Why the Qur'an Uses Stories

And that is why one of the means Allah (swt) uses is to speak of the stories of the previous prophets. What this does is to create variety. Stories are of course interesting to people. People like stories; people love stories. Even a made-up story they like. Many films are made up — one knows it is made up, and yet one likes it. One is drawn into it. People even weep at the emotional moments. They weep; they grow angry; and yet they know, if they sit back a while, that it is all made up, that it is the plot merely, the director's handling of it. But such is the way people are. We are drawn into stories. That is why stories are so powerful.

So Allah (swt) sometimes gives a scene of something. In the real world — in the real world it is exactly so. Every day there is a different kind of weather. In Malaysia it is heat, heat, heat; but it is either raining or not raining, so there is still a change: either it will rain or it will not. Go about and look at the kinds of vegetation: some green, some brown, some, mā shāʾ Allāh, very large, some small. Subḥān Allāh. Sometimes one sees a hilly region; sometimes a low region, a flat one. Go to the ocean: sometimes it is calm, sometimes blue, sometimes of a green hue, sometimes dark, sometimes silvery, sometimes rising into monstrous waves. Subḥān Allāh. Look again at the birds, at the various kinds of birds; at the butterfly — subḥān Allāh. Sometimes it is hot, sometimes cold. Sometimes it is autumn; sometimes the leaves are upon the tree, at other times it is shedding them. It is morning; it is evening. And so, in everything Allah (swt) does, it is exactly so.

Studies show that people grow bored easily. That is why many of the videos made for entertainment never show the same thing for more than a few seconds, because they wish to hold the attention. And so with the Qur'an as well: in some places Allah (swt) is giving rulings, giving commands, giving information, giving evidences, using stories, using other accounts, giving counsel, speaking of Paradise, speaking of the Fire, giving glad tidings, giving warnings. So it moves from one scene to the next, and a man must grow used to that. He moves with it, and begins to appreciate it, because it is very natural. It is the way human beings are; it is what human beings inherently want. And the Qur'an is written for exactly that purpose. So there is no better reading than the Qur'an for one who would read it properly. And a man will never grow bored of it. He may grow bored of a teacher speaking, but he will never grow bored of the Qur'an. And this manner is seen very prominently in Sūrat Hūd. It is seen very prominently here.