You have been working as a scribe of wahee as well under the supervision of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam), so you search and collect the verses of the noble Qur'an." Zayd Ibne Thaabit says, "By Allah, had these people commanded me to haul some mountain, that would have been much less weightier than this duty of collecting the Qur'an.
I said to them, 'How are you doing something that the noble Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) did not do?' Aboo Bakr said, 'By Allah this is good, nothing but good.' After that this is what Aboo Bakr kept saying to me again and again until Allah almighty put my heart at rest for the same view that was the view of Aboo Bakr and 'Umar.
Consequently, I started searching for the verses of the Qur'aan and it was from the branches of date palms, slabs of stones and hearts of people that I finally collected the Qur'an." (Bukhaari) At this point, while we are dealing with the process of the collection of the Qur'an, we should have a clear perception of the method used by Zayd Ibne Thaabit.
As mentioned earlier, he was himself a Haafiz of the Qur'an, therefore, he could have written down the whole Qur'an from his memory.
In addition to that, there were hundreds of Huffaaz present at that time; the noble Qur'an could still have been written down by entrusting the duty to a selected group from out of them.
Also, the copies of the noble Qur'aan committed to writing during the times of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) could have been used by Zayd to make his copy of the Qur'an.
But he, guided by his caution and concern, did not limit himself to anyone of the many methods available.
On the contrary, by using all these methods simultaneously, he did not allow any verse to be included in his master copy of the Qur'an unless he received written and verbal testimonies proving its uninterrupted succession.
In addition to that, the verses that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) had arranged to be written under his supervision, were still preserved by the Companions.
Zayd collected them together so that the new copy be made from them. Consequently, a public proclamation was made to the effect that anyone possessing any number of written verses of the Qur'an should bring them over to Zayd.
When a written verse was brought to him by someone, he used to verify its authenticity by the following methods: To begin with, he tested its reliability against his own memory.
Then, 'Umar too was a Haafiz of the Qur'an, and as proved by reliable reports, Aboo Bakr had assigned him too, to work with Zayd on this project.
When someone came with some verse Zayd and 'Umar used to receive it jointly.
(Fat'hul Baari with reference to Ibne Abi Daawood) No written verse was accepted until such time that two trustworthy witnesses had testified to the fact that the particular verse was written in the presence of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).(Al Itqaan) After that, these verses in writing were collated with collections that different Companions had prepared for themselves.
(AI Burhaan fi Uloomil Qur'an) If this functional methodology behind the collection of the Qur'an during the period of Aboo Bakr is kept in mind, it would become perfectly simple to understand what Zayd Ibne Thaabit meant when he said, "I found the last verses of Soorah Al Baraa'ah - Laqad jaa'akum rasoolum min anfusikum - with Aboo Khuzaymah only.
They were not found with anyone else except him." This never meant that no person other than Aboo Khuzaymah remembered these verses, or somebody else did not have ties in written form, or anyone other than him did not know of their being part of the Qur'an.
It just meant that these verses were not found with anyone from among those who were coming along with different verses written as dictated by the noble Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).
Otherwise, as far as the fact of these verses being part of the Qur'an is concerned, everyone knew it in an uninterrupted succession.
There were hundreds of Companions who remembered it as well.
Moreover, these were available in writing with Companions who possessed complete collections of the Qur'anic verses.
But, among those written separately under the supervision of the noble Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) this verse was found only with Aboo Khuzaymah and not with anyone else.
(AI Burhaan) So in every way possible, it was with great caution and concern that Zayd Ibne Thaabit, by collecting the Qur'anic verses, wrote them out in an organized form on pages of paper.
(Al Itqaan) But each Soorah was written in separate folios.
In the terminology of the Qur'anic studies, this copy is called "Umm" (literally, 'the mother', meaning 'the original') and it had the following features: In this copy, the Qur'anic verses were indeed arranged in accordance with the order identified by the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam), but the soorahs were not so arranged, rather they were written separately.
(Ibid.) Incorporated in this copy were all seven Huroof (versions of recitation) of the Qur'aan.
Collected here were all verses the recitation of which has not been abrogated.
The purpose of having this copy made in writing was to prepare an organized document with the collective endorsement of the whole Ummah, so that, reference can be made to it when needed.
These folios committed to writing on the orders of Aboo Bakr remained with him during his lifetime.
Then they remained with 'Umar.
After the death of 'Umar, they were transferred to the custody of Ummul Mu'mineen Hafsah.
After the death of Hafsah, Marwaan Ibne Hakam had these burnt since the copies of the Qur'an ordered by Uthmaan were ready at that time, and a consensus of the Ummah had already been reached to the effect that following these copies of the Qur'an, in script and arrangement of soorahs, was obligatory.
Marwaan Ibne Hakam thought it inadvisable to let any copy which was contrary to this script and arrangement remain in existence.
(Fat'hul Baari) IN THE PERIOD OF UTHMAAN: When Uthmaan became Khaleefah, Islaam had grown out of Arabia reaching into the far-flung areas of Byzantium and Iran.
As people from new areas embraced Islam, they would learn the Qur'an from the Mujaahideen of Islam or from the traders because of whom they had found the blessing of Islam.
We have already seen that the Qur'an was revealed incorporating seven Huroof (versions of recitation), and different Companions had learnt it from the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).
In accordance with different readings, therefore, every Companion taught the Qur'an to his disciples in accordance with that particular Huroof which they had themselves learnt from the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).
In this manner, this difference in readings reached far out countries.
Until such time that people knew that the Qur'an had been revealed incorporating seven Huroof (readings) no harm was done by this difference.
However, when this difference reached those far out countries, and the fact that the Qur'an had been revealed incorporating different readings was not fully publicized there, disputes among people started.
Some people began to insist on their reading as correct and that of others as incorrect.
On the one hand, these disputes posed the danger that people would fall into the grave error of declaring the reading of the Qur'an which have followed in uninterrupted succession as incorrect.
On the other hand, there was no such standard copy available through out the Islamic world which could become the rallying authority for the entire Ummah, except, of course, the copy committed to writing by Zayd Ibne Thaabit which was there in Madeenah.
Since other copies were written individually, and in them, there was no provision to incorporate all the readings, therefore, the only reliable method to resolve these disputes was that copies which incorporate all valid readings be spread out all over the Islaamic world, and then, by seeing them it could be decided as to which reading is correct and which is incorrect.
Uthmaan accomplished this feat during the period of his Khilaafah. Details of this feat is given in Hadeeth narration's as follows: Huzayfah Ibne Yamaan was engaged in jihaad on the Armenian-Azerbaijaan front.
There he noticed that differences were rising among people about readings of the Qur'an.
So, on his return to Madeenah, he went straight to Uthmaan and once there, he pleaded, 'O Ameer-ul Mu'mineen! Before this Ummah falls prey to differences in the Book of Allah like the Jews and Christians, you should do something about it.' Uthmaan asked, 'What is the matter?' In reply, Huzayfah said, 'I was on a jihaad mission fighting on the Armenian front.
There I saw people of Syria following the reading of Ubayi Ibne Ka'b which would not be familiar to the people of Iraq, and the people of Iran following the reading of Abdullah Ibne Mas'ood which would not be familiar to the people of Syria.
As a result of this, they are charging each other of being kaafirs.' In fact, Uthmaan had himself sensed a danger much earlier.
He was told that there were cases right there in Madeenah itself where a teacher of the Qur'an would teach the text to his disciples in accordance with one reading, and another teacher would do so in accordance with another reading.
In this way, when the disciples of different teachers come together, differences would crop up between them, and there were occasions when this difference would extend to teachers, and they too, would declare each other's reading to be incorrect.
When Huzayfah Ibne Yamaan too invited his attention to his danger, Uthmaan convened a meeting of some highly-regarded Companions and sought their advise.
He said, 'I have been informed that there are people who say to each other things like, "My reading is better than yours" - and this could touch the extreme limits of Kufr.
So, what is your opinion in this connection?' The Companions themselves asked Uthmaan what his thoughts were on this subject? Uthmaan said, 'I believe we should unite everyone on one book so that we face no difference or division.' The Companions, approving this opinion, supported Uthmaan. Consequently, Uthmaan gathered people together and delivered a sermon and in it he said, "You who live so close to me in Madeenah, if you can falsify each other and differ with each other in respect of the readings of the Qur'an, it is quite obvious that those who are far away from me will be indulging in falsification and disputation on a much larger scale.
Therefore, let everyone get together and come up with a copy of the Qur'an following which becomes obligatory for all." With this in view, Uthmaan sent a message to Hafsah requesting her to let them have the blessed folios of the Qur'anic text (prepared under the orders of Aboo Bakr which she had in her custody).
He promised that these will be returned to her after copies have been made.
Hafsah sent these pages of the Qur'aan to Uthmaan.
