History of Quran
Dr Saeed Ahmad
Quran at the time of Prophet PBUH
• The writers of the Wahi
• How it used to be preserved at that time?
• Memorization by heart
• Written on various things
• There is ample evidence showing that the entire Qur’an was written down in
the Prophets (saw) lifetime.
• It was the custom of the Prophet PBUH that immediately after dictating, he
would ask his companions to memorize the text, and repeat it daily during
the two prayers. Indeed it was the prophet PBUH who for the first time
ordered the memorization together with the writing of the scripture, the
Quran. Before him, we do not come across a similar example in the entire
history of the chain of the prophets.
• He would also indicate in which Surah each ayah was to be placed. The
Companions never interfered in the arrangement of the ayahs and Surahs
which are the same in copies of Qur’ans available today.
• Hadrat Zaid bin Thabbit was one of the most prominent of the scribes and
has reported that he, along with other companions would compile the
Qur’an in the presence of the Holy Prophet (saw).
During the 23 years of Prophet PBUH, the verses of the Quran were
memorized as they were revealed, and about 42 scribes wrote the
verses on different materials such as paper, wooden tablets, bone
fragments and leather..
Steps taken for the preservation of the Quran
• To learn it from an authorized teacher
• To preserve it in writing
• To commit the Quran to memory.
• The prophet used to repeat aloud the whole Quran during the month of Ramadan. The
companions who could read and write would bring along their personal manuscripts and
would compare them with the recited version of the prophet, so that they could correct the
mistakes in the text, if any and check the proper order of the chapters. This practice was
called Ardah, which means presentation.
• In his last year the prophet PBUH read out the complete text of the Quran twice during the
month of Ramadan.
The Huffaz Companions of Prophet PBUH
• Ubayy ibn Ka`b, Mu`adh ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Thabit ، Abu Zayd, Abu Ad-Darda‘ Ubadah
and Abu Ayyub,
• the seventy men whom the disbelievers treacherously murdered at Bi'r Ma`unah
• Umm Waraqah bint `Abdullah ibn Al-Harith.
• Abu `Ubayd has mentioned in his Al-Qira'at, the Qurra' from amongst the Companions of
the Prophet (peace be upon him`).
• From the Muhajirun, he stated: The four Rightly-guided Caliphs, Talhah, Sa`d, ibn Mas`ud,
Hudhayfah, Salim, Abu Hurayrah, `Abdullah ibn Assaaib, `Abdullah ibn `Abbas, `Abdullah
ibn `Umar, `Abdullah ibn Zubayr, `Abdullah ibn `Amr ibn Al-`As, `A'ishah, Hafsah, and Umm
Salamah.
• From the Ansar: `Ubadah ibn As-Samit, Mu`adh who was called Abu Halimah, Majma` ibn
Jariyah, Fudalah ibn `Ubayd, and Maslamah ibn Mikhlad. Abu `Ubayd, however, disclosed
the fact that some of them completed the memorization of the Glorious Qur'an after the
death of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
• When `Umar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) completed the memorization
of surat Al-Baqarah, he sacrificed a camel to Allah expressing his gratitude to Him.
Why it was not compiled at that time?
• The Quran was not revealed at once for the divine wisdom in descending it
in 23 years.
• The very last verse was revealed 8 days before the demise of Prophet PBUH
The need of compilation at the time of Abu
Bakr RA
• After the demise of the Holy Prophet PBUH an imposter called Muslimah
announced falsely his own Prophet hood. Abu Bakr (RA) sent a Muslim
expedition against him and a harsh battle took place in 632 A.D (11 A.H) at
the place of Yamamah. During which hundreds of hafiz were among the
total 6 thousand martyred companions.
• Umar ibn al-Khattab became concerned and appealed to Abu Bakr in order
to compile the Quran into a book.
How it was compiled at that time?
• Abu Bakr formed a Commission under the leadership of Zaid ibn Thabit, one of the leading
scribes.
• This commission of 12 people, including famous figures such as Uthman ibn Affan, Ali ibn Abi
Talib, Talha ibn Ubaydullah, Abdullah ibn Masood, Ubayy ibn Kab, Khalid ibn al-Walid, Hudhaifah
and Saleem, came together in Umar's house.
• It was announced in the city of Madinah that everyone in possession of any part of the Quran in
َ )( َع ْرor corrected after
writing, recited in the presence of the prophet at the presentation ()ضة
comparison with it, or read before the prophet should produce it before the commission and
thus they collected all the materials on which verses from the Quran were written.
• In addition, the verses memorized by the companions were heard as well. Each of them was
asked to show two witnesses for the verse they read.
• The copy of the Quran was recited to the companions at a general meeting. There was no
objection. So, a book called "mushaf" emerged, which means written verses.
• A total of 33,000 companions agreed that every letter of the Quran was in the right place. Then
this mushaf was sent to Umar ibn al-Khattab. After his death, this book passed on to Hazrat
Hafsah, the daughter of Umar and a wife of Prophet Muhammad.
• The story of Khuzaima bin Sabit during the compilation of Quran:
حبَ ُۥ
ه َو ِّم ْن ُهم ْ َى ن َ م ْن ُهم همن َق
َٰ ض ِّ ه ۖ َف َ وا ه
ِّ ٱَّلل َعلَ ْي ْ َد ْ صد َُق
ُ وا مَا َٰ َعه َ ل ُ ِّمنَ ْٱل
ٌ م ْؤ ِّم ِّنينَ ِّرجَا •
)23 يًل (االحزاب ْ ظ ُر ۖ َومَا بَ هد ُل
وا تَ ْب ِّد ا ِّ همن يَن َت
• Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with
Allah. of them some have completed their vow (to the extreme), and some
(still) wait: but they have never changed (their determination) in the least
Difference in the accents of Quran
• A difference was observed in the recitation of the Quran in the Armenia
battles between Muslims from Damascus and Iraq during the period of the
third caliph, Uthman.
• Hudhaifah bin Yamaan, one of the companions, went before the caliph on
his way back from an expedition and asked him to prevent this.
The need of uniformation of accents of
Quran
• On the 25th year of the hijra (647), Uthman formed a commission attended
by Abdullah ibn al-Zubair, Saeed ibn al-Aas and Abd al-Rahman ibn Harith
under the leadership of Zaid ibn Thabit. All of them, except for Zaid, were
from Quraysh. Uthman said that the dialect of Quraysh should be preferred
if they were to fall into conflict with Zaid regarding the dialect, since
Muhammad was from the Quraysh tribe. The Quran had been revealed in
seven dialects of the Arabic language of the time.
Compilation at the time of Usman RA
• The first Muslims who were literate could easily read the writing of their own
language, but somewhat differently, since at the time the Arabic script did not have
diacritical marks to differentiate letters or vowel symbols.
• For example in the Quran, the word (tabut). It means box, in the dialeچt of Madinah
it was pronounced as tabuh with an H at the end while the people of Makkah
pronounce it with a T at the end. As per the orders of Usman, it was fixed with t.
• The commission brought the original mushaf from Hafsah.
• Now the verses were written in the Quraysh dialect.
The nature of Usman Compilation of Quran
• All that happened during his regime was that copies of the Quran were
prepared and orthography or spellings were corrected at places. The sound
of words was not changed.
• Usman brought the Muslims around to a uniform reading of the Quran. To
save Muslims from the differences of pronunciation, he selected the
makkan pronunciation and thus he is called the Jami al Quran.
The Present Quran
• The old copies were destroyed to prevent future conflicts.
• From the new copy, some mushafs were also written on parchment and sent to different places such as
Bahrain, Damascus, Basra, Kufa, Yemen and Mecca, accompanied by a qari. With an instruction that in
future, copies should be made only from the official text.
• Some of these first seven mushafs have disappeared over time. Today, in Topkapı Palace and the Museum
of Turkish-Islamic Arts in Istanbul, there are mushafs from Uthman and Ali's period. One of them was
handwritten by Uthman, and the other two by Ali.
• The copy that stayed with the caliph was called al-Mushaf al-Imam (the head mushaf). There is no
difference between the mushafs recited around the world today since they were all copied from original
copies.
• Thus, the Quran was written during Muhammad's lifetime, while its compilation was done during the
caliphate of Abu Bakr and it was copied during the caliphate of Uthman.
Dr Hameed Ullah Witness
• Dr Hameed Ullah has witnessed the copies preserved in Tashqand, Istanbul and
India.
• He has met Gen Ali Akbar Topchi Bashi who sent this copy from The royal library of
St Petersburg to Tashqand after the communists came to power in Russia.
• Another copy is preserved in Topkapi Museum of Istanbul. There is a photocopy of
this in Medina, and I saw it myself. (Dr. Saeed Ahmad)
• The third manuscript is in the India office library.
• It is a matter of pride and satisfaction for all of us that there is not the slightest
difference between these copies and the text of the Quran in use today.
Ali’s Contribution
• During the caliphate of Ali, saw the introduction of diacritical marks (in red)
(Iijam for consonants).
• During the time of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik, (In blue)short vowel
marks were also added.
Historical comparison of Quran and Bible
• Read History of the Quran Page No 39 and 40
Reference Books
• History of the Quran, Dr Hameed Ullah Pdf
https://ia800909.us.archive.org/33/items/HistoryOfTheQuran/History%20of%
20the%20Quran%2C%20Dr.%20Muhammad%20Hameedullah.pdf
Questions:
• What do you know about the compilation of Quran at the time of Prophet
Muhammad PBUH?
• How the Quran was compiled at the time of Abu Bakr RA?
• What were the contribution of Usman RA in compilation and preservation of
Quran?
A picture of Othman’s Qur’an
