So in this article, I will try and explain to you one example of linguistic excellence in The Qur’an.

I will compare the phrases “اوتو الكتاب” (they were given the book) and “آتيناهم الكتاب ” (We gave them the book). Note that the “We” is the royal “we” and not the plural one.

So when we say, “they were given the book”, the giver is not mentioned or the center of focus. In contrast, “We gave the the book” states the giver. (These are called active and passive sentences but you don’t need to know these terms) In our daily conversations, we wouldn’t really care if we said, “he gave me a pen” or “I was given a pen”. But let us take a look at it linguistically.

When a giver gives something for a purpose, say a book, he wants the receiver to read, learn and teach from the book. But imagine if the receiver instead, rips, burns and abuses the book. If the receiver uses the thing for the purpose the giver wanted, it would be a respectful way, an honour and a credit to mention the giver by saying, “He gave me the book and I learned from it”. But if the receiver abuses the thing, it would be disrespectful to attribute the thing to the giver and rather it would be better to remove the giver from the sentence and simply say, “he was given the book and he burnt it.”

Now look at The Qur’an. Let’s look at some verses. (I will have to mention a few and you can look at the given video at the end of the article for the complete visual proof). Notice that everytime The Book given by Allah is abused, Allah says, “they were give the book” without mentioning the giver. Whereas, everytime the book is rightfully used, Allah attributes the book to Himself.

They were given the book:

1. And when a messenger from Allāh came to them confirming that which was with them, a party of those who had been given the Scripture threw the Scripture of Allāh [i.e., the Torah] behind their backs as if they did not know [what it contained]. (2:101)
2. And if you brought to those who were given the Scripture every sign, they would not follow your qiblah. (2:145)
3. Have you not seen those who were given a portion of the Scripture, who believe in jibt [superstition] and ṭāghūt [false objects of worship] and say about the disbelievers, “These are better guided than the believers as to the way”? (4:51)

We gave them the book:

1. Those to whom We have given the Book recite it with its true recital. They [are the ones who] believe in it. And whoever disbelieves in it – it is they who are the losers. (1:121)
2. Those to whom We gave the Scripture before it – they are believers in it. (28:52)

And you can search for the rest yourself by the help given in the video attached at the end.

Notice that The Qur’an ascribes the good to Allah and not the evil. This is consistent with the message of The Qur’an itself which says in 4:79, “What comes to you of good is from Allāh, but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself.”

THUS, it’s amazing that The Qur’an has such an amazing consistent usage of such a phrase. In our daily lives, we may not care how we speak: it was given, or I gave. But The Qur’an even took care of this usage. The Qur’an was revealed over about a period of 23 years and never changed across 14 centuries and yet contains such a consistent usage. And in addition to that it contains other linguistic, scientific, numerical miracles etc. and this consistency as well, the consistency which itself is also a part of the proof of the divinity of The Qur’an, as The Qur’an itself states in 4:82, “Then do they not reflect upon the Qur’ān? If it had been from [any] other than Allāh, they would have found within it much contradiction.”

Notes:

translations are taken from sunnah.com

Video and proof of this miracle: https://youtu.be/NNLxGcxuU-c?si=ENGbEKIDFVoJBuax