— To bring together those materials upon which the Qur’ān has been written.
— To bring together the reports of people who have memorised the Qur’ān.
— To bring together all such sources, both oral and written.
How was the Qur’ān Collected?
In Suyūtī’s itqān it is said that the Qur’ān had been written down in its entirety in the time of the Prophet but had not been brought together in one single place, and that therefore these written records or documents had not been arranged in order.10
However, this statement does not preclude that the ordering of the Qur’ān and the arrangement of the sūras, was fixed by the Prophet himself and safeguarded through oral transmission.
Stages of Collection
As far as the written text is concerned, one may distinguish three stages:
1. In the time of the Prophet:
— in the hearts of men (memorisation).
— on writing materials.
2. In the time of Abū Bakr.
3. In the time of ‘Uthmān.
Why was no Book left by the Prophet?
The Prophet Muḥammad did not present to his Companions the revelation collected and arranged in a single written volume. There are a number of good reasons for this:
— Because the revelation did not come down in one piece, but at intervals and was received continuously until the end of the Prophet’s life.
— Because some verses were abrogated in the course of revelation, and therefore flexibility needed to be maintained.
— The āyāt and sūras were not always revealed in their final order, but were arranged later.
— The Prophet lived only nine days after the last revelation and was severely ill.
— There was no dispute or friction about the Qur’ān during the time of the Prophet, as developed afterwards when he, as the final authority, was no longer available.
Writing down the Revelation
While writing was not widespread among the people in Arabia at the time of the Prophet there were persons of whom it is reported that they did write. It is said for example of Waraqa, Khadīja’s cousin, that he had been converted to Christianity in the pre-Islamic period ‘and used to write Arabic and write of the Gospel in Arabic as much as Allah wished him to write’.11
The Prophet himself did much to encourage the Muslims to learn to write. It is related that some of the Quraish, who were taken prisoners at the battle of Badr, regained their freedom after they had taught some of the Muslims the art of writing.12
Did the Prophet himself write?
Although it is not clear whether the Prophet Muḥammad knew how to write, there is unanimous agreement among scholars that Muḥammad himself did not write down the revelation. The Qur’ān clearly states:
‘And thou (O Muḥammad) wast not a reader of any scripture before it, nor didst thou write it with thy right hand, for then might those have doubted who follow falsehood’ (29: 48).
The Qur’ān also refers to Muḥammad on several occasions as the ‘unlettered prophet’ which some scholars have interpreted in the sense that he did not read or write:
‘Those who follow the apostle, the unlettered prophet… ’ (8: 157).
His community too has been described as ‘unlettered’:
‘It is he who has sent amongst the unlettered an apostle from among themselves … ’ (62: 2).
The Qur’ān written during the Prophet’s Lifetime
There is no doubt that the Qur’ān was not only transmitted orally by many Muslims who had learned parts or the whole of it, but that it was also written down during the lifetime of the Prophet.
The well-known report about ‘Umar’s conversion shows that large passages of the revelation had already been written down even at a very early time, in Makka, long before the hijra, when the Prophet was still in the house of Arqam. ‘Umar had set out to kill the Prophet Muḥammad, when somebody informed him that Islam had already spread into his own family and pointed out to him that his brother-in-law, his nephew and his sister had all become Muslims. ‘Umar went to the house of his sister and found her together with her husband and another Muslim. A dispute arose and ‘Umar violently attacked both his brother-in-law and his own sister. ‘When he did that they said to him “Yes, we are Muslims and we believe in God and His apostle and you can do what you like”.’ When ‘Umar saw the blood on his sister, he was sorry for what he had done and turned back and said to his sister, ‘Give me this sheet which I heard you reading just now so that I may see just what it is which Muḥammad has brought’, for ‘Umar could write. When he said that, his sister replied that she was afraid to trust him with it. ‘Do not be afraid’, he said and he swore by his gods that he would return it when he had read it. When he said that, she had hopes that he would become a Muslim and said to him, ‘My brother, you are unclean in your polytheism and only the clean may touch it’. So ‘Umar rose and washed himself and she gave him the page in which was Ṭāhā and when he had read the beginning he said ‘How fine and noble is this speech …’13
The Qur’ān Dictated by the Prophet
The Qur’ān was not only written down by those Companions who did so on their own initiative. Indeed, the Prophet, when a revelation came, called for the scribe and dictated to him. The Prophet while in Madina had several such scribes,14 among whom Zaid bin Thābit was very prominent.
Narrated al-Barā’: There was revealed ‘Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah’ (4: 95). The Prophet said: ‘Call Zaid for me and let him bring the board, the ink pot and the scapula bone (or the scapula bone and the ink pot).’ Then he said: ‘Write: Not equal are those believers…’15
It is also reported that material upon which the revelation had been written down was kept in the house of the Prophet.16
Written during the Prophet’s Lifetime
Another report informs us that when people came to Madina to learn about Islam, they were provided with ‘copies of the chapters of the Qur’ān, to read and learn them by heart’.17
Further evidence for the existence of the Qur’ān as a written document during the lifetime of the Prophet comes from the following account:
‘Abd Allāh b. Abū Bakr b. Ḥazm reported: The book written by the apostle of Allah for ‘Amr b. Ḥazm contained also this that no man should touch the Qur’ān without ablution.18
The book, which Allah’s messenger wrote for ‘Amr b. Ḥazm that no one should touch the Qur’ān except the purified one, Mālik said: And no one should carry the muṣḥaf by its strap, nor on a pillow, unless he is clean. And even if this be allowed to carry it in its cover, it is not disliked, if there is not in the two hands which carry it, something polluting the muṣḥaf, but it is disliked for the one who carries it, and he is not clean, in honour to the Qur’ān and respect to it.
Mālik said: The best I heard about this is the verse ‘None shall touch it but those who are clean’ (56: 79).19
The commentary to the muwaṭṭa’ explains that the book referred to as written by the Prophet (which means of course written upon his instruction) was sent with some Muslims for instruction in Islam