Chronological Order of the Qur'an: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 23:57, 3 November 2024

The Qur'an is not in chronological order, but arranged roughly longest surah (chapter) to the shortest. The table in this article provides the traditional chronological order as set out by medieval Islamic scholars, ostensibly reported from the Companion, Ibn 'Abbas, though such traditions date to the early 8th century CE according to Neal Robinson, which he says "would make them roughly contemporary with the early discussions about abrogation and the sῑra-maghāzī literature", leading him to suspect that they are merely the opinions of the scholars of the time rather than authentic oral traditions from Companions.^[1] It is furthermore well known by Islamic scholars that the traditional reports of Asbab al-Nuzul (revelational circumstances of the Quran) are often contradictory, and are treated with considerable caution by academic scholars.^[1]

The chronological sequence of the Quran, including elements within individual surahs, is an active area of research for academic scholars. Surahs identified with the Meccan phase of Muhammad's career are sometimes further sub-divided into a number of periods. Theodor Nöldeke (d. 1930), whose sequence produced with his pupil Friedrich Schwally (d. 1919) differs slightly from the traditional chronological order, divided the Meccan surahs into early, middle, and late Meccan periods.^[1] Sometimes, internal evidence such as references to external events helps with the relative dating. Alongside literary style, internal evidence such as references to external events helps with the relative dating, and documenting the changing relationship between Muhammad, his Community and the Unbelievers, such as Mark Durie (2018)^[2] and David Marshall (1999).^[3] An interesting example of more recent research is the work of Joseph Witztum to derive a relative chronology between certain surahs based on the differences between versions of the same repeated stories.^[4]

The traditional chronological order has been passed down in slightly varying versions. The version shown here is reported in a fifteenth century work by 'Abd al-Kafi^[1], and is commonly reproduced on websites today.^[5]^[6] It is also the main source (along with the other slightly different versions) drawn upon for the very similar ordering included in the 1925 Standard Egyptian Quran.^[1] In the case of many of the Meccan surahs some specific verses are traditionally attributed to the Medinan phase.

Traditional chronological order table

To view the traditional order of the Quran (rather than the traditional chronological order), you can sort the table by "Traditional Order"

Chronological Order	Surah Name	Number of Verses	Location of Revelation	Traditional Order
1	Al-Alaq	19	Mecca	96
2	Al-Qalam	52	Mecca	68
3	Al-Muzzammil	20	Mecca	73
4	Al-Muddathir	56	Mecca	74
5	Al-Fatiha	7	Mecca	1
6	Al-Masadd	5	Mecca	111
7	At-Takwir	29	Mecca	81
8	Al-Ala	19	Mecca	87
9	Al-Lail	21	Mecca	92
10	Al-Fajr	30	Mecca	89
11	Ad-Dhuha	11	Mecca	93
12	Al-Inshirah	8	Mecca	94
13	Al-Asr	3	Mecca	103
14	Al-Adiyat	11	Mecca	100
15	Al-Kauther	3	Mecca	108
16	At-Takathur	8	Mecca	102
17	Al-Maun	7	Mecca	107
18	Al-Kafiroon	6	Mecca	109
19	Al-Fil	5	Mecca	105
20	Al-Falaq	5	Mecca	113
21	An-Nas	6	Mecca	114
22	Al-Ikhlas	4	Mecca	112
23	An-Najm	62	Mecca	53
24	Abasa	42	Mecca	80
25	Al-Qadr	5	Mecca	97
26	Ash-Shams	15	Mecca	91
27	Al-Burooj	22	Mecca	85
28	At-Tin	8	Mecca	95
29	Quraish	4	Mecca	106
30	Al-Qaria	11	Mecca	101
31	Al-Qiyama	40	Mecca	75
32	Al-Humaza	9	Mecca	104
33	Al-Mursalat	50	Mecca	77
34	Qaf	45	Mecca	50
35	Al-Balad	20	Mecca	90
36	At-Tariq	17	Mecca	86
37	Al-Qamar	55	Mecca	54
38	Sad	88	Mecca	38
39	Al-Araf	206	Mecca	7
40	Al-Jinn	28	Mecca	72
41	Ya-Sin	83	Mecca	36
42	Al-Furqan	77	Mecca	25
43	Fatir	45	Mecca	35
44	Maryam	98	Mecca	19
45	Taha	135	Mecca	20
46	Al-Waqia	96	Mecca	56
47	Ash-Shuara	227	Mecca	26
48	An-Naml	93	Mecca	27
49	Al-Qasas	88	Mecca	28
50	Al-Isra	111	Mecca	17
51	Yunus	109	Mecca	10
52	Hud	123	Mecca	11
53	Yusuf	111	Mecca	12
54	Al-Hijr	99	Mecca	15
55	Al-Anaam	165	Mecca	6
56	As-Saaffat	182	Mecca	37
57	Luqman	34	Mecca	31
58	Saba	54	Mecca	34
59	Az-Zumar	75	Mecca	39
60	Al-Ghafir	85	Mecca	40
61	Fussilat	54	Mecca	41
62	Ash-Shura	53	Mecca	42
63	Az-Zukhruf	89	Mecca	43
64	Ad-Dukhan	59	Mecca	44
65	Al-Jathiya	37	Mecca	45
66	Al-Ahqaf	35	Mecca	46
67	Adh-Dhariyat	60	Mecca	51
68	Al-Ghashiya	26	Mecca	88
69	Al-Kahf	110	Mecca	18
70	An-Nahl	128	Mecca	16
71	Nooh	28	Mecca	71
72	Ibrahim	52	Mecca	14
73	Al-Ambiya	112	Mecca	21
74	Al-Mumenoon	118	Mecca	23
75	As-Sajda	30	Mecca	32
76	At-Tur	49	Mecca	52
77	Al-Mulk	30	Mecca	67
78	Al-Haaqqa	52	Mecca	69
79	Al-Maarij	44	Mecca	70
80	An-Naba	40	Mecca	78
81	An-Naziat	46	Mecca	79
82	Al-Infitar	19	Mecca	82
83	Al-Inshiqaq	25	Mecca	84
84	Ar-Room	60	Mecca	30
85	Al-Ankaboot	69	Mecca	29
86	Al-Mutaffifin	36	Mecca	83
87	Al-Baqara	286	Medina	2
88	Al-Anfal	75	Medina	8
89	Al-i-Imran	200	Medina	3
90	Al-Ahzab	73	Medina	33
91	Al-Mumtahina	13	Medina	60
92	An-Nisa	176	Medina	4
93	Al-Zalzala	8	Medina	99
94	Al-Hadid	29	Medina	57
95	Muhammad	38	Medina	47
96	Ar-Rad	43	Medina	13
97	Al-Rahman	78	Medina	55
98	Al-Insan	31	Medina	76
99	At-Talaq	12	Medina	65
100	Al-Bayyina	8	Medina	98
101	Al-Hashr	24	Medina	59
102	An-Noor	64	Medina	24
103	Al-Hajj	78	Medina	22
104	Al-Munafiqoon	11	Medina	63
105	Al-Mujadila	22	Medina	58
106	Al-Hujraat	18	Medina	49
107	At-Tahrim	12	Medina	66
108	At-Taghabun	18	Medina	64
109	As-Saff	14	Medina	61
110	Al-Jumua	11	Medina	62
111	Al-Fath	29	Medina	48
112	Al-Maeda	120	Medina	5
113	At-Taubah	129	Medina	9
114	An-Nasr	3	Medina	110

Mecca-Medina Split

Sinai (2017) notes the Meccan-Medinan divide has evidence from the Qur'an itself (and not just tradition).

Most of the other surahs are plausibly taken to have been proclaimed before the emigration of the Messenger and his adherents to al-madīnah, that is, in a situation of increasingly tense cohabitation between the Qur’anic community and the Associators. Such prior cohabitation is implied not only by reminders of the Messenger’s expulsion but also by the statement at Q 8: 33 that the Messenger once dwelt ‘among’ the Unbelievers. Since, as argued in Chapter 2, it can be inferred that the site of this cohabitation was identical to the sanctuary later conquered by the Believers, the pre-Medinan surahs are justifiably labelled ‘Meccan’. It may be added that the general divide between two distinct portions of the Qur’an that has just been outlined would be tenable even if one were to doubt that Qur’anic references to ‘the town’ (al-madīnah) can be equated with present-day Medina and that the Qur’anic sanctuary is identical with present-day Mecca (although somebody beholden to such doubts may of course prefer to call the non-Medinan surahs by a different label than ‘Meccan’).

Sinai, Nicolai. Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (pp. 198-199). Edinburgh University Press. Kindle Edition.

There are features that separate the later Medinan Surahs and verses from the earlier Meccan ones.

Sinai (2017) notes that there are typically higher mean verse length and formulaic density in the later Medinan surahs than Meccan ones.

Stylistically, the compositions in question are characterised by a high or very high mean verse length and high formulaic density. This is illustrated by the fact that of the fourteen surahs with the highest mean verse length, thirteen are considered to be Medinan by Weil and Nöldeke, who mostly rely on references to some aspect of the Medinan constellation in dating a Qur’anic surah or passage after the hijrah.

Sinai, Nicolai. Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (p. 196). Edinburgh University Press. Kindle Edition.

The Qur'an begins to directly criticize key doctrines of the Jews and Christians.

...they betray an explicit demarcation of the Qur’anic community from Judaism and Christianity and harshly criticise Jewish and Christian beliefs (for example, Q 5: 12–19, 5: 41–86, and 5: 116–118).³⁸ This forms a contrast to surahs that do not allude to the Medinan constellation. To be sure, non-Medinan texts do occasionally feature critical references to disunity among the post-Mosaic Israelites and to schisms among the followers of Jesus,³⁹ casually accuse some of them of ‘wrongdoing’ (Q 29: 46), and insist that Jesus is not God’s ‘child’ but only His ‘servant’ (Q 19: 34–40 and 43: 57–65).⁴⁰ Nonetheless, texts lacking references to the Medinan constellation are generally devoid of explicit, targeted, and sustained anti-Jewish and anti-Christian polemics. Instead, their polemical attention is squarely focused on the pagan Associators, against whom the ‘Israelites’ or earlier recipients of ‘the Scripture’ are occasionally invoked as witnesses who would confirm the truth of Muhammad’s revelations (for example, Q 6: 20.114, 10: 94, 17: 101, and 26: 197). Indeed, it is only in surahs that form core texts of the Medinan subcorpus (Q 2–5, 9, and 22) that we even come across the Qur’anic expressions for ‘Christians’ (al-naārā, ‘Nazoraeans’) and ‘Jews’ (alladhīna hādū, al-yahūd).⁴¹

Sinai, Nicolai. Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (pp. 196-197). Edinburgh University Press. Kindle Edition.

The authority and status of Muhammad is severely elevated from being simply a 'warner' to having complete authority over his community; also see Sinai (2018) on this.^[7]

Another key doctrinal trait of the Medinan proclamations is their heightened emphasis on the status and far-reaching authority of the Qur’anic Messenger: whereas non-Medinan texts limit themselves to presenting him as a divinely sent ‘warner’ and ‘bringer of good tidings’ (for example, Q 17: 105, 25: 56, 51: 50–51, and 79: 45), Medinan surahs additionally cast him as a ‘prophet’ (nabiyy; for example, Q 33: 1.6.13), a title that non-Medinan texts reserve for figures from Biblical history.⁴² Moreover, Medinan texts over and over again enjoin their audience to obey ‘God and His Messenger’ (for example, Q 3: 32, 4: 13, and 5: 92).

Sinai, Nicolai. Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (p. 197). Edinburgh University Press. Kindle Edition.

The previous calls in the Meccan verses of Allah destroying unbelievers who rejected Gods messengers in the 'punishment narratives' are replaced with calls of military activism to carry out the punishment themselves. As Durie (2018) notes, "...the key aspect of the marked developments traditionally associated with the contrast between “Meccan” and “Medinan” sūrahs, is a shift in eschatology from an expectation of future punishment of rejectors in this world to a “realized eschatology” (Ladd 1993, 56) of judgment in the here and now, at the hands of believers. This critical change in the Qurʾan’s message takes place in the context of an emerging crisis of confidence caused by an apparent delay in divine punishment of disbelievers, combined with growing opposition to, and persecution of believers."^[8]

That the Believers’ recourse to military violence against the Associators was a turning point is openly acknowledged by the Qur’an itself. According to Q 4: 77, the members of the Qur’anic community were first instructed to ‘restrain your hands, perform prayer, and pay the alms’ and only subsequently was ‘fighting prescribed for them’. Not everyone in the community appears to have been keen to follow this command: ‘Our Lord, why have you prescribed fighting for us? Why have you not granted us a short delay?’, some of the addressees are quoted as saying.

Yet the Medinan Qur’an unwaveringly upholds the duty to combat the Associators. Henceforth it was the military victories of the Believers by means of which God was believed to exact His punishment of the Meccan Unbelievers, rather than by a natural disaster of the sort that had befallen the people of Noah, the Ād, or the Thamūd. As David Marshall has emphasised, we are here confronted with two different paradigms of divine punishment, one Meccan, the other Medinan.¹

The Medinan surah’s general lack of punishment legends, pointed out in Chapter 5, is obviously linked to the replacement of one paradigm by the other.² Interestingly, the Qur’an itself endeavours to reduce the appearance of a disjuncture between the two by integrating the new doctrine that God’s retribution is meted out via the Believers’ military victories with the earlier Meccan expectation of a direct divine intervention. Thus, surah 8 describes the Believers’ military victory at Badr in a manner that presents it as the fulfillment of the Qur’an’s earlier threats of a divine chastisement.

Sinai, Nicolai. Qur'an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys) (pp. 293-294). Edinburgh University Press. Kindle Edition.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 Neal Robinson, "Discovering the Qurʼan: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text", Georgetown University Press, 2003, pp. 62-74. ISBN 1589010248
↑ Durie, Mark. 2018. Lexington Books. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion
↑ Marshall, David. God, Muhammad and the Unbelievers. 1999. ISBN 9780415759946
↑ See for example Joseph Witztum. “Thrice upon a Time: Abraham’s Guests and the Study of Intra-Quranic Parallels”. In Holger Zellentin (ed.), The Quran’s Reformation of Judaism and Christianity: Return to the Origins. London: Routledge, 2019, pp. 277–302.
↑ https://tanzil.net/docs/revelation_order
↑ http://www.qran.org/q-chrono.htm
↑ Sinai, Nicolai. “Muhammad as an Episcopal Figure.” Arabica, vol. 65, no. 1-2, Brill Academic Publishers, 2018, pp. 1–30. PP13. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341480
↑ Durie, Mark. The Qur’an and Its Biblical Reflexes: Investigations into the Genesis of a Religion. pp. 47-48 (Kindle Edition pp. 149). 2018. Lexington Books. See also Chapter 2: The Eschatological Crisis & 3: A Nonbiographical Qurʾanic Chronology.

Chronological Order of the Qur'an: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 23:57, 3 November 2024

Contents

Traditional chronological order table

Mecca-Medina Split

References

See Also

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Chronological Order of the Qur'an: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 23:57, 3 November 2024

Traditional chronological order table

Mecca-Medina Split

References

See Also

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