Tahaddi: Quran Invites Deniers to A Challenge
The word Tahaddi means challenging someone and it also refers to a historical event. When the Holy prophet (PBUH) recited the Quran, the Mushrikin (disbelievers) did not believe him and thought they were not the word of God but stories made up by the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Hence, God challenged the Mushrikin to bring a book like the Quran: “Say: ‘If mankind and jinn combined together to produce the like of this Quran, they would never be able to produce one like it, not even if they were to help one another.’” (Surah Al-Isra, Verse 88)
However no one had the ability to do that and, therefore, God made it simpler, calling the Mushrikin to bring ten Surahs, then only one Surah like those of the Quran. Still, they were unable to do it.
“Do they say: ‘He has forged it’. Say: ‘Compose one chapter like it, and call upon whom you will, other than Allah (to help you), if what you say is true!’” (Surah Yunus, Verse 38)
In the history of Islam, Tahaddi is the proof of the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) truthfulness. It showed that the Quran was not a book written by a man but is from God and there is nothing like it on the earth.
It also warmed the hearts of those who had some doubts about the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) mission, making them sure that he has been sent by God and what he said is from God.
Moreover, Tahaddi paved the way for propagation of the religion and promotion of the messages of the Quran because the Mushrikin failed to prove their claims that the Quran’s content originated in old stories.
Tahaddi was an invitation to a challenge that made the Mushrikin silent in the face of the truth and proved the Quran to be the path to happiness and salvation in this world and the next.
