Islam Online - Services (Fatwa)

Home | About Us | Media Kit | Contact Us | Subscribe | Support IOL Your Mail
Search Advanced Search

News Details of Fatwa

The World in Title of Fatwa
How the Qur’an Was Collected in the Current
Pictures Order
Date of Fatwa 5/ June/ 2002
Interfaith In the Site
Date of Reply 5/ June/ 2002
Post-War Iraq Topic Of Fatwa Quran
■ Greed, Death,
Views & Analyses Question of Fatwa The Qur'an was revealed in the form of separate verses
upon Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon Devastation:
Art & Culture him). It was only at the time of the Caliph `Uthman Ibn Three
Muslim Heritage `Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Qur'an Dimensions to
was collected in the order it is today. Can you please the Iraqi
Health & Science elaborate on who decided the current order of the
Equation
Qur'an (I mean the order of the verses and the surahs
Special Pages & (chapters) in the present form)? Can you also mention ■ Democracy or
Folders how it was all done? May Allah reward you for the Hypocrisy?
service you are providing! Towards an
Discover Islam
■

Name of Mufti Sheikh `Abdul-Majeed Subh Understanding

Introducing
Content of Reply In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most of the Shiite
Islam
Merciful. Authoritative
Ask about Islam Sources
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace From Sumeria
Contemporary
■

and blessings be upon His Messenger. to Babylon:

Issues
Iraq’s Scientific
My Journey to Dear brother in Islam, it give us great pleasure to Heritage
Islam receive your question. We seize the opportunity to ■ How Did
implore Allah from the depths of our hearts to lead all
Muhammad: The Prophet
the perplexed youth to the light of Islam, His true
Man & Message religion. Muhammad
Qur'an Unite the
With regard to your question, Sheikh `Abdul-Majeed Muslim
Hadith & Sunnah
Subh, a prominent Azharite scholar, answers: Ummah?
Fatwa ■ Submission and
“The Glorious Qur'an was revealed gradually within a
Fatwa Bank Sufism
period of 23 years of Prophet Muhammad's (peace and
■ Islamism vs.
Ask the Scholar blessings be upon him) outstanding life. The Prophet
(peace and blessings be upon him) ordered his the State in
Live Fatwa Companions to observe the order of the Qur'anic Algeria
Counseling
surahs. `Uthmaan Ibn `Affaan (may Allah be pleased ■ Fatwas on the
with him) narrated: "Sometimes, several surahs were Iraqi Crisis
Cyber Counselor revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings
■ I Hid My Islamic
be upon him). When anything was revealed to him, he
Hajj & Umrah Identity
would call on one of his scribes and say: 'Insert this
Directories into the surahs where there is such and such.' When ■ Mutilation In
some verses were revealed, he would say: 'Insert these Fallujah Is Un –
Site Directory
verses into the surahs in which there is such and Islamic But
Islamic Society such.' When a single verse was revealed, he would say: Reaction
'Insert this verse into the surahs in which there is
Islamic Banks such and such.’ " (Reported by Ahmad, Abu Dawud,
TV Channels and At-Tirmidhi)

Telephone Code There is another Hadith that is more worthy-mentioning

here. It reads: “Allah's Messenger (peace and blessings
Services be upon him) told `Uthman Ibn Abu Al-`As: ‘Jibril
Prayer Times (Gabriel) (peace and blessings be upon him) came
(to me) and ordered me to insert this verse into this
Matrimonial position of these surahs. The verse reads: ‘Lo! Allah
Date Converter enjoineth justice and kindness, and giving to
kinsfolk, and forbiddeth lewdness and abomination

http://www.islamonline.net/fatwa/english/FatwaDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=35618 (1 of 2)4/12/2004 2:09:36 AM

Islam Online - Services (Fatwa)

Calendar and wickedness. He exhorteth you in order that ye

may take heed’. (An-Nahl: 90)” (Reported by Imam
Discussion Forum Ahmad)
Live Dialogue The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) recited
the Glorious Qur'an before his honorable Companions
Address Book
in this very order. Consequently, the Companions
E-Cards committed it to their hearts in this order. Arch-angel
Gabriel (peace be upon him) used to recite the Qur'an
Newsletter before Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be
upon him) once a year and twice at the year of his
death.
Enter your E-mail
Muslim scholars have unanimously agreed on that the
arrangement of every verse in the Qur'an is tawqifi (i.e.
something that has come to us from Almighty Allah
through Divine revelation) and is not left to humans or
even Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon
him) to decide. This is applicable to the order of surahs
in the copy of the Glorious Qur'an. Consequently, the
majority of scholars consider it makruh (detestable act)
to recite the Qur'an starting from the final-positioned
surahs.

Historically speaking, Abu Bakr As-Siddiq (may Allah

be pleased with him) was the one who actually
collected all surahs of the Qur'an into one mus-haf
(book compiling all the scripts of the various surahs of
the Qur'an). Afterwards, `Uthman Ibn `Affan (may
Allah be pleased with him) made more than one copy of
what has been collected by Abu Bakr and sent them all
over the Islamic territories. Thus, arranging the
Glorious Qur'an has been done during the lifetime of
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)
and during the Rightly-guided Caliphs' eras while
thousands of Companions were still alive and
witnessing the whole issue (nothing was reported to
indicate the rejection of anyone of them to the issue)."

Do keep in touch. If you have any other question, don't

hesitate to write back.

Allah Almighty knows best.

All Fatwas published on this website (Islamonline.net) represent the juristic views and
opinions of eminent scholars and Muftis. They do not necessarily form a juristic approach
upheld by this website. Click here to read Full Disclaimer.

CONTACT US | GUEST BOOK | SITE MAP

Best viewed by: Copyright © 1999-2004 Islam Online Partially Developed by:
MS Internet Explorer 4.0 All rights reserved Afkar Information Technology
and above. Disclaimer

http://www.islamonline.net/fatwa/english/FatwaDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=35618 (2 of 2)4/12/2004 2:09:36 AM