Since the Holy Quran was not revealed all at once and its
different verses were revealed as and when appropriate,
so it was neither possible nor practicable from the very
beginning to write and preserve it in a book form.
Before one can begin to understand the manner in which
it was preserved, the amazing memories of
the Arab nation must be kept in mind. And of course, the
fact that Allah Himself has said:
“Verily, it is We Who have sent down this Message and it is We Who
shall guard it.” (Surah Hijr; 15:9)
How the Quran was preserved in the time of the Holy Prophet?
The Quran was revealed to
the Holy Prophet through Jibril , who would make—
sure that he s learnt its verses by heart.
Once the Holy Prophet had
memorized the verses, Jibril would tell him that—
these verses should be placed in so and so Surah in so and so
order.
When the Holy Prophet had
learnt the verses, he would then teach them to his—
companions who would
Learn them by heart (these
Huffaz were 1000s)—
The scribes of the Holy
Prophet, would write the verses under his instruction—
on paper, stone tablets, bones, palm leaves, wooden boards or
animal skins.
(These companions were about 34).
Ardah—
Quran was preserved in
partial volumes in writing, but primarily in the hearts—
of tens of thousands of his companions.
Preservation and Compilation duringthe caliphates of Abu Bakr and Umar
A large number of Huffaz
killed at Yamamah—
Umar proposed to Abu Bakr:
Lets Write it down in a single—
volume
After some initial
hesitation, he Agreed—
A team of Muqri Sahaba led
by Zaid bin Thabit were formed to—
conduct this task
How did Zayd ensure authenticity?
The contributor must have
in writing as well as be a Hafiz—
He tested its reliability
against his own memory and that of—
his team of Huffaz
Two trustworthy witnesses
had testified to the fact that the—
particular verse had been written in the presence of the
Prophet
The written verses were
matched with the collections of—
companions
The Final Volume
This Task was completed by
Umar’s time and stayed with him—
until his martyrdom.
Then it went in the custody
of Hafsah and thus became—
known as Mus’haf-i-Hafsah.
Preservation and Compilation in the period of Uthman bin 'Affan Islamic Empire had spread far and wide—
New people with new
tongues, languages, dialects and—
pronunciations had become Muslims
They began to use these to
recite Quran in sometimes odd—
ways.
Hudhayfa bin Yaman
approached the caliph Uthman and told—
him about the possible dangers of this
Uthman immediately took
action—
Reassembled a team under
Zaid bin Thabit—
Made seven copies of Mushaf
e Hafsa—
Sent these to the
provincial capitals—
Destroyed any
deviant/incomplete manuscript—
