Contrary to popular belief not all the Arabs believed the Qur’an was of a the highest literary standard. The Qur’an itself attests to those who said it was the ramblings of a madman or a poet full of myths and fairytales. Al-Razi, one of the great scholars of the Islamic Golden Age said the Qur’an was inferior to many works of contemporary poets and writers. Here are more quotes:

• Al-Jaʿd ibn Dirham, tutor to the Umayyad Caliph Marwan, said “The Qur’an’s eloquence is not a miracle and people can do the like of it and better.”[ref]Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafiì, “The Miraculous Nature of the Qurʾān and the Prophetic Rhetoric.” Page 160.[/ref]
• The Mu’tazilite scholar Abu Musa said “People are able to produce the like of the Qurʾān as regards eloquence, and composition and rhetorical beauty.”[ref]Al-Baghdadi, “The Difference Between the Groups” Page 164–165; and
  al-Shahrastani, “The Book of Sects and Creeds”, 1/68–69.[/ref]
• The 11th century Sunni scholar Abu al-Qushairy said: “We do not claim that everything in the Qurʾān is in the highest rank of eloquence.”[ref]Al-Baghdadi, “The Difference Between the Groups” Page 164–165; and al-Shahrastani, “The Book of Sects and Creeds”, 1/68–69.[/ref]
• Ibn al-Rawandi (former Mu’tazilite scholar) (d. 910 ad) said “Indeed the Qurʾān is not the speech of a wise god. In it are contradictions and mistakes and passages that are in the realms of the absurd.”[ref]Quoted from Dr. Abd al-Rahman Badawi, from “History of Disbelief in Islam” page 216.[/ref]

Writing in the mid-700s, John of Damascus mocked the Qur’an as a bizarre mishmash of heretical Christian teachings that Muhammad had cobbled together. Even Voltaire, who lauded Islam warmly when it suited his satirical ends (like belittling the Catholic Church or Jews), dismissed the Qur’an as full of contradictions, absurdities and patent scientific falsehoods.7 Though he counted Muhammad as the most sincere of men (indeed one of the ‘great men’ who changed the course of history), Thomas Carlyle described the Qur’an as impenetrably befuddling, ‘insupportable stupidity, in short.’

Even Voltaire, who lauded Islam warmly when it suited his satirical ends (like belittling the Catholic Church or Jews), dismissed the Qur’an as full of contradictions, absurdities and patent scientific falsehoods.7 Though he counted Muhammad as the most sincere of men (indeed one of the ‘great men’ who changed the course of history), Thomas Carlyle described the Qur’an as impenetrably befuddling, ‘insupportable stupidity, in short.’[ref]Misquoting Muhammad, Jonathan Brown[/ref]

The Quran has some parts which are eloquent and beautiful.  And it has some parts that sound strange and akward.  Yet the Quran’s biggest miracle claim is the language.  How can someone the proof of divinity is in the language, when language is such a subjective issue.

al-Razi wrote,

“You claim that the evidentiary miracle is present and available, namely, the Koran. You say: ‘Whoever denies it, let him produce a similar one.’ Indeed, we shall produce a thousand similar, from the works of rhetoricians, eloquent speakers and valiant poets, which are more appropriately phrased and state the issues more succinctly. They convey the meaning better and their rhymed prose is in better meter. … By God what you say astonishes us! You are talking about a work which recounts ancient myths, and which at the same time is full of contradictions and does not contain any useful information or explanation. Then you say: ‘Produce something like it’?”
― Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

It is not at all true that the Arabs were amazed by the language of the Quran and thought it was from God.

A chapter (surah) like it

I am working on a longer response to this, but here is the argument:

وَإِن كُنتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ مِّمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِّن مِّثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاءَكُم مِّن دُونِ اللَّ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ

And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah , if you should be truthful. (2:23)

قُل لَّئِنِ اجْتَمَعَتِ الْإِنسُ وَالْجِنُّ عَلَىٰ أَن يَأْتُوا بِمِثْلِ هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنِ لَا يَأْتُونَ بِمِثْلِهِ وَلَوْ كَانَ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ ظَهِيرًا

Say, “If mankind and the jinn gathered in order to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to each other assistants.” (17:88)

And here is one Surah like it.

❀❀❀ ِسُورَةُ فقۤ ❀❀❀

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

فقۤ {١
إنَّا خَلَقْنَا الدَّجَاجَ خَلْقًا {٢
وَسَلَقْنَا الْبَيْضَ سَلْقًا {٣
وَأَطْلَقْنَا مَعَ الرَّعْدِ بَرْقًا {٤
وَجَعَلْنَا الجَوَّ طَلْقًا {٥
فَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِآياتِنَا شَنَقْنَاهُ شَنْقًا {٦
ثُمَّ خَنَقْنَاهُ خَنْقًا {٧
وَمَنْ يَطْرُقْ بَابَ فَاسِقَةٍ طَرْقًا {٨
وَيَفْعَلْ فِي بَيْتِهَا فِسْقًا {٩
حَرَقْنَاهُ فِي النَّارِ حَرْقًا {١٠
إنَّ عَذَابَنَا هُوَ الْأَبْقَى {١١
وَإنَّ عَدُوَّنَا هُوَالْأَشْقَى {١٢
فَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِبَرِيقِ الدِّينَارِ {١٣
وَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِنَهِيقِ الْحِمَارِ {١٤
إنَّي أنَا اللهُ الخَالِقُ الْقَهَّارُ {١٥
فَأَطِيعُونِي وَلَا تَكُونُوا مِنَ الْكُفَّارِ {١٦
وَاتَّقُوا يَوْمًا لَا يَنْفَعُ فِيهِ دِرْهَمٌ وَلَا دُولَارٌ {١٧
يَوْمَ يُقْذَفُ بِالْكُفِّارِ فِي النَّارِ {١٨
فَلَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ صَبْرًا وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ فِرارٍ {١٩
أَمَّا الَذِينَ اتَّقَوْا رَبَّهُمْ فَإنهم هُمُ الأَخْيَارُ {٢٠
لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ {٢١
وَصَنَادِيقُ وِيسْكِي وَرَاقِصَاتٌ بِلَا خِمَارَ {٢٢

❀❀❀❀ Surat Fa Qaaf ❀❀❀❀

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent the Merciful,

1. Faa’ Qaaf
2. Verily, We created the chicken a (wonderful) creation,
3. And We boiled the eggs, a boiling,
4. And We sent with thunder, lightning
5. And We made the air fresh
6. As for he who denies our signs, We shall hang him a hanging,
7. And choke him, a choking
8. As for he who knocks on the door of a harlot, a knocking
9. Then commits in her house; philandering
10. We shall burn him in the fire, a burning
11. Indeed our punishment it is the abiding
12. Indeed our enemy he is the most wretched.
13. For I swear by the glitter of the Dinar
14. And I swear by the braying of the Ass
15. Indeed I am Allah the Creator, the Conqueror
16. So obey me and do not be of the unbelievers
17. And fear a day when no Dirham will benefit nor will a Dollar
18. The day the unbelievers will be cast into the fire
19. And they shall not be able to bear it nor escape
20. As for those who feared their Lord, they are the best
21. They shall have gardens under which run rivers
22. And crates of whiskey and dancing girls with no veil

Author Hassan

Here is another:

Surah Atheism

By science and reason we depend. To be revived is Atheism the sublime! (1)

A book we’ve written and bestowed as Arabian and have recited it lyrically. To show the ones who’ve strayed from the path that which has been to revealed to them was a book man-made, ironically. (2)

And the oppressors whom have mislead the People and interpreted in their Book craftily (3)

And they (oppressors, aka sheikhs imams) said: They should offer to us, those liars who’ve rejected our miraculous verses, a book written identically! (4)

For when they (challengers) said that [we replied]: For there is no difficulty for us to state statements equally (5).

Have the believers in the Quran assumed that we shall never come up with a contender, more than deservedly? (6)

Surely we are more than capable of coming with something counter to what came to them, yet superior intellectually. (7)

Do they not see that they fight about the Quran with contradictions and fusses extensively? (8)

Did your [beloved] friend/companion not claim that “verily, the sun has taken via the Earth an orbit, periodically? (9)

And: “Verily, your Lord descends in the last third of the night, and the last third of the night has oscillated on this Earth endlessly.” (10)

And when you [Muslims] were confronted with knowledge from the scientists/scholars; demonstrating the [Quran’s] error regarding the night and day, and how: “The Earth has taken around the Sun a course, orbiting routinely” (11)

For instead, you rejected them [scientists]; and thus a faction amongst you [exmooses] believed in them, and each departed with what they hold and preached with it nightly and daily. (12)

And you [Muslims] wove in ‘The Book’ [Quran] weaves to produce by it financial gain and veneration for it, immutably (13).

And regarding the ones who lied [Muslims: emulating Quranic hate style], for they became stubborn and boastful, and they said: “How can we say that [science is true] and we have revealed to us from The Prophet his sacred methods, frequently and repeatedly?” (14)

Look at how they have disputed amongst their affairs when ‘they are the pious’; and adopted divergent paths, their ideals left cleft asunder. Surely, they are a People that do not wish to contemplate critically. (15)

And they erected between themselves and the ones who do not support them (Kuffar) a barrier, veiled separately (16).

And they [Muslim scholars] said: “Do not get persuaded by them [seculars]; for they spread nothing except deceit; spun maliciously!” (17).

Did you not blame the [pre-islamic] ancients when they said: “Do not entertain the Quran”? Have you today come to lay such claim, identically? (18)

For surely you have falsified and rejected science and the [secular] scholars when they offered their opinions, antithetically (19).

For when Science & Reason eventually prevailed; the truth became apparent and you said: “For these are truths that have existed in the Book [Quran], preserved & written previously! (20)

For then they will definitely say: “What came with you is distinctly wrong from what came to us. Say: “Yes! Indeed, and your prevention of the masses to hear anything of it [science, reason, facts] proves that, evidently!”/s (21).

Translated from this youtube video by Havtho[ref]Reddit: Surah Al-Atheism[/ref]

 

Also see:

• The Atheist Quran