q : how was the holy quran preserved ?
answer:
the divine revelation.
the word quran literally means reading or recitation. while dictating the verses (ayat) to his companions, the holy prophet (saw) assured them that it was the divine revelation coming to him. the revelations (words of god) came to him in fragments from time to time. as soon as he received one he used to communicate it to his followers and ask them not only to learn it by heart, in order to recite during worship, but also to write it down and multiply the copies. on each such occasion he indicated the precise place for the new revelation in the text of the revealed quran. one wonders at the precaution and care taken for accuracy when one considers the standard of the culture of the arabs of that time.
one may think the earliest revelations received by the prophet (saw) were not written immediately for the simple reason that there were not many followers and adherents yet. however, the early portions were neither long nor numerous and there was no risk that the prophet (saw) would forget them, since he often recited them in his prayers and in his calls for spreading the message.
the revelations continued during the entire missionary life of the prophet (saw), thirteen years in mecca and ten years in madina. the prophet repeated them continuously to his companions. it is common knowledge that every during the month of ramadhan , in the presence of the angel gabriel, the prophet (saw) recited the portions of the quran revealed until then, and in the last year of his life he recited the whole text twice. he knew then he was to depart this life. his companions usually attended these readings and corrected these private collections of the chapters.
