Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down to Our servant, then bring forth a surah of the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you are truthful”
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The challenge... and the most noble of the descriptions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are servitude and messengership. For this reason, He said: Ash-Shama'il Al-Muhammadiyah 329Sahih (Zubair `Aliza'i) Servitude is the humbling oneself before the Beloved and the Exalted, and the worshipper takes delight in it. For this reason, the poet said in describing his beloved:
Do not call me by any name other than “your slave,” for that is the noblest of my names.
That is, do not say so-and-so or so-and-so; rather, say “O slave of so-and-so,” because that is the noblest of his names in his view, as he has claimed affiliation to it—may we seek refuge in Allah from being abandoned. If the most noble of the descriptions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are two: servitude and messengership,[Al-Baqarah 2:23] “Bring forth” is a command intended as a challenge. That is, if you are in doubt about this Qur'an, we challenge you to bring forth a single surah of the like thereof. It is possible that “of the like thereof” means of the like of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), i.e., of a human being; and it is possible that it means of the like of what We sent down to Our servant, i.e., of its kind. Both interpretations are correct, for no human being can ever bring forth anything of the like of what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) brought forth. Indeed, Allah the Exalted said: [Al-Isra 17:88].
[Al-Baqarah 2:23] Those to whom you bear witness of divinity and whom you worship as you worship Allah—call upon them to help you. This is the ultimate extent of the challenge: that the worshipper and the worshipped are challenged. He challenged the worshippers and the worshipped to bring forth a surah of the like thereof [Al-Baqarah 2:23], meaning other than Allah [Al-Baqarah 2:23]. The answer to this is: no matter how many helpers and assistants they bring, they will not be able to bring forth a surah of the like thereof.
I am merely a servant,’ so say: '[He is] Allah’s servant and His Messenger.’
إنما أنا عبد فقولوا عبد الله ورسولهDo not call me by any name other than “your slave,” for that is the noblest of my names.
That is, do not say so-and-so or so-and-so; rather, say “O slave of so-and-so,” because that is the noblest of his names in his view, as he has claimed affiliation to it—may we seek refuge in Allah from being abandoned. If the most noble of the descriptions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are two: servitude and messengership,