Friday, September 14, 2012

How the Qur’an was Compiled

:-*Keyword - Posts under 'Quran'

QUESTION:
I wanted to know was the entire Qur'an compiled before the Prophet's
death or after by the khalifas. What I mean by compiled is the
ordering of the surahs. Before the Prophet's death ( Allah bless him &
give him peace), did the sahabas know that the #1 surah is fatiha and
#2 is suratul baqara and so forth? Or was this order established by
the khalifas like during Uthman (Allah be pleased with him) time?
ANSWER:
Assalamu alaykum
In the name of Allah the inspirer of truth
The order of the verses in each chapter of the Qur'an was divinely
inspired, eventhough they were revealed portion by portion as the need
arose over a 23 year period.
The Messenger of Allah (upon him be peace) would instruct the scribes
to place each verse in its proper place as they were revealed.
It is related by Imam Ahmad and the authors of the Sunans on the
authority of Uthman radhiyallahu anhu, "When a chapter was revealed of
the Qur'an that had a number of verses, the Messenger of Allah would
call one of the scribes and say, "Place these verses in the chapter
which states such and such…" Hence, from this and other narrations it
is understoodthat not only was the arrangement of the verses divinely
inspired, so were the chapters according to many scholars. (Fath
al-Bari, Bab ta'lif al-Qur'an).
Although there is agreement concerning the arrangement of the verses
being divinely inspired, there is a difference of opinion concerning
the order of the chapters. The stronger opinion seems to be that the
arrangement of many chapters was alsodivinely inspired, althoughsome
chapters were placed through the ijtihad [inference] of the
Companions. For instance, it is reported that the Companions placed
Surat al-Tawba after Surat al-Anfal, through their own deliberation,
as they did not have any information concerning this from the
Messenger (upon him be peace).
A good English work on the sciences of the Qur'an is, Approach to the
Qur'anicSciences by Shaykh Mufti Taqi Uthmani . An abridgedversion of
it is found in thebeginning of the Ma`arif al-Qur'an [a Qur'anic
tafsir in Urdu, which is available in English translation as well].
Well worth reading.

No comments:

Post a Comment