Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 4 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:4

وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ إِنْ هَـٰذَآ إِلَّآ إِفْكٌ ٱفْتَرَىٰهُ وَأَعَانَهُۥ عَلَيْهِ قَوْمٌ ءَاخَرُونَ ۖ فَقَدْ جَآءُو ظُلْمًا وَزُورًا

“And those who disbelieve say, "This [Qur’ān] is not except a falsehood he invented, and another people assisted him in it." But they have committed an injustice and a lie.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Calling the Quran a forgery with hired helpers put the truth on the wrong shelf and dressed a falsehood up as reason.

A reflection

The ghostwriter nobody could hire

The accusation has two parts. He made it up. And other people helped him. It is the oldest theory about the Quran, and it is still repeated.

One classical commentator explains why the Quran answers it so briefly. The Prophet ﷺ had challenged them, again and again, to bring something like it. They were the masters of Arabic eloquence. They wanted desperately to discredit him. If he had hired help, they could hire help too. He was one of them, with the same language and the same access to people. They never met the challenge.

The second part answers itself as well. If foreign helpers had supplied the words, the words would have been in their style. Another commentator notes the absurdity. An Arab, they claimed, was learning flawless Arabic from non-Arab tutors. And the result silenced every poet in Arabia.

Picture a first novelist whose book becomes a sensation. A rival writer tells interviewers she must have had a ghostwriter. She replies calmly. Any of you can hire a ghostwriter. Bring me a book like it. Months pass. Nobody does.

There was also his character. Al-Bukhari reports the emperor Heraclius questioning Abu Sufyan, then the Prophet's ﷺ enemy. Did you ever accuse him of lying before he made his claim? No, said Abu Sufyan. Heraclius concluded that a man who would not lie about people would not lie about God.

One commentator adds what Makkah knew. He had grown up among them for about forty years. They knew his comings and goings. They called him al-Amīn, the trustworthy, before any of this began.

What remains open is each reader's honesty with the question. The theory has been on the table for fourteen centuries. So has the challenge. A sceptic is entitled to doubt. He is also invited to try.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.