Explaining a Non Muslim How the Quran Was Compiled
06/08/2019
Learning Islam according to the authentic sources is a challenge to a Muslim or non Muslim who is just getting started. There is a lot of media bias and there are many more hate filled properganda spread across mainstream and social media that could easily change the mind set of people especially non Muslims against Islam. One example I could give is an article that was published in "the New York times" which said as follows,
"To Muslims the Koran is the very word of God, who spoke through the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad: ''This book is not to be doubted,'' the Koran declares unequivocally at its beginning. Scholars and writers in Islamic countries who have ignored that warning have sometimes found themselves the target of death threats and violence, sending a chill through universities around the world.
Yet despite the fear, a handful of experts have been quietly investigating the origins of the Koran, offering radically new theories about the text's meaning and the rise of Islam.
(The New York times- 02/03/2002)
Any one who has no proper knowledge about Islam or how the Quran was revealed and compiled will start having doubts about the authenticity of the Quran and that could cause widespread confusion. We should understand that many staunch critics of Islam have accepted that the Quran is authentic after comparing all the copies of the Quran to the original Quran.
Allah(Swt( says in the Quran,
"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian."
(Al-Quran-15:9)
“Say: ‘If all mankind and the jinn would come together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce its like even though they exerted all and their strength in aiding one another.’”
(Al-Quran-17:88)
“Or do they say that he has invented it? Say (to them), ‘Bring ten invented chapters like it, and call (for help) on whomever you can besides God, if you are truthful.”
(Al-Quran-11:13)
“And if you all are in doubt about what I have revealed to My servant, bring a single chapter like it, and call your witnesses besides God if you are truthful.” (Al-Quran-2:23)
The non Muslim might try to argue that anyone can produce a Quran and claim it but that argument if it is true would have being proven practically and no one has been able to bring forth a book similar to the Quran and those who have tried have failed and their productions have been refuted left right and center. We can see from the history of all the other scriptures like the Bible,Torah,Vedas,Tripitaka and others that these scriptures were written many centuries after the the teachings of the claimed progenitor or the scripture was written bu multiple unknown authors making serious doubts. The Quran holds a special place because the prophet(Sal) himself told to write and preserve the Quran to his companions. Abu Said al Khudri (Rali) narrated, the prophet(Sal) said,
"Do not write (what you hear) from me, and whoever has written something (he heard) from me, he should erase it. Narrate to others (what you hear) from me; and whoever deliberately attributes a lie to me, he should prepare his seat in the Fire."
(Muslim)
In the above hadith, the prophet (Sal) said to Said al Khudri (Rali) to write only what is sent to him as revelation of the Quran.
Amr bin al As(Rali) narrated,
"I used to write everything which I heard from the Messenger of Allah (Sal). I intended (by it) to memorise it. The Quraysh prohibited me saying: Do you write everything that you hear from him while the Messenger of Allah (Sal) is a human being: he speaks in anger and pleasure? So I stopped writing, and mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah (Sal). He signalled with his finger to him mouth and said: Write, by Him in Whose hand my soul lies, only right comes out from it.
(Abu Dawud-Graded Sahih by Albani)
Some might try to confuse these two hadiths by stating that they contradict each other but what should be understood is that in the beginning, the prophet forbade writing anything except the Quran and later he allowed writing hadiths as well because there could be confusion as to what is what. This is why the prophet(Sal) said,
"Narrate to others (what you hear) from me"
The Quran was written in and preserved in many ways during the time of the prophet(Sal).
" Those who sit (at home) from among the believers and those who go out for Jihad in the way of Allah are not aqual" (iv. 95). (He said that) the Messenger of Allah (Sal) ordered Zaid (to write the verse). He brought a shoulder-blade (of a slaughtered camel) and inscribed it (the verse) thereon. The son of Umm Maktum complained of his blindness to the Prophet (Sal). (At this) descended the revelation:" Those of the believers who sit (at home) without any trouble (illness, incapacity, disability)" (iv. 95). "
(Muslim)
The Quran was revealed to the prophet(Sal) through Gibril (Alahi). Aisha(Rali) narrated,
Al-Harith bin Hisham asked Allah's Apostle
"O Allah's Apostle! How is the Divine Inspiration revealed to you?" Allah's Apostle replied, "Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell, this form of Inspiration is the hardest of all and then this state passes ' off after I have grasped what is inspired. Sometimes the Angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me and I grasp whatever he says." 'Aisha added: Verily I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the Sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over)"
(Bukhari)
In a hadith narrated in Sahih Muslim, the prophet(Sal) said that somethimes the revelation used to come to him in dreams.
The compilation and the preservation of the Quran was narrated as follows
. Zaid bin Thabit(Rali) narrated,
Abu Bakr sent for me owing to the large number of casualties in the battle of Al-Yamama, while `Umar was sitting with him. Abu Bakr said (to me), `Umar has come to my and said, 'A great number of Qaris of the Holy Qur'an were killed on the day of the battle of Al-Yamama, and I am afraid that the casualties among the Qaris of the Qur'an may increase on other battle-fields whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost. Therefore I consider it advisable that you (Abu Bakr) should have the Qur'an collected.' I said, 'How dare I do something which Allah's Messenger (Sa;) did not do?' `Umar said, By Allah, it is something beneficial.' `Umar kept on pressing me for that till Allah opened my chest for that for which He had opened the chest of `Umar and I had in that matter, the same opinion as `Umar had." Abu Bakr then said to me (Zaid), "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 (Sal). So you should search for the fragmentary scripts of the Qur'an and collect it (in one Book)." Zaid further said: By Allah, if Abu Bakr had ordered me to shift a mountain among the mountains from one place to another it would not have been heavier for me than this ordering me to collect the Qur'an. Then I said (to `Umar and Abu Bakr), "How can you do something which Allah's Messenger (Sal) did not do?" Abu Bakr said, "By Allah, it is something beneficial." Zaid added: So he (Abu Bakr) kept on pressing me for that until Allah opened my chest for that for which He had opened the chests of Abu Bakr and `Umar, and I had in that matter, the same opinion as theirs. So I started compiling the Qur'an by collecting it from the leafless stalks of the date-palm tree and from the pieces of leather and hides and from the stones, and from the chests of men (who had memorized the Qur'an). I found the last verses of Sirat-at-Tauba: ("Verily there has come unto you an Apostle (Muhammad) from amongst yourselves--' (9.128-129) ) from Khuza`ima or Abi Khuza`ima and I added to it the rest of the Sura. The manuscripts of the Qur'an remained with Abu Bakr till Allah took him unto Him. Then it remained with `Umar till Allah took him unto Him, and then with Hafsa bint `Umar.
(Bukhari)
After the Quran preserved fully in to a book and after the death of Abu Bakr(Rali) there arose many differences in the on how the Quran should be recitated and during the time of Uthman (Rali) the Quran was written to preserve the Quran from unwanted differences of recitation among the people and Anas bin Malik (Rali) narrates,
"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."
(Bukhari)
Zaid bin Thabit(Rali) who was in charge of writing the Quran said the following,
"When the Qur'an was compiled from various written manuscripts, one of the Verses of Surat Al-Ahzab was missing which I used to hear Allah's Messenger (Sal) reciting. I could not find it except with Khuza`ima bin Thabjt Al-Ansari, whose witness Allah's Messenger (Sal) regarded as equal to the witness of two men. And the Verse was:-- "Among the believers are men who have been true to what they covenanted with Allah." (33.23)
(Bukhari)
Some of the orientalists argue that if not for the Ksra,Dhamma which are the dot sytoms in the Arabic letters the real arabic in the Quran would be different. This is a lie because the dot systems were introduced to make it easier for an arabic beginner to understand the Quran. The earliest evidnec prove that the dot system was introduced during the time of Ali(Rali).
Abu ʿUbaydah said:
Al-Duʾalī derived grammar from Ali ibn Abi Talib, but did not disclose it and when Ziyad requested him to write a grammar to improve popular literacy, he declined. However when he overheard a reader of Qurʾān (9:3) recite:
"Allah is quit of idolaters and of His Messenger",
instead of:
"Allah is quit of the idolaters and so is His Messenger"
(i.e. using the accusative in place of nominative case), Al-Duʾalī agreed to the emir’s order and wrote a chapter on subject and object. He asked for an intelligent and obedient scribe. Not satisfied with the first scribe from the tribe of ʿAbd al-Kays, a second scribe was sent for. Abu al-Aswad al-Duʾalī instructed him "When I open my mouth pronouncing a letter [a sound], place a mark above; when I close my mouth [making a u sound] place a mark in front of the letter, and when I split [my lips][making an 'i' sound] double the mark"
(Ibn Nadim-The Fihrist of al-Nadim vol.1,Page-88)
Even with out the diacritical marks in the Quran one can understand it and that was how it was understood. The diacritical marks or the dots in the Quran is similar to the "Isnad" or "Matn" system in a hadith. is a method to understanding the authenticity of a reports and similarly, the diacritical dot system is just a method for a beginner to understand it easily. It is like wearing glasses to see a text in a book clearly for the person who has weak sight. Nowadays we use the mobile or smart phone to read and listen to the Quran and that the smart phone is a method to read the Quran and so is the diacritical marks.
It is clear that the Quran was compiled and preserved completely during the time of the rightly guided khaliphs and there is many more evidence to prove this point, I hope this article would will InshaAllah answer the question on how the Quran was compiled and preserved.
C.J.Ahmed
Learning Islam according to the authentic sources is a challenge to a Muslim or non Muslim who is just getting started. There is a lot of media bias and there are many more hate filled properganda spread across mainstream and social media that could easily change the mind set of people especially non Muslims against Islam. One example I could give is an article that was published in "the New York times" which said as follows,
"To Muslims the Koran is the very word of God, who spoke through the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad: ''This book is not to be doubted,'' the Koran declares unequivocally at its beginning. Scholars and writers in Islamic countries who have ignored that warning have sometimes found themselves the target of death threats and violence, sending a chill through universities around the world.
Yet despite the fear, a handful of experts have been quietly investigating the origins of the Koran, offering radically new theories about the text's meaning and the rise of Islam.
(The New York times- 02/03/2002)
Any one who has no proper knowledge about Islam or how the Quran was revealed and compiled will start having doubts about the authenticity of the Quran and that could cause widespread confusion. We should understand that many staunch critics of Islam have accepted that the Quran is authentic after comparing all the copies of the Quran to the original Quran.
Allah(Swt( says in the Quran,
"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian."
(Al-Quran-15:9)
“Say: ‘If all mankind and the jinn would come together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce its like even though they exerted all and their strength in aiding one another.’”
(Al-Quran-17:88)
“Or do they say that he has invented it? Say (to them), ‘Bring ten invented chapters like it, and call (for help) on whomever you can besides God, if you are truthful.”
(Al-Quran-11:13)
“And if you all are in doubt about what I have revealed to My servant, bring a single chapter like it, and call your witnesses besides God if you are truthful.” (Al-Quran-2:23)
The non Muslim might try to argue that anyone can produce a Quran and claim it but that argument if it is true would have being proven practically and no one has been able to bring forth a book similar to the Quran and those who have tried have failed and their productions have been refuted left right and center. We can see from the history of all the other scriptures like the Bible,Torah,Vedas,Tripitaka and others that these scriptures were written many centuries after the the teachings of the claimed progenitor or the scripture was written bu multiple unknown authors making serious doubts. The Quran holds a special place because the prophet(Sal) himself told to write and preserve the Quran to his companions. Abu Said al Khudri (Rali) narrated, the prophet(Sal) said,
"Do not write (what you hear) from me, and whoever has written something (he heard) from me, he should erase it. Narrate to others (what you hear) from me; and whoever deliberately attributes a lie to me, he should prepare his seat in the Fire."
(Muslim)
In the above hadith, the prophet (Sal) said to Said al Khudri (Rali) to write only what is sent to him as revelation of the Quran.
Amr bin al As(Rali) narrated,
"I used to write everything which I heard from the Messenger of Allah (Sal). I intended (by it) to memorise it. The Quraysh prohibited me saying: Do you write everything that you hear from him while the Messenger of Allah (Sal) is a human being: he speaks in anger and pleasure? So I stopped writing, and mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah (Sal). He signalled with his finger to him mouth and said: Write, by Him in Whose hand my soul lies, only right comes out from it.
(Abu Dawud-Graded Sahih by Albani)
Some might try to confuse these two hadiths by stating that they contradict each other but what should be understood is that in the beginning, the prophet forbade writing anything except the Quran and later he allowed writing hadiths as well because there could be confusion as to what is what. This is why the prophet(Sal) said,
"Narrate to others (what you hear) from me"
The Quran was written in and preserved in many ways during the time of the prophet(Sal).
" Those who sit (at home) from among the believers and those who go out for Jihad in the way of Allah are not aqual" (iv. 95). (He said that) the Messenger of Allah (Sal) ordered Zaid (to write the verse). He brought a shoulder-blade (of a slaughtered camel) and inscribed it (the verse) thereon. The son of Umm Maktum complained of his blindness to the Prophet (Sal). (At this) descended the revelation:" Those of the believers who sit (at home) without any trouble (illness, incapacity, disability)" (iv. 95). "
(Muslim)
The Quran was revealed to the prophet(Sal) through Gibril (Alahi). Aisha(Rali) narrated,
Al-Harith bin Hisham asked Allah's Apostle
"O Allah's Apostle! How is the Divine Inspiration revealed to you?" Allah's Apostle replied, "Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell, this form of Inspiration is the hardest of all and then this state passes ' off after I have grasped what is inspired. Sometimes the Angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me and I grasp whatever he says." 'Aisha added: Verily I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the Sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over)"
(Bukhari)
In a hadith narrated in Sahih Muslim, the prophet(Sal) said that somethimes the revelation used to come to him in dreams.
The compilation and the preservation of the Quran was narrated as follows
. Zaid bin Thabit(Rali) narrated,
Abu Bakr sent for me owing to the large number of casualties in the battle of Al-Yamama, while `Umar was sitting with him. Abu Bakr said (to me), `Umar has come to my and said, 'A great number of Qaris of the Holy Qur'an were killed on the day of the battle of Al-Yamama, and I am afraid that the casualties among the Qaris of the Qur'an may increase on other battle-fields whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost. Therefore I consider it advisable that you (Abu Bakr) should have the Qur'an collected.' I said, 'How dare I do something which Allah's Messenger (Sa;) did not do?' `Umar said, By Allah, it is something beneficial.' `Umar kept on pressing me for that till Allah opened my chest for that for which He had opened the chest of `Umar and I had in that matter, the same opinion as `Umar had." Abu Bakr then said to me (Zaid), "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 (Sal). So you should search for the fragmentary scripts of the Qur'an and collect it (in one Book)." Zaid further said: By Allah, if Abu Bakr had ordered me to shift a mountain among the mountains from one place to another it would not have been heavier for me than this ordering me to collect the Qur'an. Then I said (to `Umar and Abu Bakr), "How can you do something which Allah's Messenger (Sal) did not do?" Abu Bakr said, "By Allah, it is something beneficial." Zaid added: So he (Abu Bakr) kept on pressing me for that until Allah opened my chest for that for which He had opened the chests of Abu Bakr and `Umar, and I had in that matter, the same opinion as theirs. So I started compiling the Qur'an by collecting it from the leafless stalks of the date-palm tree and from the pieces of leather and hides and from the stones, and from the chests of men (who had memorized the Qur'an). I found the last verses of Sirat-at-Tauba: ("Verily there has come unto you an Apostle (Muhammad) from amongst yourselves--' (9.128-129) ) from Khuza`ima or Abi Khuza`ima and I added to it the rest of the Sura. The manuscripts of the Qur'an remained with Abu Bakr till Allah took him unto Him. Then it remained with `Umar till Allah took him unto Him, and then with Hafsa bint `Umar.
(Bukhari)
After the Quran preserved fully in to a book and after the death of Abu Bakr(Rali) there arose many differences in the on how the Quran should be recitated and during the time of Uthman (Rali) the Quran was written to preserve the Quran from unwanted differences of recitation among the people and Anas bin Malik (Rali) narrates,
"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."
(Bukhari)
Zaid bin Thabit(Rali) who was in charge of writing the Quran said the following,
"When the Qur'an was compiled from various written manuscripts, one of the Verses of Surat Al-Ahzab was missing which I used to hear Allah's Messenger (Sal) reciting. I could not find it except with Khuza`ima bin Thabjt Al-Ansari, whose witness Allah's Messenger (Sal) regarded as equal to the witness of two men. And the Verse was:-- "Among the believers are men who have been true to what they covenanted with Allah." (33.23)
(Bukhari)
Some of the orientalists argue that if not for the Ksra,Dhamma which are the dot sytoms in the Arabic letters the real arabic in the Quran would be different. This is a lie because the dot systems were introduced to make it easier for an arabic beginner to understand the Quran. The earliest evidnec prove that the dot system was introduced during the time of Ali(Rali).
Abu ʿUbaydah said:
Al-Duʾalī derived grammar from Ali ibn Abi Talib, but did not disclose it and when Ziyad requested him to write a grammar to improve popular literacy, he declined. However when he overheard a reader of Qurʾān (9:3) recite:
"Allah is quit of idolaters and of His Messenger",
instead of:
"Allah is quit of the idolaters and so is His Messenger"
(i.e. using the accusative in place of nominative case), Al-Duʾalī agreed to the emir’s order and wrote a chapter on subject and object. He asked for an intelligent and obedient scribe. Not satisfied with the first scribe from the tribe of ʿAbd al-Kays, a second scribe was sent for. Abu al-Aswad al-Duʾalī instructed him "When I open my mouth pronouncing a letter [a sound], place a mark above; when I close my mouth [making a u sound] place a mark in front of the letter, and when I split [my lips][making an 'i' sound] double the mark"
(Ibn Nadim-The Fihrist of al-Nadim vol.1,Page-88)
Even with out the diacritical marks in the Quran one can understand it and that was how it was understood. The diacritical marks or the dots in the Quran is similar to the "Isnad" or "Matn" system in a hadith. is a method to understanding the authenticity of a reports and similarly, the diacritical dot system is just a method for a beginner to understand it easily. It is like wearing glasses to see a text in a book clearly for the person who has weak sight. Nowadays we use the mobile or smart phone to read and listen to the Quran and that the smart phone is a method to read the Quran and so is the diacritical marks.
It is clear that the Quran was compiled and preserved completely during the time of the rightly guided khaliphs and there is many more evidence to prove this point, I hope this article would will InshaAllah answer the question on how the Quran was compiled and preserved.
C.J.Ahmed