The Writing of the Qur'an

The Writing
of the Qur'an




[font=Arial][size=12]Muhammad recited this Qur'an to
others and in his prayers. Others have done the same ever since,
some memorising parts of the Qur'an and others memorising the
Qur'an in its entirety. This helped the Qur'an to become
unrivalled as a work of its time in terms of the care and effort
which were employed to ensure that it would be preserved for all
mankind.

Once a part of the Qur'an had been
revealed to the prophet (pbuh) he would dictate it to scribes who
would make written records of every word recited. These writings
would then be read back to the prophet to ensure that they had
been correctly recorded. Others around at the time would make
their own copies for their private use.
These fragments of revelation came
together and were linked into a specific sequence. The sequence
defined what is the current ordering of verses in the Qur'an and
the prophet (pbuh) affirmed that it was given to him as part of
the revelation he received. This sequence was set out through the
recitation of Qur'an during prayers and in particular during the
month of Ramadan when the prophet (pbuh) would recite the whole
of the Qur'an in its correct order.

A year after the prophets death,
it was entrusted to a main scribe Zaid ibn Thaabit to assemble
these scattered documents on which the verses of the Qur'an were
written. He was especially qualified since not only was he a
scribe, but he had also memorised the Qur'an completely and was
present during the final & complete recitation of the Qur'an
by the prophet.

Zaid established and applied a
rigorous method of work: he would not accept any writing that was
not certified by at least 2 witnesses. The witnesses would have
to have seen it being written down, not from memory, but at the
very dictation of the prophet (pbuh).
[font=Arial][size=12]Having completed this task, the
collection was given to Abu Bakr - the immediate successor to
Muhammad (pbuh) as head of state.

]After the collection was made, it
was kept & guarded by Abu Bakr and then the following head of
state Umar. The next head of state, Uthman, decided to publish it
so as to have copies available at the now remote frontiers of the
Islamic State. He did this by having four copies made. These
copies became the standard against which all other fragments
which people possessed were checked. At least one of these
Uthmanic copies still exists today.]


]This compilation of the Qur'an was
unanimously recognised as authoritative by the companions of the
prophet at the time. It is a strong evidence that for the
authenticity of the Qur'an that no other compilation has been
used for the 1400+ years since then no matter how implacable
certain sections of the Muslims were toward one another. [/size][/font]


[font=Arial][size=12]Variations do exist however in the
readings of the text even though there is no dispute about the
basic form of the text. These variations come through slight
differences in the words due to the old form of written Arabic
where diacritical marks (including for example short vowels) were
not marked in the written text. This means that there is more
than one reading that can fit the text. The prophet explicitly
accepted some of these variations as equally valid and
acceptable. The exact reading of the text as well as any
differing readings were set through oral transmission of the
recitation of the Qur'an and through the choice of readings being
obvious from the context. The difference in meaning that these
differences in readings have is very slight.


]The question arises of how
reliable the historical reports are. This is not a new question
by any standards. Islam had a distinct advantage over previous
religions in terms of the ability that the Early Muslims had to
preserve the original teachings. The Qur'an was completed in an
environment that could not be more different from that of the
material that now makes up the Bible. Muslims were not a
persecuted community but the rulers of a state that was having
military successes on all fronts. This made collection of
historical data much easier and establishing the authenticity of
various texts clearer.


The laws of the state that emerged
from Muhammad's great success as political leader were firmly
based on the teachings of Islam. This meant that a great deal of
effort went into establishing what the teachings actually were.
Indeed this effort was often inspired by a strong religious
intention to identify the truth of such matters. This motivation
also ensured that clear honesty and objectivity is evident in how
the studies were carried out. Whole sciences grew up about which
sayings of Muhammad (pbuh) were authentic and which were
doubtful. The reports were traced back through the people who
narrated them. Some reports were taken form what was written down
at the time of Muhammad (pbuh); others proved to be more dubious
(the science to identify which were which is called 'uloom
ul-hadith). The narrators of the reports of what Muhammad said
were investigated to see what their reputation was. For example,
it was asked of narrators whether they were ever known to have
lied (the study of narrators' reputations is called 'uloom
ar-rijaal). Only chains of reporters (isnad) containing just the
names of 100% trustworthy narrators were considered reliable
enough to use in law making. Hadiths (sayings or narrations) were
categorised depending on various criteria including this and many
others, which influence the authenticity. Much effort went into
this and there is a vast body of literature on the subject.


[font=Arial][size=12]Of course establishing the exact
authenticity of any particular hadith is never 100% possible but
at some point the sources are judged to be reasonably sound and
reliable and to reject a well-authenticated hadith would be
judged unreasonable and therefore wrong.

]As for the Qur'an. There has never
been any doubt about its authenticity. So many people memorised
it by heart and there was from the time of Muhammad a great deal
of written material which contained the text of the Qur'an. In
all the history of the Qur'an, since Uthman commissioned written
copies in the form of Books, there has been one, and only one
Qur'an and there have been no changes in it. It is accepted by
all Muslims as the exact word of God.]


[font=Arial][size=12]One of the effects of the Qur'an
is that huge efforts were also made to preserve the meanings of
the Arabic language so that the sources of Islamic law would not
get lost through the evolution of the language. This has meant
that the classical Arabic can be studied today and modern Arabic
is very close indeed to its classical ancestor. The extent to
which the Arabic language has remained unchanged for 1400 years
show just how significant the source texts of Islam were to the
early Muslim generations. These all contribute to proving beyond
reasonable doubt that the Qur'an is the same Qur'an that was
revealed to Muhammad and that the accounts of his life and his
saying are generally very well authenticated and reliable - to an
extent probably unlike the accounts of any other character in
history.

[font=Arial][size=12]People bent on denying Islam
sometimes try to make challenges to this account of events.
However, to do so basically means believing that most if not all
the Muslims around throughout the history of Islam were liars -
is this reasonable?