Ayaat after ayaat were revealed over 23 years according to the events that happened so that the people can immediately learn the lessons and be guided. The arrangements of Surahs in the Qur’an were not according to the order of time on which it was revealed i.e not in timeline chronological order. Some earlier revelations appear at the end of the Qur’an and some much later revelations appear at the beginning part of the Qur’an.
After the final ayah was put into its destined place, so too was the complete order of Surahs from start to end. The arrangements were beautifully done and have a powerful effect on our guidance and faith.
The main opinion was that the order of Surahs in the Qur’an was divinely arranged. The other opinion was that the order of Surahs was put together by the Sahabahs (companions of the Prophet) via their initiative.
This was based on the dialog between Ibn Abbas (r.a) and S. Uthman (r.a) regarding Surah Anfal and Surah Al-Bara’ah (At-Tawbah):
Ibn Abbas said, “You have put them together and you did not write between the line ‘Bism’illah arrahman ar-rahim and you have placed them among the seven long (Tiwal) Surahs” .
So Uthman said, “Often a Surah would be revealed to the Messenger of Allah (SAW) that would have a number of verses. When something was revealed to him – he used to call someone from among those who used to write for him and say: ‘Place these ayah in the Surah, in which this and this is mentioned.’ Surah Al-Anfal was one of the first to be revealed in Madinah and Al-Bara’ah (At-Tawbah) was at the end of the Qur’an. Their narrative used to resemble each other so I thought Anfal was part of Bara’ah.
However, the inclination towards divine order gained more weight. Firstly, Allah who cleverly arranged the stars and galaxies in the universe, who correctly arranged the parts and organs of our body, who delicately arranged the balance of nature (between animals, plants and the environment), surely will have the Qur’an perfectly in order and not leave to the Sahabas to arrange the Surahs themselves! Below are more arguments to support that the Surah's arrangement was divine.
There were so many Hafiz at that time and if the arrangement were from the initiative of them, there would be lots of different versions of the order of surahs in the Qur’an. The sahabahs may have different opinions (khilaf) on some issues of the Deen but they did not object to the order of Surahs when the Qur’an was compiled into a book during the Caliphate of Uthman. Zaid bin Tsabit was the companion put in charge of overseeing the project of penning the Qur’an as a MuShaf based on the memorization of all the Hafiz. There were no back and forth lengthy discussions and disagreement regarding the order of the Surahs.
[Sahih al-Bukhari 4998]: Narrated Abu-Huraira: Jibril (a.s) used to repeat the recitation of the Qur'an with the Prophet (ﷺ) once a year, but he repeated it twice with him in the year he died. The Prophet (ﷺ) used to stay in I`tikaf for ten days every year (in the month of Ramadan), but in the year of his death, he stayed in I`tikaf for twenty days.
Zaid bin Tsabit was the man who witnessed the Messenger's full Qur’an recitation in his final Ramadhan. The Messenger recited the whole Qur’an twice in that Ramadhan before he passed away. Certainly the Surah's order was already in placed. Logically, the order of Surahs should not be ambiguously arranged during the two times Jibril came in the final year to listen to the Prophet's recitation.
Zaid would have noticed that the order of the Surahs were the same each time the Prophet recited them. If each was different, he would already have known, and the rest of the sahabahs would know too.
The current “MuShaf” that we are holding are printed based on “MuShaf Uthmani” which was a complete sequential order of 114 Surahs starting from Surah “al-Fatihah” and ends with Surah “An-Naas”.
Surah Al-Qiyamah (75:4)
“Yes, We are able to put together in perfect order the tips of his fingers.”
-> this is just a hint that Allah can arrange anything in perfect order. The next ayah below provides the proof of divine arrangement.
Surah Al-Qiyamah (75:17)
“It is for Us to gather it and to give you the ability to recite it (the Qur’ân)”
1. The responsibility of gathering the ayaat and surahs belong to Allah. He will personally get everything gathered.
2. Not only that He will get it gathered, He will get it recited completely.
Surah Al-Burroj (85:21 – 22)
“Nay, but it is a glorious Qur’an. (21) On a guarded tablet. (22)”
Throughout the Qur’an, whenever Allah mentioned about the book in Lauh Mahfudz, He will say “That Book” (i.e a written media that is far away from us). Whenever He mentioned Qur’an, He will say “This Qur’an” (i.e this recitation that is near us. We recite the Qur’an that is near us).
The above ayaat was talking about the written media in “Lauh Mahfudz” (that is far from us). The word used was supposed to be “kitaab”(book) not “Qur’an”(recitation). But strangely “Qur’an”(which is near to us) was used instead.
When He said “Qur’an”, it means that the recitation that is near us was actually from “that book” that is far from us. This means that they are identical. The recitation was from the written content of the “guarded tablet”. A tablet is where the words are permanently fixed, not erasable. All the arrangement of the ayaat and Surahs were permanently fixed in the tablet where the recitation(Qur’an) was from. “It was set in stone”. No re-ordering of the Surah was possible. Therefore we say that the order of the ayaat and Surahs were divinely arranged.
1. When we look at all creations of Allah, they were all perfectly in order. The heavenly bodies in the universe, the plants and animal kingdom, the atoms and molecules, etc. are all in order. If one thing is out of the supposed order, it will be disaster. If some cells are not in the correct order, the baby will be deformed, etc. If the Surahs in the Qur’an were left to the Sahabahs to arrange, they will not be perfect (as humans are not perfect).
2. We look at how orderly the arrangement of the topics in these two Surahs:
(Surah no.17) Surah Al-Isra’ & (Surah no. 18) Surah Al-Kahf complimenting each other:
(Surah no.17) The slave (i.e Rasul s.a.w) went up (to the heavens) to receive revelations.
(Surah no.18) Revelations came down to the slave (i.e Rasul s.a.w).
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(Surah no.17) This Surah was regarding the public life of Musa (as)
(Surah no.18) This Surah was regarding the private life of Musa (as)
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(Surah no.17) 2nd last ayah:
“Say (unto mankind): Cry unto Allah, or cry unto the Beneficent, unto whichsoever ye cry (it is the same). His are the most beautiful names…”
= The first thing to know God is to know His name.
(Surah no.18) 2nd last ayah:
“Say: Though the sea became ink for the Words of my Lord, verily the sea would be used up before the Words of my Lord were exhausted, even though We brought the like thereof to help. “
The above ayah talked about His “words” which were about His creations and His revelations.
= To know God is to see His creations and listen to his revelations.
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(Surah 17) Ayah 61: “And when We said unto the angels: Fall down prostrate before Adam and they fell prostrate all save Iblis, he said: Shall I fall prostrate before that which YOU has created of clay? “
This was a sign of arrogance from Iblis. His refusal to bow down to Adam (a.s) because he thought that he was better than Adam(a.s). He had knowledge and thought that he could choose his own action (not following Allah’s command).
This was also the characteristics of the Jews of that time. Their arrogance made them thought that they were smarter than God’s law. They thought that they were allowed to change God’s law where they saw fitting.
(Surah 18) Ayah 50: “And (remember) when We said unto the angels: Fall prostrate before Adam, and they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He was of the jinn, so he rebelled against his Lord’s command.”
Even though Iblis was raised up among the angels, but because of his refusal to prostrate, Allah reminded us that he was actually a Jinn, not an angel, who rebelled. This was the characteristic of the Christians. They thought that they were already as holy as the angels (no sins since their sins already been erased by the death of Jesus). They were actually only humans with sins (not angels with no sins). They rebelled against God by saying they do not need God’s command upon them anymore since they had no sins to begin with.
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(Surah 17) The characteristics of the Jews in bringing God down to a low level hence the last 2 ayaat were about magnifying the greatness of Allah via His names. “Allahu Akbar”. Magnify Allah and not bring Him down to a low level.
(Surah 18) The characteristics of the Christians in this Surah in bringing the creation of Allah (Jesus) high up to divine level, hence the last two ayaat were talking about how everything are the creations of Allah and God is ONE. “Laa-ilaa-ha-illallah”.
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(1) (Surah 17) Al-Isra’
-> Starts with “Glorified be He” – which formed the zikr of “Subhanallah”
(2) (Surah 18) Al-Kahf
-> Starts with “Praise be to Allah” – which formed the zikr of “Alhamdulillah”
(3) (Surah 17) Al-Isra’
-> Ends with “in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as partner” – which formed the zikr of “Laa-ilaa-ha-illallah”
(4) (Surah 18) Al-Kahf
-> Ends with “magnify Him for His Greatness and Glory!” – formed the zikr of “Allahu Akbar”
This sequence of zikr recited over and over again was what the muslims have been doing for generations.
(1) Subhanallah (2) Alhamdulillah (3) Laa-ilaaha-illallah (4) Allahu Akbar
Other examples:
Comparison between Surah 105 “Al-Feel” and 106 “Al-Quraisy”:
Both Surahs were the fulfillment from Ibraheem (a.s) prayer. He asked for a peaceful city that is safe and prosperous.
Surah 105, Al-Feel:
This Surah was about Makkah being protected. Hence the fulfillment of Ibraheem’s prayer of a “safe” city.
Even though an army comprising of elephants intended to attack Makkah to destroy the Ka’bah, the city was protected by Allah and was saved.
Surah 106, Al-Quraisy:
This Surah was about Makkah being prosperous. Hence the fullfilment of Ibraheem’s prayer of a “prosperous” city.
Ibraheem (a.s) prayed to Allah to provide them with all kinds of fruits. In this Surah, we read that the Quraisy were able to travel at any time of the year for trade and business without the fear of being robbed. All other tribes will be robbed except the Quraisy. Why? Because all the idols that belonged to all the tribes were in the Ka’bah in which was maintained by the Quraisy. Therefore, if a Quraisy caravan was attacked, the Quraisy will break their idols and throw them out of Ka’bah. That was what made all other tribes dare not harm the Quraisy. For all other tribes when they were to travel, they would need to travel during the coldest season or the hottest season. This was so that the “would-be” robbers would not withstand the “cold” or the “heat” while waiting to ambush on the travelling caravans. But for the Quraisy, they could travel any time of the day in any season with no worry. This was also part of the fulfillment of Ibraheem’s prayer i.e “provide them with all kind of fruits”, meaning they were very prosperous doing their trade and business. Since they could travel during any season, they were able to bring in back to Makkah all kinds of seasonal fruits from other places.
Also, after the destruction of the army of elephants (Surah Al-Feel), the rest of the tribes looked upon the Quraisy as special. You do not get to mess with the Quraisy.
Surah Al-Feel was about the protection of Ka’bah (the house) while Surah Al-Quraisy mentioned “.. So let them worship the Lord of this House (Ka’bah)..”. Both Surahs were talking about Ka’bah.
Each time they(the Quraisy) looked at the Ka’bah or remembered the Ka’bah, they would have remembered Ibraheem (a.s), the one who re-build the House(Ka’bah). These two Surahs were actually reminding them about the legacy and the prayers of Ibraheem (a.s).
Surah Al-Feel: The God that destroyed the elephant army and protect the Ka’bah is the ONE God that Ibraheem (a.s) had been preaching. Therefore this was a reminder to the Quraisy that they should not have put the idols as gods in the Ka’bah as Ibraheem never associated himself with any idols.
Surah Al-Quraisy: The fulfillment of Ibraheem (a.s) prayers. They had seen themselves in their everyday lives how safe and prosperous they were. Again this was a reminder to the legacy of Ibraheem (a.s). What was his legacy? It was Tauheed (the Onenes of God) as opposed to the many idols that they prayed to.
The next Surah after “Al-Quraisy” is Surah “Al-Ma-‘oon”.
Surah 107, Al-Ma’oon:
This surah described the behavior of the Quraisy which was not worthy of continuing the legacy of Ibraheem(a.s). Ibraheem (a.s) was a gentle person, who would not harm innocents, would not lie and cheat, would honor orphans, the poor, the women etc. The Quraisy did the opposite.
The next Surah after that is “Al-Kauthar” and so on ..
Surah 108, “Al-Kauthar”:
This surah described the behavior of Muhammad (s.a.w) of praying and sacrificing that were similar to Ibraheem(a.s). Hence he was worthy of carrying the legacy of Ibraheem (a.s) as opposed to the Quraisy that were against him. They wanted his lineage/legacy to be cut off, but his legacy is made to last.
The Quraisy could say that Muhammad (s.a.w) was also a Quraisy, hence the Quraisy thought that they too can be part of the legacy of Ibraheem (a.s). But the next surah denied them.
109, “Al-Kafiroon”:
This surah denied the idea of them as part of the legacy of Ibraheem (a.s). They were called as “kafiroon”. They do not belong to the people of “Tauheed” like Ibraheem(a.s) was. The Messenger from that time would not be calling them “Oh my people” but “Oh Kafiroon”. In tribal society, when you refused to call them as your people, that was considered as treason. So there exist a physical conflict. When there was a conflict, one side will win and the other will loose. We will know in the next surah the winners and the losers.
110, “Al-NaSr”:
This surah declared who the would-be winner was. It described the help of Allah when the time come for the Messenger’s conquest of Makkah. But at the moment when Surah An-NaSr was revealed, the strength of the Messenger and the Muslims were at the minimum, and it seemed that there would be no way of how they could become victorious. Then came the next Surah..
111, “Al-MaSad”:
The worst enemy to the Messenger and the Muslims was Abu Lahab. This Surah was telling the Messenger that Allah would get rid of one of the worst enemy of Islam as an example to the rest of the Quraisy. The main obstacle was cleared to create the path to victory.
When people had been struggling for so long, and when they finally got victory, the original meaning for that struggle may got lost, forgotten or diverted to become another kind of struggle. Hence the next Surah came as a reminder.
Surah 112, “Al-ikhlaS:
This surah reminded the Muslims to the original struggle, which was to continue the legacy of Ibraheem (a.s), the father of Monotheism. The legacy was to establish Tauheed. Surah Al-IkhlaS was a very powerful Surah on Tauheed (the Oneness of God). However, throughout history, when Tauheed was established by a messenger, after he was gone over several generations the people began to loose Tauheed. Another Messenger came to renew the Tauheed and again after he was gone, the same thing happened but this time there will be no more messenger to come. This was because of the relentless attacks and lies of Satan on the people. Which lead us to the last two Surahs of the Qur’an.
Surah 113, “Al-Falaq”:
We asking Allah for protection against the attacks from the outside
Surah 114, “An-Naas”:
We asking Allah for protection against the attacks from the inside.
So you see from the above examples, it showed that the Surahs were placed one after another (orderly arranged) on purpose. The order of the Surahs also depicts the course of history in the life of the early Muslim ummah. Historical patterns always repeat, hence Muslims nowadays too must be aware and alert.
As you continue reading to the next document, it will become more and more convincing that the surahs arrangement were of divine order.
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Nay, We are able to put together in perfect order the very tips of his fingers.
(Surah Al-Qiyama – 75:4)