Chronological Sequence of Revelation

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Although the revelation of the Quran took 23 years to complete, God tells us that the entire Quran was placed into Muhammad’s soul during the month of Ramadan, on the Night of Destiny. (See Sura 97, and also the verses 17:1, 44:3, 53:1-18). Thereafter, the angel Gabriel helped Muhammad release a few verses of the Quran at a time, from the soul to Muhammad’s memory. Muhammad then wrote down and memorized the verses just released into his mind. When he died, he left the complete Quran written down with his own hand in the chronological order of revelation, along with specific instructions as to where to place every verse. The divine instructions recorded by Muhammad were designed to put the Quran together into the final format that we have today. The table below gives the chronological sequence of the revelations of the suras.

Not only was the order of revelations of the suras (chapters) different than their order in the Quran, but also the majority of the suras were not revealed as a complete unit at once. For example, the first revelation was Sura 96, Verses 1-4, the second revelation was part of Sura 68.

One of the suras that was revealed in its entirely was Sura 1, “The Key” (Al-Faatehah). This sura was revealed immediately after the Verse 74:30 which says “Over it is nineteen.” Many readers know by now that the first verse of Sura 1, In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, consists of 19 letters, and it constitutes the foundation upon which the Quran’s 19- based mathematical miracle is built.

The following mathematical facts based on the number 19 assure us that the chronological sequence of the suras is indeed divinely guarded, the same as the order of the suras in the Quran.

• 1. Start from the first sura in the Quran. Put down the order of revelation (5) followed by the sura number (1). Repeat this for each sura in the Quran, to make a 468-digit number as shown below.

  2. 5 1 87 2 89 3 92 4 112 5 .............. 20 113 21 114 = multiple of 19

  3. Start from the first sura revealed (Sura 96). Put the the sura number (96) and the number of verses in that sura (19) followed by its order of revelation (1). Repeat this for each sura in the order of revelation, to make a 695-digit number as shown below:

  4. 96 19 1 68 52 2 73 20 3 74 56 4 17 5 …………… 9 127 113 110 3 114 = multiple of 19.

Sister Ihsan Ramadan discovered the following mathematical relationship between the sura numbers and the order of revelations based on the number 19. Basically, she first took every 19th sura in the Quran. These are Suras 19, 38, 57, 76, 95, and 114. Then, she put down the corresponding order of revelations for these suras and added them up:

It is a mathematical property that the sum of the left hand column is a multiple of 19. However, the sum of the right hand column is truly significant, further indicating the divine preservation of the order of revelations.

(Taken from the March 1991 issue of the Submitters Perspective)