Preservation
of the Qur'an
By Sabeel Ahmed
--------------
…Narrated Anas bin Malik (May Allah be pleased with
him): Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman came to Uthman RA at the time
when the people of Sham (Syria) and the people of Iraq were
waging war to conquer Armenia and Azerbaijan. Hudhaifa was
afraid of their differences in the recitation of the Quran,
so he said to Uthman RA, ‘O chief of the Believers!
Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Quran)
as the previous people did before’. So Uthman RA sent
a message to Hafsa RA saying, ‘Send us the manuscripts
of the Quran so that we may compile the Quranic materials
in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you’.
Hafsa RA sent it to Uthman RA. ‘Uthman RA then ordered
Zaid bin Thabit, ‘Abdullah bin Az-Zubair, Said bin Al-As
and Abdur Rahman bin Harith bin Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts
in perfect copies. Uthman RA said to the three Quraishi men,
‘In case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point
in the Quran, then write it in their (Quraishi) tongue’.
They did so, and when they had written many copies, Uthman
(May Allah be pleased with him) sent to every Muslim province
one copy of what they had copied and ordered that all the
other Quranic materials whether written in fragmentary manuscripts
or whole copies, be burnt…" (29)
Again
a very stringent criterion was set up by this Committee to
prevent any alteration of the Revelation.
1. The earlier recension (Original copy prepared by Abu Bakr)
was to serve as the principal basis of the new one. (30)
2. Any doubt that might be raised as to the phrasing of a
particular passage in the written text was to be dispelled
by summoning persons known to have learned the passage in
question from the Prophet (peace be upon him). (31)
3. Uthman (May Allah be pleased with him) himself was to supervise
the work of the Council. (32)
When
the final recension was completed, Uthman (May Allah be pleased
with him) sent a copy of it to each of the major cities of
Makkah, Damascus, Kufa, Basra and Medina. The action of Uthman
(May Allah be pleased with him) to burn the other copies besides
the final recension, though obviously drastic, was for the
betterment and harmony of the whole community and was unanimously
approved by the Companions of the Prophet.
Zaid
ibn Thabit (May Allah be pleased with him) is reported to
have said: "I saw the Companions of Muhammad (peace be
upon him) (going about) saying, ‘By God, Uthman has
done well! By God, Uthman has done well!" (33) Another
esteemed Companion Musab ibn Sad ibn Abi Waqqas (May Allah
be pleased with him) said: "I saw the people assemble
in large number at Uthman’s burning of the prescribed
copies (of the Quran), and they were all pleased with his
action; not a one spoke out against him". (34)
Ali
ibn Abu Talib (May Allah be pleased with him), the cousin
of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the fourth successor
to the Prophet (peace be upon him) commented: "If I were
in command in place of Uthman, I would have done the same".
(35)
Of
the copies made by Uthman (May Allah be pleased with him),
two still exist to our day. One is in the city of Tashkent,
(Uzbekistan) and the second one is in Istanbul (Turkey). Below
is a brief account of both these copies:
1.
The copy which Uthman (May Allah be pleased with him) sent
to Madinah was reportedly removed by the Turkish authorities
to Istanbul, from where it came to Berlin during World War
I. The Treaty of Versailles, which concluded World War I,
contains the following clause: ‘Article 246: Within
six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty,
Germany will restore to His Majesty, King of Hedjaz, the original
Koran of Caliph Othman, which was removed from Medina by the
Turkish authorities and is stated to have been presented to
the ex-Emperor William II". (36) ‘This manuscript
then reached Istanbul, but not Medina (Where it now resides)’.
(37)
2.
The second copy in existence is kept in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
‘It may be the Imam (master) manuscript or one of the
other copies made at the time of Uthman’. (38) It Came
to Samarkand in 890 Hijra (1485) and remained there till 1868.
Then it was taken to St.Petersburg by the Russians in 1869.
It remained there till 1917. A Russian orientalist gave a
detailed description of it, saying that many pages were damaged
and some were missing. A facsimile, some 50 copies, of this
mushaf (copy) was produced by S.Pisareff in 1905. A copy was
sent to the Ottoman Sultan ‘Abdul Hamid, to the Shah
of Iran, to the Amir of Bukhara, to Afghanistan, to Fas and
some important Muslim personalities. One copy is now in the
Columbia University Library (U.S.A.). (39)
‘The
Manuscript was afterwards returned to its former place and
reached Tashkent in 1924, where it has remained since’.
(40)
Conclusion
‘Two of the copies of the Quran which were originally
prepared in the time of Caliph Uthman (May Allah be pleased
with him), are still available to us today and their text
and arrangement can be compared, by anyone who cares to do,
with any other copy of the Quran, be it in print or handwritten,
from any place or period of time. They will be found identical’.
(41)
It
can now be proclaimed, through the evidences provided above,
with full conviction and certainty that the Prophet (peace
be upon him) memorized the entire Quran, had it written down
in front of him through his scribes, many of his companions
memorized the entire revelation and in turn possess their
own private copies for recitation and contemplation. This
process of dual preservation of the Quran in written and in
the memory was carried in each subsequent generation till
our time, without any deletion, interpolation or corruption
of this Divine Book.
Sir
William Muir, Orientalist of the 19th century states, "There
is probably no other book in the world which has remained
twelve centuries (now fourteen) with so pure a text".
(42)
This divine protection provided to the Quran, the Last Revealed
Guide to Humanity, is proclaimed by One God in the Quran:
We* (Allah) have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and
We will assuredly Guard it (from corruption)’ (Quran
– Chapter 15, Verse 9). * (‘We’ is the plural
of Majesty and not the plural of trinity)
Compare
this divine and historical preservation of the Quran with
any literature, be it religious or secular and it becomes
evident that none possess similar miraculous protection. And
as states earlier, a belief is as authentic as the authenticity
of its scripture. And if any scripture is not preserved, how
can we be certain that the belief arising out of this scripture
is divine or man made, and if we are not sure about the belief
itself, then our salvation in the hereafter would be jeopardized.
Thus
the above evidence for the protection of the Quran from any
corruption is a strong hint about its divine origin. We request
all open hearted persons to read, understand and live the
Quran, the ‘Manual for Mankind’. Welcome to Islam! |