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As far as I can tell we have not for all of the Verses of the Quran neither a Hadith telling us when they exactly were revealed nor a Hadith telling us the reason behind the revelation. Even if we know this for many Verses and Suwar (Surats). For example we know that Surat Yusuf/Yosouf was revealed in the Year of grief ('Aam al Huzn), but if we take it more exactly it's only the Verses telling the Story of the prophet Yusuf (peace be upon him) whom where revealed at that time.

This link provides a chronological order of the Suwar/Surats of the Quran. I have big doubts that the order for surat al-Mudathir is correct, as at least the first verses from it were the 2nd revelation according many sahih hadiths I know.
But when we read in books about the uloom-al-quran (the sciences of Qur'an) we find different opinions about the chronological revelation of some Verses or Suwar, for example a not strong opinion is that Surat al-Fatiha was the very first Surah revealed! And the information whether a Surah is Madani or Makki which we find in some Masahif at the beginning of each Surah is just a general hint, because even in a Makki Surah you may find Madani verses and vice versa. And on the other hand (if we get granular) apparently Makki doesn't for sure mean it was revealed before the Hijjra! As specialists can differ between daily and nightly revelation, revelation on a journey etc. so there are Verses that have been revealed while the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was in Mekka (or near Mekka) after the Hijra, but of course in a Mushaf it refers to a Surah of whom most Verses were revealed before the Hijrah!

I would like to know if there have been books treating this matter (a chronological compilation of the Quran Verses, in Arabic ترتيب المصحف حسب ترتيب النزول) specifically and how they dealt with Verses which don't seem to have any chronological back ground!


There are 3 defintions of Makki and Madani which are used by scholars:

  1. Anything which was revealed in Mekka is makki and anything which was revealed in Medina is madani!
  2. Anything which was revealed before hijra is makki anything afterwards is madani (this is the most common definition, or at least the one any layman would know).
  3. Anything which was addressing people of Mekka is makki, anything addressing people of Medina is madani!
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  • "Makki doesn't for sure mean it was revealed before the Hijjra!" Are you sure about that? AFAIK, Makki is used for pre-hijra revelations.
    – user549
    Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 8:23
  • Why would someone sort in chronological order when we have the order which is TAUFEEQI, meaning it is specified by prophet himslef. We cannot read Quran in chronological order. What gain is of this? Commented Feb 12, 2016 at 18:37
  • @ZiaUlRehmanMughal for example to know how some orders have been changed during the revelation. As many people ask or talk about Verses who have been made void. So i would like to understand this...
    – Medi1Saif
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 15:21
  • Yes to this extant this information is available, but there is, to my knowledge, no complete record of chronological order, as prophet used to mention where to put the verses when they were revealed to him. And it is also said that this order was told by gabreal to him where to put verses. Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 16:18
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    @Medi1Saif I looked at your link. It appears to be the same order as the "traditional order", also called "Egyptian standard order", which I found in many places on the internet. Here is something funny: when google translated your link to English, instead of the word revelation, which seems like the right word, google said download. Commented Jul 26, 2016 at 4:11

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There are indeed a few modern attempts to compile tafssir books where the mufassirin have tried to comment the verses according the order of their revelation.

The most detailed and maybe the only one made by a theologian is that one made by the former sghari'a qadi abdulqadar Molahwich aal Ghazi al-Furati العلامة عبد القادر ملاحويش آل غازى الفراتي in six volumes which is called بيان المعاني bayan al-Ma'ani (explanation or clarification of the meanings) which has been printed in 1382 a.H..

There's also a-Tafssir al-Wadih التفسير الواضح (the clear tafsir) by the Moroccan philosopher Muhammad 'Abid al-Jabri محمد عابد الجابري and a-tafssir al-Hadith التفسير الحديث (the modern Tafsir) by the Lebanese author and historian Muhammad 'Izzat Druzah محمد عزة دروزة. But both of them have deviated a bit from the acknowledged order of revelation.

The existence of these books may indicate that it is indeed possible to compile the Quran chronologically to some extent even if there is no consensus about the order of some verses.

This fatwa in Arabic is quoting more similar tafsir books!

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  • That sounds good!
    – Medi1Saif
    Commented Sep 14, 2016 at 14:12

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