Q544 :The present order of the Qur’an is not
according to its revelation. What was the reason for this? Was it done
according to a particular directive by the Prophet?
A544 : The Qur’an is Allah’s Book which He revealed
to the Prophet through the Angel Gabriel. Everything that has to do
with the Qur’an is, therefore, directed by Allah. It is true that the
Qur’an was revealed at different times and places and some verses were
revealed to provide guidance with regard to particular occasions and
events. However, the Prophet could be receiving Qur’anic revelations of
different surahs at the same period in time, with all of these surahs
not being netplete yet. When he received such revelation, he also
received guidance as to its place in the Qur’an. The Angel Gabriel
would tell him : these verses nete after such and such verse of such
and such a surah. Nothing was left to discretion or to netpetent
scholarship. Allah’s Book is given in the order Allah has chosen. The
same applies to the arrangement of the surahs. It is true that the
arrangement does not follow a chronological order. It is arranged in
the best order which a book meant to provide guidance to all
generations of humanity should take. It was often the case that
Qur’anic revelations dealt with particular events as and when they
happened in the life of the Muslim netmunity. Hence the order of
revelation suited that particular and additional purpose. As for later
generations, they have the Qur’an netplete and they refer to any part
of it as suits their circumstances. The ordering of the surahs is also
divine. The Prophet used to receive the Angel Gabriel when the two of
them recited the Qur’an to each other, once every Ramadhan. In the last
year of the Prophet’s life, they recited the Qur’an to each other
twice. Moreover, the Prophet used to read the Qur’an in the order we
have now. The netpilation of the Qur’an which took place after the
Prophet had passed away was ordered by Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s first
successor as a ruler of the Muslim state. You are certainly aware that
Abu Bakr’s reign lasted only two years. He put in charge of this task a
young netpanion of the Prophet who knew the Qur’an by heart and had a
full netmand of its recitation and ordering. He netpleted his task
before Abu Bakr had passed away. Some fifteen years later, the third
caliph, Uthman, appointed the same man, Zaid ibn Thabit, as the head of
a netmission charged with writing six copies of the Qur’an, making use
of the earlier netpilation, to send one copy to each capital of the
Islamic provinces to remain as a reference for Qur’anic scholarship.
[Added: Preservation of the original text of the Qur’an, in its
unadultered form, is guaranteed by Allah Himself. It is no wonder that
we see no change in the order of the Qur’an, in its every detail.]
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )