"Or do they say: 'He forged it'? Say: 'Bring then a sura like unto it and call [to your aid] anyone you can". (10:38)

Since we know that some of the shorter surahs consist only of a few brief sentences, this final challenge constituted a definitive proof of the human being's inability to imitate the Quran. Can the person of today take up the challenge of the Quran and produce a Surah like it, thereby conquering the stronghold of Islam and invalidating the claim of its Prophet?

Let us not forget that this challenge was issued to a people whose leaders were threatened by the devastating attacks of the Quran -
their lives, their property, their ancient customs, their ancestors, their whole social position. If it had been at all possible for the Arabs to respond to the challenge of the Quran, they would have taken it up immediately, with the unstinting aid of the masters of eloquence that were by no means rare in that age. Thus they would have invalidated
the proofs of the Quran and won an everlasting victory.

Quran has proposed a very simple challenge to those who oppose it. Why do then the deniers of prophethood choose roundabout ways, avoiding this direct method of confronting and defeating Islam? Is not because the door is firmly closed on meeting the challenge posed by the Quran?

It is not that they did not try to mute the challenge. Infact, they called into play all their resources in an effort to meet the challenge of the Quran, but all their efforts came to naught.

They were unable to point even to a single error or defect in the Quran, and were obliged to admit that its words were situated on a higher plane than the thought and speech of the human being.