Collecting the Qur'an

Zayd ibn Thābit al-Ansāri (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that Abu Bakr As-Siddīq summoned him during his caliphate, after the Companions of the Prophet had fought against Musaylimah the Liar in the battle of Yamāmah in 11 AH. The battle was sparked due to Musaylimah's claim to be a prophet and also due to the apostasy of many of the Arabs. Many of the Prophet's Companions were killed in those battles. Zayd went to Abu Bakr and found ‘Umar sitting with him. Abu Bakr told Zayd that ‘Umar had come to him and told him that many of the Companions had been killed in their battles with Musaylimah and he feared that more of the Qur'an memorizers would be killed in subsequent battles with the disbelievers, and consequently parts of the Qur'an could be lost. So ‘Umar had proposed that the Qur'an should be collected. Abu Bakr wondered how he could do something that the Messenger of Allah had not done. ‘Umar replied that collecting the Qur'an would be better than leaving it scattered around. Abu Bakr said that ‘Umar had talked to him about collecting the Qur'an until he had felt comfortable with the idea and decided to collect it. Zayd ibn Thābit commented that ‘Umar was sitting there, silently. Then Abu Bakr said to Zayd that he was an intelligent young man whom they could not accuse of lying or forgetfulness. As Zayd had written the revelation for the Messenger of Allah, they suggested that he should track down the Qur'an and collect it. The whole Qur'an had been written down during the Prophet's life, but it had not been collected in one place nor were the Sūrahs arranged in their current order. Zayd commented that moving a mountain would have been easier for him than collecting the Qur'an. He wondered how Abu Bakr and ‘Umar could do something that the Prophet had not done. Abu Bakr said that this would be good, and he continued to talk to Zayd about the benefits of collecting the Qur'an until he felt comfortable with the proposal and decided to collect the Qur'an for the public interest. Zayd collected the Qur'an written on parchments, shoulder blades, and palm stalks, and also from the hearts of men who had fully memorized it, such as Ubai ibn Ka‘b and Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal. In this way, the text that was written on parchment and shoulder blades would be further evidence to what had been memorized by the Companions. He only found the last two verses of Sūrat At-Tawbah written down by Khuzaymah ibn Thābit al-Ansāri. These are the verses that state: {There has certainly come to you a Messenger from among yourselves. Grievous to him is what you suffer, [he is] concerned over you...} until the end of the two verses [Sūrat At-Tawbah: 128-129]. The sheets on which the Qur'an were collected remained with Abu Bakr until he died, then with ‘Umar until he died, and then with Hafsah, ‘Umar’s daughter (may Allah be pleased with them all). The Shias objected to Abu Bakr's collection of the Qur'an, because he had done something that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) had not done. Abu Bakr did not do anything objectionable, as he embarked on this project for the sake of Allah, His Messenger, and His Book. The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) had allowed this as in the Hadīth reported by Abu Sa‘īd: ''Do not write anything from me other than the Qur'an.'' [Muslim]. So Abu Bakr did nothing other than collecting the Qur'an that was already written. Thus, the Shias' objection to Abu Bakr's collection is baseless.

-صحيح البخاري، نشر: دار طوق النجاة (مصورة عن السلطانية بإضافة ترقيم محمد فؤاد عبد الباقي)، الطبعة: الأولى، 1422ه. -عمدة القاري شرح صحيح البخاري، لمحمود بن أحمد بن موسى الحنفى بدر الدين العينى، الناشر: دار إحياء التراث العربي – بيروت. -إرشاد الساري لشرح صحيح البخاري، لأحمد بن محمد بن أبى بكر بن عبد الملك القسطلاني القتيبي المصري، الناشر: المطبعة الكبرى الأميرية، مصر، الطبعة: السابعة، 1323 هـ. -شرح صحيح البخاري لابن بطال، تحقيق: أبي تميم ياسر بن إبراهيم، نشر: مكتبة الرشد، الرياض-السعودية، الطبعة: الثانية 1423ه، 2003م. -الأنساب, عبد الكريم بن محمد بن منصور التميمي السمعاني المروزي، المحقق: عبد الرحمن بن يحيى المعلمي اليماني وغيره, مجلس دائرة المعارف العثمانية، حيدر آباد, الطبعة: الأولى، 1382 هـ - 1962 م. -الإفصاح عن معاني الصحاح، ليحيى بن هبيرة بن محمد بن هبيرة الذهلي الشيباني، المحقق: فؤاد عبد المنعم أحمد، الناشر: دار الوطن، سنة النشر: 1417هـ.

Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (may Allah be pleased with him) visited ‘Uthmān (may Allah be pleased with him) who was then preparing the Syrians and Iraqis to conquer Armenia and Azerbaijan. Hudhayfah heard people read the Qur’an differently. Some of them followed the reading of Ubai, while others followed the reading of Ibn Mas‘ūd, to the point that conflict and turmoil was about to develop among them. This situation alarmed Hudhayfah, who therefore asked the Commander of the Believers ‘Uthmān to save the situation lest the people would diverge on the Qur’an as the Jews and Christians diverged on the Torah and the Gospel and tampered with them by adding to and deleting from them. At that point, the Qur’an was collected in sheets, not in a Mus'haf. Therefore, ‘Uthmān sent to Hafsah, requesting her to send him the sheets in which the Qur’an was written so that he would transcribe them into the Mus'hafs and then return the sheets to her. The sheets that he received from Hafsah were the sheets which Abu Bakr and ‘Umar had commanded the Qur’an be written in. So ‘Uthmān then collected the Qur’an in a Mus'haf. The difference between this Mus'haf and the sheets is that the sheets were the edited papers in which the Qur’an was collected during the time of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him. They had separate Sūrahs, and each Sūrah was arranged in the order of its own verses. However, these Sūrahs were not arranged one after another in one volume. So when these Sūrahs were transcribed and arranged, they formed the Mus'haf. Thus, the Mus'haf started to exist only during ‘Uthmān's time. So Hafsah sent the sheets to ‘Uthmān, who then commissioned Zayd ibn Thābit, ‘Abdullāh ibn Az-Zubayr, Sa‘īd ibn al-‘Ās, and ‘Abdur-Rahmān ibn Hishām to transcribe the sheets into the Mus'hafs. Zayd ibn Thābit was from the Ansār, whereas the rest were from the Quraysh. ‘Uthmān told the three Qurayshis that if they differed with Zayd ibn Thābit on anything of the Qur’an, they should write it in the dialect of Quraysh, for the Qur’an was revealed in their dialect. They did so. When they had transcribed the sheets in the Mus'hafs, ‘Uthmān returned the sheets to Hafsah. He also sent a Mus'haf to each province. Other Qur’anic materials, sheets, and private Mus'hafs were burned on ‘Uthmān's order.

-صحيح البخاري، نشر: دار طوق النجاة (مصورة عن السلطانية بإضافة ترقيم محمد فؤاد عبد الباقي)، الطبعة: الأولى، 1422ه. -عمدة القاري شرح صحيح البخاري، لمحمود بن أحمد بن موسى الحنفى بدر الدين العينى، الناشر: دار إحياء التراث العربي - بيروت. -شرح صحيح البخاري لابن بطال، تحقيق: أبي تميم ياسر بن إبراهيم، نشر: مكتبة الرشد، الرياض-السعودية، الطبعة: الثانية 1423ه، 2003م. -إرشاد الساري لشرح صحيح البخاري, أحمد بن محمد بن أبى بكر بن عبد الملك القسطلاني القتيبي المصري, الناشر: المطبعة الكبرى الأميرية، مصر, الطبعة: السابعة، 1323 هـ -الإفصاح عن معاني الصحاح، ليحيى بن هبيرة بن محمد بن هبيرة الذهلي الشيباني، المحقق: فؤاد عبد المنعم أحمد، الناشر: دار الوطن، سنة النشر: 1417هـ.

Ibn ‘Abbās (may Allah be pleased with him) points out that the Qur’an's surahs would reveal to the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) while he did not know where they should end and be separated, until "In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful" was revealed to him; thereupon, he knew that the previous surah came to an end and this was the beginning of a new surah.

1. Basmalah "In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful" separates between surahs, except between Surat al-Anfāl and Surat at-Tawbah.

سنن أبي داود (2/ 91) (788)، شرح سنن أبي داود للعباد (102/ 15)، التنوير شرح الجامع الصغير (8/503)، عون المعبود (2/353).