The Shariah and Its Application

in the stage of da’wah and as such are might have required to perform their da’wah responsibilities by exercising patience, they have been mistakingly referring to the verses revealed to discharge the responsibilities at the stage of defense. In this way they have fallen into the error of wrong application of the verses. They are citing the verses applicable to such circumstances as prevailed in Madinah, while they find themselves in the situation that prevailed in Makkah. History shows that the Prophet of Islam and his companions were faced with all the problems and hardships in Makkah, as the Muslims of modern times have allegedly been, facing. Yet when the Prophet of Islam asked his companions to follow the path of patience and avoidance, no one stood up to question why they must exercise patience, when the Quran enjoins them to do battle, simply because the complete Quran was not available. The truth is that the Quran was not revealed all at once in the form of a bound book, the one we have in our possession today. The Quran was revealed on different occasions over a period of 23 years, but in installments. Only those commands were revealed to the Prophet as were required by the circumstances. For instance, in the initial stage, the Prophet was given the command to perform da’wah by observing patience (74:2-7).