Convenient Revelations: Difference between revisions

According to Islamic tradition, the [[Quran]] was [[Revelation|revealed]] gradually to the prophet [[Muhammad]] over the 23 years of his prophethood, generally in the form of divine guidance for the circumstances Muhammad found himself in at any given time. Thus, in addition to containing commandments and [[Shari'ah (Islamic Law)|laws]] aimed at the entire Muslim population, the Quran also contains content intended only for Muhammad's employment. Often revelation of the latter sort was related to the extremely personal circumstances of the prophet, including exclusive exemptions for Muhammad from Islamic law, admonitions of his [[Muhammad's Marriages|wives]] and guests, and intimate [[Ahl al-Bayt (Muhammad's Household)|family]] affairs. In addition to revelations passed to Muhammad in the form of the Quran, according to the hadith literature, Muhammad would sometimes assert he had received a message from [[Allah (God)|God]] which was not intended as part of the Quran but which was nonetheless binding in all the same ways. These non-Quranic revelations form a genre of the hadith known as the ''hadith qudsi''. Traditional Islamic scholars do not consider these hadith qudsi to be any more important than regular hadiths, although the reasoning behind this absence of distinction has not been clarified by them or agreed upon in common.

There are three different historical interpretations of this highly-intimate variety of [[Asbab al-Nuzul (Revelational Circumstances of the Quran)|revelational circumstance (''Asbab al-Nuzul)'']], particular where it occurs in the Quran.