Every religion revealed by God was, in its original form, eternal in character, just as the sun and the moon, the air and the water have a timeless character about them. Religion, in fact, is another name for eternal values, which in their nature are timeless and uniformly applicable in all situations and at all times.
One important point in understanding the Quran is that it is not a legal book, but a Book of Mission. This means that the Quran adopts a missionary rather than a legal style. The language of the law is specific. In legal writing, everything is meant in its literal sense and words are meant to be taken at their face value. The nature of missionary writing is different. In missionary writing, the emphasis is on the meaning, and the language used is only a form of rhetoric in that it is intended to influence and persuade.
The Qur’an is composed of verbal revelations made to Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam during a period of twenty three years at Makkah (610-622) and Madinah (622-632). The arrangement of the Qur’an is not in accordance with the chronological order of the revelation. The first revelation was verses 2-6 of Chapter 96. The last chapter revealed was chapter 110.
The Quran is a book of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. It did not come to him in the form of a complete book, but in parts over a period of 23 years. The first part was revealed in 610 AD, when the Prophet Muhammad was in Makkah. Subsequently, different parts continued to be revealed regularly, the final part being revealed in 632, when the Prophet was in Madinah.
