The Reasons for the Authenticity of the Quranic Revelation from the Perspective of the Quran: Rethinking the Interpretation of the Challenge Verses

In various places in Quran, it is suggested to the enemies of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) that if they truly claim Quran to be fabricated, they should bring words akin to Quran. These parts are called the "Challenge Verses". In Islamic theology (Ilm al-Kalam) and consequently in the interpretations of Quran, this invitation which is to show the inability of mankind to do such task, is considered as "The Miracle of Quran". Interpreters and scholars of Kalam (Mutakallim), in order to explain the miracle of Quran, link the Challenge to the theological theory of Miracle. This paper tries to show that the Challenge verses which contain arguments for the authenticity of the Quranic revelation, are separate from the implication of "Divine Verses" which according to the Quranic use of this phrase, are the reasons for the knowledge of God and eschatology. The Challenge verses reject the notion of "fabrication of Quran" by denial of the possibility of such text being fabricated, and argue with references to the qualities of the Quranic content. Four examples of such verses are in an imperative format, which draws the attention of interpreters mostly, and that is why these verses are referred to as "Challenge". Due to the verbal nature of Quran, all the preliminaries and assumptions of this argument is not in the words of these verses. Some parts are mention in between similar contexts which were familiar for the audience of the time of revelation, and some parts are supposed predestined and some parts are explicitly mentioned. To correctly understand the meaning of Challenge verses, one needs to find other parts of the argument in similar Quranic context and complete the puzzle. In the efforts of interpreters to rebuild the argument mentioned in these verses, the key factor is the missing context, in return some theological (Kalami) presuppositions are used to fill the voids of this discussion.