A Narrative on the Schematic Arrangement of the Qur’ān (Part 1/2)

Hadīth

 

I. Introduction

A narrative informs us that the sūrahs of the Qur’ān have been arranged in a certain sequence: First the seven long sūrahs called the sab‘ tiwāl,[1]then the mi’īn sūrahs, then the mathānī and the mufassal at the end.

In this article, the authenticity of this narrative shall be assessed.

 

II. Representative Texts

 

حدثنا هشام بن إسماعيل الدمشقي ، عن محمد بن شعيب عن سعيد بن بشير ، عن قتادة ، عن أبي المليح ، عن واثلة بن الأسقع ، عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال : أُعطيتُ السَّبعَ الطُّوَل مكان التوراة ، وأُعطيت المئينَ مكان الإنجيل ، وأُعطيت المثاني مكان الزَّبور ، وفُضلت بالمُفَصَّل

Wāthilah ibn al-Asqa‘ reports from the Prophet (sws): “I have been given the seven tuwal in place of the Torah, the mi’īn in place of the Injīl, the mathānī in place of the Psalms and have been further blessed with the mufassal.”[2]

 

In a separate text, ‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd (rta) is reported to have said:

 

 حدثنا معاذ بن هانئ ثنا إبراهيم بن طهمان ثنا عاصم عن المسيب بن رافع قال قال عبد الله   السبع الطول مثل التوراة والمئين مثل الإنجيل والمثاني مثل الزبور وسائر القرآن بعد فضل

The seven tuwal are like the Torah, the mi’īnlike the Injīl, the mathānī like the Psalms and all the remaining Qur’ān is furthermore.[3]

 

III Criticism on the Narrative

 

 

A. Criticism on the Matn

 

1. No Explanation from the Prophet (sws)

There is no explanation from the Prophet (sws) as to which sūrahs belong to each of the four categories of the sab‘ tiwāl, the mi’īn, the mathānī and the mufassal respectively. Similarly, we have no guidance from him regarding the meaning of the terms mi’īn, mathānī and mufassal. As a result, people have attempted to give their own interpretations in this regard which has mostly resulted in differing opinions.

 

Sab‘ Tiwāl

According to al-Suyūtī,[4] one group believes that the first of these is Sūrah Baqarah and the last is Sūrah Barā’a.[5]

Another opinion recorded by al-Suyūtī is that a narrative from Ibn ‘Abbās (rta) reported by al-Hākim and al-Nasā’ī says that the sab‘ tiwāl are: Baqarah, Āl-i ‘Imrān, Nisā’, Mā’idah, An‘ām, A‘rāf. The narrator forgot the seventh.[6] In a narrative from Sa‘īd Ibn Jubayr[7] reported by Ibn Abī Hātim and others and in a narrative from Ibn ‘Abbās (rta),[8] the seventh is Sūrah Yūnus, while according to a narrative in the book of al-Hakīm, it is Sūrah Kahaf.[9]

 

Mi’īn

In the opinion of al-Bayhaqī, al-Zarkashī and al-Suyūtī,[10] it refers to sūrahs whose verses are more than a hundred or near to it.

 

Mathānī

In the opinion of al-Bayhaqī, they are sūrahs which have less than hundred verses, but more than those of the mufassal sūrahs.[11] According to al-Farrā’, they are called mathānī because they are read more than the tuwal and the mi’īn sūrahs.[12] Al-Suyūtī has recorded another opinion about the reason for them being called mathānī: they form a pair to the mi’īn sūrahs.[13] In the opinion of al-Nikzāwī,[14] they are called so because in them anecdotes are repeated for the sake of teaching a lesson and for informing us (وقيل لتثنية الأمثال فيها بالعبر والخبر). In Jamāl al-qurrā’,[15] mathānī are sūrahs in which anecdotes are repeated. Still another opinion recorded by al-Suyūtī[16] is that mathānī is a name applied to the Qur’ān as a whole and also to Sūrah Fātihah.

 

Mufassal

According to al-Suyūti,#[17]they are placed after the mathānī sūrahs being among the shorter sūrahs and are called so since there are a lot of divisions between the sūrahs because of the basmalah. Others say that they are called so because they contain very few abrogated verses and for this very reason they are also called the muhkam, as is specified in a narrative in al-Bukhārī from Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr.[18] Al-Suyūtī goes on to say that there is a consensus that the last of these is Sūrah Nās. However, about the first there exist the following twelve opinions:

 

i. Sūrah Qāf (50) (on the basis of the Hadīth of ‘Aws ibn Hudyafah)

ii. Sūrah Hujurāt (49) (as specified by Nawawī)

iii. Sūrah Muhammad (47) (al-Māwardī has attributed this to the majority)

iv. Sūrah Jāthiyah (45) (attributed to Qādī ‘Iyād)

v. Sūrah Sāffāt (37)

vi. Sūrah Saff (61)

vii. Sūrah Mulk (67) (the above three are narrated by Ibn Abī Sayf in his Nukat al-tanbīh)

viii. Sūrah Fath#(48) (narrated by Kamāl al-Dhumārī in his al-Sharhal-tanbīh)

ix. Sūrah Rahmān(55) (narrated by Ibn Sayyid in his notes on al-Mu’atta’)

x. Sūrah Insān (76)

xi. Sūrah Sabbaha (narrated by Ibn al-Firkāh from al-Marzūqī in his Ta‘līq)

xii. Sūrah Duhā (93) (narrated by al-Khattābī)

Another opinion about the mufassal as quoted in Imām Rāghib’s Mufradāt is that the last hizb (Sūrah Qāf (50) to Sūrah Nās (112)) of the Qur’ān is the mufassal.

Al-Suyūtī[19] goes on to say that within the mufassal sūrahs, there are long (tiwāl), medium (awsāt) and short (qisār) sūrahs. In the opinion of Ibn Ma‘an, the long ones end on Sūrah Nabā’ (78), the medium ones on Sūrah Duhā (93) and the short ones on the last sūrah of the Qur’ān.

 

2. Scheme of Sūrahs in the Qur’ān

Let us take a look at the table of sūrahs and the number of verses each has:

 

      Name                                  No of Verses

1. Fātihah                                       6

2. Baqarah                                      286

3. A%l-i ‘Imrān                                  200

4. Nisā’                                          176

5. Mā’idah                                      120

6. An‘ām                                        166

7. A‘rāf                                          206

8. Anfāl                                          75

9. Barā’a                                        129

10. Yūnus                                       109

11. Hūd                                          123

12. Yūsuf                                       111

13. Ra‘d                                         43

14. Ibrāhīm                                     52

15. Hijr                                           99

16. Nahl                                         128

17. Banī Isrā’īl                                111

18. Kahaf                                       110

19. Maryam                                    98

20. Tāhā                                         135

21. Anbiyā                                      112

22. Hajj                                          78

23. Mu’minūn                                 118

24. Nūr                                           64

25. Furqān                                      77

26. Shu‘arā’                                    227

27. Naml                                        93

28. Qasas                                       88

29. ‘Ankabūt                                   69

30. Rūm                                         60

31. Luqmān                                    34

32. Sajdah                                       30

33. Ahzāb                                       73

34. Sabā’                                        54

35. Fātir                                          45

36. Yāsīn                                        83

37. Sāffāt                                       182

38. Su‘ād                                        88

39. Zumar                                       75

40. Mu’min                                     85

41. Hamīm-Sajdah                           54

42. Shūrā                                        53

43. Zukhruf                                     89

44. Dukhān                                     59

45. Jāthiyah                                    37

46. Ahqāf                                       35

47. Muhammad                               38

48. Fath                                          29

49. Hujurāt                                     18

50. Qāf                                           45

51. Dhāriyāt                                    60

52. Tūr                                           49

53. Najm                                        62

54. Qamar                                      55

55. Rahmān                                    78

56. Wāqi‘ah                                    96

57. Hadīd                                        29

58. Mujādalah                                 22

59. Hashr                                       24

60. Mumtahinah                              13

61. Saff                                          14

62. Jumu‘ah                                    11

63. Munāfiqūn                                 11

64. Taghābun                                  18

65. Talāq                                        12

66. Tahrīm                                      12

67. Mulk                                         30

68. Qalam                                       52

69. Hāqqah                                     52

70. Ma‘ārij                                      44

71. Nūh                                          28

72. Jinn                                           28

73. Muzzammil                                20

74. Muddaththir                               56

75. Qiyāmah                                   40

76. Dahr                                         31

77. Mursalāt                                   50

78. Nabā’                                       40

79. Nāzi‘āt                                      46

80. ‘Abas                                       42

81. Takwīr                                      29

82. Infitār                                       19

83. Mutaffifīn                                  36

84. Inshiqāq                                    25

85. Burūj                                        22

86. Tāriq                                         17

87. A‘lā                                          19

88. Ghāshiyah                                 26

89. Fajr                                           30

90. Balad                                        20

91. Shams                                       15

92. Layl                                          21

93. Duhā                                        11

94. Alam Nashrah                           8

95. Tīn                                            8

96. ‘Alaq                                        19

97. Qadr                                         5

98. Bayyinah                                   8

99. Zilzāl                                         8

100. ‘Ādiyāt                                    11

101. Qāri‘ah                                   11

102. Takāthur                                 8

103. ‘Asr                                        3

104. Humazah                                 9

105. Fīl                                           5

106. Qurasyh                                  4

107. Mā‘ūn                                     7

108. Kawthar                                  3

109. Kāfirūn                                   6

110. Nasr                                       3

111. Lahab                                     5

112. Ikhlās                                      4

113. Falaq                                       5

114. Nās                                         6

 

A little deliberation on the above table reveals the following facts:

i. We cannot ascertain where the mi’īn sūrahs end, after which the mathānī sūrahs begin. A simple glance at the table above will show that the mi’īn sūrahs are not grouped together. They are rather erratically arranged. One possibility is to regard Sūrah Sāffāt, the thirty-seventh sūrah having 182 verses to be the last of the mi’īn sūrahs because after this there is no sūrah which has more than a hundred verses.

However, two questions arise on this:

a. How can Sūrah Ra‘d which is the thirteenth sūrah and has 43 verses, Sūrah Ibrāhīm which is the fourteenth sūrah and has 52 verses, Sūrah Hajj which is the twenty second sūrah and has 78 verses, Sūrah Nur which is the twenty fourth sūrah and has 64 verses, Sūrah Furqān which is the twenty fifth sūrah and has 77 verses, Sūrah ‘Ankabūt which is the twenty ninth sūrah and has 69 verses, Sūrah Rūm which is the thirtieth sūrah and has 60 verses, Sūrah Luqman which is the thirty first sūrah and has 34 verses, Sūrah Sajdah which is the thirty second sūrah and has 30 verses, Sūrah Ahzāb which is the thirty third sūrah and has 73 verses, Sūrah Sabā’ which is the thirty fourth sūrah and has 54 verses and Sūrah Fatir which is the thirty fifth sūrah and has 45 verses can be classified among the mi’īn sūrahs since each has much less than a 100 verses?

b. How can Sūrah Shu‘arā’which isthe twenty sixth sūrah having 227 and Sūrah Saffāt which is the thirty seventh sūrah having 182 verses be classified among the mi’īn sūrahs since each has much more than a 100 verses?

ii. If the mathānī sūrahs are the ones whose number of verses is less than a hundred but is more than that of the mufassal sūrahs, a simple look at the table will reveal that there are many mufassal sūrahs whose number of verses is more than the mathānī sūrahs.

iii. Should the sūrahs having very close to a hundred verses (eg. Hijr which has 99 verses and Maryam which has 98) be classified among the mi’īn sūrahs or the mathānī?

 

3. Verse Number is not always Proportional to the Length

Since the verses of the Qur’ān are not of the same size and length, the number of verses itself cannot become a standard to judge the length of a sūrah. Thus there are verses which consist of just one word and there are verses which consist of several sentences. Why then would the Prophet (sws) use such a standard?

 

4. Contradiction in the Texts

Whilst some texts[20] report that the Prophet (sws) said that he has been given the mi’īn in place of the Injīl and the mathānī in place of the Psalms, others[21] report the reverse ie: mi’īn in place of the Psalms and mathānī in place of the Injīl. The narrative reported by Barā’[22] gives an entirely new scheme:

 

وعن البراء بن عازب أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال إن الله أعطاني   السبع الطوال  مكان التوراة وأعطاني المبين مكان الإنجيل وأعطاني الطواسين مكان الزبور وفضلني بالحواميم والمفصل ما قرأهن نبي قبلي

The Almighty has given me sab‘ tuwāl in place of the Torah, the mubīn in place of the Injīl, the tawāsīn in place of the Psalms and has further given me the hawamīm and the mufassal which no prophet before me has read.

 

Similarly, a narrative attributed to Anas ibn Mālik[23] also gives another scheme:

 

وأخرخ ابن نصر وابن مردويه عن أنس بن مالك قال سمعت رسول الله صلى الله تعالى عليه وسلم يقول إن الله تعالى أعطاني السبع الطوال مكان التوراة وأعطاني الراءات إلى الطواسين مكان الإنجيل وأعطاني ما بين الطواسين إلى الحواميم مكان الزبور وفضلني بالحواميم والمفصل ما قرأهن نبي قبلي

Anas said that he heard the Messenger of God say: “I have been given the al-sab‘ al-tiwāl in place of the Torah, the [sūrahs from the] al-rā’āt to the tawāsīn in place of the Injīl, the sūrahs between the tawāsīn and the hawāmmīm in place of the Psalms and have been further blessed with the hawāmmīm and the mufassal – none of the prophets before me recited the likes of them.

 

Moreover, the two narratives reported in al-Tabarānī’s Al-Mu‘jam al-kabīr[24] present the scheme in an incomplete manner.

 

 

B. Criticism on the Isnād

 

If all variants of the narrative attributed to the Prophet (sws) are studied, it is found that three Companions: Wāthilah ibn al-Asqa‘, Abū Umāmah and Thawbān narrate it from the Prophet (sws).[25] Their chains of narration can be summarized as follows:

 

1. Wāthilah ibn al-Asqa‘

 

Wāthilah ibn al-Asqa‘

 

Abū Malīh

 

    Abū Burdah

 

    Layth ibn Abī Sulaym

 

        Fazārī

 

Ibn Himyar

 

    Muhammad ibn Hafs

 

    al-Tabarī

                                                          Qatādah

 

 

Sa‘īd ibn Bashīr                        ‘Imrān al-Qattān             Sa‘d ibn Qays

            

 

Following of these narrators are regarded as suspect by authorities:

 

i. Qatādah ibn Di‘āmah

Qatādah is famous for tadlīs[26] and all variants of the narrative are his ‘an‘anah.

 

ii. Sa‘īd ibn Bashīr al-Azdī

According to al-Nasā’ī, he is da‘īf;[27] Ibn Hibbān[28] records that he has a very bad memory and makes a lot of errors and reports from Qatādah narratives which do not have any corroboration. Al-‘Uqaylī[29] records that according to Yahyā ibn Ma‘īn, he is laysa bi shay’.

 

iii. ‘Imrān ibn Dāwar al-Qattān

‘Uqaylī[30] records that in the opinion of Yahyā ibn Ma‘īn, ‘Imrān ibn Dāwar al-Qattān is da‘īf and Ahmad ibn Hanbal says that he is hopeful that he may be sālihal-hadīth. According to al-Nasā’ī[31] also, he is da‘īf. Ibn Hajar[32] records that he is sadūq and is forgetful.

Al-Mizzī[33] records that ‘Abbās al-Dūrī reports from Yahyā ibn Ma‘īn that he is laysa bi al-qawī and at another place Yahyā says that he is laysa huwa bi shay’ and that Yahyā ibn Sa‘id al-Qattān did not consider him worthy of being narrated from; similarly, at one instance, Abū Dā’ūd al-Sajistānī has calls him da‘īf and at another he says that he has not heard anything bad about him.

 

iv. Layth ibn Abī Sulaym

One group of scholars has regarded him to be suspect. According to Ibn Hibbān[34] in his last years, he had a bad memory and would not know what he was narrating, would mix-up the chains of narration and make mursal narratives marfū‘ and wrongly attribute reports to sound narrators; Ibn Hibbān goes on to add that Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Qattān, Yahyā ibn Ma‘īn, ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī and Ahmad ibn Hanbal have forsaken him. He also adds that in the opinion of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, he is da‘īf al-hadīth jiddanand makes many mistakes. According to al-Nasā’ī, he is da‘īf.[35] Ibn Hajar says that he is sadūq, mixes up a lot, is not able to distinguish between his narratives and has been forsaken.[36] Al-Mizzī[37] records that Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ibn Abī Hātim and Abū Zur‘ah regard him to be mudtarib al-hadīth and that Ibn Abī Hātim also regards him to be da‘īf al-hadīth. Ibn Hajar[38] records that Yahyā ibn Ma‘īn calls him to be munkar al-hadīth and Ibn Sa‘d and Ya‘qūb ibn Shaybah regard him to be da‘īf al-hadīth

 

v. Sa‘d ibn Qays

He is majhūl. No information is available on him. He could actually be Sa‘īd ibn Bashīr because in the given narratives Qatādah is the teacher of both and Muhammad ibn Shu‘ayb is enlisted as a student of both. After allسعد بن بشير could easily have become سعيد بن قيس.[39]

 

vi. Muhammad ibn Himyar

According to Abū Hātim[40] he is yukatabu hadīthuhū wa lā yuhtajju bihī. Ibn al-Jawzī[41] has recorded in his al-Mawdū‘āt that Ya‘qūb ibn Sufyān says that he is laysa bi al-qawī. Al-Dhahabī[42] says about him: lahū gharā’ib wa afrād.

 

vii. Muhammad ibn Hafs al-Wassābī

Al-Dhahabī records that Ibn Abī Hātim abandoned him when he was told that al-Wassābī was not attested to and that according to Ibn Mandah, he is da‘īf.[43] Ibn Hibbān[44] says: yughribu.

It may also be noted that the al-Tabarī narrative chain is broken because in the opinion of Ibn Abī Hātim, Muhammad ibn Hafs never met Muhammad ibn Himyar.[45]

It may further be noted that in a narrative recorded by al-Tabarī, one of the narrators below Sa‘īd ibn Bashīr is Dā’ūd ibn al-Jarrāh. This seems to be an example of tashīf because there is no evidence of any Dā’ūd ibn al-Jarrāh reporting from Sa‘īd ibn Bashīr or being the informant of the subsequent narrator: Muhammad ibn Khalf al-‘Asqalānī. It seems that the actual person who reports from Sa‘īd ibn Bashīr is Rawwād ibn al-Jarrāh because authorities specify Sa‘īd ibn Bashīr as his teacher and Muhammad ibn Khalf al-‘Asqalānī as his student.[46] In all probability, the word (داود) Dā’ūd could have become (رواد) Rawwād.

 

2. Abū ‘Umāmah

 

Abū ‘Umāmah

 

Abū Malīh

 

Abū Bardah

 

Layth ibn Abī Sulaym

 

Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād

 

Ahmad ibn Yūnus

 

Muhammad ibn ‘Uthmān ibn Abī Shaybah

 

 

 

al-Tabarānī

 

 

 

Following of these narrators are  suspect:

 

i. Layth ibn Abī Sulaym

See above.

 

ii. Muhammad ibn ‘Uthmān ibn Abī Shaybah

Although some authorities have regarded him to be trustworthy, here is what al-Dhahabī[47] records about him: ‘Abdullāh ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal, ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Usāman al-Kalbī, Ibrāhīm ibn Ishāq al-Sawwāf and Dā’ūd ibn Yahyā say that he is a great liar and Ibn Khirāsh says that he fabricates narratives. Ja‘far ibn Muhammad al-Tayālisī says that not only is he a great liar, he attributes to people narrations which are never reported by those who have actually heard them.

 

3. Thawbān

 

Thawbān, the mawlā of Muhammad (sws)

 

Abū Asmā’ ‘Amr ibn Marthad al-Rahbī

 

Shaddād ibn ‘Abdullāh

 

Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr al-Yamāmī

 

Ayyūb ibn ‘Utbah al-Yamāmī

 

al-Hajjāj ibn Muhammad

 

Hilāl ibn al-‘Alā

 

‘Abdullāh ibn Muhammad ibn Muslim

+

Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Hamdūn

 

Abū Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Makhladī

 

Abū Ishāq Tha‘labī

 

Abū Sa‘īd Ahmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Sharīhī

 

al-Baghwī (in his tafsīr)[48]

 

 

In the above chain, Ayyūb ibn ‘Utbah is suspect.