Unveiling the Obstacles: Why (Qur’ānic) Storytelling Struggled in Early Islamic Society

This article, employing a qualitative-explanatory approach and utilizing library research and document analysis, explores why Qur’ānic storytelling has not been recognized as a distinct branch of Islamic literary studies. The primary question of the study is: why, despite the growth of Islamic rhetoric, did the art of storytelling fail to gain prominence among Muslim scholars? Through an examination of available sources, the article identifies six key factors contributing to this oversight: the misinterpretation of the term qasas confusion between stories, myths, history, folktales, and legends; the historical context of storytelling in pre-Islamic × the overlap of sources for certain stories with those of other prophetic narratives; negative attitudes towards storytelling among the Imams and companions; and the influence of Israelite traditions in exegetical literature. These factors, the article argues, have hindered the development of storytelling as a prominent technique within the Qur’ān.