And we have already mentioned them in what has preceded of this Book (1).

And among the noblest of those meanings by which our Book surpassed all other books before it is its wondrous organization, its strange composition (2), and its marvelous arrangement—the likes of the smallest surah of which orators were unable to compose, the eloquent were powerless to describe even a part of its form, poets were bewildered by its arrangement, and the intellects of the discerning were stymied—owing to their incapacity to produce anything like it—leaving them with no choice but submission and acknowledgment that it is from the One, the Subduer. This is alongside what it contains, moreover, of meanings that comprise encouragement and intimidation, command and prohibition, stories, argumentation, parables, and similar meanings that were never gathered together in any book sent down to earth from heaven.

So whatever lengthiness there may be in it, in the manner of what is in the Mother of the Qur'an (3), it is for what I described before: that Allah—majestic is His remembrance—intended to combine—through its wondrous composition and strange organization, which departs from the meters of poetry, the rhymed prose of soothsayers, the speeches of orators, and the epistles of the eloquent, and which all created beings are incapable of composing its like and all servants are unable to organize its match—the proof (4) of the prophethood of our Prophet Muhammad, Peace and blessings of God be upon him; and through what it contains of glorification, exaltation, and praise of Him, the alerting (5) of servants to His greatness, His dominion, His power, and the magnificence of His kingdom, so that they might remember Him by His bounties and praise Him for His blessings, thereby deserving from Him an increase and earning from Him an abundant reward; and through what it contains of describing those upon whom He bestowed His knowledge and favored with His guidance to His obedience, the informing (6) of His servants that every blessing they possess, in their religion and their worldly life, is from Him, so that they turn their devotion to Him and seek their needs from Him to the exclusion of any other deities and equals; and through what it contains of His mention of the exemplary punishments He inflicted upon those who disobeyed Him and the chastisements He brought down upon those who defied His command—the intimidating (7) of His servants against embarking upon