THE HOLY QURAN
GRADUAL DESCENT OF QURAN


TEGUH: The Quran is in the word of Allah. The whole content is preserved in Luh ‘Mahfooz. Then from the Luh ‘Mahfooz it was sent down to two venues. The first was sent as a whole to Bayt-ul’Izzat (heaven of this world). Thereafter it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (saw) in bits according to the needs until it was completed in twenty-three years. The other divine Scriptures i.e. Torah, Zaboor and Injeel were revealed each as a complete Book all at a time.

MULIA: Bayt-ul’Izzat also known as Baytul Ma’moor which is directly over the Kaabah and is the place of worship of the Angels. Only Allah knows the truth, and it is beyond human scope to investigate. Have fullest faith in Allah.

FAEZ: The piecemeal decent of the Quran started when Prophet Muhammad was forty years old. He used to spend several days and nights in the Cave of Hira until one day Allah sent an angel to the Cave. The angel Jibril embraced Prophet Muhammad three times, and said “ikra’ (Read!).

AKHTAR: These were the first verses revealed to Prophet Muhammad. Thereafter a period of three years passed without any further revelation.

MULIA: We must have observed that the titles of various Surahs of Holy Quran denote a Surah to be Makkah or Madinah. The classification gives the impression that it is based on the place of revelation. Well it is not so, in fact it relates to the time of revelation. Verses revealed before the completion of Migration are called Makkah, and those after that are Madinah.

TEGUH: Sometimes Jibril came with a single verse or even a small portion of a verse, or several verses were revealed at one time. The smallest portion was An-Nisa 4 ayat 94, and on the other hand the entire Surah Al-Anam was revealed all in one go.

FAEZ: Jibril used to make Prophet Muhammad memorise five verses at a time. Scholars had presented several reasons for the gradual revelation, and if the entire Quran was revealed all at one time, it would have become obligatory to obey all Commandments at once.

MULIA: The chronological order of its revelations was different from the order of the Quran as it exists today. The order of its revelation was in accordance with the needs and circumstances of particular time. As soon as a verse was revealed, Prophet Muhammad will dictate it to the scribes and instruct where exactly to place it (in accordance to the format as at Bayt-ul’Izzat which is the same manner as at Luh Mahfooz) which will be guided by Jibril.

AKHTAR: The preservation of the Quran was done more through memory rather than pen and paper. Although rested mainly upon the memory of the Companions, Prophet Muhammad had made an arrangement to have it written as well. The number of these writers has been counted up to forty. As papers was a scare commodity in Arabia, the Quranic revelations were written mostly on tablets of stones, leather, branches of date-trees, bamboos, leaves and bones.

FAEZ: Sayyidina Abu Bakar (first calipah) collected and preserved all the scattered portions of the Quran. When Sayyidina Othman became calipah, he requested Sayyidah Hafsah (his daughter and also wife of Prophet Muhammad) to let him have the transcripts of the Quranic text (prepared during the time of Sayyidina Abu Bakar).

TEGUH: Consequently, under the leadership of Sayyidina Othman, they prepared seven copies transcripts of the Holy Quran. Of those, one each was sent to Makkah, Madinah, Syria, Yaman, Bahrain, Basra and Kufah.

MULIA: Due to the invention of the printing press, the Holy Quran was first printed at Hamburg in 1113 Hijrah (320 years ago). A copy is still preserved in Dar-ul-Kutub al Misriyyah (Library) in Eqypt.