format_quote Originally Posted by
dcalling
I would think it is much better to study in the order it is revealed instead of by length.
The only way to know about the order in which some of the Qur'an was revealed, is by reading the introductions to the chapters, which tell you the timeline for the Surahs' revelations, and the Reasons for the Revelations, like Asbab an-Nuzul and many of the Ahadith which were revealed about it. Furthermore, if you read the biographies of the Holy Prophet (saw), that mentions the revelations of the verses over his (saw)'s lifetime. By far, I have tried looking for some book which goes through the whole of the Qur'an and explains it's verses or at least comments on it from beginning to end by order of the revelations itself. So far, I do not know if such a book exists. Only the commentaries on the Qur'an contain comments on these, but there is no book highlighting this itself, at least in English. And I mean all 6000-something verses. The Sahaba (ra) learned the contexts of revelations for all the verses, since they asked about it as per the traditions handed down to us. However, all of those explanations haven't been preserved, and if they did some of them have conflicting comments. In order to understand those, the explanations of the scholars is required, as they are well aware of the meanings behind the statements better than the layman does. It is surprising what you don't see when reading a tradition over again multiple times, then you see a scholar explaining it in a way which makes perfect sense, and yet you would have never seen it on your own.
The order of the arrangement of the Qur'an, if you are interested, is explained in the book Ulum al Quran, google it.