The Compilation of the Qur'an
It has been proven by definite evidence that when the Prophet (SAW) died the whole Qur'an had been written on scraps of shoulder bones, palm fibre, likhaf, and other parchments. In addition the Sahabah had committed the Qur’an to memory. An ayah or aayaat would be revealed and the Prophet (SAW) always ordered his scribes to write them down before him at once. Concerning the Qur’an, the Prophet (SAW) only allowed the Muslims to write from it of what he had dictated to those scribes who wrote down the revelation. Muslim reported a hadith from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri that Rasool Allah (SAW) said: ‘Do not write down anything from me, whosoever writes anything I have said other than the Qur'an let him erase it'. The compilation of the revelation by the scribes was collected on sheets (suhuf). He (SWT) said:
‘A Messenger from Allah, reciting purified pages (suhuf) (of the Qur'an)'. [98:2] i.e., reciting sheets (qirtas) purified from falsehood, honestly handwritten unequivocally true and just. Allah (SWT) said:
'Nay, indeed it (verses of the Qur'an) are a warning (tazkirah). So whoever wills, let him pay attention to it. (It is) in Records held (greatly) in honour. Exalted (in dignity), purified. In the hands of scribes. Honourable and obedient.' [80:11-16] meaning this warning (tazkirah) established in Records being held (greatly) in honour (suhuf mukarramah) from Allah (SWT) and exalted in value, and free from the hands of those who are corrupt (shayateen). They have been written down by God fearing (atqiyaa) scribes. The Messenger (SAW) ensured that everything between the two covers of the mushaf was revelation that had been written down in front of him. 'Abdul-'Aziz b. Rafeea’ na : Shaddad bin Ma'qil and I entered upon Ibn 'Abbas. Shaddad bin Ma'qil asked him, 'Did the Prophet leave anything (besides the Qur'an)?' He replied. "He did not leave anything except what is between the two bindings (of the Qur'an).' Then we visited Muhammad bin Al-Hanafiyyah and asked him (the same question). He replied, 'The Prophet did not leave except what is between the bindings (of the Qur'an).' An Ijma'a (consensus) took place that confirms all verses of the Qur'an in their respective chapters (surahs) were written down directly in front of the Messenger (SAW) when revelation came to him, and that they were written on sheets (suhuf). The greatest of Messengers died content about the state of the Qur'an, his greatest miracle which had established complete proofs for the Arabs and the world. He did not fear for the verses of the Qur'an because Allah (SWT) has preserved the Qur'an with an explicit instruction?
'Verily: It is We Who have sent down the Zikr (the Qur'an) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption',[15:9] meaning these verses had been preserved permanently through being written in the presence of the Messenger (SAW), in the hearts of the Sahabah and through the general permission granted to the Muslims to copy the verses of the Qur'an. This explains why after the death of the Messenger the Sahabah did not feel the need to compile the Qur'an in one book or write it down. This remained the case until many of the Huffaz (memorisers of the Qur'an) were killed in the Harb-ur-Riddah (Riddah wars). Due to this Umar feared for the loss of certain transcripts and deaths of more of the Qurra'a (Huffaz), which might cause verses to be lost. So he considered compiling the written scripts together in one bind. He presented his ideas to Abu Bakr and the Qur’an was compiled. It has been na by 'Ubayd b. al-Sibaq that Zayd b. Thabit Al-Ansari said: ‘Abu Bakr sent for me after the (heavy) casualties among the warriors (of the battle) of Yamamah (where a great number of Qurra'a were killed). 'Umar was present with Abu Bakr who said, 'Umar has come and told me, The people suffered heavy casualties on the day of (the battle of) Yamamah, and I am afraid there will be more casualties among the Qurra'a (those who know the Qur'an by heart) in other battles, and a large part of the Qur'an could be lost, unless you collect it. I am of the same opinion that you should collect the Qur'an," Abu Bakr added, ‘I said to 'Umar, 'How can I do something which Allah (SWT)'s Apostle did not do?' 'Umar said (to me), 'By Allah (SWT), it is (really) a good thing.' 'Umar kept on pressing, trying to persuade me to accept his proposal, till Allah (SWT) opened my heart to it and I took the same opinion as 'Umar.' Zayd b. Thabit said: Abu Bakr said to me that you are a wise young man and we do not suspect you (of telling lies or of forgetfulness): and you used to write down the revelation (wahy) for Allah (SWT)'s Apostle. Therefore, look for the Qur'an and collect it (in one manuscript). ' By Allah (SWT), if they had ordered me to shift one of the mountains (from its place) it would have been easier for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Qur'an. I said to both of them, "How dare you do a thing which the Prophet has not done?' Abu Bakr said, 'By Allah (SWT), it is (really) a good thing. ‘So I kept on arguing with him about it till Allah (SWT) opened my heart for that which He had opened the hearts of Abu Bakr and Umar. So I started locating Quranic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who knew it by heart). I found with Khuzaima two Verses of Surat at-Tawbah which I had not found with anybody else, (and they were):
'Verily, there has come unto you a Messenger from amongst yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty',[9:128] until the end of surat Bara'ah. The manuscript on which the Quran was collected remained with Abu Bakr till Allah (SWT) took Abu Bakr to death, and then it passed onto 'Umar during his lifetime, and finally it stayed with Hafsah (R.A) the daughter of Umar. Zayd's compilation of the Qur'an did not consist of anything he wrote down from the Huffaz. Rather his compilation brought together that which he had written down himself in the presence of Rasool Allah (SAW). He did not place one sheet with another to compile them unless two witnesses testified for this sheet, that it had been written down in the presence of Rasool Allah (SAW). Furthermore, he did not accept any sheets of the Qur’an unless it met two conditions: firstly, that it was held in written form with one of the Sahabah, and secondly, that it had been memorised by one of the Sahabah. When both written and memorised formats concurred with the sheet that was to be compiled, he accepted it, otherwise anything else was rejected. For example, even though Zayd himself could remember and recall Surat Bara’ah, he did not take the last verses of it until he found them in written form with Abu Khuzayma. It has been na through Yahya b 'Abdel al-Rahman b. Hatib that he said: 'Umar stood up and said; ‘whosoever has received anything of the Qur'an from Rasool Allah (SAW), let him bring it forth. They used to write the verses on sheets, tablets and palm risps. Ibn Hatib said about Zayd, ‘he (Zayd) did not accept anything from anyone until two witnesses had given testimony. This showed Zayd was not satisfied merely by finding something in written form until the one who had received it testified that he had heard it, despite the fact that Zayd had already memorized it. He did this because of extreme caution.
The process of compilation was simply bringing together sheets that had already been written in the presence of Rasool Allah (SAW) into one book. The Qur'an was written down on sheets that were kept separately. Abu Bakr assembled them in one place. Abu Bakr's order to compile the Qur'an was not an order to put it down in one mushaf, but an order to bring together the sheets that had been written in the presence of the Messenger in one piece and to verify it. This verification was done through the testimonies of two witnesses that these verses had been written down in the presence of Rasool Allah (SAW) and that these verses were being held in written form by the Sahabah and they had memorised them. These sheets remained preserved with Abu Bakr during his life and were then passed onto 'Umar who kept them during his life and then passed onto Umar’s daughter, Hafsah in accordance with 'Umar's bequest. Abu Bakr's compilation of the Qur'an consisted only of bringing together sheets that had been written down in the presence of Rasool Allah and was not an actual compilation of the Qur'an. This memorisation related to these sheets i.e. scraps that had been written down in front of Rasool Allah (SAW) and not the actual memorisation of the Qur'an. The bringing together of these pieces and their preservation was done through extreme caution and by the execution of tremendous effort to examine the memorization of what had been reported from Rasool Allah (SAW). As for the Qur'an itself, it was preserved in the hearts of the Sahabah and compiled in their memory. In memorizing, a great multitude of Sahabah were relied upon because many of them had memorized it completely or in part.
Concerning the compilation of 'Uthman, in the second or third year of his Khilafah 25 AH, Huzayfah b. al-Yaman approached 'Uthman in Madinah at the time when the people of ash-Sham and Iraq were waging war to conquer what is now Armenia and Azerberjan. Hudhayfah was concerned about the differences between the two peoples in their recitation of the Qur'an. He saw the people of ash-Sham reading according to the recitation of Ubay b. Ka'b and they came with readings the people of Iraq had not heard of. He saw the people of Iraq reading according to the recitation of 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud and so they brought readings the people of ash-Sham had not heard of. The two peoples began to quarrel with each other and accused each other of kufr (disbelief). They disagreed about a verse in surat al-Baqarah. For example one read it as
'And perform properly the hajj and 'Umrah for Allah (SAW);
(wa -atimmul hajja wal 'umrata lillah)'. [2:196], and the other read
''And perform properly the hajj and 'Umrah to the House (of Allah (SWT))
(wa atimmul hajja wal 'umrata lil bayt)'. Huzayfah became angry and his eyes went red with rage. It has been na about Huzayfah that he reported on this matter saying, ‘The people of Kufah adhere to the recitation of Ibn Mas'ud and the people of Basrah adhere to the recitation of Abu Musa. By Allah (SWT)! If I go to the Leader of the Believers I will order him to make it a single recitation’. So he travelled to 'Uthman. Ibn Shihab reports that Anas b. Malik na : Huzayfah bin al-Yaman came to Uthman at the time when the people of Sham and the people of Iraq were waging war in Arminya and Adharbijan. Huzhayfah was concerned of their (the people of Sham and Iraq) differences in the recitation of the Qur'an, so he said to 'Uthman, 'O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Quran) as Jews and the Christians differed about their books’. So 'Uthman sent a message to Hafsah saying, 'Send us the manuscripts of the Qur'an so that we may compile the Qur'anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.' Hafsah sent it to 'Uthman. 'Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit, 'Abdullah b. al-Zubair, Said b. al-'As and 'Abdul-Rahman b. Harith b. Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. 'Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, 'In case you disagree with Zaid b. Thabit on any point in the Qur'an, then write it in the dialect of the Quraish as the Qur'an was revealed in their tongue.' They did so, and when they had written several copies, 'Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsah. 'Uthman sent one copy of what they had copied to every Muslim Wilayah (district) and ordered that all other Qur'anic materials, whether written in fragments or whole copies be burnt and destroyed’. The number of copies made was seven, and they were sent to Makkah, ash-Sham, Yemen, Bahrain, Basrah, Kufah, and one copy was kept at Medinah.
Therefore, 'Uthman's action was just the copying and transcription of what had been transcribed from Rasool Allah (SAW) in its original form. He did not do anything except that he made seven copies from the original preserved copy kept in the possession of Hafsah, the mother of the Believers, united the people on this single script and forbade the existence of any text or script other than this. This matter settled upon a master text. It is the same handwriting and script in which the sheets had been written, in the presence of Rasool Allah (SAW) when the revelation was first revealed. It is the same copy complied by Abu Bakr. The Muslims began to make copies from this text and not other. Nothing remained except the mushaf of 'Uthman in its script. When printers came about, the mushaf was printed from this copy with the same handwriting and script.
The difference between the compilations of Abu Bakr and 'Uthman is that the former took place because of the fear that some verses of the Qur’an might be lost if any of its carriers (memorisers) were lost. Although it has been written on sheets it had not been compiled together into a single book. The compilation of 'Uthman took place because the expansion of the Arabic language (Qira’aat) led to differences in reading various aspects of the Qur’an. This led some Muslims to accuse others of making an error. It was feared the matter would escalate and become worse and these sheets were therefore copied into one mushaf. The mushaf we now have before us is the same mushaf revealed to Rasool Allah (SAW); it is the same one which was written in those scripts written in the presence of Rasool Allah (SAW); it is the same mushaf that Abu Bakr brought together into one place; and it is the same one from which 'Uthman transcribed the seven copies and ordered that the rest be burned. It is the same Noble Qur'an in its arrangement of the verses and their respective Surahs, in terms of handwriting and script. From the copy dictated by Rasool Allah (SAW) direct from revelation, these sheets were compiled together and then copied. It remained protected in the possession of Hafsah, the mother of the believers until Marwan became the Wali (governor) of Madinah and tore it up. The original text was not considered binding because copies of the mushaf had now spread everywhere. Ibn Shihab na that Salim b. 'Abdullah b. 'Umar informed him that Marwan used to send for Hafsah when he was the amir of Madinah - asking her for the original sheets from which the Qur'an had been written. She refused to give him it. Salim said after the death of Hafsah and while we were returning from her burial, Marwan communicated his firm decision to 'Abdullah b. 'Umar that he sends him that mushaf. So 'Abdullah b. 'Umar sent it to him and Marwan ordered that it be destroyed. He said: ‘ I did this because I feared that if it remained with people for a long time then people would have doubts regarding these sheets.
