Home > Arguments for the Qur'an's excellence
"The Qur'an's true quality shines in its original Arabic—its beauty, rhythm, and depth are so profound that they're partly lost in translation. Allah revealed it as ‘an Arabic Qur'an that you might understand' (Surah Yusuf, 12:2), and its words carry a power that native speakers and scholars marvel at, unmatched by any human work. Even those who don't believe often admit its Arabic is extraordinary, a sign of its divine source.
Jesus (peace be upon him) received the Injeel—‘We gave him the Injeel, in which was guidance and light' (Surah Al-Ma'idah, 5:46)—but what's left in the Bible, shifted through languages, doesn't hold that pristine quality. The Qur'an says, ‘The Messiah, son of Mary, was no more than a messenger' (Surah Al-Ma'idah, 5:75), and its Arabic perfection upholds his true message: worship Allah alone. No translation fully captures it, but in Arabic, it's Allah's clear, living proof."
Although the previous scriptures are also often quite beautifully written, there never has been a tradition of using this as evidence for divine inspiration. To use literary quality as proof for divinity is a sign of desperation -- it's like a woman who has nothing to offer except for physical beauty constantly pointing out her visual appeal. Beauty can be found in many things, yet we wouldn't ascribe divinity to them -- it's a non-sequitur. Thus, even if we were to accept that the Qur'an is beautifully written in its original language, it couldn't reasonably be used as evidence of divinity. If it was miraculously beautiful when translated to any language, then we could consider it more seriously. But unfortunately, even muslims admit that the Quran's "literary magic" only works in Arabic.