Or do they say, "He invented it"? Say, "Then bring ten sūrahs like it that have been invented and call upon [for assistance] whomever you can besides Allāh, if you should be truthful."
The Messenger grieving by the Statements of the Polytheists, and His Gratification
This statement of Allah, the Exalted, to His Messenger comforted the worries that the polytheists were causing him due to their statements directed towards him. This is just as Allah says about them,
(And they say: "Why does this Messenger eat food, and walk about in the markets. Why is not an angel sent down to him to be a warner with him" Or; "(why) has not a treasure been granted to him, or why has he not a garden whereof he may eat" And the wrongdoers say: "You follow none but a man bewitched.") 25:7-8 Thus, Allah commanded His Messenger and guided him to not let these statements of theirs grieve his heart. Allah directed him to not let these statements prevent him, or deter him from calling them to Allah, both day and night. This is as Allah said,
In the cited verses, the Mushriks had demanded the kind of miracles they chose. Verses that follow tell them that they already have a miracle, the miracle of the Qur'an shown at the hands of the Holy Prophet ﷺ before them, a miracle even they could not deny. Now if they were demanding these miracles honestly, only to determine the veracity of the messenger of Allah, then, their demand stands accepted (and the miracle is on). And if this demand is simply to gratify their hostility, the showing of miracles demanded by them would remain redundant, for who could expect from such hostile people that they would embrace Islam, even after having seen those miracles. So, the essential point is that the Holy Qur'an is a clear miracle that cannot be denied.
A refutation of the false doubts engineered by Mushriks and Kafirs in it has been made in the next two verses (13, 14): These people say that the Prophet of Islam has himself made up the Qur'an - it is no book of Allah.
In answer, it was said: If you really think so, that Muhammad ﷺ can make a Qur'an like this, all by himself, then, you too, better come up with only ten Surahs like that. And it is not necessary either that these ten Surahs have to be made by any one person. Instead, let everyone in the world join forces and come up with it. And when they fail to make even ten Surahs, then, the Holy Prophet ﷺ was to tell them: Now the reality stands out loud and clear, for had this Qur'an been the word of some human being, other human beings could have also been able to make something like this. And that they all fail to do so is a strong proof of the fact that this Qur'an has been revealed only with the knowledge of Allah in which there is no room for the least increase or decrease and that it is beyond human power.
At this place, the Holy Qur'an has said that they should come up with ten Surahs like it. And in another verse it was also said: ` Then, bring a Sarah the like of this - al-Baqarah, 2:23.'
Tazkirul Quran
Maulana Wahiduddin KhanOn ayahs 11–13
In the present world, man is given ease and hardship by turns. But here, neither is comfort given as a reward nor is hardship imposed as a punishment. The purpose of both is to put human beings to the test. This world is a great examination hall. The purpose of whatever happens to man here is to see what sort of responses he offers to different testing conditions. That man is a failure whose behaviour is such that when he receives some worldly bounties from God, he becomes proud; he behaves with haughtiness towards those who appear to him of a lower status than himself. Similarly, that person is also a failure who displays ingratitude when some bounty is taken away from him or he becomes the victim of some affliction. Even after being deprived of something, a man still possesses many things granted to him by God. But man forgets them and becomes so desperate over that one loss, it is as if he had been robbed of everything. On the contrary, those who fully measure up to the standards of Faith are individuals who are patient and righteous in their deeds. That is, in spite of every setback, they keep their emotional balance and continue to exercise moderation; they continue to do whatever they are required to do as subjects of God. What is patience? It is a man’s conduct being shaped by principles and not by the conditions and situations in which he finds himself. Whatever may be the condition, he should rise above them and formulate his views purely in the light of Truth. He should have the courage to live on the level of his Faith and moral awareness, unaffected by the prevailing conditions. This sort of life is one of piety. Those who establish their piety in this way will be the ones who will share God’s bounties in the future life and have a place in God’s eternal Gardens.
