2.The collection of Arabic letters in the start of some chapters that cannot be deciphered.
In the beginning of certain chapters of the Quran we find individual letters of the Arabic alphabet. We are aware that individual letters of any language do not mean anything.
For example, the letters s u n put together forms a word and has a meaning, whereas the letters S.U.N. though collective does not have a meaning per se. Similarly, the Arabic word ‘Alm’ has meaning, but individual letters written as ALM do not carry any meaning other than that they are written as individual letters. In the Quran there are twenty-nine chapters that begin with individual letters. They are chapters 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 50, and 68.
Hence ‘The Quran’ which outperforms all Arabic literatures put together, stood to challenge the whole mankind to create a similar one handling their style of expression.
The comrades of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who used to question him on even small matters did not venture to do the same in this regard, demonstrating the usage of undecipherable individual letters in the olden days’ literature.
The enemies of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who worked overtime to disprove him and his religion did not question him on this aspect.
Since the usage of these kind of individual letters were common and accepted during those days, they were not made an issue. Or this would have made them remark “Look at Muhammad”, he is justifying meaningless words as God’s messages.
Although there were many opinions against Prophet Muhammad, no one dared to point out this aspect of ‘The Quran’ as a shortcoming and neither is there any evidence pointing to this.
This goes to prove the prevalence of such a practice in earlier days.
Hence, we have carried on quoting the same Arabic individual letters in the beginning of some chapters of ‘The Quran’ as they appear.
It is sufficient to understand that the practice was prevalent in the earlier days
