Why the Stories Are Told

After Allah (swt) has set out the truthfulness of the Qur'an and some of the evidences of His oneness, He gives several stories here. First the story of Nūḥ, then Hūd, then Ṣāliḥ, then Lūṭ, then Shuʿayb, then Mūsā, then Hārūn; and it is with their story that the sūrah ends.

One of the greatest purposes in giving all these stories is plainly to make people reflect upon what happened in the past: let us not follow them and be destroyed as they were. But both at the beginning and at the end — in the first story and, it seems, in the last — Allah (swt) emphasises the truthfulness of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and the fact that the Qur'an is a muʿjizah.

As was said in the previous chapter, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was known to the people of Makkah to be unlettered. He had not learned to read or write, and had not sat with any teacher. How, then, is it possible — and this is something new to be said here — how is it possible that the Qur'an should come with such detail, with extreme, elaborate, subtle detail about these stories, of which nobody knew, and that it should make sense? It is not as though it came with wild notions that do not hang together. No: with the little information they did have, this clarifies it, and it fits entirely as the truth. The subtlety, the veracity, the truthfulness, the completeness of the stories left them astonished: how could anyone have that information? For they knew the level of knowledge in the region, and perhaps in the world. Even people coming from outside would be surprised; even educated people would be surprised. So the conclusion must be that this comes from another source, one that has recorded the whole of history — which is Allah (swt). That is one of the reasons why Allah (swt) brings these various stories.