The Light of Truth — Page 243
REFUTING OBJECTIONS meaning of 'Spirit' would instead be a devil from among Satan's hordes. Next, you opine that the Quran does not constitute a mira- cle with regard to its balāghah [eloquence]; and instead, it con- tains traces of excess and agitation; and it fails to differentiate between words of wisdom and foolishness, and between seri- ousness and jest; and it contains words of barbarity and words that are not Arabic; and it is not written in clear Arabic. In response to this, be informed that this objection of yours and your ilk is extremely absurd and most bizarre. Not a single just- minded person will accept it. O poor one! Are you unaware that you are from among the ignorant; that you know noth- ing besides machinations of misguidance; and that you know nothing of the manner and style of the Arabic language or the ways of eloquent prose? In fact, I think that you do not even understand a single letter of Arabic, so how dare you engage in this despicable bellowing? O ignorant and indolent one! Do you attack that which silenced the most renowned orators of Arabic of its time; completed its argument upon the Arabic linguists; to which the most accomplished literati bowed; in which the greatest poets believed and approached as submissive confessors? Are you more skilled than them in the science of linguistics, and in differentiating between proper and improper speech-or are you simply delusional? Do you not know that they were native speakers of Arabic, nourished on the milk of bayan [the art of eloquent expression]? They would captivate the hearts with their rich diversity of expressions, brilliant and beautiful speech, and adroit allusions. In this method and in the knowl- edge of its excellences, they were masters. Do you not know that the Quran claimed to be a miracle of eloquence, above all, in the arena of [rhetorical] competi- tion? It did so because the Arabs of that time were the era's 243