The home of the John Johnson family in Hiram, Ohio, which, for a few months, served effectively as the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice<\/em> (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006):<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
How were people expected to know that these words of Revelation were indeed of divine origin? \u00a0One answer to the question was that the Prophet Muhammad, through whom the words came into the world, was a trustworthy man whose life and behavior conformed to established patterns of monotheist prophecy. \u00a0The books of sira<\/em> [biography] and maghazi<\/em> [specifically military biography, literally \u201craids\u201d or \u201ccampaigns\u201d] provided what one needed to know about this exemplary life and behavior. \u00a0Then what if someone wished to put Muhammad\u2019s credentials as a prophet to the test? \u00a0In that case, one proof came in the Quran itself (the famous \u201cchallenge verses\u201d): doubters were challenged to produce Arabic words of similar quality and beauty; their failure to do this confirmed the authenticity of both the Messenger and the Message.<\/strong> \u00a0(36-37)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are some of those \u201cchallenge verses\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. \u00a0But if you do not \u2014 and you will never be able to \u2014 then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.<\/strong> \u00a0(Qur\u2019an 2:23-24)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or do they say [about the Prophet], \u201cHe invented it?\u201d Say, \u201cThen bring forth a surah like it and call upon [for assistance] whomever you can besides Allah, if you should be truthful.\u201d \u00a0<\/strong>(Qur\u2019an 10:38)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or do they say, \u201cHe invented it\u201d? Say, \u201cThen bring ten surahs like it that have been invented and call upon [for assistance] whomever you can besides Allah, if you should be truthful.\u201d \u00a0<\/strong>(Qur\u2019an 11:13)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Say, \u201cIf mankind and the jinn gathered in order to produce the like of this Qur\u2019an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were assistants to each other.\u201d \u00a0<\/strong>(Qur\u2019an 17:88)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then let them produce a statement like it, if they should be truthful. <\/strong>(Qur\u2019an 52:34)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is an obvious parallel in Latter-day Saint history:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shortly before publication of the\u00a0Book of Commandments (the forerunner of the Doctrine and Covenants), some members of the Church evidently criticized the wording of some of Joseph Smith\u2019s\u00a0revelations. \u00a0After all, Joseph was very poorly educated and quite unsophisticated.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The revelation now known as Doctrine and Covenants 67 was given through Joseph Smith, at Hiram, Ohio, early in November 1831:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And now I, the Lord, give unto you a\u00a0testimony\u00a0of the truth of these commandments which are lying before you. \u00a0Your eyes have been upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and his\u00a0language\u00a0you have known, and his imperfections you have known; and you have sought in your hearts knowledge that you might express beyond his language; this you also know. \u00a0Now, seek ye out of the Book of Commandments, even the least that is among them, and appoint him that is the most\u00a0wise\u00a0among you; or, if there be any among you that shall make one\u00a0like\u00a0unto it, then ye are justified in saying that ye do not know that they are true; but if ye cannot make one like unto it, ye are under condemnation\u00a0if ye do not\u00a0bear record\u00a0that they are true.<\/strong> \u00a0(Doctrine and Covenants 67:4-8)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The critics selected William E. McLellin, a schoolteacher with a very sharp mind (also a future apostle and, alas, a future apostate), to take up the challenge. \u00a0It appears, though, that McLellin failed to produce a convincing text, and the controversy soon died away.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The story is briefly treated, by the way, on pages 142-143 of\u00a0Saints: The Standard of Truth: 1815-1846,<\/em>\u00a0the still relatively new official history of the Church.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Bountiful, Utah<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006): \u00a0 How were people expected to know that these words of Revelation were indeed of divine origin? \u00a0One answer to the question was that the Prophet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2827,380,183,8918,82,3967,6963],"class_list":["post-83583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doctrine-and-covenants","tag-joseph-smith","tag-koran","tag-mclellin","tag-quran","tag-revelation","tag-william"],"yoast_head":"\n
William E. McLellin and the Qur\u2019an's "Challenge Verses"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"William E. McLellin and the Qur\u2019an's "Challenge Verses"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-15T22:48:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-16T05:17:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/11\/800px-John_Johnson_Home.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html\",\"name\":\"William E. McLellin and the Qur\u2019an's \\\"Challenge Verses\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-15T22:48:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-16T05:17:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"William E. McLellin and the Qur\u2019an’s “Challenge Verses”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"William E. McLellin and the Qur\u2019an's \"Challenge Verses\"","description":" I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"William E. McLellin and the Qur\u2019an's \"Challenge Verses\"","og_description":" I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2020-03-15T22:48:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-16T05:17:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/11\/800px-John_Johnson_Home.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html","name":"William E. McLellin and the Qur\u2019an's \"Challenge Verses\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-03-15T22:48:28+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-16T05:17:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" I offer, for your unlikely but possible interest, a passage from Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice (Princeton","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/03\/william-e-mclellin-and-the-qurans-challenge-verses.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"William E. McLellin and the Qur\u2019an’s “Challenge Verses”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Hiram's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/11\/800px-John_Johnson_Home.jpg\")
<\/a>