year of his ministry. Similarly with the second chapter in the present arrangement; while the major portion of it was revealed in the first and the second years of the Hijrah, some verses were revealed as late as the closing days of the Holy Prophet’s life. Chronological order is, therefore, an impossibility.
That the Holy Qur’ān occupies a place of eminence in Arabic literature which has not fallen to the lot of any other book goes without saying; but we may say more and assert with confidence that the place so occupied has not been attained at any time by any book anywhere. For what book is there in the whole history of the human race that, through thirteen long centuries, has not only remained admittedly the standard of the language in which it is written but has also originated a world-wide literature? The feat accomplished by the Holy Qur’ān is unique in the whole history of the written word. It transformed a dialect, spoken in a very limited area of a forgotten corner of the world, into a world-wide language which became the mother-tongue of vast countries and mighty empires, and produced a literature which is the basis of the culture of powerful nations from one end of the world to the other. There was no literature, properly speaking, in Arabic before the Holy Qur’ān; the few pieces of poetry that did exist never soared beyond the praise of wine or woman, or horse or sword. It was with the Holy Qur’ān that Arabic literature originated, and through it that Arabic became a powerful language spoken in many countries and casting its influence on the literary histories of many others. Without the Holy Qur’ān, the Arabic language would have been nowhere in the world. As Dr. Steingass says:
“But we may well ask ourselves, what would in all probability have become of this language without Muḥammad and his Holy Qur’ān? This is not at all an idle and desultory speculation. It is true the Arabic language had already produced numerous fine specimens of genuine and high-flown poetry, but such poetry was chiefly, if not exclusively, preserved in the memory of the people … Moreover, poetry is not tantamount to literature … Divided among themselves