In the name of Allah the most beneficiant and most merciful. No doubt the Quran has mentioned all things which had occurred before the advent of the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon Him) and which will occur in the future. Allah says: “a book explaining all things, a Guide, a mercy, and glad tidings to muslims.”(16:89)

The Quran explains the principles of all things,defines lawful as well as unlawful things, and describes sermons, stories and events. The stories have a purpose as the Qur`an says, “There is in their stories instruction for men endued with understanding . it is not a tale invented , but a confirmation of what went before it a detail exposition of all things ,and a guide and a mercy to any such as believe. (12:111)”.

So we understood the purpose of the Quran to describe events in which people who denied earlier prophets and rejected the signs of Allah. We thus take valuable lessons in these stories. One of the other positions of the Qur`an is to challenge mankind in its eloquence. This reassures us that this is really the book of Allah and no man can produce anything like it. The Question can take books to answer and indeed this is not a new issue in regard of Quran which the oriantlist has repeatedly asked.

We note that at the time of the revelation the mushrikin also raised this type of question by saying that these are nothing but tales of the ancients.The Qur`an has repeated this nine times (see verses 6:25, 8:31, 16:24, 23:83, 25:5, 27:68, 46:17, 68:15, 83:13),

wallahu ta ala alam bissawab
[Answer provided by: Mowlana Manzarul Islam]