Surah Al-Baqarah 2:23
سُورَةُ البَقَرَةِ · Medinan · Verse 23 of 286
وَإِن كُنتُمْ فِى رَيْبٍۢ مِّمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا۟ بِسُورَةٍۢ مِّن مِّثْلِهِۦ وَٱدْعُوا۟ شُهَدَآءَكُم مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ
Translation
If you have doubts about the revelation We have sent down to Our servant, then produce a single sura like it- enlist whatever supporters you have other than God- if you truly [think you can].
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our servant, then produce a surah like it, and call your witnesses besides God, if you are truthful.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the standing challenge, 'i'tu bi-suratin min mithlih': the Qur'an stakes its divine origin on an open dare to produce even a single comparable chapter, addressed to the most eloquent people in history, who could not meet it. Ask yourself: the Qur'an does not merely assert it is from God; it offers a falsifiable test, and invites all humanity to disprove it. That confidence is itself a kind of evidence. It presses me on the grounds of my own faith: is my belief in this Book a mere inheritance, or have I ever seriously engaged the claim it makes about itself, sat with its language, its coherence, its effect, enough to feel the weight of a challenge that has stood unanswered for fourteen centuries?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Baqarah 2:23 is discussed in 10 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
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