Tawḍīḥ al-Aḥkām - Abd Allah al-Bassam - (2/212)

Tawḍīḥ al-AḥkāmAbd Allah al-Bassam

As for actual recitation, al-Nawawī said: The preferable course is to read according to the order of the muṣḥaf, whether one is inside the prayer or outside it. Thus, when a person finishes one sūrah he proceeds to the one that follows, for the chapters were arranged in this sequence for a wise purpose that ought to be preserved. The only exceptions are those for which the Sacred Law itself has prescribed a different order—such as the Dawn Prayer on Friday, in which one recites in the first rakʿah Sūrat al-Sajdah (Alif Lām Mīm al-Sajdah, The Prostration) and in the second rakʿah Sūrat al-Insān (Hal Atā, Man); or the two sunnah rakʿahs before Fajr, in which one recites Sūrat al-Kāfirūn (The Disbelievers) in the first rakʿah and Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ (Pure Monotheism) in the second. Even if a person abandons this succession, or departs from the scriptural order altogether, his recitation is still valid, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ once recited Sūrat al-Baqarah (The Cow), then al-Nisāʾ (Women), and then Āl ʿImrān (The Family of ʿImrān).

4 – When Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim heard the Prophet ﷺ recite Sūrat al-Ṭūr he was still a polytheist; he later reported the incident as a Muslim. The scholars therefore state that what counts is the state of the narrator when he conveys the testimony, not when he first received it. Accordingly, if someone hears a statement while he is an unbeliever or an evildoer and then later transmits it as a Muslim of upright character, his testimony is accepted; the transmission of ḥadīth is governed by the same ruling.

Scholarly disagreement:
• The well-known position in the Hanbalī school is that what is forbidden is reversing the words of the Quran, whereas inverting the order of its chapters or verses is merely disliked.
• A second report from Aḥmad holds that altering the order of sūrahs is not disliked, because the Prophet ﷺ once recited al-Nisāʾ before Āl ʿImrān. Imām Aḥmad argued that this was how the Prophet had learned it, and because—according to the majority—the sequence of sūrahs was arranged through scholarly judgment.
• Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and others, however, deemed it impermissible to reverse the order of verses, since the Prophet ﷺ himself fixed them as they now stand, and doing so would contradict the revealed wording and alter the meaning. He therefore maintained that preserving their order is obligatory, for its arrangement is established by textual evidence and by consensus.

As for the argument based on the order in which the Prophet taught the Quran, it is open to criticism: that sequence was adopted out of practical necessity, for the Quran was revealed piecemeal in response to unfolding events.

وأما في القراءة فقال النووي: الاختيار أن يقرأ على ترتيب المصحف؛ سواء قرأ في الصلاة، أو في غيرها، فإذا قرأ سورة قرأ التي تليها؛ ذلك أنَّ هذا الترتيب بين السور إنَّما جعل هكذا لحكمة، فينبغي أن يحافظ عليها، إلاَّ فيما ورد الشرع باستثنائه؛ كصلاة الصبح يوم الجمعة، فيقرأ في الأولى سورة ﴿الم السجدة﴾، وفي الثانية ﴿هَلْ أَتَى عَلَى الْإِنْسَانِ﴾، وركعتي الفجر يقرأ في الأولى ﴿الكافرون﴾، والثانية ﴿الإخلاص﴾، ولو خالف هذه الموالاة، أو خالف هذا الترتيب جاز، فقد قرأ رسول الله ﷺ بسورة ﴿البقرة﴾ ثم ﴿النساء﴾ ثم ﴿آل عمران﴾. ٤ - جبير بن مطعم حينما سمع قراءة النبي ﷺ سورة ﴿الطور﴾ كان كافرًا، وبلَّغها وهو مسلم، وقد قال العلماء: العبرة بأداء الشهادة لا بتحملها، فمن تحمَّلها وهو كافر أو فاسق، ثم أداها مسلمًا أو عدلاً -قُبِلَتْ شهادته، والرواية مثل الشهادة. *خلاف العلماء: المشهور من مذهب الحنابلة: أنَّ الذي يحرم هو تنكيس كلمات القرآن، وأما تنكيس السوره والآيات فيكره. والرواية الأخرى، عن أحمد: أنَّه لا يكره تنكيس السورة لأنَّ النبيَّ ﷺ قرأ ﴿النساء﴾ قبل ﴿آل عمران﴾، واحتجَّ الإِمام أحمد: بأنَّ النبيَّ ﷺ تعلَّمه على ذلك، ولأنَّ ترتيبها بالاجتهاد في قول جمهور العلماء. واختار شيخ الإِسلام وغيره تحريم تنكيس الآيات؛ لأنَّه ﷺ وضعها هكذا, ولما فيه من مخالفة النص وتغيير المعنى، وقال: ترتيبها واجب؛ لأنَّ ترتيبها بالنص إجماعًا. والاحتجاج بتعليمه فيه نظر، فإنَّه كان للحاجة؛ لأنَّ القرآن نزل حسب الوقائع.