![](\"http:\/\/localhost\/rs\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/02\/part%203%20copy%20copy.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is We Who have sent down the remembrance (i.e. the Quran) and surely, We will guard it from corruption.\u201d<\/span><\/strong> (Quran 15:9)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n When God revealed His words of guidance for the whole of humankind \u2013 the Quran, He guaranteed to preserve it.\u00a0 One of the ways in which it was preserved was that the men, women and children around the Prophet Muhammad memorized Quran, paying careful attention to each word.\u00a0 In the very early days of Islam the emphasis was on memorization, however soon, those who had mastered the art of reading and writing began to write down the words of Quran on whatever writing material available.\u00a0 They wrote on flat stones, bark, bones, and even animal skins.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As the words of God were revealed, to Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, by the Angel Gabriel, it is said that he would call for a scribe to write down the words as they began to flow from his lips.\u00a0 The principle scribe was a man named Zaid Ibn Thabit.\u00a0 Many companions reported that Prophet Muhammad would call for Zaid saying \u201clet him bring the board, the ink pot and the scapula bone\u201d<\/span><\/strong>.[1] In the lifetime of the Prophet, the Quran existed on bits and pieces of writing material, rather than in book form.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n One of the reasons that Quran was not at that stage, in the form of a book was that it was not revealed in order.\u00a0 Rather the chapters and verses were revealed over a period of 23 years often in response to happenings in the life and times of the early Muslim community.\u00a0 However, the order of the chapters and verses of Quran was known to Prophet Muhammad.\u00a0 When the Angel Gabriel would reveal the divine words of God, he would also issue instructions as to what verses and chapters belonged where.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Quran was written down under the direct supervision of Prophet Muhammad.\u00a0 Uthman, one of the Prophet\u2019s closest companions recalled that, \u201cwhen something was revealed to him, Prophet Muhammad would call someone from amongst those who used to write for him and say, \u2018place these verses in the chapter in which such and such is mentioned\u2019 and if only one verse was revealed he would say, \u2018place this verse in this chapter\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/strong>[2].<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Thus at the time of the Prophet\u2019s death pieces of Quran were held in trust by many members of the Muslim community.\u00a0 Some had only a few pages from which they were learning to recite, others such as the scribes, had several chapters and still others had pieces of bark or animal skin containing only one verse.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n During the time of Abu Bakr, the man chosen to lead the Muslim nation after the death of Prophet Muhammad, the wider Muslim community found itself in a time of civil strife.\u00a0 False Prophets arose and many bewildered people, unable to sustain their faith without Prophet Muhammad, left the fold of Islam.\u00a0 Battles and skirmishes took place and many of the men who had memorized the Quran lost their lives.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Abu Bakr was afraid that the Quran would be lost, so he consulted some of the senior companions about compiling the Quran into a single book.\u00a0 He asked Zaid ibn Thabit, to oversee this task.\u00a0 At first, Zaid felt uneasy about doing something that Prophet Muhammad did not specifically authorize.\u00a0 However, he did agree to collect pieces of Quran, both written and memorized and compile a book \u2013 the Mushaf<\/em>.\u00a0 In the traditions of Prophet Muhammad, we find Zaid Ibn Thabit’s own recollection of how the compilation of Quran came about.[3]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAbu Bakr sent for me when the people of al-Yamaamah had been killed [i.e., a number of the Prophet’s Companions who fought against the false prophet Musaylimah].\u00a0 I went to him and found Umar ibn al-Khattab sitting with him.\u00a0 Abu Bakr then said to me, \u2018Umar has come saying the casualties were heavy among those who knew the Quran by heart, and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may take place on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Quran may be lost.\u00a0 Therefore I suggest that you (Abu Bakr) order that the Quran be collected.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I said to Umar, \u201cHow can you do something that the Messenger of God did not do?\u201d\u00a0 Umar said, \u201cBy God, this is something good\u201d.\u00a0 Umar kept on urging me to accept his proposal until God opened my heart to it and I began to realize the good in the idea.\u00a0 Then Abu Bakr said (to me).\u00a0 \u201cYou are a wise young man and we do not have any suspicion about you, and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for the Messenger of God, so search for the fragmentary scripts of Quran and compile them into one book.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBy Allah (God) if they had ordered me to move one of the mountains, it would not have been heavier for me than this (ordering me to compile the Quran).\u00a0 Then I said to Abu Bakr, \u201cHow can you do something that the Messenger of God did not do?\u201d\u00a0 Abu Bakr replied, \u201cBy God, it is a good thing.\u201d\u00a0 Abu Bakr kept on urging me to accept his idea until God opened my heart to that to which He had opened the hearts of Abu Bakr and Umar.\u00a0 Therefore, I started looking for the Quran and collecting it from what it was written on, palm stalks, thin white stones and also from the men who knew it by heart, until I had collected it all.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Zaid had memorized all of the Quran and had been Prophet Muhammad\u2019s most trusted scribe; therefore, it would have been possible for him to have written the whole Quran from his own memory.\u00a0 However, he did not use this method alone.\u00a0 He was very careful and methodical in his compilation of the Quran and would not write down any verses unless they had been confirmed by at least two of Prophet Muhammad\u2019s Companions.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Thus, the Quran came to be written and compiled in book form.\u00a0 It remained with Abu Bakr until his death, at which time it came into the possession of Umar Ibn al Khattab.\u00a0 After Umar\u2019s death, it was entrusted to his daughter Hafsah.\u00a0 This however is not the end of the story of Quran.\u00a0 In the time of Uthman, the third leader of the Muslim nation, the book in which the Quran (the words of God) is contained, the Mushaf<\/em>, became standardized.\u00a0 The Quran was no longer written in the various dialects of Arabic.\u00a0 In part 4 we will discover how the Mushaf<\/em> known as the Uthmani Quran, came into being.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Footnotes: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n [1] Saheeh Al-Bukhari<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n [2] Abu Dawood<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n [3] Saheeh Al-Bukhari<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Ref. www.islamreligion.com \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cIt is We Who have sent down the remembrance (i.e. the Quran) and surely, We will guard it from corruption.\u201d (Quran 15:9) When God revealed His… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-holy-quran"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"