And when this is the place for them to submit that this Qur'an is nothing but from Allah and by His command, certainly, it is as if it were said: Will they turn away from their error and believe and be upright, or will they continue in their misguidance? They say, in a manner of renewal and persistence, out of stubbornness, 'He fabricated it,' meaning he deliberately attributed it falsely to Allah. So it is as if it were said: They persisted in their arrogance, and they said that, so they were like one seeking his own destruction with his own claws. This is because they established a corrupt foundation that necessitated, certainly, the impossibility of them being able to bring something like it, since they are Arabs like him. Rather, among them are those who read and wrote and mingled with scholars and were keen on various forms of eloquence, both in poetry and prose and speeches, and they practiced it, unlike him, blessings and peace be upon him, in all of that. For this reason, He commanded him in His response to them by saying: 'Say,' meaning to them, 'O most eloquent of our creation and most knowledgeable of them regarding the locations of speech of all its types.' He used the conjunction 'fa' (ف) in His saying: 'Then bring,' meaning: You, confirming your words that have become clear and that you are obstinate in them. And when they had firmly asserted in this surah that he fabricated it, and it was detailed into surahs, each one of them having a specific purpose that can be inferred therein, and its conclusion being connected to its beginning and united with it, He sufficed in challenging them by bringing a single piece that is not detailed like a surah, but rather is like all of the Qur'an in length, clarity, coherence of expression, and the gathering of meanings. For this reason, He said: 'With a surah.' Al-Rummani said: And the surah is revealed encompassing verses for the sake of the opening and the closing, like the encompassing of the walls of a building. This is considering that the challenge is a conventional surah, and the correct view is that it is a linguistic one, and it is, as Al-Harali said, a complete sentence of what is heard that encompasses a complete meaning, akin to the encompassing of the walls of a city. And He described it by saying: 'Like it,' meaning: in eloquence, beauty of structure, correctness of meanings, agreement with the books, and detailing of sciences. This is because you are like me in Arabic, and you excel with writing and mingling with scholars, without bringing 'min' (من) because what has preceded indicates that the intended meaning is for it to be like the entire Qur'an. For this reason, He allowed them to seek assistance from all whom they could and whose capacity reached them, and He did not limit them to those present with them. So He said: 'And call upon,' meaning: for your assistance, 'whomever you can,' meaning: whom you are able to obey, even if it requires exerting effort from the jinn, humans, and others for assistance. And He affirmed that this Qur'an is from Him, glorified and exalted is He, by His exception in His saying: 'From besides Allah,' meaning: the One who has all perfection. And He alerted them that they are deliberately attributing to Him what they have ascribed to Him - and far removed is He from the deliberate act of lying - and that they are obstinate by His saying: 'If you are,' meaning: by nature and disposition, 'truthful,' meaning: in that he brought it from Himself. Because the rational person does not assert anything except if he has an exit from it, and that can only be through a clear evidence and a decisive, overpowering proof. And it has been mentioned in Al-Baqarah and will come in Hud, if Allah wills, what clarifies this meaning. And the ability is a state in which the wounds and powers cooperate for action, because it is derived from 'ta' (طَوْع).