of the heavens and the earth, pass beyond them! But you will not be able to pass beyond them save with authority [given by God]. ∗ Which then, of the blessings of your Sustainer do you deny? ∗ A flash of fire, and smoke, will be sent on you, and no succour shall you have. ∗ Which then of the blessings of your Sustainer do you deny?(55:33-36)

And We have adorned the skies nearest the earth with lamps, and made them missiles to drive away the evil ones.(67:5)

These verses say: “O men and jinn, arrogant and refractory in your impotence and baseness, and rebellious and obstinate in your weakness and poverty! If you disobey My commands and you have the power to do so, pass beyond the boundaries of My dominions! How can you dare to oppose the commands of a Monarch Whose commands the stars, moons, and suns obey as though they were soldiers under orders? In your rebelliousness you oppose One All-Wise and Glorious Whose obedient soldiers are thus awesome. Suppose your satans were to resist, His soldiers could rain down stones on them like cannonballs. In your godlessness you revolt in the lands of a Sovereign so glorious that among His forces are some which, it is not insignificant powerless creatures like you, but supposing the impossible you were infidel enemies the size of mountains or the globe, they could hurl down stars and flaming missiles on you of that magnitude and rout you. You infringe a law which binds beings such as those; if it was necessary, they could hurl the globe of the earth in your face and rain down stars and heavenly bodies on you as though they were missiles, with God’s permission.” You can compare with these the power, eloquence, and elevated manner of expression of other verses and their meanings.

##### Third Point

Third Point: This is the wonderful uniqueness of its style. Indeed, the Qur’an’s style is both strange, and original, and wonderful, and convincing. It has imitated nothing and no one. And no one has been able to imitate it. Its style has always preserved the freshness, youth, and singularity it possessed when it was first revealed and it continues to preserve it. For instance, the unique style of the cipher-like muqatta‘at, the Disjointed Letters, like, Alif. Lam. Mim., Alif. Lam. Ra., Ta. Ha., Ya. Sin., Ha. Mim. ‘Ayn. Sin. Qaf., at the beginning of some of the suras. We have described five or six of the flashes of miraculousness they comprise in Isharat al-I‘jaz.

For example, the letters at the start of some suras have taken half of each category of the many well-known categories of letters, like the emphatic letters (Kāf, Qāf, Ṭā, Alif, Jīm, Dāl, Tā, Bā), the sibilants, the stressed letters, the soft letters, the labiolinguals, and tremolo (qalqala) let-