The Quran

قُل لَو شاءَ اللَّهُ ما تَلَوتُهُ عَلَيكُم وَلا أَدراكُم بِهِ ۖ فَقَد لَبِثتُ فيكُم عُمُرًا مِن قَبلِهِ ۚ أَفَلا تَعقِلونَ

Muhammad Asad

Say: "Had God willed it [otherwise], I would not have conveyed this [divine writ] unto you, nor would He have brought it to your knowledge. Indeed. a whole lifetime have I dwelt among you ere this [revelation came unto me]: will you not, then, use your reason?"¹

This argument - placed in the mouth of the Prophet - has a twofold implication. Ever since his early youth, Muhammad had been renowned for his truthfulness and integrity, so much so that his Meccan compatriots applied to him the epithet Al-Amin ("The Trustworthy"). In addition to this, he had never composed a single line of poetry (and this in contrast with a tendency which was widespread among the Arabs of his time), nor had he been distinguished by particular eloquence. "How, then," goes the argument, "can you reconcile your erstwhile conviction - based on the experience of a lifetime - that Muhammad was incapable of uttering a lie, with your present contention that he himself has composed the Qur'an and now falsely attributes it to divine revelation? And how could he who, up to the age of forty, has never displayed any poetic or philosophic gifts and is known to be entirely unlettered (ummi), have composed a work as perfect in its language, as penetrating in its psychological insight and 'as compelling in its inner logic as the Qur'an?"