Al-W¥^idÏ's Asb¥b al-Nuz‰l - The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies ...

Asbab al-Nuzul
more expert in Hadith than his predecessor, his Lubab al-Nuqul contains drawbacks, some of which he
had himself pointed out in the work of al-Wahidi. 12
The extent and scope of usefulness of the occasions of revelation have been a matter of contention
among Muslim scholars. Some scholars overstressed their importance so much that they gave the
impression that every passage of the Qur’an must have an occasion, while others seemed inclined to
play down their usefulness and importance altogether. In the introduction to his Asbab al-Nuzul, Imam
al-Wahidi wrote: “… As a result, we have ended up benefiting the beginners in the sciences of the Book,
by expounding the occasions for which it was revealed. This is because it is the best that one ought to
know and the most appropriate thing to which one should direct one’s attention, since it is not possible
to know the interpretation of a given verse or the meaning it alludes to without knowing its story and the
occasion of its revelation”. 13 A statement such as this, if not qualified and presented in a relevant context,
can be very problematic. One says problematic not least because al-Wahidi, for example, mentions only
the occasions of about 570 verses out of over 6600 verses which make up the entirety of the Qur’an.
Moreover, some of the occasions of these 570 verses are not well-authenticated, some occasions are cited
in connection with more than one incident, some are self-contradictory while others are not occasions
at all but proper commentaries by the prophetic Companions on particular verses. The same can practically
be said about most, if not all, of the works on the occasions of revelation at hand, for the material
contained in them is more or less the same.
These are some of the factors which perhaps have led some scholars, especially in the last three
centuries, to be more critical in their assessment of the usefulness and importance of the occasions
of revelation. Shah Waliullah al-Dahlawi (d. 1176/1762), for instance, was of the view that there are
two kinds of occasions of Revelation. 14 One kind is required for the understanding of Qur’anic passages
which were revealed in connection with specific historical events. What happened to the believers and
their enemies at the battles of Uhud and the Ditch, for instance, the Qur’an has dealt with at length,
highlighting in the process too many nuances and direct messages regarding all parties involved. In cases
such as these, Shah Waliullah states that the events must be clearly explained. This is done by reference
to the historical incidents themselves as they have come down to us through transmission. On the other
hand, there are Qur’anic passages whose wordings are of general applicability and the meanings of which
are very clear independently of any reference to historical events. In Shah Waliullah’s opinion, mentioning
the occasions of revelation of such Qur’anic passages is unnecessary. And when it is said in relation
to this kind of Qur’anic passage ‘such-and-such verse was revealed about this or that incident’ what is
meant is the depiction of any eventuality upon which a particular Qur’anic passage applies, regardless of
whether this eventuality did take place before the revelation of the passage in question or after it.
The Indian scholar Hamid al-Din al-Farahi (d. 1930) and his student Amin Ahsan Islahi (d.
1997) have also played down the importance of Asbab al-Nuzul. These two scholars have tackled the issue
of the occasions of revelation from within the perspective of their grand theory of the coherence of
the Qur’an (Nazm al-Qur’an). According to this theory, the Qur’an is self-explanatory. And if it is admitted
that some social or historical events might have occasioned certain verses or Surahs of the Qur’an,
it must nonetheless be emphasised that these occasions of revelation should be derived from the Qur’an
itself. Rather than viewing them as a tool which helps the commentator of the Qur’an to appreciate the
shades of meaning and different nuances of Revelation, al-Farahi and Islahi thought that the occasions
of Revelation render such an appreciation difficult in that they quite often make a Surah look like a completely
disjointed discourse. 15
An objective and balanced summary evaluation of the usefulness and importance of the whole
12
For a critical assessment of al-Suyuti’s Lubab al-Nuqul fi Asbab al-Nuzul, see: the introduction of al-Sayyid Ahmad Saqr to his
edition of al-Wahidi’s Asbab al-Nuzul, op. cit., pp. 28-32.
13
Imam al-Wahidi’s assessment of the usefulness of Asbab al-Nuzul does not belong to either of the two extreme tendencies described
above. However, as we shall see below, what he considers to be an occasion of revelation differs from the narrow sense that
most Muslim scholars give to the meaning of a Sabab al-Nuzul.
14
Shah Waliullah al-Dahlawi, al-Fawz al-Kabir fi Usul al-Tafsir, Lucknow: Dar al-Sunnah, 1993, pp. 107-108.
15
Mustansir Mir, Coherence in the Qur’an: A Study of Islah’s Concept of Nazm in Tadabbur-i Qur’an, Washington: American Trust
Publications, 1986, pp. 29-30 & pp. 61-62.
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