Question:
What
is the proof that the Qur'an was not tampered with? Who wrote the
Qur'an and when was it written? Can you give a brief history of it?
Answer:
Bismillah (In the Name of Allah).
1] Firstly to address your question with regards to the proof that parts of the Qur'an was not tampered with:
Allah says: "Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Quran) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption)." [15:9]
As
opposed to other old scriptures whose protection and witnessing to were
left to its people, the Qur'an is in fact the only scripture whose
protection and preservation has been promised by Allah. Allah has
promised to guard and protect the Qur'an Himself. So, that is our
strongest proof that it has been preserved.
Allah describes the Qur'an: "And
verily, it is an honourable respected Book (because it is Allah's
Speech, and He has protected it from corruption, etc.). Falsehood cannot
come to it from before it or behind it (it is) sent down by the
All-Wise, Worthy of all praise (Allah)." [41:41-41]
To say otherwise is to disbelieve in how Allah describes the Qur'an in His words and to disbelieve in His promise.
2]
As for the Qur'an being written, as we know the Qur'an was not written
as a book would be written by an author. If by this statement it is
implied that the Prophet (ﷺ) wrote the Qur'an then it must be corrected.
The
Prophet (ﷺ) did not write the Qur'an because we know that he was an
unlettered Prophet (ﷺ) sent to an unlettered nation. In Surah al-A'raf,
Allah says: "Say (O Muhammad): "O' mankind! Verily, I am sent to
you all as the Messenger of Allah - to Whom belongs the dominion of the
heavens and the earth. La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be
worshipped but He); It is He Who gives life and causes death. So believe
in Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), the Prophet who can neither read
nor write..." [7:158]
Allah says: "Neither did you
(O' Muhammad) read any book before it (this Quran), nor did you write
any book (whatsoever) with your right hand. In that case, indeed, the
followers of falsehood might have doubted." [29:48]
Az-Zarqani
defines the Qur'an as, The Qur'an is the Arabic Speech (kalam) of
Allah, which He revealed to Muhammad in wording and meaning, which has
been preserved in the mushafs, reaching us by mutawatir transmissions,
and is a challenge to mankind to produce something similar to it.
'The
Qur'an is the Arabic' — implies that the Qur'an is in the Arabic
language. This, therefore, implies that a translation of the Qur'an into
any other language cannot be considered the Qur'an.
'Speech (kalam) of Allah' — means that the Qur'an is the Speech of Allah, that He himself spoke in a manner that befits Him.
'Which He revealed to Muhammad' — implies that the kalam of Allah is infinite, as Allah says: "And
if all the trees on the earth were pens and the sea (were ink wherewith
to write), with seven seas behind it to add to its (supply), yet the
Words of Allah would not be exhausted. Verily, Allah is All-Mighty,
All-Wise." [31:27]
Therefore, we know that the Qur'an was
specifically revealed to the Prophet (ﷺ) and does not include any
Speech that He spoke to other than the Prophet.
'In wording and
meaning' — confirms that the words of the Qur'an are from Allah, that
they are not from Jibril or even the Prophet (ﷺ). Allah says: "And
truly, this (the Qur'an) is a revelation from the Lord of the 'Alamin
(mankind, jinns and all that exists), Which the trustworthy Ruh [Jibrael
(Gabriel)] has brought down; Upon your heart (O' Muhammad) that you may
be (one) of the warners," [26:192-194]
'Which has been
preserved in the mushafs' — means that it has been guarded in the form
of written copies of the Qur'an (mushafs). These words refer
specifically to the copies that 'Uthman had ordered to be written during
the time of his khilafah, which includes 114 Surahs.
'And
has reached us by mutawatir transmissions' — means that it has reached
us through a transmission by a large number of people, such that they
could not all be mistaken or purposely come up with a lie. In each
generation a tremendous amount of people narrated it that there is no
question of its authenticity.
'And is a challenge to mankind to
produce something similar to it' — implies the miraculous nature (I'jaz)
of the Qur'an. Allah has challenged mankind to produce even a chapter
similar to it, and this challenge is reserved for the Qur'an
3] Brief history of its compilation: When the Qur'an was compiled.
The
Qur'an had three different stages of compilation beginning with the
lifespan of the Prophet (ﷺ), its compilation through Abu Bakr and the
last one being the compilation of 'Uthman.
The earliest record of
having the Qur'an written down was seven years before the hijrah, at
the time when 'Umar ibn al-Khattab accepted Islam. The narration of his
conversion story makes mention that his sister had a saheefa (form of
paper) with her that one of the companions had brought with him to teach
them with. It had the first verses of Surah Ta-Ha.
Later on as
the revelations became bigger, the Prophet (ﷺ) and his companions took
great efforts to preserve it through spending large portions of the
night reciting. The Prophet (ﷺ) used to recite one sixth of the Qur'an
in one raka'ah. The Prophet (ﷺ) made sure that each new Muslim had a
teacher to teach him Qur'an so much so that he would send companions to
other cities to make sure that Muslims in those cities were able to
memorize. The companions were the ones who were preserved the
memorization of the Qur'an, and it is only through them that the chains
of narrations go back to the Prophet.
The Prophet (ﷺ) later on
made sure that the Qur'an was written down and not just memorized,
ensuring its preservation by checking whether it was written down
correctly. During his time, 24 people became his scribes and among them
was the four following khulafa and Zayd bin Thabit.
More than 15
companions were recorded to have written down most of the Qur'an. These
were not complete copies of the Qur'an, however. For instance, Ibn
Mas'ud had 106 surah's. The order of the surah's he had recorded was not
the order we have today.
Also, Ubay ibn Ka'ab also had less than
114. Aside from the surah's he had, the prayer for qunut and a hadith
were also found. Corrupt people who try to cast doubts on the legitimacy
of the Qur'an use this to try to prove that these seemingly additions
were actually 'verses' that were left out of the Qur'an, but it should
be noted that because of the limited resources of writing material,
these copies were personally used by the companions who owned them. On
these, they also wrote personal notes aside from the Qur'an that they
wished to retain in their memory. They were aware that these additions
were not part of the Qur'an as they could have been notes on
interpretation, dua'a, etc...
And it was the practice of the
Prophet (ﷺ) to recite the Qur'an to the Angel Jibril every year, during
the month of Ramadan. It was known that Jibril would also recite it back
to him. The year that he died, the Prophet (ﷺ) recited the Qur'an twice
to Jibril, and heard it from Jibril twice. During this last recitation,
Zayd ibn Thabit was present.
The Prophet (ﷺ) made sure that the
Qur'an was written down in its totality during his lifetime, but he did
not order for it to be compiled in book form.
At the time, there
was no pressing need to compile the whole Qur'an in one book, since the
Qur'an was not in any danger of being lost. There were numerous
Companions who had memorized all of it, and each Companion had memorized
various portions of it. Likewise, it would not have been possible to
compile all of it in one book, since it had not been completely revealed
yet as the last verse was revealed only nine days before the death of
the Prophet.
In addition, by the command of the Prophet (ﷺ)
madinan verses could be placed in the midst of makkan verses, and vice
versa. The arrangement of the verses and surah's was not chronological.
Hence, the Prophet (ﷺ) could not have compiled the Qur'an in the correct
order until all its verses had been revealed.
Fourth, there were
some revelations that used to be a part of the Qur'an, but Allah
abrogated their recitation. During the lifetime of the Prophet (ﷺ) this
abrogation could occur at any time; therefore it was essential that
these were terminated first before the Qur'an be compiled.
At the
time of his death, the entire Qur'an had been memorized by many of the
Companions, and existed in written form, but it had not been compiled in
book form. In fact, it was spread in loose fragments that were owned by
different people.
After
the Prophet's death, during the khilafah of Abu Bakr, seventy
Companions who had memorized the Qur'an were martyred during the Battle
of Yamamah. Their martyrdom alarmed 'Umar for they were such a large
number of memorizers. He went to Abu Bakr and convinced him to compile
the copies of the Qur'an. They both decided to give this responsibility
to Zayd bin Thabit. They chose Zayd because he was the primary scribe of
the Prophet (ﷺ) among other reasons like being the one present during
the last recitation of the Qur'an by the Prophet.
The strict
criterion he applied ensured the authenticity of the compilation. For
instance, even if he had memorized the entire Qur'an and could have
written it from his own memory, he made sure that there were at least
two other memorizers of the verse, and a written copy of the verse that
was written under the direct supervision of the Prophet.
Almost
two years after the death of the Prophet, when all of the major
Companions were still alive, for the first time the Qur'an had been
compiled. The written copy of the Qur'an was called a mushaf (meaning a
collection of loose papers) and remained with Abu Bakr and, after his
death, with 'Umar, then with Hafsah who was the daughter of 'Umar and
the wife of the Prophet.
Ali bin Abi Talib was quoted to have said: "The
person with the greatest rewards with regards to the (compilation) of
the mushaf is Abu Bakr. May Allah's mercy be on Abu Bakr, he was the
first person to compile the Book of Allah." [Qatan: Mubahith]
This
compilation however was not meant to be an official copy that the whole
ummah had to follow. It was meant only to preserve the Qur'an in its
entirety.
After the death of Abu Bakr, the Muslims had expanded
their territories under khilafah of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. After 'Umar's
death, 'Uthman bin Affan became the khalifah. However, while the Muslims
became successful in waging jihad fisabilillah, in the areas of Armenia
and Azerbaijan, they started fighting amongst each other with regards
to the recitation of the Qur'an. The Muslims from Syria also began
debating with Muslims from Iraq as to whose recitation was more
superior. These Muslims were not from the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ)
and therefore did not have the proper etiquette in the recitation of the
Qur'an. Uthman became alarmed at the news and consulted with the
companions as to his plan of action to resolve this great problem with
the Muslims. Upon this consulation, he decided official copies of the
Qur'an from one official source should be written and sent to all the
provinces while the rest of the other copies destroyed. The Muslim Ummah
would then have one official standard Qur'an.
Ali ibn Abi Talib said about this: "O
People! Do not say evil of 'Uthman, but only say good about him.
Concerning the burning of the mushafs, I swear by Allah, he only did
this after he had called all of us…"
'Uthman borrowed the
mushaf that Abu Bakr had ordered to be compiled from Hafsah. He then
chose a committee of four people: Zayd ibn Thabit, 'Abdullah ibn
az-Zubayr, Sa'id ibn al-'Aas and 'Abd al-Qays to Basrah, to rewrite the
mushaf of Abu Bakr, all of whom were chosen for their high merits. With
the exclusion of Zayd, the three were purposely chosen from the Quraysh
because the words were to be spelled in the dialect of the Quraysh since
it was the dialect in which the Qur'an was revealed. At times of
differences of opinions, scribes who wrote those said verses were called
in to confer with them on the matter. Thereafter, 'Uthman ordered one
copy of this mushaf to be sent to every Muslim province and ordered each
governor to burn all existing copies. He sought unite the Muslims in
the proper recitation of the Qur'an and to settle disputes within the
Muslim Ummah. By this, he provided a copy of the Qur'an that would serve
as a model onwards. Not only did he send an official copy, he likewise
sent reciters to teach people the proper way of reciting.
Ali bin
Abi Talib was quoted to have said regarding this event: "If I were in
charge when Uthman had been, I would have done the same as he did."
[az-Zarqani]
4] The study of an-Nasikh wal-Mansukh: Abrogated verses in the Qur'an.
Without
going too much into detail, since this is a study in and of itself,
there are verses in the Qur'an that abrogate, replace, or supercede each
other. And this process involves previously existing Islamic rulings on
the very same subject and later on abrogated by a later ruling. This
must originate from the Qur'an and not from consensus (ijma') or analogy
(qiyas). In short, it has its own conditions and rulings. Some examples
are the verse of the sword, prohibition of alcoholic drinks, etc. For
the most part, these verses do not go beyond 12. [ash-Shanqeeti]
[By Shaykh Ahmad Musa Jibril (hafidhahullah)]
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