Evaluating the Effect of Occasions of Revelation (Asbāb al-Nuzūl) on the Literal Understanding of the Verses of the Holy Qur’an

The peresent study aims to address the issue of how occasions of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl) affect the understanding of the Qur’an. It also provides a basis for evaluating the impact of cultural studies on Qur’anic comprehension in prospective research. To accomplish this objective, the narratives of occasions of revelation were collected from three well-known resources, regardless of their documental and textual credibility, and their role in understanding the relevant verses was quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated. Consequently, twelve qualitative roles were identified and each narration was quantitatively assessed with a score ranging from zero to three. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that 10% of the entire Qur’anic verses have occasions of revelation in the mentioned sources. About 10% of the studied verses (1% of the Qur'an) are completely dependent on the occasions of revelation to be understood, according to the evaluation method and assumptions of the survey. In 72% of the verses (7% of the Qur'an), the occasions of revelation have an impact on a better understanding of the verse, even though in the first encounter the verse has a customary appearance and no ambiguity. Likewise, 8% of the occasions of revelation examined have no impact on the understanding of the verse. Thus, the role of the occasions of revelation on the apparent meanings of the verses, although undeniable, does not create a significant dependency, since the impact of most of these narrations (82%) is as much as a slight improvement in the initial understanding of the verse (scores 1 and 2), so that the occasions of revelation is not the sole means of achieving a secondary understanding of the verse.