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Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ‘ala Sayyidina Rasulillah wa ‘ala aalihi wa sahbihi wa man walah.

We continue our study of Surah Al-An’am, picking up from Ayah 9, where we explore the arguments of the Quraysh against the Prophet ﷺ and Allah’s responses to their objections.

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The Arguments of the Quraysh Against the Prophet ﷺ

1️⃣ Argument: “Show Us a Miracle Beyond Words!”

📖 Ayah 9:

“Even if We had sent down a book in writing, and they touched it with their hands, the disbelievers would still say, ‘This is nothing but magic!’”

🔹 The Qur’an was revealed orally, and the Quraysh demanded a physical book to believe in it.

🔹 Allah says that even if He sent down the Qur’an in written form, they would still reject it.

💡 Lesson:

• Disbelievers throughout history have always asked for miraculous signs but still rejected them.

• The true miracle of Islam is the Qur’an itself—a book of intellectual, linguistic, and spiritual miracles.

Historical Context: The Evolution of Paper & Bookbinding

🔹 The word “khirtas” (paper) in this ayah refers to the Egyptian papyrus, which was extremely rare in Arabia.

🔹 Paper, as we know it today, did not exist in Arabia during the Prophet’s time.

🔹 It was the Muslims who first introduced mass paper production after learning from Chinese captives in the Battle of Talas (132 Hijrah).

🔹 This led to the first bookbinding techniques, which allowed knowledge to be preserved and spread efficiently.

💡 Lesson:

• Islamic civilisation embraced knowledge—whether from Chinese, Indians, or Greeks—and used it to advance humanity.

• Muslims never divided knowledge into “Islamic” and “non-Islamic.” If it was beneficial, they adopted it.