Islam Rediscovered
13. The Shariah and Its Application
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the Quran enjoins them to do battle, simply because
the complete Quran was not available. The truth is
that the Quran was not revealed all at once in the
form of a bound book, the one we have in our
possession today. The Quran was revealed on
different occasions over a period of 23 years, but in
installments. Only those commands were revealed
to the Prophet as were required by the
circumstances. For instance, in the initial stage, the
Prophet was given the command to perform
da’wah
by observing patience (74:2-7). Later on, as
circumstances warranted, the command to migrate
was revealed (16:41). Subsequently, when
circumstances further changed, the command to do
battle was revealed (2:190), etc.
This shows that in the initial stage of Islam when
the Quran was being revealed, the order of
revelation tallied with the order of events. For this
reason people did not find any difficulty in
understanding their role as soon as a command was
revealed. But afterwards, all the verses revealed
over a period of 23 years, relating to different sets of
circumstances, were collected together in the form
of a bound volume. It is this complete book which
