Islam claims that the Quran is both in perfect Arabic and inimitable. In fact, these are given as major criteria that the Quran gives for its authenticity.
The other proof is its claim that Christians and Jews should be referred to for its authentication. This, of course, as we have seen in other videos, they do not do.
So, we have in this video an Arabic expert reviewing the topic for us. Georges Houssney not only grew up speaking Arabic but is one of the main translators of the Bible into Arabic. Houssney reminds us that the Arabic of the Quran was that of the 7th century Qureshi clan in Saudi Arabia.
Surah 2:23 challenges anyone to make a surah equal to those of the Quran. This is a problem, because evaluating the beauty and power of writing is what we call “subjective,” meaning that it is not absolute, like the number 5 is. No, different people will see it differently. For example, one person may like a song that another person thinks is ugly.
Houssney tells us of a hadith about a man who thought someone was quoting the Quran, when he was just speaking in the style of it. Ancient Arabic poetry is as powerful and beautiful as the Quran. Other people have indeed written chapters and books very like the Quran. So this challenge has actually been met many times.
But there is a more important issue here. The New Testament, or Injeel, of the Bible is written in the everyday Greek of the time – not fancy academic Greek. That is because God wants his Word to be in language that people understand.
This is an important difference between Islam and Christianity. Christians do not need to read, memorize, and quote the exact words of the original languages of the Bible. This is because it’s not the actual words that have the power, as the words of the Quran are believed to have. What is important about the Bible is its message, and that is the same in any language.
