The first revealed of the Qur'an

Scholars differed over the first part of the Qur'an to be revealed: "Read in the name of your Lord," "O you wrapped up" or the Opening chapter (al-Fatiha). Muhammad Rashid Rida presents these opinions at the start of his commentary on al-Fatiha, quoting al-Suyuti's "al-Itqan" and al-Zamakhshari's "al-Kashshaf," and then gives the view of his teacher ¹.

Rida quotes al-Suyuti that "Read" was transmitted by al-Bukhari and Muslim on the authority of ʿA'isha, and that Ibn Hajar said that most imams hold this view. He quotes al-Kashshaf that Ibn ʿAbbas and Mujahid held that the first revelation was "Read" ¹.

Rida quotes the report from Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah that "O you wrapped up" was revealed first. He mentions that some scholars reconciled the two views by saying that "Read" was the first revelation in absolute terms, and that "O you wrapped up" was the first revealed after a pause in revelation, or the first complete surah to be revealed ¹.

Rida quotes al-Zamakhshari that most exegetes hold that the first complete surah revealed was the Opening chapter, and he notes that al-Suyuti thought only a few held this view. He then mentions that Muhammad Abduh preferred the view that al-Fatiha was the very first revelation. Abduh argued that divine guidance descends in summary form and is then detailed, and that the Opening chapter contains the summary of the Qur'an. Rida describes this argument as an unusual line of reasoning and reports it without passing judgement ^{1 2}.

The reports have not yet been checked against their chains of transmission in the books of hadith. The page references here are to an OCR copy, not to a critical edition.