Nuzūl of the Qurʾān and the Question of Nuzūl Order

Year 2015, Volume: 6 Issue: 2, 181 - 218, 17.06.2016

Mustafa Öztürk

https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2015.62.131

Abstract

In the modern Islamic world, there is growing interest in reading and interpretation of the Qurʾān according to its nuzūl order; accordingly, many translations and exegeses, based on nuzūl order, are published every day. This fact compels us to consider questions about the descent of revelation, arrangement of the text of the Qurʾān, and its arrangement pursuant to the chronology of revelation, as well as relevant general acceptance. Classical references seldom questioned the reliability of revelation order narrated by Ṣaḥāba (Companions), such as ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, and Tābiʿūn (Followers), such as Jābir ibn Zayd, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, and Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī, as well as later personalities, such as Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, al-Wāqidī, and other scholars; moreover, it has never been extensively studied whether all of the sūras (chapters) of the Qurʾān can be chronologically arranged pursuant to the available information. Herein, this study intends to draw attention to the necessity for a serious examination and analysis of such issues regarding the revelation and arrangement of the Qurʾān.

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