CHAPTER ONE The Preservation of the Quran

that if people wrote the Quran on their own, differences in transcribing (kitabat) e.g. writing ‘eether’ for ‘either’ and in recitation would create widespread dissension and there would be no way of putting an end to it. For instance, just one word in the first chapter of the Quran was written in different ways according to the pronunciation of different dialects: maalik-e-yaumuddin, malik-e-yaumuddin and maleek-e-yaumuddin, etc.; with the passing of time and changes in the style of writing, the differences in the manuscript would have become a source of great contention. Therefore, on the advice of Umar, Abu Bakr decided to have an authentic copy of the Quran prepared under state patronage and thus put an end forever to the possibility of phonetic differences obscuring the true meaning of the text. For this purpose Zayd ibn Thabit was the most competent, as he was the katib of the Prophet. Zayd and Ubayy ibn Kaab both had joined in the ‘last recitation’ having heard the Quran directly from the Prophet in the order still extant today. Not only had they memorised the entire Quran, but they also possessed the whole text in written form. The first caliph commanded them to collect all the available parts of the scriptures and to compile them. (Bukhari). After this decision had been taken, Umar made an announcement in the Mosque that whoever had any piece of writing from the Quran should bring it and hand it over to Zayd. During the first caliphate, the Quran not only existed in written form on the bark of date palms, stones, leather, etc. but was also preserved in the memory of the companions. The Quran, when made into a book, was arranged in the order memorized by the companions, and the verses have been preserved in that same order right up to the present day. Zayd ibn Thabit’s work was more a process of collection than of compilation. That is, the scattered bits and pieces of the Quran in written form were collected by him, not just to be assembled and bound in one volume, but to be used to verify the authenticity of the Quran as memorised and passed on in oral tradition by countless individuals. Once this exact correspondence between the oral and written forms of the Quran had been established beyond any reasonable doubt, Zayd proceeded to put the verses of the Quran down on paper in their correct order. Harith Muhasibi writes in his book, Fahm As-Sunan, that the transcription of the Quran was nothing new, because the Prophet himself had arranged for it to be written down. But it was written separately on Riqa’a, Likhaf, Katf, ‘Asib, etc. All the materials on which the Quran was written were available in the Prophet’s house but had not been put in any special order. What the collector did was assemble all these parts and then bind them together so that no part was destroyed. (Al, Itqan, v. 1, p. 40)