Mishkat al-Masabih #2125

Ibn 'Abbas said he asked ‘Uthmān what had induced them to deal with al-Anfāl (Qur’ān, 8) which is one of the Mathānī* and with Barā'a which is one with a hundred verses, joining them without writing the line contain­ing "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” and putting it among the seven long ones. When he asked again what had induced them to do that, ‘Uthmān replied, "Over a period sūras with numerous verses would come down to God’s messenger, and when some­thing came down to him he would call one of those who wrote and tell him to put these verses in the sūra in which such and such is mentioned, and when a verse came down he would tell them to put it in the sūra in which such and such is mentioned. Now al-Anfāl was one of the first to come down in Medina and Barā’a was among the last of the Qur’ān to come down, and the subject-matter of the one resembled that of the other, so because God’s messenger was taken without having explained to us whether it belonged to it, for that reason I joined them without writing the line containing ‘In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, and put it among the long sūras.'’ *Sūras with less than a hundred verses, but more than those in al mufassal. Ahmad, Tirmidhī and Abū Dāwūd transmitted it.