23 Years - Wikipedia

Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad

Author	Ali Dashti
Translators	F. R. C. Bagley F. R. Bagley
Publisher	Mazda Publishers (English)
Publication date	c. 1973
Publication place	Iran
Published in English	1985?
Pages	228
ISBN	978-1-56859-029-5

23 Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad is a book written by the Iranian author Ali Dashti.

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The book contains criticism of the Quran:

The Qur'an contains sentences which are incomplete and not fully intelligible without the aid of commentaries; foreign words, unfamiliar Arabic words, and words used with other than the normal meaning; adjectives and verbs inflected without observance of the concords of gender and number; illogically and un grammatically applied pronouns which sometimes have no referent; and predicates which in rhymed passages are often remote from the subjects. These and other such aberrations in the language have given scope to critics who deny the Qur'an's eloquence.^[1]

Although Dashti concludes his criticism with an affirmation of the Quran's eloquence

In all fairness the Qur’an is a wonder. Its short suras of the Meccan period are charged with expressive force and persuasive power. Its style has no precedent in the Arabic language. Its effusion from the tongue of an illiterate man with no education, let alone literary training, is a phenomenon which, in this respect, can justifiably be described as a miracle.^[2]

Dashti cites many devout Muslim thinkers that thought the Quran's eloquence was not what made it inimitable:

Among the Moslem scholars of the early period, before bigotry and hyperbole prevailed, were some such as Ebrahim on- Nazzam who openly acknowledged that the arrangement and syntax of the Qur’an are not miraculous and that work of equal or greater value could be produced by other God-fearing persons. He then argued that the Qur’an is miraculous because it predicted the future, not in the oracular way of the fortune-tellers but with correct prescience of events which actually occurred... The views on the Qur’an held by Ebrahim on-Nazzam have already been mentioned, and it must be added that they were not his alone, but were also held by other scholars of the Mo'tazelite school such as Hesham b. Amr ol-Fuwati (d. ca. 218/833) and Abbad b. Solayman (d. ca. 250/864) [and more]. All were devout believers. They saw no inconsistency between their views and sincere faith.^[2]