WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.180 Have you ever noticed that many Muslims today 00:00:02.180 --> 00:00:05.200 not only believe the words of the Quran are inspired, 00:00:05.599 --> 00:00:08.500 but also believe that the very order of the chapters 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:11.480 is divinely arranged? That raises an important 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:14.779 question. Did the earliest Muslims always see 00:00:14.779 --> 00:00:17.620 the order of the surahs that way? One of the 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:20.300 most revealing reports on this comes from Sahih 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:23.820 al -Bukhari. In Sahih al -Bukhari, Book of Funeral 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:26.980 Rites, hadith narrated by Yusuf ibn Maq from 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:30.250 Aisha, the mother of the believers, We are given 00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:33.850 a fascinating conversation. A man from Iraq came 00:00:33.850 --> 00:00:37.270 to Aisha and first asked her what kind of burial 00:00:37.270 --> 00:00:40.670 shroud was best. She responded by saying, May 00:00:40.670 --> 00:00:43.509 Allah be merciful to you. What does it really 00:00:43.509 --> 00:00:46.369 matter? Then he asked her to show him her personal 00:00:46.369 --> 00:00:49.729 copy of the Quran. When she asked why, he said 00:00:49.729 --> 00:00:52.049 that he wanted to arrange and compile the Quran 00:00:52.049 --> 00:00:55.090 according to her copy because people were reciting 00:00:55.090 --> 00:00:57.710 the surahs in what he called an improper order. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:01.460 Now listen carefully to how Aisha answered. She 00:01:01.460 --> 00:01:04.219 replied, What does it matter which part of it 00:01:04.219 --> 00:01:07.180 you read first? She then explained that the first 00:01:07.180 --> 00:01:10.200 material revealed from the Quran was a surah 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.280 from the section known as Al -Mufasol, and that 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:16.099 this early surah focused on paradise and the 00:01:16.099 --> 00:01:18.859 fire. In other words, the earliest revelation 00:01:18.859 --> 00:01:22.239 emphasized ultimate realities, heaven and hell, 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:26.219 rather than detailed laws. Aisha goes on to say, 00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:29.599 that only after people had embraced Islam did 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:32.379 the verses dealing with lawful and unlawful things, 00:01:32.659 --> 00:01:35.920 the legal commands and prohibitions, begin to 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:38.439 be revealed. Then she gives a very insightful 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:41.579 example. She says that if the very first revelation 00:01:41.579 --> 00:01:45.239 had been a command such as, Do not drink alcoholic 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:48.760 drinks, people would have said, We will never 00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:51.420 give up drinking. And if the first verses had 00:01:51.420 --> 00:01:54.120 been, Do not commit illegal sexual intercourse, 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:56.859 they would have said, We will never give up that 00:01:56.859 --> 00:01:59.959 practice. She adds that when she herself was 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:02.760 a young girl of playing age, a verse was revealed 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:06.420 in Mecca that said, Nay, but the hour is their 00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:09.460 appointed time, and the hour will be more grievous 00:02:09.460 --> 00:02:12.400 and more bitter. This is a reference to an early 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.060 Meccan passage warning about the Day of Judgment. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:18.039 Then she notes that Surat al -Baqarah, meaning 00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:21.460 the cow, and Surat an -Nisa, meaning the women, 00:02:21.659 --> 00:02:24.860 were revealed later on. after she was already 00:02:24.860 --> 00:02:27.560 living with the prophet in Medina. These two 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:29.979 surahs contain many legal rulings and regulations. 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:33.539 At the end of this report, Aisha takes out her 00:02:33.539 --> 00:02:36.740 copy of the Qur 'an and dictates the verses of 00:02:36.740 --> 00:02:39.759 the surahs to the man in what she considered 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:43.060 to be their proper order, meaning the order of 00:02:43.060 --> 00:02:46.379 revelation, not necessarily the order found in 00:02:46.379 --> 00:02:49.439 the standard codex. This entire narration appears 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:53.009 in Sahih al -Bukhari. commonly cited as Sahih 00:02:53.009 --> 00:02:57.870 al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 60, often under Hadith 00:02:57.870 --> 00:03:01.590 number 201, or in that range depending on the 00:03:01.590 --> 00:03:05.530 edition. So what does this tell us? First, Aisha 00:03:05.530 --> 00:03:08.289 clearly thought that knowing which material came 00:03:08.289 --> 00:03:10.870 first in time was important for understanding 00:03:10.870 --> 00:03:14.810 how people responded to revelation. Second, she 00:03:14.810 --> 00:03:17.169 did not consider the specific sequence in which 00:03:17.169 --> 00:03:20.740 surahs are recited or arranged in a codex to 00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:24.199 be crucial for piety. She even said, What does 00:03:24.199 --> 00:03:27.060 it matter which part you read first? For her, 00:03:27.259 --> 00:03:30.520 the chronological unfolding of content, from 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:34.020 warnings about the hereafter to later legal rulings, 00:03:34.099 --> 00:03:36.560 mattered more than the fixed order of chapters 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:39.659 in a bound volume. That raises a key question 00:03:39.659 --> 00:03:43.099 for us. If one of Muhammad's own wives and a 00:03:43.099 --> 00:03:46.159 major transmitter of hadith did not treat the 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:49.719 current surah order as sacred or essential, On 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:53.400 what basis do many modern Muslims insist that 00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:57.139 the exact arrangement in today's Mushaf is divinely 00:03:57.139 --> 00:04:01.259 set and unchangeable? And if Aisha herself appealed 00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:03.979 to the order of revelation rather than the printed 00:04:03.979 --> 00:04:07.139 order, does this not reinforce the point that 00:04:07.139 --> 00:04:10.300 understanding the Quran requires attention to 00:04:10.300 --> 00:04:13.919 history and chronology, not just to the present 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:15.099 layout of the text?