What If Someone Challenges It Later?

There is the account of a young man from a Muslim household who came with a difficulty: I have doubts. The diagnosis in his case was scepticism — he was sceptical about many things. His objection ran thus: I accept that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was a good man, that he existed and so forth; and the Qur'an has not been matched until now — but what if it is matched in the future? What if somebody produces something?

How is such an objection to be answered? Fourteen hundred years have passed, and some of the most eloquent people ever to live in that language have failed to match it; it will not happen hereafter. We know as much from our scriptures in any case. But how does one answer such a man by way of reason?

The answer given was this: it would be foolish to disregard the matter now — to refuse the Qur'an at present merely because someone might one day do such a thing. Believe it now; and if in the future somebody does produce something, we shall discuss it then. What else is there to say to such a man? Scepticism is itself the difficulty. It is not that he has a genuine problem with this; it is simply scepticism — what if, what if, what if.

For one might as well ask: what if the life you are living at this moment is a dream? In a dream one feels oneself to be in reality; and on waking one thinks, thank God that nightmare was only a dream — yet it felt real at the time. What of the present moment? Are you in reality, or in a dream? How do you know you will not wake from a very long dream indeed? If scepticism is what one wants, there is a great deal to be sceptical about. But a man in that condition would have a difficulty of another kind, for it would be hard to live at all.