CHAPTER ONE The Preservation of the Quran

104-116 The Quran An Abiding Wonder CHAPTER ONE The Preservation of the Quran The very first injunction given to the Prophet­ – ‘Read in the name of your Lord who created’, stresses the importance of knowledge (96:1). And the last words of revelation pertain to the life hereafter (2:281). The Quran was revealed over a period of twenty-three years and was written down in its entirety during the Prophet’s lifetime, although the verses were not gathered together in one volume at that time. (AI-Katani, V.2, p.384) For the first twenty-three years the Prophet himself was the fountainhead of Quranic learning. Then he appointed certain of his followers to convey the message of the Quran after him. These were men who, having memorized the entire Quranic text with complete accuracy, were fully competent to impart its teachings. During the caliphate of Umar Faruq, the second caliph of Islam, a man who had come from Kufa to Madina told the caliph that there was someone in Kufa who was teaching the scriptures from memory. At this Caliph Umar was enraged. But when he found out that the person was none other than Abdullah ibn Masood, he regained his composure, (Istiab, Vol. I, p. 377) the reason being that Abdullah ibn Masood was one of those appointed by the Prophet himself to perform this service. Other more prominent scholars of the Quran were as follows: Usman, Ali, Ubayy ibn Kaab, Zayd ibn Thabit, Ibn Masood, Abu Darda, Abu Moosa Ashari, Salim Maula Abi Huzayfa. However, these Muslims, who had been assigned this task, could not survive forever. Undoubtedly, they were going to leave the world one by one, and then there would be the risk of the Quran falling into the hands of less responsible, less knowledgeable people, who might not preserve it intact and who would almost certainly differ as to its true meaning. There was even the danger of its being entirely lost to posterity. With the death of 700 of the Prophet’s Companions in the Battle of Yamamah in 12 A.H., this danger began to loom large. It has been recorded in the annals of history that “when Salim Maula Abi Huzayfa was martyred, Umar felt the danger of the Quran being destroyed and came to Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, to discuss this” (Fathul Bari, v. 9, p. 5). Salim was one of the few surviving companions who had been selected by the Prophet himself to spread the teachings of the Quran. The solution suggested by Umar to Abu Bakr was to preserve the Quran by making a formal compilation of it in written form.