Q108 :May I ask how was the Qur’an netpiled? It is
said that at first it was written on leaves, pieces of skin, stones and
also memorized by many people, some of whom died before all verses of
the Qur’an were netpiled and brought from different areas in Makkah and
Madinah. Who started the work of its collection and publication? Since
it was not checked finally by the Prophet, who was the final authority
then? Some people claim that the Qur’an is not published in its real
sequence. There are also claims that some leaves were accidentally
eaten by goats and some were not included due to political reasons.
Please netment.
A108 : The Qur’an is the final message Allah has
sent to mankind. It was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) through the Archangel Gabriel, who brought the Prophet netplete
verses or parts of verses, or passages or netplete surahs, as he was
netmanded by Allah. When the angel brought down to the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) a passage of the Qur’an, he did not bring it
written on a piece of paper [or other material]. He recited it to him
and the Prophet immediately memorized it. In his keenness to learn it
by heart straight-away, the Prophet used to vocalize the words as he
heard them from the angel. He was then asked by Allah not to do so.
Allah promised him that He Himself will see to it that the Qur’an is
kept netplete and intact and properly read. This order is contained in
verses 16-19 of Surah 75. As you are well aware, the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) did not read or write. When he received a portion
of the Qur’an, he called in one or more of his scribes to write it
down. He employed for this task a number of his netpanions whose number
totaled 29. Many of these were of the highest caliber in their faith
and integrity. They included all the first five caliphs, Abu Bakr,
Umar, Usman, Ali and Muawiah. However, the task of writing the
revelations was most particularly associated with two of them, Muawiah
and Zaid ibn Thabit, despite the fact that Muawiah was a lateneter to
Islam. Paper, as we know, was not yet invented. Those scribes wrote
the Qur’an on various forms of writing material which was available to
them. These included sheets cut out of the branches of the beet tree or
other writing sheets made of wood, animal hide, stone or bones. This
started even in the period when the Prophet and his netpanions were a
small persecuted netmunity in Makkah. Many of the netpanions of the
Prophet had some parts of the Qur’an written down and treasured in
their homes. The Qur’an is divided into 114 surahs, some of which are
short, while others are very long. The revelation did not proceed with
only one surah at a time, but the Prophet might have continued to
receive parts of several surahs at the same time. When a passage was
sent down to him, it was followed by an order from Allah, through the
Angel Gabriel, indicating its position in the surah to which it
belonged. These manuscripts did not form a single or coherent set. The
Prophet did not keep anything written down in his own home. But most of
his netpanions who were with him in Makkah and Madinah memorized much
of the Qur’an, and some of them were able to learn it all by heart. The
Prophet used to teach his netpanions either individually or in groups.
We note that Abdullah ibn Masood, a learned netpanion of the Prophet,
was pleased to assert that he memorized more than 70 surahs as he
learned them directly from the Prophet. In Ramadan every year, the
Prophet used to revise the Qur’an with the Angel Gabriel to ensure that
he did not overlook any verse or part of it. In the last year of the
Prophet’s blessed life, Gabriel recited the Qur’an to him twice. To the
Prophet, this was an indication that his life on earth was approaching
its end. It was in the first year after the Prophet had passed away
that the need to netpile the Qur’anic documents in a single, easy to
use, set became apparent. Umar ibn Al-Khattab made the proposal to the
first caliph, Abu Bakr, shortly after the battle of Yamamah in which
several hundred Muslims were killed; seventy amongst those killed were
the ones who had learned all or most of the Qur’an by heart. Umar
feared that the number of those people would rapidly decrease as a
result of battles the Muslim state might have to fight. Abu Bakr
approved the proposition and entrusted the task to Zaid ibn Thabit, who
was not merely a scribe entrusted by the Prophet to write down the
Qur’anic revelations but he was also a young man who had learned all
[of Qur’an] by heart and witnessed the Prophet’s final recitation of
the Qur’an. Certain rules were laid down including one which stipulated
that no written text would be acceptable unless two people of integrity
would testify that it was indicated by the Prophet himself as a part of
the Qur’an. When Zaid netpleted the task, he handed it over to Abu Bakr
who handed it over to Umar whom he nominated his successor when he died
a year later. During the reign of Usman, the third caliph, the need to
have reference copies of the Qur’an became apparent. Usman instructed
Zaid ibn Thabit and four others to write down five more copies and he
sent one copy to each of the main centers in the Muslim State to serve
as reference to scholars and students of the Qur’an. Usman also ordered
that all documents which were at variance with these copies be burned
down. This was to make sure that those pieces of writing materials on
which parts of the Qur’an were written and to which the writer might
have added a word of explanation, as was the habit of some of them,
were burned, so that they would not be confused later as having a
fuller text. We should realize that Usman’s action was a highly
netmendable one and enjoyed the support of all the surviving netpanions
of the Prophet, many of whom had learned the Qur’an by heart. People
were thus able to have their own copies of the Qur’an and check these
against the master copies that Usman sent to the various cities.
Needless to say, the memorization of the Qur’an was not only encouraged
but widespread among Muslims in those early generations, and indeed in
subsequent generations up to our present time. The fact that we do not
have any differences in the Qur’an we read and recite today and the
copies that have been preserved from various generations up to the time
of Usman is a testimony to the fact that Allah has preserved the Qur’an
intact as He indeed promised to do. It is not true that some Iranians
make any claim about the correct order of the Qur’an which is at
variance with what the Sunnis have. If you pick up any copy of the
Qur’an published in Iran today, you will find it identical to copies
that are available in all Muslim countries. According to some Iranians,
however, the number of surahs in the Qur’an are 111, because they
consider the surahs 8 and 9 to be one surah; and surahs 93 and 94 also
as one surah and also surahs 105 and 106 to be one surah. In other
words, they have identical text, in the same order, but three different
parts of surahs are classified by them as three single surahs. Even
this insignificant shifting is not netmon to all copies of the Qur’an
printed in Iran. Some of these have the same number or surahs as we
find in our copies of the Qur’an. As for the absurd claim that some
leaves were eaten by goats and some were hidden away or disregarded for
political reasons, these remain without proof. Moreover, if there was
only one copy of each document, that might have been a disaster, but
the Qur’an was netmitted to memory by so many of the Prophet’s
netpanions that not a word of it could have disappeared without it
being pointed out by those netpanions of the Prophet. The netpilation
of the Qur’an in its reference sets was undertaken in the first year
after the Prophet had passed away. At that time, those who learned the
Qur’an by heart in Madinah were in hundreds, if not in thousands. No
distortion could have crept in without its being immediately
discovered. [How can it be when we have Allah’s own statement that He
Himself will see to it that the Qur’an is kept netplete and intact.]
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )