Collection and Compilation of the Qur’an
The Qur’an was the greatest wealth that the Prophet (sws) held
in custody for his ummah. It was the message of God which he
had been assigned to deliver to all humans and his ummah
shares with him the responsibility of protecting it until the
Day of Judgement. He was never forgetful of fulfilling his
responsibilities towards the Qur’an.
There are some
facts related to the Qur’an that are determined and proven
through revelation. One is that arrangements have been made
while revealing the Qur’an that no falsehood may enter into
it. Further that God Himself would protect it. It is said:
We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will
assuredly guard it [from corruption]. (15:9)
And indeed it is a Book of exalted power. No falsehood can
approach it from before or behind it: It is sent down by One
Full of Wisdom, Worthy of all Praise. (41:41-42)
Secondly,
compilation of the Qur’an, which was being revealed in the
form of different verses according to the needs of the times
in a coherent manner and then read out to the Prophet (sws)
was also the responsibility of God. The Prophet (sws) was
instructed that once he had heard it according to the new
sequence, he was to read it out to his audience. It was said:
It is for Us to collect it and to promulgate it: But when We
have promulgated it, follow thou its recital. (75:17-18)
These promises
were fulfilled by giving the responsibility of bringing the
revelations to Gabriel, the strongest and most trusted of
angels. Interference from devils and jinn was prevented by
placing guards against their entry into the skies. Gabriel
revealed the Qur’an directly upon the Prophet’s heart, thereby
closing all routes of possible interference by devils. Then
the Qur’an indicated right at its beginning that God has made
the pen the tool of education. It was said:
Proclaim! And thy Lord is the Most Bountiful, He Who taught
[the use of] the pen. (96:3-4)
In other words,
the requirement was that the Qur’an be written and protected
in the form of a book. Hence, the Prophet (sws) made
arrangements for the Qur’an to be written down while he was
still in Makkah. At this, the Quraysh saw an opportunity to
say that he created the verses himself and had a few people
who kept writing it down day and night. The Prophet (sws)
continued this process throughout his life until the complete
Qur’an was available to his ummah in its final sequence.
The above verse
from Surah Qayamah indicates that these promises were to be
fulfilled during the life of the Prophet (sws) and not after
his demise. Otherwise, what would have been the relevance of
the instruction: “After We have recited the complete Qur’an to
you, then you should do the same for people?” The obvious
meaning is that the Qur’an was to be compiled according to the
instructions from God, the Prophet (sws) would recite it to
his people accordingly and, after having it written down as
per the new arrangement, he would deliver it to his ummah.
Thus, it was necessary that after the complete revelation of
the Qur’an, he would need to have sufficient time to carry out
this responsibility himself.
Let us see now how the Prophet (sws)
fulfilled this responsibility.
Recitation of the Qur’an
The first
responsibility of the Prophet (sws) towards the Qur’an was to
recite its verses. It was his routine that however much Qur’an
was revealed, he would recite it to the Idolaters repeatedly,
so that their hearts became clean and they would be inclined
to accept the truth. In Makkah, he recited the verses loudly,
sitting close to the Ka‘bah, so that his voice could carry to
the Idolaters and catch their attention. This new teaching was
a blessing for those who had already accepted Islam and they
absorbed it eagerly, corrected their words and deeds in its
light, kept it safe in their hearts and discussed it among
themselves. In this manner, the Qur’an entered their lives and
became the source of expanding their intellect.
Memorizing the Qur’an
Collective
prayers were arranged from the time of the Makkan phase of the
Prophet’s preaching. The Prophet (sws) used to recite the
longer surahs during fajr and ‘isha’. In this way, the part of
the Qur’an that was recited again and again was memorized by
the faithful. Some companions loved the Qur’an immensely and
they would continue to memorize it. The Prophet (sws) asked
such companions to recite the Qur’an frequently. The books of
Ahadith include narratives about ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (rta)
and Ubayy ibn Ka‘b (rta) reciting the Qur’an to him.
Those companions
who remembered more of the Qur’an were given the
responsibility to teach the new converts to Islam. It is
narrated that ‘Ammar ibn Yasir (rta) taught the Qur’an to
‘Umar’s (rta) sister, Fatimah bint al-Khattab (rta). The first
ever school of teaching Qur’an was the Dar al-Arqam, where the
companions gathered and learnt the Qur’an and memorized it. It
was a consequence of the love of the companions for the Qur’an
that when Najashi called the Muslims who had migrated to
Abyssinia to his court and asked them about their views about
Jesus (sws), Ja‘far ibn Abi Ṭalib (rta) began to recite the
verses in the Qur’an which directly addressed Najashi’s
queries.
Teaching Qur’an
At the time of
the Bay‘ah of ‘Aqbah, the tribes of Aws and Khazraj requested
the Prophet (sws) that someone be sent with them to teach the
new faith to them. The Prophet (sws) sent Mus‘ab ibn ‘Umayr (rta)
to Yathrab to teach Qur’an to the Muslims. After migration he
sent many teachers to various tribes for the same purpose.
When, after some tribes went back on their promises and caused
harm to the teachers, the Prophet (sws) had a raised platform
constructed close to the Masjid-e Nabawi and sent a message to
the tribes that they should send their men to Madinah to be
taught the Qur’an. The people who came stayed on those
platforms, memorized the Qur’an and learned religion from the
Prophet (sws). The Islamic society fulfilled their entire
needs. Those people were called people of Suffah. According to
narratives from Abu Da’ud, ‘Ubadah ibn Samit (rta) was
assigned as their Qur’an teacher. Once a group had learned the
essentials of the faith, it returned to its tribe and another
group would take its place.
In the
Islamic society, the people who were more knowledgeable about
the Qur’an were given more respect. The Prophet (sws) would
give them preference over others and had more confidence in
their advice. People tended to gather in groups and discuss
and ponder over the Qur’an. It has been stated in narratives
that when the Prophet used to come to the Mosque and observe
such enthusiasm, he would indicate his pleasure and sit down
amongst the people. There are many examples of the Prophet’s
preference given to young men for governance of tribes, based
on their understanding of the Qur’an. Makkah was a centre of
noblemen and big names could have been considered for its
management. But after the conquest of Makkah, the Prophet (sws)
made a young man, ‘Itab ibn Usayd (rta) its governor. The
reason was his love for the Qur’an.
Documenting the Qur’an
The Prophet (sws)
continued with documenting of the Qur’an. Books contain 40
names, more or less, of companions who contributed to writing
of the revelation. These revelations include both Makkan and
Madinan verses. Whenever some verses were revealed, the
Prophet (sws) called the companion who was skilled in writing
and instructed him to write down the verses under a particular
surah, after a particular verse and before another verse. This
instruction was given because it was not required to write the
Qur’an in the chronology in which it was revealed, but it was
being compiled according to the instructions of God and given
a new sequence. Such a sequence is called setting; that is, a
sequence determined according to God’s instructions. The
Qur’an is written and recited in the same sequence to date.
Today, enemies are attempting to recompile the Qur’an
according to their made up sequence. They claim that the
current sequence was set up by the companions and Zayd ibn
Thabit (rta) and needs reform because it contains editing
errors. The reality is that this sequence was formed under
surveillance of the Prophet (rta), with instructions from God.
There was no input from humans. Orientalists have made many
efforts to recompile the Qur’an but their own researchers have
rejected these as useless work and no such effort has gained
any popularity.
The Prophet (sws)
placed the written verses in his special compilation of the
Qur’an. Initially, this book was placed in a box close to a
pillar of the Masjid-e Nabawi. This pillar came to be called
“Pillar of the Book”. The companions sat there and wrote
verses as they needed. Narratives quote Zayd ibn Thabit’s (rta)
statement:
We used to compile the Qur’an from pages of the Prophet.
Later, when
conspiracies of the hypocrites increased, the Prophet (sws)
had the Book removed from the Mosque and placed within the
room of Hafsah (rta).
Discussion with Gabriel
The arrangement
for the Prophet (sws) to listen to the Qur’an according to a
sequence as determined by God was made by God Himself. The
Prophet (sws) retired to the Mosque for i‘tikaf during every
Ramadan and would hold discussions with the Trustworthy
Gabriel (asm) then. Once the Qur’an was completed, the Prophet
did i‘tikaf for twenty days during the last Ramadan and
recited the Qur’an twice to Gabriel. In this manner, while the
collection of the Qur’an was completed, it was recited to the
Prophet (sws) in its final form according to God’s promise and
then he recited it in the same form to Gabriel and taught his
ummah similarly.
It is a proven
fact from narratives that many people had made copies of the
original book in possession of the Prophet (sws) for their
personal use. According to one narrative, the Prophet (sws)
gave prediction of a double reward after life to the one who
read from the book, rather than from memory. Obviously this
was only possible in the circumstance of availability of books
during his lifetime.
According to yet another narrative, the Prophet (sws) forbade
people from taking the written form with them on journeys to
avoid any chance of the Idolaters gaining access to its pages
and the possibility that they may destroy them.
According to
narratives, the Prophet (sws) had the Qur’an written on bones,
wooden boards, leather and other similar items. People infer
from this that the Qur’an was not available in a compiled
form. This can be accepted only in the situation if the
Prophet (sws) was not familiar with any other form of writing
material. The fact is that just as there is the indication to
make the pen the instrument of education, there is also
reference to the riqq-e manshur (open parchment of). Riqq is a
thin piece of skin. This material which is extremely strong
and lasting has been used for writing the Torah from ancient
times. A roll was made of it and it would be opened and its
pieces spread out and the Torah written on it would be
recited. This is why they were referred to as the riqq-e
manshur. Even today, when Jews take out processions for the
Torah, they walk with this roll in front of them. The letters
of the Prophet (sws) that were protected from the ravages of
time and are found in museums were written on this parchment.
When the Prophet (sws) was familiar with this material of his
times, and used it for his letters, why would he not have used
it in case of the Qur’an, since it had also been referred to
in the Qur’an? Hence, in our view, the copy which he had had
compiled and placed in Hafsah’s room must have been written on
parchment. It would not have been necessary to have it written
on bones and planks. If bones, planks or skin were used, this
must have been during journeys or temporarily, when parchment
could not be arranged.
Thus, in our
opinion, the Prophet (sws) had met his obligations towards
custodianship of the Qur’an before his demise. This trust was
safe within the hearts of many through memory and a written
compiled copy was also made available. After this, it was the
Muslim ummah’s responsibility to publish the Qur’an in this
form and to also memorize it to maintain its protection. Thank
God that the ummah has carried out both tasks.
Narrative of Qur’an Compilation during Abu Bakr’s Caliphate
For us, the situation was just as has been described above.
However, ideas have been floated about compilation of the
Qur’an during the times of the Caliphs. Although this matter
is related to the time after the demise of the Prophet (sws)
and hence not related to our topic, but because it suggests
negative implications for the supreme performance of the
Prophet (sws), it becomes necessary to review such narratives
comprehensively. The first narrative which has been
popularized by Imam Bukhari by placing it in his Sahih, is
that many memorizers of the Qur’an were martyred in the Battle
of Yamamah during the caliphate of Abu Bakr (rta). ‘Umar (rta)
thought that if this continued in future wars, there was a
danger of some part of the Qur’an being lost and no one who
knew it be alive. He convinced Abu Bakr (rta) to compile in
the form of a book the Qur’an that the Prophet (sws) had
instructed to be written. Therefore, he gave this task to Zayd
ibn Thabit (rta). After great difficulty and effort, verses
were located from many sources and were written down. The last
verses of Surah Bara’ah were obtained from Khuzaymah or Abu
Khuzaymah.
If this narrative is accepted, we would need to relinquish
many facts. The promise of God to collate the Qur’an seems to
be, God forbid, unfulfilled. If the Qur’an had been collected,
what difficulty would Zayd ibn Thabit (rta) have faced that he
did not use this collection, but went searching for its
verses? Secondly, we would need to believe that the muhajirun
and the ansar remained with the Prophet (sws) for such a long
time, but were not able to be blessed by memorizing the
complete Qur’an. So that when the search for verses began, no
memorizer of the Qur’an who could have said that he memorized
it by listening to the Prophet (sws) came forward. If there
was no memorizer of the Qur’an among the earlier companions,
where did the ones who were martyred during the battle of
Yamamah come from? It seems from the wording of the narrative
that the complete Qur’an was not available with the martyrs of
Yamamah either; other people would memorize a few parts only.
This is why ‘Umar (rta) felt the danger of losing some part of
the Qur’an. If the Muslims of earlier times memorized the full
Qur’an, what was Umar’s point? Thirdly, by accepting this
narrative, one cannot but deduce that the trust placed with
the Prophet (sws), of the custody of the Qur’an and its
communication throughout the world, God forbid, was not
fulfilled. Neither was the Qur’an collated at its original
sequence, nor did people memorize it accordingly. Fourthly, it
also follows that, the enemies of Islam would like to use this
narrative to get accepted the notion that the current format
of the Qur’an is dubious and that it is doubtful whether the
current Qur’an is according to the original. Perhaps some
verses may not have been included and may have remained with
some people and could not be available at the time. The blame
for this could easily be laid upon the Right Guided Caliphs
for having compiled an incomplete Qur’an and established it
among the ummah.
As a Hadith, if the authenticity of this narrative is
assessed, its original and only narrator is found to be Zayd
ibn Thabit (rta), who gives news about it to only one person,
‘Ubayd ibn al-Sabbaq, who, in turn, passes it on to one
person, Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. He communicates this to four
people: Yunus, Shu‘ayb, Ibrahim and ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid.
By coincidence, all four authoritative narrators are Shiites.
According to Imam Bukhari’s own research, ‘Ubayd ibn al-Sabbaq
died in 118 AH at the age of 68 years. So, his date of birth
should be 51 AH. There are many narratives about the date of
the death of Zayd ibn Thabit (rta): 45 AH, 48 AH and 54 AH.
‘Ubayd would not be born in the first two years, and,
according to the third narrative, he would have been only 2 or
three years old at the time of Zayd’s death. So, there is no
question of Zayd being the source of this Hadith. Thus this
narrative remained a piece of information from a single
person, to another and then to another, during the first
century of the hijrah calendar and there was no other witness
to it. Had the event of the compilation of the Qur’an actually
happened, it was such a great and magnificent one that scores
of companions would have been its narrators and they would
have narrated it with great pride that they, too, were
associated with this noble deed. Thus, we believe that this
narrative is a self concocted story and it never occurred in
reality.
Collation of the Qur’an during the Caliphate of ‘Uthman (rta)
Another narrative is from the time when ‘Uthman (rta) was the
caliph. Narrators state that when people recited the Qur’an,
differences emerged when some people declared their recitation
to be the correct one and others believed that they were
right. As a result, fights would ensue. When this situation
was brought to the notice of the third Caliph, it was realized
that people were not reading the Qur’an as per its original
pronunciation, but were using their own regional accent and
elocution. ‘Uthman (rta) formed a committee of three members
who were experts in the Quraysh language and instructed them
that since the Qur’an had been revealed upon the Quraysh, it
was to be written in this language by Zayd ibn Thabit (rta).
Zayd carried out the writing and many copies of the Qur’an
were sent to the main cities under official arrangements.
People were asked to use only those copies to make additional
ones for their use and to read the Qur’an in the Quraysh
language only. For this service, ‘Uthman (rta) is also known
as the collector of the Qur’an.
This narrative, too, has been stated as coming from only Anas
ibn Malik (rta), and the only person who received it from him
and communicated it onward was Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. No other
companion or a subsequent follower of the companions related
this grand piece of work. If this narrative is accepted, then
it must also be accepted that no one knew that a verse which
said: “by revealing this Qur’an to you in your language, we
have made it very appropriate,” had been revealed and that,
according to which, it was the language of the Quraysh that
was the only language for the Qur’an that was acceptable to
people and people had been learning and teaching the same.
This language was also preferred and liked by all Arabs and
they had no issues with reciting the Qur’an. If ‘Uthman (rta)
is considered to the collector of the Qur’an, what value does
the promise in the verse “It is for Us to collect it,” (75:17)
hold, in which the Collector of the Qur’an is God Himself. It
is possible that ‘Uthman (rta), as the Caliph, had copies of
the Qur’an made and dispatched to various cities. Ibn Shihab
al-Zuhri then gave it the form of a tale in order to lend
credence to the story of collection of the Qur’an by Abu Bakr
(rta) and thus render the protection of the Qur’an a dubious
reality.
Variant Readings of the Qur’an
As far as the readings of the Qur’an in various languages and
accents is concerned, these matters relate to later times. All
famous readings came in the second or third century hijrah,
whereas the Qur’an was being recited in one single manner
since the times of the Prophet (sws). Practically, the ummah
did not popularize these readings and they were limited to the
pages of a book. Sometimes, a reader would recite along these
lines in a gathering and receive applause. The ummah’s
unanimous consent was the same that remains the reading of
common people. This is why the Qur’an was always written
according to this reading. The oldest copies of the Qur’an
found in museums have been written in the same style. No one
has dared to publish a Qur’an with a different style. Even
during the decline of Muslims, a Qur’an using the recitation
of Warsh ‘an Nafi‘ was published in 1930. Following this
example, another one was published in Sudan in 1978 on the
recitation of al-Duri ‘an Abi ‘Amr and in Tunis in 1981, using
the recitation of Qalun ‘an Nafi‘. These recitations are now
used only in some parts of North and West Africa. The Qur’an
of the rest of the Islamic world is the same as that we have
in our hands.
Some people who recite the Qur’an have promulgated false
stories to make different versions popular and get the ummah
to swallow this bitter pill, but they have not succeeded. If
such styles are accepted, one becomes guilty of changing the
Qur’an and one’s faith in the promise of God to protect the
Qur’an falters. It is an absolute lie that by using these
readings, no changes occur in the meanings of the Qur’an. If
you deliberate on these objectively, you realize that some
people have made additions to the content of the Qur’an. Some
have changed the diacritical marks, thereby altering the
meanings. Because in the beginning, there were no dots and
marks on the content, it seems that some people tried their
hand at allocating whatever marks they wished to on the words
and named them readings.
The pronunciations and cadences of the Qur’an are unlimited.
People have attempted to limit these to 14, 10 or 7. If these
are accepted as a part of religion, then it must also be
accepted that God’s promise for protecting the Qur’an has been
put aside and people changed the Qur’an. The reality is that
there is only a single reading of the Qur’an and it has been
accepted by a large number of Muslims. It was established by
the Prophet (sws) himself, he had it written down and kept
safe during his lifetime. The Muslim ummah has protected it
and kept it untouched. Billions of people have memorized it
and have not allowed attempts at alteration to be
successful.
(Translated by Nikhat Sattar)
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