 God says that if people claim the Quran was forged, they should produce ten forged chapters like it.
• Quran 10:38 God says that if people claim the Quran was forged, they should produce a chapter like it and call on anyone they can besides God.
• Quran 2:23-24 God says that if people doubt the Quran, they should produce a chapter like it and call on witnesses besides God.
• Quran 52:33-34 If they say, ‘He has made it up himself’ –– they certainly do not believe –– let them produce one like it, if what they say is true.

To communicate the success of this challenge requires a longish discussion. I am going to depend on other authors for this purpose. A small booklet by Maulana Wahiddudin Khan starts off with tackling this and is attached below.

I want to tackle this challenge indirectly in a fail safe manner. The same Quran that presents the above challenge also issues another one.

As I have been more focused on science than linguistics, philosophy or theology, it comes easy to me to present a fail safe challenge from the Glorious Quran: The Quranic Challenge to the Atheists: Make a Fly, if You Can.