Seven Myths About Islam Part 4

4. The myth: “The Quran challenged mankind to produce a chapter like it, and they all failed.”

The fact: There are many texts on the internet which are indistinguishable from the Quran.

Any Arab with enough courage and reasonable command of the Arabic language can meet the challenge and win, and that includes the devout Muslims who would say: “NO this is impossible!” It is easy to compose a text that is indistinguishable from to the Quran; it is even easier to include a number of language and scientific mistakes for a more honest imitation to the Quran. But sensible people do not risk their lives; we know how Muslims would react. The Arab Muslims do not even try because they know how Allah would react.

This reminds me with an incident that took place many years ago when I was a young Muslim. I was visiting a friend who was already arguing with one of his relatives about a verse in the Quran, they were trying to find to which sura the verse belongs. I happened to know that the verse was at the end of chapter 2 (sura Albakara), which was correct as my friend’s relative double checked it in the Quran. I was happy and proud with my knowledge, and both my friend and his relative were impressed. Still browsing through the Quran, my friend’s relative challenged me to locate the following verse:

Q.115: 1 “O ye people! Fear Allah your Lord, who created you, and fashioned you (perfectly) and provided for you, that ye may have the chance to learn righteousness; If He so will, He can make you victorious…”

I didn’t know, but I knew from the style that the verse had a Medina style and must belong to one of the big chapters in the Quran. Although I wasn’t sure, my answer was that the above verse also belongs to chapter 2 (sura albakara). My friend’s relative broke into laughter because the verse was not even in the Quran, it was made up. My happiness and pride instantly evaporated, but the practical joke unleashed the Islamic monster inside me. I became angry and insisted that the false verse was obviously of very low standard compared to the Quran and I blamed the Satan for my failure in spotting the difference.

Some Arabs must have produced works that mimicked the Quran, but those who were lucky to survive, were forced to condemn their own works, which eventually disappeared from history. The problem is that Muslims have already made a prejudgement not to believe that any work can match the Quran.

It is noteworthy that the great Arab poets like Almutanabbi and Al maarri composed their own Quranic texts, which of course disappeared from history. I am a fan of Almutanabbi and can imagine how powerful his Quran would have been compared to the existing one. Nowadays, interested Arab atheists frequently post their own imitations on the Internet (4) (5).


The idea of a competition between Allah and one of his creatures in a language issue is ridiculous and is enough, on its own, to damage Islam. The non Arabs should be able to sense some foul racist smell in this challenge because they have been totally excluded from this competition game; Allah seems to play only with the Arabs!