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THE
DIVINE WISDOM IN THE QURAN’S BEING
REVEALED IN STAGES OVER A PERIOD OF 23
YEARS
The
Quran was revealed in stages over a
period of 23 years, and not as a
complete book in one single act of
revelation. There is wisdom and a number
of reasons for this, which we shall try
to explain, insha-Allah. However,
before doing so, let us note that had
the Quran not been revealed in this way
but, instead, all at once, then those
who ask this question would certainly
have asked, ‘Why was it sent down as a
complete book in one single act of
revelation but not in stages over time?’
What is essential in all matters of
religion is a sufficient humility and
obedience in our attitudes, precisely so
that we may understand and come to
benefit from Divine decrees and
commandments. Otherwise, questions of a
similar kind can be asked endlessly
and, of course, fruitlessly: for
example, why is the midday prayer in so
many units while the congregational
prayer on Friday is a different number?
Why is the rate of zakat 2.5 per cent
and not 2? The weight and the duration
of particular prayers, the rate of the
zakat and other matters of this kind
are decreed by God, the All-Wise and
All-Knowing. When we determine any
matter, it is always from a limited
viewpoint: by our very nature as created
beings our reasoning is partial,
inadequate: we barely understand what is
in front of our noses and when we make
choices we do so with our own immediate
condition in mind─our present
capabilities, our daily routines, our
style and standard of living, and so
on. By contrast, the Divine Decree takes
everything into account─our moral
and spiritual well-being as well as our
worldly happiness, our future as well as
our present─and weaves the whole
into a single pattern, coherent with
Grace and Wisdom. Because of this, the
benefit that man derives from the Divine
commandments is immeasurable, the
blessings that flow from obedience to
them is beyond our imagination.
That
principle applies to the revelation of
the Quran in stages over years. The
essence of servanthood to God is to
submit to and implement the Divine
commandments in one’s life; if we
discuss this matter it is only with the
clear aim of seeking to understand the
wisdom in its being so and not
otherwise. By no means is it our purpose
to somehow question the Divine
Reasoning.
The
time at which the Quran began to be
revealed was the time for humanity to
come to maturity. That is why, Muhammad,
upon him be peace, the perfect model for
humanity, the best example to be
studied and followed, for whose sake
indeed the universe was created, was
given his mission at that time. His
mission and the mission for the Umma
(the society of Muslims) that gathered
around him was to become the most
complete, progressive and dynamic
exemplars for mankind: to attain to
the top rung of human advancement and be
the masters and guides for all civilized
people thereafter. But these reformers
to be had first to be themselves
reformed. Their qualities and
characters were deeply conditioned by
the ways in which they had long been
accustomed to living. Islam was to
turn their good qualities into qualities
of unsurpassed excellence, but Islam had
also to get rid of their bad qualities
and bad habits. To eradicate their
vices, to replace them with virtues and
the highest moral aspiration, in a way
such that the change would be secure for
all time─this was one of the
purposes of the Revelation. If the
Quran had been given in one single act
of revelation, if it had stood on their
way with all its prohibitions and
commandments, they could never have
understood, let alone accepted and
applied, them in the ideal manner. In
fact, such a way would be contrary to
the course that mankind were to adopt so
as to gradually implement the laws of
God and thus evolve: ever since then, in
every part of the world where Islam has
been taken, it has spread gradually but
steadily and rooted deeply.
We
can see nowadays people all around
unable to free themselves from their bad
habits and addictions, such as idling in
front of shop windows (mistakenly
considered to be harmless), smoking,
drinking and taking other addictive
drugs. If you confined such people, even
if you convinced them completely of the
negative consequences of their habits,
and the benefit of giving them up, they
would not be happy with you, rather the
contrary: they would feel angry, bored,
irritated and begin to complain; they
would seek escape from your program of
reform and revert to their habits as
soon as they were free to do so. All the
arguments, all the evidence of
specialists and experts of all kinds,
medical or sociological, proving beyond
doubt the physical, mental and social
harm caused by such addictions, would
fail to persuade them to change their
lifestyle. Even people cured of the
chemical effects of such addictions
still lapse back into them, even though
what they revert to is not one of the
essentials of life. Indeed, there are
cases of people who have campaigned
against harmful habits like smoking and
drinking but cannot themselves quit
their own indulgence in those habits. If
we bear this in mind, and remember too
that we are not speaking of the reform
of one or two individual bad habits
but of the reform of a whole lifestyle,
of ways of living and dying, of
marrying, of buying and selling, of
settling disputes, above all, a way of
thinking about man’s relation with his
Creator─then we begin to grasp why
the Quran was revealed in stages.
The
revelation of the Quran hoed out the
weeds in people’s hearts, rid them of
pests and other nuisances, and so made
them a good soil for the cultivation of
the virtues, excellent manners, and
lofty aspirations. That so much was
achieved in only 23 years appears to us
what it was: a miracle. Bediuzzaman
said, ‘I wonder if the scholars of
today went to the Arabian Peninsula,
would they in a hundred years manage to
implement even one percent of what the
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, did
in a year?’ Today we see that even
when many prestigious scholars and
institutions and the whole network of
the mass media campaign to eliminate so
peripheral a vice as smoking, they
fail to do so: indeed, if after such a
campaign against, say drinking, there
are twenty fewer deaths on the roads in
a year, they consider it a great
success! No alas! The miracle of the
Quran was unique. Another such is
impossible. Mankind has not made so much
progress over fifteen hundred years as
it did over the period 23 years of the
prophethood of Muhammad, peace be upon
him and the blessings of God.
That
period of 23 years was necessary for
those who lived at that time to
understand, interiorize and apply the
Revelation easily. The Quran instituted
a great deal of change, through
prohibitions and commands and through
new reforms of the deepest consequence.
However, it established all of them in
stages over time, as the need for
guidance arose, without discouraging, or
grinding down morale: warning and
condemnation preceded prohibition;
appeal and exhortation preceded command.
For instance, intoxicating drinks were
prohibited in three or four stages;
burying girls alive in two stages;
uniting warring tribes, and building up
a close-knit society based on
brotherhood and thus raising the
collective consciousness in a couple of
stages. These difficult reforms were not
gestured at or expressed in slogans─they
were achieved. The believers needed this
period to reform and so become
reformers.
Today,
we design our projects according to past
experience and future possibilities.
Taking possible social and economic
fluctuations into account, we make our
plans flexible, and try to leave room
for probably necessary modifications of
detail. Just like a young tree, the
Muslims in the early days of Islam
grew slowly, adapting to new conditions
gradually and thus developing naturally.
Every day new people were coming into
Islam, and the new Muslims were every
day learning quite new and different
things, gaining in Islamic
consciousness, training themselves
to act upon Islam and thus become
members of a society rather than being
separate individuals and clans in a
state of war. Their individual
characters and personalities, their
whole lives, were re-shaped and
re-ordered totally in accordance with
the precepts of Islam and the Quranic
guidance. Such was the magnitude of
their spiritual, moral, intellectual and
even physical regeneration. It was
achieved through a balanced synthesis
between worldly life and spiritual
advancement, and it happened slowly,
continuously and harmoniously, in
stages over time.
If
the Quran had been sent down in a single
act of revelation, those Bedouins and
unsophisticated people could not have
borne it. If a person used to living
under one atmosphere pressure is
suddenly taken to very high altitudes,
he dies as a result of the sudden
change. Aeroplanes rise gradually to
such altitudes, and people use oxygen
masks in them. In a similar way, the
changes intended by the Quran came to a
people among whom the Quranic values of
individual, family and social life, of
iman (conviction) and din (religion)
meant little. Now, if the Quran had
stood on their way with all its reforms,
and asked the people to implement them
fully, no one would have understood,
let alone accepted, it. That would be
like taking them to high altitudes in a
few seconds and causing their death.
That is why, the ordinances of the
Quran were sent to and inculcated in
people in stages, out of consideration
for what best fits human nature.
Since
man is a part of the universe, we cannot
consider him out of the context of the
laws governing the universe. Just as
everything in the universe develops and
progresses in stages, so too man’s
progress and development is most
fittingly and enduringly secured in
stages. The Quran is the basis and
foundation of that progress and
development, and had therefore to be
revealed, in accordance with the Divine
Wisdom which comprehends all things, in
stages over 23 years. And yet, that it
was 23 and nor 22 or 24, we do not
presume to question: rather, whatever it
had been, we would accept humbly and in
full submission. Praise be to God, the
Lord of the worlds, and peace and the
blessings of God on Muhammad, His
Prophet and Messenger.
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