The Quranic challenge (al-tahaddi bil-Quran)

Sha'rawi presents the challenge in Al-Baqara 23, "bring a surah like it", and holds that God graded it from the whole Quran, to ten surahs, to one surah. ^{1 2}

Sha'rawi holds that God asked for a like and not the Quran's own text, allowed the challenged to call witnesses other than God, and that "if you are truthful" means that a spoken statement must match the fact it describes. ^{3 5}

Sha'rawi reads "if you do not, and you never will" in Al-Baqara 24 as a judgement of inability, and holds that the doubt they raise is contrived. ^{4 6}

This is Sha'rawi's reading and is attributed to him. The scan gives no views of scholars of inimitability or Quranic sciences on this aspect, and none has been checked.