Islamic Religious Knowledge Questions and Answers

And the earth, We have spread it and [We] cast therein firm mountains and [We] caused to grow therein of every thing well-balanced.(Qur'an 15:19)

The Quran was revealed piecemeal (25:32) during a period of 23
years (609-632 C.E.), the shorter chapters generally, and some of
the larger ones, being revealed entire and at one time, while the
revelation of the majority of the larger chapters and some of the
shorter chapters extended over many years. The practice was that
when a chapter was revealed in parts, the Holy Prophet specified,
under Divine guidance, the place of the verse revealed, and thus
the arrangement of verses in each chapter was entirely his work.
Similarly, later on when a considerable portion had been
revealed, the arrangement of the chapters was also the work of the
Holy Prophet himself.

The purpose of Tajweed
The Qur'an is the word of Allah, and its every syllable is from Allah. Its recitation must be taken very seriously. The purpose of the science of Tajweed, in essence, is to make the reciter proficient in reciting the Qur'an, observing the correct pronunciation of every letter with the rulings and characteristics which apply to it, without any exaggeration or deficiency. Through this, the reciter can recite the Qur'an according to the way of the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, who received it from Jibreel who received it from Almighty Allah in the Classical Arabic language.

Tafsir (Arabic : ﺗﻔﺴﻴﺮ, romanized : Tafsīr,literally 'interpretation' [taf.ˈsiːr] ) is the Arabic word for exegesis, usually of the Quran . An author of a tafsir is a mufassir ( Arabic: ﻣُﻔﺴّﺮ; plural: Arabic :
ﻣﻔﺴّﺮﻭﻥ , romanized : mufassirūn). A Quranic tafsir attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding and conviction of God's will.
Principally, a tafsir deals with the issues of linguistics , jurisprudence , and theology . In terms of perspective and approach, tafsir can be broadly divided into two categories, namely tafsir bi-al-ma'thur (received tafsir), which is transmitted from the early days of Islam through the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his companions , and tafsir bi-al-ra'y (lit. tafsir by opinion), which is arrived through personal reflection or independent rational thinking.

The prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was illiterate so whenever he received revelation of the Quran one of the scribes would write the verses down on materials like parchment, animal skin, leather, bones and stone tablets. The Prophet (pbuh) would check that the verses had been written correctly by asking the scribe to recite the verses back to him. Some of his scribes were: Abu Bakr-as-Siddeeq, Uthman ibn Affan, Ali ib Abi Talib, Abu Salama, Zayd ibn Thabit etc.
By the time the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) passed away in 632 CE the complete Quran had been written down on various materials. The Quranic fragments were then used to prepare a complete master copy of the Quran during the Caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan. Zayd ibn Thabit was instructed to compile a master copy of the Quran from all the loose material. Muhammad (pbuh) had read the Quran in a certain order which was memorised by many people during his life. Zayd requested every companion of the Prophet (pbuh) to bring him their written verses of the Quran. He only accepted written material which had been dictated by the Prophet (pbuh) himself.