The Qur'an and Its Study. Adnan Zarzour
to urge them to take care of the Qur’an. He would send to those of them who lived at a distance someone to teach them the Qur’an and how to recite it. Prior to his migration to Madinah, he sent Muṣ‘ab ibn ‘Umayr and Ibn Umm Maktūm to Madinah to educate its Muslim population about Islam and to teach them the Qur’an. When Makkah fell to Islam, the Prophet sent Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal to teach its people the Qur’an.
‘Ubādah ibn al-Ṣāmit reports: ‘When a person emigrated to Madinah, the Prophet would instruct one of us to teach him the Qur’an. Noises of reciting the Qur’an were heard from the Prophet’s Mosque, but the Prophet ordered the people to lower their voices so that they would not confuse one another.’ Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim relate that ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr said: ‘The Prophet told me: “Read the Qur’an once every month.” I said: “I can do better than that.” He said: “Then read it once in seven days but do not go beyond that.”’88
The result of all this was that the number of the Prophet’s Companions who memorised the Qur’an was indeed large. It is sufficient to know that in the treacherous massacre of Bīr Ma‘ūnah and the Battle of Yamāmah no less than 140 of them were killed. Al-Qurṭubī said: ‘In the Battle of Yamāmah 70 of the reciters of the Qur’an were killed, and during the Prophet’s lifetime a similar number were killed at Bīr Ma‘ūnah.’
Among the Prophet’s Companions who were known to have memorised the Qur’an in full were the four rightly-guided Caliphs, Ṭalḥah ibn ‘Ubaydillāh, Sa‘d ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, Ḥudhayfah, Sālim, ‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd, ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar, ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Abbās, ‘Amr ibn al-‘Āṣ, ‘Abdullāh ibn al-Zubayr and Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān. Then, among the Prophet’s wives this included ‘Ā’ishah, Ḥafṣah, Umm Salamah and Umm Ḥabībah. Among the Anṣār Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Thābit, Anas ibn Mālik and many others also memorised the Qur’an in full.89
We may say that the fact that many of the Prophet’s Companions memorised the Qur’an was one way of confirming its accuracy. Moreover, some of them read the Qur’an to the Prophet. Indeed, the Prophet named four of them to teach the Qur’an.90 Al-Bukhārī relates that ‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd said: ‘The Prophet said to me: “Read [some of the Qur’an] to me.” I said: “Messenger of God, how can I read to you when it was revealed to you?” He said: “I love to hear it recited by others.” I started the [fourth] surah, Women, and read until I reached the verse that says: “How will it be [on Judgement Day] when We shall bring a witness from every community, and call you as a witness against these people?” (4: 41). He told me to stop. I looked up to him and his eyes were tearful.’91 May God bestow His blessings on Prophet Muhammad, the members of his household and all his Companions.
1.2 Writing the Qur’an
The Qur’an was also preserved in written form. The Prophet (peace be upon him) appointed scribes who wrote down the revelations.92 Such scribes included Abū Bakr, Umar, Uthmān and ‘Alī who were to become the four Caliphs to succeed him, ‘Abdullāh ibn Sa‘d ibn Abī Sarḥ [who was the first scribe from the Quraysh to write for the Prophet], Khālid ibn Sa‘īd ibn al-‘Āṣ and his brother Abān [both of whom were among the very early Muslims], al-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwām, al-Mughīrah ibn Shu‘bah, ‘Amr ibn al-‘Āṣ, Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b [who was the first to write the revelations in Madinah], Zayd ibn Thābit, Thābit ibn Qays, ḤanẒalah ibn al-Rabī‘ al-Tamīmī, Muhammad ibn Maslamah and Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasanah.93
The scribes used to write the Qur’an on any material that was available to them: date branches after stripping the leaves off and drying them, thin white stones, scrolls, dried camel shoulder bones, wood and pieces of hide. Zayd ibn Thābit said: ‘We used to put the Qur’an together joining scrolls.’ When Zayd was assigned the task of putting the Qur’an together, he said: ‘I collated the Qur’an in full, as written on scrolls and bones, and from people’s memories.’94 This is clear evidence that most of the Qur’an was written down on paper, scrolls and other writing materials. In fact, the Qur’an was written down in full because when the Prophet (peace be upon him) received new revelations, he would call a scribe to write it down and he would then say: ‘Place these verses in the surah that includes such and such.’ We will discuss this in more detail when we speak about the arrangement of verses and surahs.
1.3 Prohibition of Writing Anything Else
The Prophet (peace be upon him) also prohibited the writing of anything other than the Qur’an. Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī quotes the Prophet (peace be upon him) as saying: ‘Do not write what I say. Whoever has written anything I said other than the Qur’an should erase it.’95 It appears that this prohibition was meant to focus the attention of the Prophet’s Companions on the Qur’an alone.
Many scholars, however, feel that this prohibition was instigated by fear that the Prophet’s words could be confused with the Qur’an itself. We feel that this explanation is rather unsound. It is perhaps more accurate to say that, had the Prophet (peace be upon him) allowed his Companions to write his statements, i.e. Hadiths, no confusion with the Qur’an could have ensued because of the marked difference in style. Perhaps, then, the prohibition applied to writing both on the same sheet or writing material. In this case, the writer would be safe from confusing the two because he would know the place of each if he had written a complete surah or many verses of the Qur’an. However, confusion could not be excluded altogether when there were only a few verses, or when the same sheet was perused by someone else at a later date, particularly if an interpretation of a particular verse was added next to it.
Our view, that efforts focused on the preservation of the Qur’an, is further confirmed by the fact that there was no fear that the Hadith might be lost, because the Prophet (peace be upon him) was living among them, with opportunities to repeat and give explanation all the time, i.e. anyone could raise a query with the Prophet (peace be upon him). In this connection we may add that some people have questioned the large number of the Hadiths reported by Abū Hurayrah given he accepted Islam only a few years before the Prophet (peace be upon him) passed away. We feel that such questioning, however, does not rely on any sound basis, for the larger part of Hadiths were said or reported in Madinah, after the Prophet’s migration. It was in Madinah that the Muslim community’s social life broadened and revelations embodying legislation for it were given. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was being given of God’s revelation much more than the themes the Makkan surahs focused upon: man, the principles and fundamentals of faith, the universe, laws of nature, accounts of prophets and the histories of earlier communities.
There are other points that may be raised in explaining the prohibition of writing anything other than the Qur’an, but we will leave these for the present. We will only say that this prohibition was another factor confirming the authentic writing of the Qur’an.
2. The Collation of the Qur’an During Abū Bakr’s Reign in Year 12 AH96
Zayd ibn Thābit, a scribe who used to write down the Qur’anic revelations during the Prophet’s lifetime, reports: ‘Abū Bakr sent for me after the death of those who fought in the Battle of Yamāmah97 and I found ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb with him. Abū Bakr said to me: “‘Umar came to me and said that there was much killing among the reciters of the Qur’an in the Battle of Yamāmah, and expressed the fear that more could be killed in other battles and that this might lead to the loss of much of the Qur’an. He suggested that I give orders to collate the Qur’an. I said to him: ‘How can we do something the Prophet did not do?’ ‘Umar said: ‘It is certainly good.’ ‘Umar continued to argue with me until God has shown me the benefit and I share ‘Umar’s opinion.” Abū Bakr continued: “You are a wise young man and nothing can be taken against you. You used to write the Qur’anic revelations under the Prophet’s direction. Therefore, start on collating the Qur’an.” By God, had they assigned to me the task of moving a mountain, it would not have been harder for me than what they actually assigned to me: the collation of the Qur’an. I said: “How can you do something God’s Messenger