Question

Doesn’tQ. 5:101 subtly teach us that we need to know what was happening in the Prophet’s time while pondering over the Quran? It says: If you ask about them during the time the Qur’ān is being revealed these will be shown to you. (5:101) I ask this because it puts the condition of “while Qur’an is being revealed, they will be made manifest to you”. So am I right in concluding that though we need to read the Holy Qur’an coherently, it is also incumbent upon the reader to keep the Prophet’s (sws) history in consistent reading along with the reading of the Quran because it is also the history of the Qur’an itself?

Answer

I believe you are right in the view that we need to know the background of the Qur’anic revelations. However, we can rely on the historical reports that are well established and that do not contradict the Book of God. The Qur’an itself is the most perfect source of its history. We can often gauge the reports at its scale and see what it authentic and what is not. We cannot subject it to the unreliable historical reports. For a detailed study of our view in this regard please go through the following discussion: http://www.al-mawrid.org/pages/articles_english_detail.php?rid=14&cid=454&search=occasion

Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi

Date: 2015-03-01