Then the following verse was revealed...

Then the following verse was revealed: {And fear ye a day in which you will be returned to Allah and every soul will be given what it has earned and they will not be dealt with unjustly.}9 This verse - according to certain transmissions - was the last verse of the Holy Qur'an to be revealed to the Messenger of Allah by the Archangel Gabriel who said to him: 'Place this verse at the head of the 280th verse of the second chapter.'10 The first verse revealed to the (S) by the Archangel Gabriel was Allah's words: {In the Name of Allah The Beneficent The Merciful, Read!

In the name of your Lord Who has created . . .}11 The first verse of the Qur'an to be revealed coincided with the first day of the noble prophetic mission and the last verse of the Qur'an to be revealed took place during the last days of the Messenger of Allah. The time between these two verses was when the rest of the Qur'an was revealed and this was over a period of 23 years.

8 See Seas of Lights: vol.22, p.471; and also al-Manaqib: vol.1, p.234, The section on the death of the prophet (S): Related from Ibn 'Abbas, and al-Sudayy that when Allah's words were revealed: {You are mortal and they are mortals.}, the Messenger of Allah said: 'If only I knew when this would be.', then the 110th chapter of The Qur'an named al-Nasr (Succour) was revealed and he used to remain silent during the prayer between saying 'Allahu Akbar' and the reading but he said: 'Praise be to Allah, I ask Allah for forgiveness and turn towards Him in repentance.' He was asked about this and he said: 'It is that my soul has foretold me of my impending death.' Then he began to weep intensely.

They said to him: 'O Messenger of Allah, do you weep over death when Allah has forgiven your sins both past and future?' He said: 'But what of the terror of the questioning, or the confines of the grave and the darkness of the tomb, and what of the resurrection and the fearsome things!' He lived after the revelation of this chapter for a further year. 9 The Qur'an: The Heifer (2):280. 10 The Tafsir of al-Shubbar: p.83, The Heifer (2). 11 The Qur'an: The Clot (96):1. Previous…