The hysteron proteron (from the Greek: ὕστερον πρότερον, hýsteron próteron, "later earlier") is a rhetorical device.
[1] The standard example comes from the Aeneid of Virgil: "Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus" ("Let us die, and charge into the thick of the fight"; ii.
By this deliberate reversal, hysteron proteron draws attention to the important point, so giving it primacy.
[3] It can also be defined as a figure of speech consisting of the reversal of a natural or rational order (as in "then came the thunder and the lightning").
[4] An example from the Quran that demonstrates hysteron proteron, verse (aya) number 89–90 from Sura Number 21 says that God granted Zechariah's prayer for a son even though Zechariah was very old and his wife was sterile: We granted his prayer and gave him John, and we made his wife fertile for him.