Chronological Koran Part IV(c): Medinan Period: A.D. 622-632

Chronological Koran compiled by Wolf Pangloss

Following the Yusuf Ali translation.

MEDINAN SURAS
Yathrib/Medina from the Hijra to the end. A D. 622-632

The Hijra was Mohammed's flight to Yathrib, which was to become Medina. In Medina he became a leader and warlord, and the Muslims achieved great martial and political power, plus great wealth.

The city of Yathrib was not unknown to Muhammad. His grandfather and his great-grandmother were natives of the place and his father was buried there. There was a good deal of rivalry between Yathrib and Mecca and a man despised in the latter place would not thereby be at a disadvantage in the former. Then, for more than one hundred years there had been a blood feud between the men of the two great tribes who dwelt in Yathrib, and just now there was a disposition to put a stop to these dissensions by selecting some one person as a king or ruler. Hence the soil of Yathrib was thoroughly prepared for Islam. In a healthy community like that of Mecca it gained no hold; but in one that was ailing from long years of civil strife, it could spread apace. There was also a strong Jewish colony there which prepared the way for religious reform. The people of Mecca were utter materialists and could not rise to the spiritual part of the Prophet's teaching. In Yathrib it was different; long intercourse with Jews had made such subjects as the unity of God, revelation through prophets and a future life more or less familiar to the inhabitants of the city. Islam owes much to Yathrib. It saved Muhammad from passing away as a mere enthusiast, rejected and disowned by his own people. It became the real birthplace of Islam, the cradle of its political power and the centre of its conquests throughout Arabia. It is thus justly named al-Madinatu'n-Nabi, the city of the Prophet, and its converts are truly termed the Ansar, or helpers of Islam. (Sell)

The Medinan Suras are the source of most of the parts of the Koran that non-Muslims object to. Given the doctrine of abrogation, the violent guidance in this time period took precedence over more peaceful, earlier verses. For instance, the Verse of the Sword (9:5) has been said to abrogate (render void) every Peace Verse in the Koran. This is certainly what Jihadists like Osama Bin Laden believe.

The Suras of the Medinan period show the way Muslims should act when they are dominant in a community, when the tree becomes large, its root system extensive, and other plants cannot grow in its shade.

The Medina Suras are too long for a single blog post. I have had to break them into multiple parts. This is the third, or "c" part.

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