The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume II — Page 396
Seal of the Prophets - Volume II 396 there are some who can see no order in this physical world, those people who are deprived of spiritual insight, can see no order in the arrangement of the Holy Qur’ān either. However, as for those who are accustomed to deep study and possess the insight, piety and purity within themselves which is necessary to understand the essence of a spiritual book, consider this arrangement to be of a lofty status, and feel the effect of it upon their own souls. At this instance, the question may arise that if the current arrangement was best suited for the purpose of reformation, training, and with respect to its spiritual influence, why then was the Qur’ān not revealed in this very order, so that the Companions who were the very first addressees of the Qur’ānic teaching could have also benefitted? The response to this is that the circumstances of the Companions and those of latter Muslims are different. The order in which the Holy Qur’ān was revealed was best suited for the Companions. However, after a pioneer community had been established, for future times, as a permanent arrangement, the sequence which is found in the Qur’ān at present, was best suited. This variance is based on two principles: Firstly, it should be known that the Companions were the first community to have been established upon the precepts of the Islāmic Sharī‘at. Prior to this, there was no group of people who had ever bore the Islāmic Sharī‘at , nor did it exist in the world before that time. By means of the Holy Qur’ān, the ancient way of practice and civilization was to be abolished, and the foundation of a completely new order and civilization was to be established. Therefore, it was necessary for Qur’ānic injunctions to be revealed to the people of that time according to their mentality and environment, so that it was easier for them to transform their lives and assimilate this new teaching into themselves. For this purpose, it is obvious that the best course of action was that in the very beginning such verses be revealed, which primarily dealt with the rectification of doctrine, whereby polytheistic beliefs were uprooted and Divine Unity was established. After this, came commandments and prohibitions pertinent to the Islāmic method of worship, the Islāmic practice in civil affairs, the Islāmic form of civilization and the Islāmic system of governance. As such, this is precisely as it occurred. 1 However, when a community had been established on the precepts of the Islāmic Sharī‘at and a framework had been constructed in the manner of a seed or nucleus, for the 1 * Ṣaḥīḥul-Bukhārī, Kitābu Faḍā’ilil-Qur’ān, Bābu Ta’līfil-Qur’ān, Ḥadīth No. 4993 * Fatḥul-Bārī Sharḥu Ṣaḥīḥil-Bukhārī, By Al-Imām Aḥmad bin Ḥajar Al-‘Asqalānī, Volume 9, p. 48, Kitābu Faḍā’ilil-Qur’ān, Bābu Ta’līfil-Qur’ān, Qadīmī Kutub Khānah, Ārām Bāgh, Karachi