The Religion of the Koran: Extracts From the Koran

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This is a Western scholarly anthology from 1911 — Arthur Wollaston's *The Religion of the Koran* — presenting selected Quranic passages in English translation, drawn from chapters spanning the early, middle, and later suras (II, VI, VII, X, XVII, XLI, LIII). The excerpts are unified by a single theme: the Quran's own claims about its divine origin and inimitable authority. Repeatedly, the text issues the famous challenge (*i'jaz*) — that neither humanity nor jinn together could produce a verse comparable to it — while dismissing demands for miracles as bad-faith tests from those whose hearts God has already hardened against belief. A secondary thread runs through several passages distinguishing the guided believer, who accepts the Quran as confirmation of prior scriptures, from the obstinate skeptic, whose blindness is itself portrayed as divinely decreed. The final excerpt from Sura LIII grounds prophetic authority not in miracle but in direct inspiration, asserting that Muhammad neither errs nor speaks from personal desire. As a 1911 Western text, it reflects the orientalist tradition of compiling Quranic material thematically rather than sequentially, making it useful as an introductory survey of how the Quran justifies its own religious authority rather than as critical scholarly analysis.

The Religion of the Koran: Extracts From the Koran

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