English translation
4993. Narrated Yūsuf bin Māhāk: While I was with Āishah رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا the Mother of the believers, a person from 'Irāq came and asked, "What type of shroud is the best?" Āishah said, "May Allāh be Merciful to you! What does it matter?" He said, "O Mother of the believers! Show me (the copy of) your Qur'an." She said, "Why?" He said, "In order to compile and arrange the Qur'an according to it, for people recite it with its Sūrah not in proper order." Āishah said, "What does it matter which part of it you read first? (Be informed) that the first thing that was revealed thereof was a Sūrah from Al-Muṣaṣṣal, and in it was mentioned Paradise and the (Hell) Fire. When the people embraced Islām, the Verses regarding legal and illegal things were revealed. If the first thing to be revealed was: 'Do not drink alcoholic drinks,' people would have said: 'We will never leave alcoholic drinks'; and if there had been revealed: 'Do not commit illegal sexual intercourse,' they would have said, 'We will never give up illegal sexual intercourse.' While I was a young girl of playing age, the following Verse was revealed in Makkah to Muḥammad ﷺ: 'Nay, but the Hour is their appointed time (for their full recompense), and the Hour will be more grievous and more bitter.' (V.54:46) "Sūrat Al-Baqarah (The Cow) and Sūrat An-Nisā' (The Women) were revealed while I was with him." Then 'Āishah took out the copy of the Qur'ān for the man and dictated to him the Verses of the Sūrah (in their proper order).
