52.34 – Let them bring a proclamation like it, if they are truthful
The listeners do not believe that the messenger’s recitation is true. They say that he has simply invented the words (v. 33). See the discussion on verses that accuse the messenger of inventing at 69.44. In response, the Quran challenges the audience to compose a proclamation (ḥadīth) like the recitation.
This is the final verse in a series of six verses known as the taḥaddī (challenge) verses (also 2.23; 10.38; 11.13; 17.88; 28.49). The six verses do not report whether the audience accepts the challenge, but the Quran says that they will not (2.24) and cannot (17.88), or perhaps may not even respond (11.14; 28.49). Later Muslim writers concluded that the audience was unable to compose comparable recitations. In the third and fourth centuries of Islam, Muslim scholars developed an elaborate doctrine of the inimitability of the Quran. They claimed that the language of the Quran is so marvelous that it could not have been composed by a human; they then asserted that their claim proves the divine origin of the Quran and the prophethood of Islam’s messenger.
The doctrine of the inimitability of the Quran (i‘ jāz) became an article of faith for most Muslims. Andrew Rippin notes in his book Muslims that this claim is difficult for non-Muslims to evaluate because it is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. Rippin cites an early work attributed to an Arabic-speaking Christian living within the Arab Empire, ‘Abd al-Masīḥ al-Kindī. To the contrary, al-Kindī suggested that the literary state of the Quran was so poor that he questioned any possibility of its being “sent down” from above.
Christians tend to evaluate the provenance of the Quran from the truth or falsehood of its contents. It is interesting to note that the Bible does not contain self-conscious claims to be the Word of God based on the excellence of its language, whether Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. More typical of the Bible is the claim that it presents a true account (e.g., Luke 1:1–4) based on eyewitness testimony (e.g., John 19:37, 21:24).