Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 252
252 and its claim of being peerless. This objection is based on sheer prejudice. If they gave even the slightest thought to the matter, they would realize that the fact that the Promised Messiah as wrote books that were without parallel does not at all detract from the superior and peerless status of the Holy Quran, rather it enhanced it. Superiority is of two kinds: absolute and relative. Absolute superiority stands by itself and needs no comparison. Relative superiority is only in comparison with other things. An example of this is found in the Holy Quran which says of the Israelites: 11 َو ْيِّنَا ْمُكُتْلَّضَف ىَلَع َنْيِمَلٰعْلا I exalted you above all peoples. And then concerning the Muslims, it says: 12 ْمُتْنُك َرْيَخ ٍةَّمُا ْتَجِرْخُا ِساَّنلِل You are the best people, raised for the good of mankind. In the first instance, it declares the Israelites to be superior, and in the second it gives superiority to the Muslims. This appears to be a contradiction but there is no contradiction. In the first instance, the superiority is only over the people of that particu - lar age, while in the second instance the superiority is above all ages, past and future. In the same way, the superiority of the books of the Promised Messiah as is in relation to the works of human beings, whereas the superiority of the Holy Quran is above all human works and above all other divinely revealed works— which include the books and sermons of the Promised Messiah as. Thus, the unique nature of the Holy Quran is absolute, while the