Understanding Quran (Stories Of Previous Prophets)
Quran serves two purposes: 1 ) It serves as a permanent source of Hidayah for the whole of mankind. 2 ) It serves as a proof of Allah’s itmam-e-hujjat on Prophet Muhammad’s (sws) addressees ( both Quraysh and people of the book ). If you think more deeply, both these points are strongly inter-linked with each other, as proof of second-point further solidifies the first-point. Therefore, in order to fulfil the objectives of second point, before Allah’s punishment on that nation, first completion of proof had had to be done. And a major part of that process was the mentioning of previous nations and punishments inflicted on them that were well known to the addressees as a reminder and tazkeer. These events regarding the perished nations, at the time of the revelation of the Quran were fully known to people, that is why the opponents of the Prophet (sws) did not object to these. They never said that the Quran was wrong in its reports. The Quran clearly asserts that these were commonly known events. Not only that, same is the case with mentioning of Prophets; only those prophets were mentioned which were known to the addressees of the Prophet (sws) because the actual objective was anzaar, and anzaar couldn’t have been done without mentioning of events and prophets known to the addressees. This fact can be seen in the Quran itself where it skipped details of other prophets: نَّا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ كَمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَى نُوْحٍ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ مِن بَعْدِهِ وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَى إِبْرَاهِيْمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيْلَ وَإْسْحَقَ وَيَعْقُوْبَ وَالأَسْبَاطِ وَعِيْسَى وَأَيُّوْبَ وَيُوْنُسَ وَهَارُوْنَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ وَآتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ زَبُوْرًا وَرُسُلاً قَدْ قَصَصْنَاهُمْ عَلَيْكَ مِن قَبْلُ وَرُسُلاً لَّمْ نَقْصُصْهُمْ عَلَيْكَ وَكَلَّمَ اللّهُ مُوْسَى تَكْلِيْمًا رُّسُلاً مُّبَشِّرِيْنَ وَمُنْذِرِيْنَ لِئَلاَّ يَكُوْنَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللّهِ حُجَّةٌ بَعْدَ الرُّسُلِ وَكَانَ اللّهُ عَزِيْزًا حَكِيْمًا (4: 163-165 [O Prophet!] We sent our revelations to you the way We sent [them] to Noah and to the prophets who came after him; And We revealed [them] to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, the progeny of Jacob, Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, Solomon and We gave the Psalms to David. We have sent revelations to messengers whom we have mentioned to you earlier and to some messengers whom We have not mentioned to you and with Moses God had spoken, the way one speaks: these messengers who were sent as bearers of glad tidings and of admonishment so that after them people are left with no excuse which they can present before God, and God is Mighty and Wise. (4:163-165) I hope this will clear some of the confusion.