Abū Bakr ‘Abd al-Qāhir b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Jurjānī (d.1078), recognized Shāfi‘ī jurisconsult, Ash‘arī theologian (mutakallim), and grammarian, was one of the most prominent literary scholars of his time. Most widely known in the field of classical Arabic rhetoric (balāgha), he is the author of Dalā’il i‘jāz al-Qur’ān (Proofs of the Inimitability of the Qur’ān) and Asrār al-balāgha (The Secrets of Eloquence), two major works in the field of i‘jāz al-Qur’ān (inimitability of the Qur’ān) and Arabic literary theory in general. This paper focuses on al-Jurjānī’s neglected treatise, al-Risāla al-shāfiya (The Epistle that Leaves Nothing to be Desired), and through careful rhetorical and content analysis, undertakes to characterize its content and compare it with his two iconic works. In al-Risāla al-shāfiya, al-Jurjānī emphasizes the notion of composition (naẓm), the same tenet he asserts in al-Dalā’il, and argues that eloquence does not reside in individual words, but rather in how they are ordered in the construction of discourse. Basing his arguments on composition, al-Jurjānī downplays the validity of all other explanations regarding the inimitability of the Qur’ān, such as the notion of divine intervention (ṣarfa), as he does in Dalā’il. My textual analysis of al-Jurjānī’s manner of presentation in al-Risāla al-shāfiya reveals, however, that this treatise differs from Dalā’il in its targeted audience and that it was in fact intended for a general audience that possessed a basic level of knowledge in rhetoric and Muslim tradition, rather than an audience of specialists. For example, al-Jurjānī uses stories (akhbār) to demonstrate how the prophet confronted the Quraysh, including accounts of people insistent upon reviling the Prophet, ridiculing his claim to prophethood, and challenging the divine nature of the Qur’ān. This “story-telling” narrative approach, which minimizes the difficulty of his subtle thinking and renders it more accessible to a general educated public, is not prevalent in either of his two major works. This study of al-Risāla al-shāfiya, a curiously neglected text in the field of i‘jāz al-Qur’ān, thus provides insight into the broader historical context of i‘jāz discussion and highlights its articulation on a more popular level than is customarily observed.