History of the Compliation of Holy Qur-an

 

Allah, the Exalted and Almighty, has said: We have indeed revealed this (Message)QUR-AN in the Night of Power………….(97:1-6)

Let's learn the History of the Holy Qur'an

History of Compilation of the Holy Qur'an

The Glorious Qur'an is the book of guidance which explains to humanity ways of good and ways of evil, and what is lawful and what is unlawful. The Holy Qur'an is clear with no ambiguity or dubiousness. This is why early Muslims devoted their lives to recording and studying the Holy Qur'an. They also exerted considerable effort in compiling it, interpreting its meanings, deducing judgments from its verses and trying to delve into its secrets. They also diligently followed its teachings in their worship and behavior. The Holy Qur'an went through different stages until it came to its present form. These stages can be summarized as follows:

The First Stage: (13 B.H. - 11 A.H. / 610 - 633 A.D.) Scribing of the Holy Qur'an during the life of the Prophet (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)

In this stage the Holy Qur'an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad gradually regarding different events and on different occasions. Every now and then one or more new verses were revealed to give an instruction or to make a new legislation. All the words of the Holy Qur'an were revealed to Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel. These are the words of Allah; neither Muhammad nor Gabriel introduced any word or made any order by their own.

From the very start of the revelation of the Holy Qur'an the Prophet (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and many of his Companions memorized all the verses revealed. Moreover, the Prophet asked the literate among his Companions, and these were called "the Revelation Scribes", to write the Qur'anic verses. Among those scribes were `Abdullah bin Mas`ud, `Ali bin Abi Talib, Zaid bin Thabit and some others. When Qur'anic verses were revealed to the Prophet, he dictated them to his scribes. Then the scribes, as well as many other Companions, committed these verses to their memories.

When the Prophet died, there was a considerable number of his Companions who memorized all the verses of the Holy Qur'an. Furthermore, many Companions wrote scripts of parts of the Holy Qur'an. Yet none of them had a script of all the parts of the Holy Qur'an. This was because of two main factors. First, most of them were illiterate and writing tools were not available to everybody. They wrote Qur'an verses on materials not prepared for writing like patches, fabric scraps of leaves, and bones. Second, there is an unknown Divine wisdom behind making the Holy Qur'an being kept first in the hearts of people before being kept in the written form.

The Second Stage: (11 - 13 A.H. / 633 - 635 A.D.) Compilation of the Holy Qur'an during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr

When the Prophet (peace be upon him) died, a good number of his Companions had learned the Holy Qur'an by heart and knew everything about each verse: where and when it was revealed and what it meant. `Uthman bin `Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) reported, "Whenever we learned ten verses from the Holy Qur'an, we asked the Messenger about their meanings and he told us."

The Prophet (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) left for his Companions a precious treasure and a great responsibility, the Holy Qur'an. The Companions, in turn, were aware of and faithful to this trust and preserved it well. They realized that the Holy Qur'an is the record of Divine revelation, and so, they were more concerned with it than anything else. They were also careful to communicate it to the next generations exactly as they had learned it.

When Musailimah the Imposter and his followers apostatized and rebelled, Muslims fought them in the Battle of Al-Yamamah (13 A.H.). In this battle many reciters and memorizers of the Holy Qur'an were killed. Fearing that other major reciters like Ubai bin Ka`b, `Abdullah bin Mas`ud and Zaid bin Thabit might also die, `Umar bin Al-Khattab suggested to Abu Bakr to compile the Holy Qur'an in one script. For this great and highly sensitive task, Zaid bin Thabit was chosen for the following reasons:

-	Zaid was known for his knowledge and discretion.
-	He was one of the diligent scribes who had kept company with the Prophet.
-	He was one of the memorizers who had learned the Holy Qur'an by heart.
-	He had read the Holy Qur'an to the Prophet in the year of the Prophet's death.

The responsibility of compiling the Holy Qur'an in one script was more burdening than carrying mountains. It meant the compilation of the book that henceforth would be transmitted to all generations all over the world until the end of time. Understanding the gravity of this responsibility, Zaid did not carry this burden alone. Despite his firm memorization of the Holy Qur'an, he sought the help of other memorizers. He also traced every verse in the scripts written during the lifetime of the Prophet which were written according to the Prophet's dictation.

According to the consensus of the Muslim community, the Holy Qur'an is protected against distortion and alteration because Allah Himself had guaranteed its preservation. In this regard there are two facts related to Zaid's work in the compilation of the Holy Qur'an that should be highlighted. First, Zaid did not scribe the Holy Qur'an from scratch but he only re-wrote the scripts that had been written during the lifetime of the Prophet. His primary task was to search for these scripts written on patches and bones and to verify their authenticity. Scripts were verified by realizing two conditions: two just witnesses should testify to the authenticity of the script, and the script should conform with Zaid's memorization as well as the memorization of other firm memorizers. Second, Zaid's compilation was not an individual endeavor but a collective organized work. When Zaid finished the compilation of the Holy Qur'an, it was shown to people and they all acknowledged it as complying with their memorization. So the Holy Qur'an was preserved by hearts as well as by writing. No other book had this virtue except the Holy Qur'an.

The Third Stage: (23 - 35 A.H. / 645 - 657 A.D.) The Compilation of the Holy Qur'an During the Caliphate of `Uthman bin `Affan

The script of the Holy Qur'an compiled in the era of Abu Bakr was given to `Umar after death of the former. When `Umar died, it was kept with Hafsah, wife of the Prophet and daughter of `Umar.

When `Uthman bin `Affan assumed the Caliphate, some people suggested to him to make many copies of a single version of the Holy Qur'an to be given to Muslims all around the Muslim state. This would guarantee that all people would read from the same version and there would be no dispute among them. Moreover, this would protect the Holy Qur'an against any distortion or alteration.

Upon this, `Uthman asked Hafsah to send him the copy of the Holy Qur'an which was kept with her in order to make many copies of it. `Uthman received the copy from Hafsah and assigned the task of scribing the Holy Qur'an to four of the best Companions who had learned the Holy Qur'an by heart. They were: Zaid bin Thabit, `Abdullah bin Al-Zubair, Sa`id bin Al-`As and `Abdul-Rahman bin Al-Harith. When they completed their scripts, `Uthman sent the original copy to Hafsah and sent a copy to every Muslim country including Egypt, Syria, Mecca, Medina, Yemen, Bahrain, Basra, and Kufa. `Uthman ordered that all other versions, which were incomplete, should be burned. From that day on, people read from one copy known as "Mushaf `Uthman" or "Al-Mushaf Al-Imam", and new copies were scribed according to this one.

Order of Verses and Surahs:

Scholars agree that verses of the Holy Qur'an were ordered according to a Divine instruction. When a new verse was revealed, the Prophet told his scribes and Companions that that verse was to be placed in such and such location in such and such Surah. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) read the whole of the Holy Qur'an to Gabriel a short time before his death, he read it in this order. So no one is allowed to deny the order of verses or try to change it.

Regarding the order of the Surahs of the Holy Qur'an, this order was recorded by Zaid bin Thabit and approved by Abu Bakr and `Umar. Moreover, the last time the Prophet read the Holy Qur'an to Gabriel, it was in this order. All this proves that the order of Surahs was also made according to a Divine instruction and should not be modified or altered.

Development of Copies of the Holy Qur'an:

69 A.H./688 A.D.

Copies of the Holy Qur'an scribed during the Caliphate of `Uthman had no diacritics or dots. Moreover, the conventional writing rules later acknowledged by people were different from the rules with which the Holy Qur'an had been written. Nonetheless, all people followed the original written script of the Holy Qur'an in order to preserve the work of the Prophet's Companions and to avoid introducing any alteration to the Book of Allah. Al-Mushaf Al-`Uthmani gave Muslims three benefits:

1.	They all agreed on one copy of the Holy Qur'an
2.	They read it mostly the same.
3.	They all agreed on one order of Surahs. When Islam spread among non-Arabs, many people, even among the Arabs, could not pronounce words of the Holy Qur'an correctly, and vowel marks were urgently needed. The first one to place vowel marks on copies of the Holy Qur'an was Abu Al-Aswad Al-Du'ali, judge of Basra. He put a dot over the letter when it was Maftuh, beneath it when it was Maksur and beside it when it was Madmum.

89 A.H. / 708 A.D.

To distinguish between different letters which have the same shape, Nasr bin `Asim put dots on letters.

100 - 170 A.H. / 718 - 786 A.D.

Al-Khalil bin Ahmad introduced the diacritics still used in the copies of the Holy Qur'an up till now.

12th Century A.H. / 1694 A.D.

After the invention of printing, the first printed copy of the Holy Qur'an appeared in Germany in 1694 A.D. Then printed copies were widespread and replaced hand-written copies. Among the most famous copies of the Holy Qur'an is "Mushaf Al-Madina", which is printed in Medina by King Fahd's Complex.

Thus the Holy Qur'an was transmitted to us with no distortion or alteration. This conforms with Allah's promise to preserve His Book. Allah the Almighty says,
Indeed, it is We who revealed the Remembrance, and truly, it is We who keep it. (15:9)