The entire Quran was however also recorded in writing at the time of revelation
from the Prophet’s dictation, may the blessing and mercy of God be
upon him, by some of his literate companions, the most prominent of them
being Zaid ibn Thabit.1 Others among his noble scribes were Ubayy ibn Ka’b,
Ibn Mas’ud, Mu’awiyah ibn Abi-Sufyan, Khalid ibn Waleed and Zubayr ibn
Awwam.2 The verses were recorded on leather, parchment, scapulae (shoulder
bones of animals) and the stalks of date palms.
The codification of the Quran (i.e. into a ‘book form’) was done soon after
the Battle of Yamamah (11AH/633CE), after the Prophet’s death, during the
Caliphate of Abu Bakr. Many companions became martyrs at that battle, and
it was feared that unless a written copy of the entire revelation was produced,
large parts of the Quran might be lost with the death of those who had memorized
it. Therefore, at the suggestion of Umar to collect the Quran in the form
of writing, Zaid ibn Thabit was requested by Abu Bakr to head a committee
which would gather together the scattered recordings of the Quran and prepare
a mushaf - loose sheets which bore the entire revelation on them.4 To
safeguard the compilation from errors, the committee accepted only material
which had been written down in the presence of the Prophet himself, and
which could be verified by at least two reliable witnesses who had actually
heard the Prophet recite the passage in question5.Once completed and unanimously
approved of by the Prophet’s Companions, these sheets were kept
with the Caliph Abu Bakr (d. 13AH/634CE), then passed on to the Caliph
Umar (13-23AH/634-644CE), and then Umar’s daughter and the Prophet’s
widow, Hafsah1.
The third Caliph Uthman (23AH-35AH/644-656CE) requested Hafsah to
send him the manuscript of the Quran which was in her safekeeping, and
ordered the production of several bounded copies of it (masaahif, sing. mushaf).
This task was entrusted to the Companions Zaid ibn Thabit, Abdullah
ibn Az-Zubair, Sa’eed ibn Al-‘as, and Abdur-Rahman ibn Harith ibn Hisham.
Upon completion (in 25AH/646CE), Uthman returned the original manuscript
to Hafsah and sent the copies to the major Islamic provinces.
A number of non-Muslim scholars who have studied the issue of the compilation
and preservation of the Quran also have stated its authenticity. John Burton,
at the end of his substantial work on the Quran’s compilation, states that
the Quran as we have it today is:
“…the text which has come down to us in the form in which it was organized
and approved by the Prophet…. What we have today in our hands is the mushaf
of Muhammad.”3
Kenneth Cragg describes the transmission of the Quran from the time of revelation
to today as occurring in “ an unbroken living sequence of devotion.” 4
Schwally concurs that:
“As far as the various pieces of revelation are concerned, we may be confident
that their text has been generally transmitted exactly as it was found in
the Prophet’s legacy.”1
The historical credibility of the Quran is further established by the fact that
one of the copies sent out by the Caliph Uthman is still in existence today. It
lies in the Museum of the City of Tashkent in Uzbekistan, Central Asia.2
According to Memory of the World Program, UNESCO, an arm of the United
Nations, ‘it is the definitive version, known as the Mushaf of Uthman.’3
This manuscript, held by the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, is the
earliest existent written version of the Quran. It is the definitive version,
known as the Mushaf of Othman. Image courtesy of Memory of the World Register,
UNESCO. A facsimile of the mushaf in Tashkent is available at the
Columbia University Library in the US.4 This copy is proof that
the text of the Quran we have in companions.
A copy of the mushaf sent to Syria (duplicated before a fire in
1310AH/1892CE destroyed the Jaami’ Masjid where it was housed) also
exists in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul1, and an early manuscript on gazelle
parchment exists in Dar al-Kutub as-Sultaniyyah in Egypt. More ancient
manuscripts from all periods of Islamic history found in the Library of Congress
in Washington, the Chester Beatty Museum in Dublin (Ireland) and the
London Museum have been compared with those in Tashkent, Turkey and
Egypt, with results confirming that there have not been any changes in the
text from its original time of writing.2
The Institute for Koranforschung, for example, in the University of Munich
(Germany), collected over 42,000 complete or incomplete ancient copies of
the Quran.
After around fifty years of research, they reported that there was no variance
between the various copies, except the occasional mistakes of the copyist
which could easily be ascertained. This Institute was unfortunately destroyed
by bombs during WWII.3
Thus, due to the efforts of the early companions, with God’s assistance, the
Quran as we have it today is recited in the same manner as it was revealed.
This makes it the only religious scripture that is still completely retained and
understood in its original language. Indeed, as Sir William Muir states,
“There is probably no other book in the world which has remained twelve
centuries (now fourteen) with so pure a text.”4
The evidence above confirms God’s promise in the Quran:
“Verily, We have revealed the Reminder, and verily We shall preserve it.”
(Quran 15:9)
The Quran has been preserved in both oral and written form in a way no other
book has, and with each form providing a check and balance for the authenticity
of the other.
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