PRESERVATION OF THE HOLY QUR’AN In the ancient times, when writing was scarcely used, memory and oral transmission was exercised and strengthened to a degree now almost unknown.‟ (Zwettler, Michael –The Oral Tradition of Classical Arabic Poetry, p. 14.) relates Michael Zwettler. It was in to this oral society that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was born. During its revelation, which spanned twenty three years, not only did the Prophet (PBUH) teach the Holy Qur‟an, He (PBUH) memorized it entirely himself as did many of his Companions amongst them; Abu Bakr (R-A), Umar (R-A), Uthman (R-A), Ali (R-A), Ibn Masud (R-A), Abu Hurairah (R-A), Abdullah bin Abbas (R-A), Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (R-A), Aisha (Raliyallahu Anha), Hafsa (Raliyallahu Anha), and Umm Salama (Raliyallahu Anha). The Angel Gabriel (A-S) would spend every night in the month of Ramadhan with the Prophet (PBUH), on a yearly basis, to refresh his Holy Qur‟anic memory. The lives of Muslims revolved solely around the Holy Qur‟an; they would memorize it, teach it, recite portions from it every day for their obligatory Prayers – and many would stand a third of the night in prayer reciting from it. There existed so many memorizers of the Holy Qur‟an, that it was considered strange to find a family without someone amongst them who had not memorized the Holy Qur‟an entirely. As time progressed, literally thousands of schools were opened devoted specifically to the teaching of the Holy Qur‟an to children for the purpose of memorization. The teachers in these schools would have unbroken Tazkiya‟s [authoritative chains of learning] going back to the Prophet (PBUH) himself through his many Companions – and this system exists even today. Indeed, we live in a world where there are millions of memorizers of the Holy Qur‟an, scattered in every city and country spanning the whole globe. These memorizers range from ages 6 and up; males, females, Arabs, non-Arabs, blacks, whites, Orientals, rich and poor. There does not exist a single book, secular or religious, which has as many memorizers of it, as the Holy Qur‟an. In reality, if one considers the greatest‟ writings of the world; Old and New Testament, Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Orwell, Marx, Dickens, Machiavelli, Sun Tzu etc. – one may ask, how many people have memorized them? Seldom do we find a single individual. Hypothetically,if we were loose all the books of the world, by throwing them into the sea for instance, the only book we could resurrect entirely word-for- word would be the Holy Qur‟an – and, amazingly, it could be done simultaneously in every country of the world within twenty-four hours. Kenneth Cragg writes, “This phenomenon of Qur‟anic recital means that the text has traversed the centuries in an unbroken living sequence of devotion. It cannot, therefore, be handled as an antiquarian thing, nor as a historical document out of a distant past. The fact of Hifdh (Qur‟anic Memorization) has made the Qur‟an a present possession through all the lapse of Muslim time and given it a human currency in every generation never allowing its relegation to a bare authority for reference alone.” (Cragg, Kenneth - The Mind of the Holy Qur‟an, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973, p.26.) The entire Holy Qur‟an was in writing at the time of revelation from the Prophet (PBUH) dictation by some of his literate companions, the most prominent of them being Zayd ibn Thabit (R-A). Others among his noble scribes were Ubayy ibn Ka‟b (R-A), Ibn Mas‟ud (R-A), Mu‟awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan (R-A), Khalid ibn Waleed (R-A) and Zubayr ibn Awwam (R-A). The codification of the Holy Qur‟an (i.e. into a „single book form‟) was done soon after the Battle of Yamamah (11AH/633CE), after the Prophet (PBUH) death and during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr (R-A). Many companions became martyrs in that battle, and it was feared that unless a written copy of the entire revelation was produced, large parts of the Holy Qur‟an might be lost with the death of those who had memorized it. Therefore, at the suggestion of Umar (PBUH) to collect the Holy Qur‟an in the form of writing, Zayd ibn Thabit (R-A) was requested by Abu Bakr (R-A) to head a committee which would gather together the scattered recordings of the Holy Qur‟an and prepare a mushaf - loose sheets which bore the entire revelation on them. To safeguard the compilation from errors, the committee accepted only material which had been written down in the presence of the Prophet (PBUH) himself, and which could be verified by at least two reliable witnesses who had actually heard the Prophet (PBUH) recite the passage in question. Once completed and unanimously approved of by the Prophet (PBUH) Companions, these sheets were kept with the Caliph Abu Bakr (R-A) (d. 13AH/634CE), then passed on to the Caliph Umar (R-A) (13- 23AH/634-644CE), and then Umar (R-A) daughter and the Prophet (PBUH) widow, Hafsa (Raliyallahu Anha). The third Caliph Uthman (R-A) (23AH-35AH/644-656CE) requested Hafsa (Raliyallahu Anha) to send him the manuscript of the Holy Qur‟an which was in her safekeeping, and ordered the production of several bounded copies of it. This task was entrusted to the Companions Zayd ibn Thabit (R-A), Abdullah ibn Az-Zubair (R-A), Sa‟eed ibn As-‟As (R-A), and Abdur-Rahman ibn Harith ibn Hisham (R-A). Upon completion (in 25AH/646CE), Uthman (R-A) returned the original manuscript to Hafsa (Raliyallahu Anha) 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 Holy Qur‟an have also stated its authenticity. John Burton, at the end of his substantial work on the Holy Qur‟an‟s compilation, states that the Holy Qur‟an 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.” (Burton, John - The Collection of the Qur‟an, Cambridge University Press, 1977, p.239-40) Kenneth Cragg describes the transmission of the Holy Qur‟an from the time of revelation to today as occurring in “an unbroken living sequence of devotion.” (Cragg, Kenneth - The Mind of the Qur‟an, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973, p.26.) 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.” (Geschichte des Qorans, Schwally - Leipzig: Dieterich‟sche Verlagsbuchhandlung,1909-38, Vol.2, p.120.) The historical credibility of the Holy Qur‟an 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. 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 (R-A).” 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 and is proof that the text of the Holy Qur‟an we have in circulation today is identical with that of the time of the Prophet (PBUH) and his companions. The Institute for Koranforschung,for example, in the University of Munich (Germany), collected over 42,000 complete or incomplete ancient copies of the Holy Qur‟an. After around fifty years of research, they reported that there was no variance between the various copies; This Institute was unfortunately destroyed by bombs during WWII. Thus, due to the efforts of the early companions, with God‟s assistance, the Holy Qur‟an 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 with so pure a text.” (Sir William Muir, Life of Mohamet, London, 1894, Vol.1, Introduction). The evidence above confirms Allah (SWT) promise in the Holy Qur‟an, 15:9 “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur‟an and indeed, We will be its guardian.” The Holy Qur‟an has been preserved in both oral and written form in a way no other book has, with each form providing a check and balance for the authenticity of the other.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 08:00:51 +0000
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