The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 637
CHAPTER 8 & 9 AL-ANFAL & AT-TAUBAH (Revealed after Hijrah) Title and Connection between the Two Surahs Though, as commonly known, it is only the first of these two Surahs that is known by the name of Anfal, but to be precise the chapter Anfäl comprises both the parts the one which is known as Anfal and the other which is known as Taubah. This means that Taubah is really no separate Surah but is a part of Anfāl. This is the solitary instance where a Surah has been split into parts, all the other Surahs being compact wholes. The proof of the fact that Taubah is no separate Surah but is a part of Anfal is that the portion, which is known as Taubah (Repentance) or Bara'at (Declaration of Absolution), is not prefixed by Bismillah (In the name of Allah), while, as divinely directed, the Holy Prophet invariably instructed that Bismillah be written at the head of every Surah. Tirmidhī reports Ibn 'Abbās as saying, "I asked 'Uthman, 'Why did you amalgamate Anfal which is a smaller Surah with Bara'at or Taubah which is a larger one and did not write Bismillah in the beginning of the latter Surah?' To this 'Uthman replied that Anfal was the first Medinite Surah to be revealed and Taubah or Bara'at the last, and there existed such a deep and striking similarity between the subject matter of the two as to make them appear as one Sūrah, and since there was no instruction from the Holy Prophet as to these being two separate Surahs, I combined them into one. " The above statement makes one thing clear. It is that there is very great resemblance between the subject matter of these two Surahs and that because, unlike other Surahs, Bismillah was not revealed in the beginning of Barā'at, therefore it must form part of some other Surah. The assumption, however, that it was 'Uthman who placed this Surah with Anfal possesses no traditional basis, and one of the intermediate Ruvāt or reporters of the above tradition seems to have erred here, because, as established by incontrovertible historical evidence, the arrangement of the Quran in its present form was effected neither by 'Uthman nor by anybody else, but by the Holy Prophet himself, and even those who ascribe the present arrangement to the Companions of the Prophet do not ascribe it to 'Uthmān but to Abū Bakr. 'Uthmān did only this that having satisfied himself by taking evidence from Companions of unimpeachable integrity that the copy of the Quran existing in his time was the same which had been reduced to writing and transcribed in the form of a book by the orders of Abū Bakr, he added his testimony to it and disallowed all other forms of the reading of the Quran except the one in the dialect of the 1077