The History of Qu'ran

Narrated Zaid bin Thabit:

Abu Bakr As-Siddiq sent for me when the people of Yamama had been killed (i.e., a number of the Prophet's Companions who fought against Musailima). (I went to him) and found `Umar bin Al- Khattab sitting with him. 

Abu Bakr then said (to me), "`Umar has come to me and said:

"Casualties were heavy among the Qurra' of the Qur'an (i.e. those who knew the Qur'an by heart) on the day of the Battle of Yamama, and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may take place among the Qurra' on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost. Therefore I suggest, you (Abu Bakr) order that the Qur'an be collected." I said to `Umar, "How can you do something which Allah's Apostle did not do?" `Umar said, "By Allah, that is a good project." `Umar kept on urging me to accept his proposal till Allah opened my chest for it and I began to realize the good in the idea which `Umar had realized." 

Then Abu Bakr said (to me).

'You are a wise young man and we do not have any suspicion about you, and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Messenger (ﷺ). So you should search for (the fragmentary scripts of) the Qur'an and collect it in one book." By Allah If they had ordered me to shift one of the mountains, it would not have been heavier for me than this ordering me to collect the Qur'an. Then I said to Abu Bakr, "How will you do something which Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) did not do?" Abu Bakr replied, "By Allah, it is a good project." Abu Bakr kept on urging me to accept his idea until Allah opened my chest for what He had opened the chests of Abu Bakr and `Umar. So I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from (what was written on) palme stalks, thin white stones and also from the men who knew it by heart, till I found the last Verse of Surat at-Tauba (Repentance) with Abi Khuzaima Al-Ansari, and I did not find it with anybody other than him. The Verse is: 'Verily there has come unto you an Apostle (Muhammad) from amongst yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty..(till the end of Surat-Baraa' (at-Tauba) (9.128-129). Then the complete manuscripts (copy) of the Qur'an remained with Abu Bakr till he died, then with `Umar till the end of his life, and then with Hafsa, the daughter of `Umar.(Vol. 6, Book 61, Hadith 509, Sahih al-Bukhari 4986)

Narrated Anas bin Malik:

Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman came to `Uthman at the time when the people of Sham and the people of Iraq were Waging war to conquer Arminya and Adharbijan. Hudhaifa was afraid of their (the people of Sham and Iraq) differences in the recitation of the Qur'an, so he said to `Uthman, "O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur'an) as Jews and the Christians did before." So `Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, "Send us the manuscripts of the Qur'an so that we may compile the Qur'anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you." Hafsa sent it to `Uthman. `Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit, `Abdullah bin AzZubair, Sa`id bin Al-As and `AbdurRahman bin Harith bin Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. `Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, "In case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point in the Qur'an, then write it in the dialect of Quraish, the Qur'an was revealed in their tongue." They did so, and when they had written many copies, `Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. `Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur'anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt. (Vol. 6, Book 61, Hadith 510, Sahih al-Bukhari 4987)

The two hadiths provided above from Sahih al-Bukhari offer significant evidence to challenge the idea that the Qur'an existed in a single, fully preserved book form during the lifetime of Muhammad. They point to how the Qur'an was collected, standardized, and transmitted after Muhammad's death, highlighting potential gaps, variations, and human intervention in its preservation.

1. Qur'an Not Compiled as a Book in Muhammad's Lifetime

The first hadith narrated by Zaid bin Thabit clearly states that the Qur'an was not compiled into a single book during the lifetime of Muhammad. Zaid, who was one of the Prophet's scribes, was tasked by Caliph Abu Bakr (under strong insistence from Umar) to collect and compile the Qur'an after the death of Muhammad, due to the concern that large portions of it could be lost following the deaths of many who had memorized it. This concern was especially urgent after the Battle of Yamama, where many Qurra' (those who had memorized the Qur'an) were killed.

• "How can you do something which Allah's Apostle did not do?" – Both Abu Bakr and Zaid expressed unease about compiling the Qur'an into a book, acknowledging that this task had not been undertaken during Muhammad's life.

• This implies that during Muhammad’s time, the Qur'an existed in various fragmentary forms—on palm leaves, stones, and within the memories of the people—not as a complete, singular text.

  
  

This poses a serious challenge to the claim that the Qur'an was perfectly preserved in a single, unified form during Muhammad's lifetime. If Muhammad had left a fully compiled Qur'an, there would have been no need for this posthumous effort to gather its various parts.

2. Fear of Loss and Missing Verses

Zaid mentions in the first hadith that he found the last two verses of Surat at-Tauba (9:128-129) with only one companion, Abi Khuzaima Al-Ansari, and with no one else. This is striking because:

• It suggests that certain verses were not widely known or memorized by multiple people. Had the Qur'an been fully and systematically compiled during Muhammad's life, it is unlikely that key verses would have been found only in the possession of one individual.

• This indicates the potential for parts of the Qur'an to be lost or not known to all the companions at the time.

  
  

If some verses were only with a single person, it opens the possibility that other verses may have been lost entirely during the early battles, as feared by Umar, thus undermining claims of perfect preservation during Muhammad's lifetime.

3. Uthman's Standardization: Evidence of Divergence and Disagreement

The second hadith, narrated by Anas bin Malik, reveals that during the caliphate of Uthman, there was serious concern about the differences in recitations of the Qur'an among Muslims in Sham (Syria) and Iraq. Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman urged Uthman to intervene because of fears that these differences could lead to the Muslim community diverging, much like the Jews and Christians had with their scriptures.

• Uthman, in response, ordered the compilation of a standardized Qur'an. The committee tasked with this work, led by Zaid bin Thabit, was instructed to resolve disagreements by writing the Qur'an in the Quraysh dialect, the dialect of the tribe of Muhammad. This implies that multiple recitations existed, and not all were in the same dialect or necessarily identical.

• Uthman then ordered the burning of all other copies, both fragmentary and complete. This step highlights the existence of variant texts—different written versions of the Qur'an that might have had textual discrepancies.

  
  

If the Qur'an had been perfectly preserved in a single form from the time of Muhammad, there would have been no need for Uthman’s drastic actions to standardize the text and destroy all other versions. The burning of other copies suggests that differences in the text were significant enough to cause potential disputes, raising questions about how much variation there was between these early versions of the Qur'an.

4. Lack of Unanimity in Preservation

Another point of contention is that Uthman’s decision to standardize the Qur'an faced resistance from some companions, particularly Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, who had his own personal codex. Ibn Mas'ud, a prominent companion of Muhammad and an expert in Qur'anic recitation, initially refused to hand over his copy for destruction, indicating that he believed his version was authoritative. This suggests that some companions did not agree on which version of the Qur'an was the "correct" one, further emphasizing the issue of textual divergence.

5. Lack of Perfect Preservation

Given these narrations, a strong case can be made against the claim that the Qur'an was fully preserved as a single, unaltered book at the time of Muhammad:

1. Fragmentary nature during Muhammad's life: The Qur'an existed in various fragmentary forms, written on palm leaves, stones, and memorized by individuals, rather than being compiled into a single text.

2. Efforts to compile the Qur'an after Muhammad's death: The need for Abu Bakr, Umar, and Zaid bin Thabit to compile the Qur'an after Muhammad's death suggests that the preservation of the Qur'an was not complete or systematic during the Muhammad's lifetime.

3. Fear of loss: The deaths of many who had memorized the Qur'an in battles posed a real threat to its preservation, and some verses were found only with individual companions, raising concerns about whether parts of the Qur'an could have been lost.

   
   

Uthman’s standardization and destruction of variants: Uthman's initiative to standardize the Qur'an and burn other copies indicates the existence of significant textual variants, suggesting that the Qur'an we have today is a product of editorial decisions made decades after the Muhammad's death.

6. Hadith about the Goat Eating Certain Verses

1. A well-known report comes from Sunan Ibn Majah and Musnad Ahmad, describing a curious incident where some verses of the Qur'an were lost after being eaten by a domestic animal:

Aisha (the wife of the Prophet) narrates:"The verse of stoning (rajm) and the verse of adult breastfeeding (رضاع كبير) were revealed, and they were written on a sheet and kept under my bed. When the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) passed away, a domestic animal (goat) entered and ate the sheet."— (Sunan Ibn Majah 1944, Musnad Ahmad 26359)

This hadith indicates that two specific verses—the verse of stoning (which refers to the punishment of adulterers) and the verse of adult breastfeeding—were lost because the written copy was eaten by a goat.

7. Implications of the Goat Incident for Qur'anic Preservation

This hadith further complicates the narrative of the perfect preservation of the Qur'an during the lifetime of Muhammad. Here's why:

1. Verses Lost Due to External Events:
   

   • The hadith indicates that certain Qur'anic verses were lost due to an accidental event, such as a goat eating the parchment. This shows that written copies of the Qur'an were susceptible to being damaged or destroyed. In this case, the verses of stoning and adult breastfeeding are said to have been lost.

   • This incident raises questions about whether other verses might have been similarly lost or altered due to the fragile preservation methods used at the time (i.e., oral memorization and writing on leaves, stones, or parchments).
     

2. Stoning Verse No Longer Found in the Qur'an:
   

   • Although the verse about stoning (rajm) for adulterers was reportedly revealed, it does not appear in the current Qur'an. Instead, the punishment for adultery is described as 100 lashes in Surah An-Nur (24:2).

   • This discrepancy highlights that there were verses that were revealed but not included in the final compilation of the Qur'an, either because they were lost or because of editorial decisions made later, possibly during Uthman’s standardization.
     

3. Undermining the Argument of Perfect Preservation:
   

   • If verses could be lost in such an incidental manner, it challenges the idea that the Qur'an was preserved in its entirety during the Muhammad's lifetime. This undermines the claim that the Qur'an we have today is a perfect, complete reflection of what was revealed to Muhammad.

     
     

Conclusion

The evidence from these Sahih al-Bukhari hadiths strongly challenges the idea that the Qur'an was preserved in a perfect, unified book form during Muhammad's life. The compilation efforts led by Abu Bakr and later Uthman, the fear of losing parts of the Qur'an due to the deaths of memorized individuals, and the burning of variant copies all suggest that the Qur'an underwent a process of standardization after Muhammad’s death, with human intervention playing a significant role in its final form. This casts doubt on the assertion that the Qur'an today is exactly the same as it existed during the time of Muhammad.