Discussion of Surat al-Shura.

Then we begin today's lesson. He says: Surat al-Shura, and it is also called Surat Shura; both names are used. As for al-Shura, the article "al" in it is for specification, whereas Shura is derived from His saying: , which does not contain the article. So this surah is called both Surat Shura and Surat al-Shura. He says: It is Meccan. What does "Meccan" mean? Does it refer to what was revealed in Mecca, or to what was revealed before the Hijrah? It means the latter. Anything revealed after the Hijrah, even if it was in Mecca, is Medinan, such as His saying, the Exalted: This was revealed at 'Arafah while the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was standing at 'Arafah. And anything revealed before the Hijrah, whether on journeys or in any other place, is Meccan. So the dividing line between Meccan and Medinan surahs is the Hijrah.
He says: Except for the four verses. The author (may Allah have mercy on him) excluded these four verses from this surah, meaning that they are Medinan and the rest of the surah is Meccan. But note that if anyone excludes verses from a Medinan surah to make them Meccan, or vice versa, we require him to provide evidence. Otherwise, the default is that a Meccan surah is Meccan in all its verses, and a Medinan surah is Medinan in all its verses. Someone might say: The proof, for example, is that the style of Medinan verses differs from the style of Meccan verses. We say: That is not sufficient. Someone might say: The proof for the exception is that these verses, for example, deal with the branches of the religion, which is a sign that they are Medinan, because most Meccan surahs deal with the fundamentals of the religion. We say: That is not evidence. Therefore, the default is that this surah is Meccan in all its verses until clear evidence is established that the verses the author excluded are Medinan.
Then know that all surahs beginning with the letters of the alphabet are Meccan, except for two surahs: al-Baqarah and Ali 'Imran. The rest are all Meccan. Then he said: Fifty-three verses. A verse is a phrase from the Noble Qur'an that is separated from what precedes it by a semantic separation or a divinely ordained separation? It is a divinely ordained separation. This means that the verses are separated from one another by divine ordinance, not by following the meaning. For this reason, you will find the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: These are two verses, even though: is completely connected to His saying: The point is that the separation of one verse from another is by divine ordinance. Likewise, the arrangement of the verses next to one another is also divinely ordained. There is no room for opinion in this, and no one has any role in it; rather, it is divinely ordained. When a verse was revealed, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would say: .
So the separation of the verses from one another is... well, what about their order? It is divinely ordained. As for the surahs, some of their order is divinely ordained and some is not. For example, the order of al-Baqarah and Ali 'Imran is divinely ordained; Ali 'Imran comes after al-Baqarah. Do not be confused by the hadith of Hudhayfah, in which he prayed with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) one night, and he recited al-Baqarah, then recited al-Nisa, then recited Ali 'Imran. This is because the final order is that Ali 'Imran comes after al-Baqarah, and the hadith of Hudhayfah was before the final order. For this reason, you will find in the hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) always paired al-Baqarah and Ali 'Imran, as in his saying: meaning al-Baqarah and Ali 'Imran. So we have the order of the surahs, some of which is divinely ordained and some is not; the order of the verses is divinely ordained, and the separation of the verses is divinely ordained. The reason a piece or phrase from the Qur'an is called a verse is because it is a miracle. That is, no one can produce anything like a single verse, neither in its position, nor in its formulation, nor in its meaning.