Abstract

On one hand there is a theory known as the ‘theory of historicity’, whose advocates tend to use it to every phenomena and realities. On the other hand, the Qur’an is the final Divine revelation for human society. Now the question is that, since the Qur’an came down in a certain period of time and its verses refer to certain objective realities and situations, is it necessary for us to classify the Qur’an on the basis of the theory of historicity and to consider its divine enduring identity subject to the passing of time? Or rather are we not to say the theory is not unconditional and all-embracing, but embraces only certain objects? This essay deals first with the exposition of different assumptions and opinions concerning the possibility of reconciliation between the everlastingness of the Qur’an and the realities existed in the period of the descent as well as the variant factors of human life; second, it presents the epistemological foundations of the notion of historicity; and finally it examines the possibility of the application of this theory to the Holy Qur’an.