DEVELOPMENT OF MUḤAMMAD'S MESSAGE

The chronology of the material contained in the Qur'ān on which any attempt to follow the development of Muhammad's teaching must rest, has been the subject of intense study both by Muslim scholars and by orientalists. Yet it cannot be said their studies take us very far. The main obstacles are formidable: the largely composite nature of the sūrahs the neutral order of the sūrahs in the textus receptus; and the relative lack of distinct reference to events for which there is reasonably firm evidence elsewhere.

Muslim studies of the chronology centre on the reasons for revelations, the asbāb al-nuzūl. Wherever reasons for a revelation were thought to exist, they were treated not only in the Sīrah, Ḥadīth and Tafsīr, but also in specialized works dealing only with the asbāb al-nuzūl. Muslim scholars were aware of, but did not follow up, other criteria, such as those of style. It was noted, for example, that the earliest sūrahs had short verses and that the length of the verses tended to increase as time went on. On a more detailed level, the use of the phrase “O people”, mainly a Meccan usage, was contrasted with that of “O you who believe”, used only at Medina.

Judgement based on the asbāb al-nuzūl is a useful approach, for proper identification of a passage with something external provides the only sound evidence for dating it. Weakness lay in execution rather than in method.