He then formed a group of four Companions which was composed of Zayd Ibne Thaabit, Abdullah Ibne Zubayr, Sa'eed Ibne Aas and Abdul Rahmaan Ibne Haarith Ibne Hishaam.
This group was entrusted with the duty of making several copies from the original copy of Aboo Bakr's Qur'anic folios and making sure that the Soorahs too are arranged in order.
Out of these four Companions, Zayd was an Ansaari, while the rest of the three were from Quraysh.
Therefore, Uthmaan said to them, 'When you and Zayd differ in respect of any portion of the Qur'an (that is, differ as to how a certain letter should be written) you write it in the language of the Quraysh because the Noble Qur'an has been revealed in their very language. Basically, this duty was entrusted to only four distinguished persons named above, but later on, other Companions were also attached to help them out.
(Fat'hul Baari) The functions performed in connection with the writings of the Qur'aan: They performed the following functions in connection with the writings of the Qur'aan: In the copy prepared during the period of Aboo Bakr, Soorahs were not placed in sequence, rather each Soorah was written separately.
They wrote down all the Soorahs in their proper sequence in a single copy.
(Mustadrak) The verses of the Qur'an were written in a way so that all readings backed up by uninterrupted successions could be incorporated within their script.
Therefore, no dots or desinential marks were placed on them so that the text could be recited in accordance with all readings that are supported by uninterrupted successions.
(Manaahilul Irfaan) Up to this time, there existed only one single copy of the Qur'an complete, authentically standard and collectively attested by the whole Ummah.
These distinguished persons prepared more than one copy of this newly organized copy of the Qur'an.
It is generally believed that Uthmaan had accomplished the preparation of five copies, but Aboo Haatim Sijistaani says that a total of seven copies were prepared.
Out of these, one was sent to Makkah, one to Syria, one to Yaman, one to Bahrain, one to Basra and one to Kufa, and one was preserved in Madeenah.
To accomplish the task cited above, these revered elders basically worked through the pages of the Qur'an which were written during the time of Aboo Bakr.
But along with it, as a matter of added precaution, they adopted exactly the same method that was employed during the time of Aboo Bakr.
Consequently, assorted copies of texts committed into writing during the days of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) which were preserved by different Companions were recalled once again, and it was, by yet another collation with these, that the new copies were prepared. This time, a separately written verse of Soorah Ahzaab was found with Khuzaymah Ibne Thaabit Ansaari only.
As we have explained earlier, it does not mean that nobody else remembered this verse because Zayd has himself said, 'While writing the copy of the Qur'an, I could not find the particular verse of Soorah Ahzaab which I used to hear the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) recite.' This shows very clearly that the verse under reference was something Zayd and other Companions remembered very well.
On the other hand, it also does not mean that this verse never existed in writing anywhere, because this verse was obviously there in the pages of the Qur'an written during the time of Aboo Bakr.
Besides that, obviously enough, this verse was also included in the copies of the Qur'an which were written and preserved by the Companions on their own.
But, like it was in the days of Aboo Bakr, this time too, all those scattered documents, available with the Companions in writing, were collected together, therefore Zayd and others with him did not write down any verse into these copies of the Qur'an until such time when they did find it in those written documentation as well.
As such, the fact was that other verses were found written separately too with several Companions, but this verse from Soorah Ahzaab was not found written separately with anyone else except Khuzaymah. After having these several standard copies of the Qur'an prepared, Uthmaan had all copies kept by different Companions burnt so that all copies of the Qur'aan became uniform in terms of the script, incorporation of accepted readings and the order of chapters, leaving no room for any difference between them.
The entire Ummah acknowledged this achievement of Uthmaan with admiration, and the Companions supported him in this venture.
Ali says, "Say nothing about Uthmaan, unless it be in his favour because, by Allah, whatever he did in connection with the copies of the Qur'an was done in the presence of all of us, and with our advise and counsel." (Fat'hul Baari) Three stages of dotting and diacritization: Dots were put as syntactical marks by Abu Al-Aswad Al Doaly, during the time of Mu'awiya Ibn Abi Sufian (661-680 CE).
The letters were marked with different dotting by Nasr Ibn Asem and Hayy ibn Ya'amor, during the time of Abd Al-Malek Ibn Marawan (685-705 CE).
A complete system of diacritical marks (damma, fataha, kasra) was invented by Al Khaleel Ibn Ahmad Al Faraheedy (d. 786 CE).
After reading about how the Holy Qur'an was preserved, you might find the following of interest:
The Collection of the Holy Qur'an: Here it is adequately demonstrated that the tradition about tahrif (corruption of the text in any form) is nothing more than a delusion and an imagination, maintained by those with weak reasoning, or those who fail to take into consideration all the pertinent details needed to derive a sound opinion, or those who are compelled to hold such an opinion.
Any rational person can detect the weakness of the argument of those upholding such a distorted view of the state of affairs in the early history of Islam.
The Demand of the Qur'an for a Direct Confrontation: From the very first day that the Prophet began preaching his message of monotheism, he summoned people also to a realistic vision of the world.
When inviting them to faith, he addressed their wisdom and intelligence and called on them to use their eyes and their ears to perceive the truth.
Do we deserve the Qur'an ? The student of the Qur'an will find out that, Qur'an is telling us that the messengers of Allah will lead the people from darkness into the light and that nowhere in the Qur'an does Allah tell us a story of a community misled by its messenger or given the wrong teachings by him.
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