Thus, for the Prophet (‘s) to ask for such a thing (love for...

Thus, for the Prophet (‘s) to ask for such a thing (love for his close family members) at that time period (when he had no family members) is nothing but him merely expressing an eloquent statement full of pleasantries (with no way to actually implement it).

However, if we look at the books written in regards to the recognition of the Makki verses from the Madani verses, it would be clear to such a commentator that simply because a chapter of the Qur`an is known to be a Makki chapter does not mean that all of the verses of that Surah were revealed in Makkah! It is possible that Makki verses may be found in chapters of the Qur`an which are known as Madani and vice versa.

More than this, the commentators of the Qur`an who have considered Suratul Shura (which is where the verse quoted above has been taken from) to be revealed in Makkah have mentioned that specifically this verse (under discussion) and a few other verses of this Surah are Madani.[^3] What has been mentioned up until this point are fourteen fundamental pillars of a correct method of commentary of the Qur`an, some of which have a particular priority associated with them.

Even though we are able to group some of them with others in the discussion, such as the eleventh and twelfth points which were ‘knowledge of the history of Islam’ and ‘knowledge of the previous prophets sent and their stories’, which could technically be covered under the heading of ‘knowledge of the history of revelation of the verses of the Qur`an’, however in order to make this discussion clear and unambiguous, we decided to review each of these separately.

[^1]: The common and well-known terminologies which are used in the commentary of the verses of the Qur`an are ‘Makki’ and ‘Madani’, just as has been stated. However, these verses are known with other words and terminologies which those who are specialists in the field of Tafsir are well acquainted with. [^2]: Suratul Shura` (42), Verse 23 [^3]: We are able to discern which surahs were revealed in Makkah and which were revealed in Madinah by keeping the following two points in mind: 1.

The traditions (ahadith) which mention to us the place of revelation of a specific surah. 2. Pondering over the contents of the verses of the surah as this action usually acts as a chain of events and tells us if the surah was revealed in Makkah or Madinah.