1 The Virtues of Surah Al-Ma'idah; When It was Revealed Surah to ...

this period was five hundred and sixty years,
Ma`mar said;
that it is five hundred and forty years.
Some said that this period is six hundred and twenty
years.
There is no contradiction here if we consider the fact that
those who said that this period was six hundred years
were talking about solar years, while the second refers
to lunar years, since there is a difference of about three
years between every one hundred lunar and solar years.
وَلَبِثُوا فِي آَهْفِهِمْ‏ ثَلَاثَ‏ مِائَةٍ‏ سِنِينَ‏ وَازْدَادُوا statement, As in Allah's
years, (And they stayed in their Cave three hundred تِسْعًا
adding nine.) (18:25) meaning, nine more lunar years to
substitute for the difference between lunar and solar
years, thus agreeing with the three hundred years that
the People of the Book knew about.
We should assert again that the time period we
mentioned here was between `Isa, the last Prophet to
the Children of Israel, and Muhammad, the Last Prophet
and Messenger among the children of Adam.
In the Sahih collected by Al-Bukhari, Abu Hurayrah said
that the Messenger of Allah said,
إِن َّ أَوْلَى الن َّاسِ‏ بِابْنِ‏ مَرْیَمَ‏ لَأَنَا،‏ لَيْسَ‏ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَهُ‏ نَبِي
I, among all people, have the most right to the
son of Maryam, for there was no Prophet between
Him and I.
This Hadith refutes the opinion of Al-Qudai and
others, that there was a Prophet after `Isa called
Khalid bin Sinan.
Allah sent Muhammad after a period of time during
which there was no Prophet, clear path, or unchanged
religions. Idol worshipping, fire worshipping and cross
worshipping flourished during this time. Therefore, the
bounty of sending Muhammad was the perfect bounty at
a time when he was needed the most.
85