tors say that the terms "Ruh-ul-Amin" and
"Shadid-ul-Qua" refer to no other angel or spirit. The use of the word
"taught" in the last Sura quoted, and the following expression in Sura
lxxv. 18. "When we have _recited it_, then follow thou the recital," show
that the Quran is entirely an objective revelation and that Muhammad was
only a passive medium of communication. The Muhammadan historian, Ibn
Khaldoun, says on this point:--"Of all the divine books the Quran is the
only one of which the text, words and phrases have been communicated to a
prophet by an audible voice. It is otherwise with the Pentateuch, the
Gospel and the other divine books: the prophets received them under the
form of ideas."[5] This expresses the universal belief on this point--a
belief which reveals the essentially mechanical nature of Islam.

The Quran thus revealed is now looked upon as the standing miracle of
Islam. Other divine books, it is admitted, were revelations received under
the form of ideas, but the Quran is far superior to them all for the actual
text was revealed to the ear of the prophet. Thus we read in Sura lxxv.
16-19:--

{5}

"Move not thy tongue in haste to follow and master this revelation;
For we will see to the collecting and recital of it;
_But when we have recited it_, then follow thou the recital;
And verily it shall be ours to make it clear to thee."

The Quran is, then, believed to be a miraculous revelation of divine
eloquence, as regards both _form_ and _substance_, arrangement of words,
and its revelation of sacred things. It is asserted that each
well-accredited prophet performed miracles in that particular department of
human skill or science most flourishing in his age. Thus in the days of
Moses magic exercised a wide influence, but all the magicians of Pharaoh's
court had to submit to the superior skill of the Hebrew prophet. In the
days of Jesus the science of medicine flourished. Men possessed great skill
in the art of healing; but no physician could equal the skill of Jesus, who
not only healed the sick, but raised the dead. In the days of Muhammad the
special and most striking feature of the age was the wonderful power of the
Arabs in the art of poetry. Muhammad-ud-Damiri says:--"Wisdom hath alighted
on three things--the brain of the Franks, the hands of the Chinese and the
tongue of the Arabs." They were unrivalled for their eloquence, for the
skill with which they arranged their material and gave