The Islamic belief is the only correct solution to Man's fundamental problem Part 11 - The response of the pagan Arabs (I)At the time of Muhammed, the Arabs were enchanted by the Arabic language, and it is generally said that the literary talent and eloquence of the Arabs was at its peak. This was the only art cultivated by the Arab elite, and it was an indication of nobility in the society. People would go into the dessert for days to write poetry, and parents would send their children to stay with the Bedouin tribes in the dessert so that they could learn a "purer" Arabic than what was spoken in the cities. People would purchase vegetables at the market by reciting poetry. From Day One there was an intense need for them to refute the claim of the Quran, because Islam clashed with, challenged, condemned their entire civilisation.
Islam shook the entire socio-economic framework of the ruling Quraysh tribe of Mecca. Initially, they tried to ignore the Quran. This did not work, and the "revelation" continued, and Islam was gaining strength. The Quraysh offered to give Muhammed vast amounts of wealth and kingship over them. This did not work either. They accepted that the language of the Quran was not of human origin, and they said that Muhammed was possessed by spirits. They also claimed that the was mad, and offered to arrange treatment for him. Then they tried torturing the early Muslims to cause them to revert to paganism. They also organised an economic boycott against the members of Muhammed's clan, Banu Hashim, but even this did not work. The need to eradicate Islam was so severe that when he persisted in his claim, they made detailed plans to assassinate Muhammed, because of the threat Islam posed. They decided that a man from each of the clans of the Quraysh would go to Muhammed's house on an appointed night and together they would murder him, so that no one clan would face revenge from Muhammed's clan. Eventually, the Quraysh were forced to meet the Muslims in battle - 624 (Badr), 625 (Uhud), 627 (Khandaq), 628 (Battle of Bani Quraidah, Treaty of Hudaybiyah), 630 (Mecca, Battle of Hunain, Battle of At-Ta'if) - and were defeated. But there was no need for this. All they had to do to prevent all this was to write in the same style as the Quran, to prove that it was nothing special or unusual at all. But never is there any record of any of his contemporaries seriously saying that the Quran was man made. The author of the Quran challenged these people to produce a literary work of a similar calibre as the Quran, but they were not able to do so in spite of their well-known eloquence and literary powers.
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