Musnad Ahmad #468

Ibn `Abbas (رضي الله عنه) told us. I said to ‘Uthman bin `Affan: What made you take al-Anfal, which is one of the Mathani and Bara`ah, which is one of al-mi’een, and put them next to one another and not write - Ibn Ja`far said: A line between them saying Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem - and put it with the seven long ones? What made you do that? `Uthman (رضي الله عنه) said. Sometimes many soorahs would be revealed (incomplete) to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) , and when something was revealed he would call one of the scribes to write it down for him and say: `Put this in the soorah in which such and such is mentioned`; and verses would be revealed to him and he would say, `Put these verses in the soorah in which such and such is mentioned`; and a verse would be revealed to him and he would say: `Put this verse in the soorah in which such and such is mentioned.` Al-Anfal was one of the first soorahs to be revealed in Madinah and Bara`ah was one of the last soorahs of the Qur`an, and the content of the two soorahs was similar. Then the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) passed away without having stated clearly to us that it was part of it, but we thought that it was, hence I put them together and I did not put between them the line Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem, and I put it with the seven long ones.