Mishkat al-Masabih 2126

Ibn Abbas said he asked Uthman what had induced them to deal with al-Anfal (Qur’an, 8) which is one of the Mathani* and with Baraa which is one with a hundred verses, joining them without writing the line contain­ing “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” and putting it among the seven long ones.

When he asked again what had induced them to do that, Uthman replied, “Over a period suras with numerous verses would come down to God’s messenger, and when some­thing came down to him he would call one of those who wrote and tell him to put these verses in the sura in which such and such is mentioned, and when a verse came down he would tell them to put it in the sura in which such and such is mentioned.

Now al-Anfal was one of the first to come down in Medina and Baraa was among the last of the Qur’an to come down, and the subject-matter of the one resembled that of the other, so because God’s messenger was taken without having explained to us whether it belonged to it, for that reason I joined them without writing the line containing ‘In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, and put it among the long suras.’ *Suras with less than a hundred verses, but more than those in al mufassal. Ahmad, Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud transmitted it.”