The Only Preserved Scripture
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By Dr Irfan Jehangir
We know that the only two modes of preservation historically are through writing and memory. Therefore, for any claimants to proclaim that their scripture is preserved in purity, they have to provide concrete evidence that the Scripture was written in its entirety AND memorized in its entirety from the time it was revealed to our time, in a continuous and unbroken chain.
If the memorization part doesn't exist parallel to the written part to act as a check and
balance for it, then there is a genuine possibility that the written scripture may loose its purity through unintentional and intentional interpolations due to scribal errors,
corruption by the enemies, pages getting decomposed etc, and these errors would be
concurrently incorporated into subsequent texts, ultimately loosing its purity through
ages.
At the age of 40, Prophet Muhummed (S) started receiving divine Revelations from Allah the almighty through the angel Jibraiel or Gabriel. Prophet Muhummed (S) miraculously memorized each revelation and angel Gabriel used to refresh the Quranic memory of the Prophet
each year.
'The Prophet (S) was the most generous person, and he used to become more so
(generous) particularly in the month of Ramadan because Gabriel used to meet him
every night of the month of Ramadan till it elapsed. Allah's Messenger (S) used to recite the Qur'an for him. When Gabriel met him, he use to become more generous than the fast wind in doing good' Sahi Bukhari hadith
Prophet Muhammad (S) encouraged his companions to learn and teach the Qur’an:
'The most superior among you (Muslims) are those who learn the Qur'an and teach it'. [4]
'Some of the companions who memorized the Qur’an were: 'Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Ibn Masud, Abu Huraira, Abdullah bin Abbas, Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As, Aisha, Hafsa, and Umm Salama'.
Many Quranic memorizers (Qurra) were present during the lifetime of the Prophet and afterwards throughout the then Muslim world.
Over the centuries of the Islamic Era, there have arisen throughout the various regions
of the Islamic world literally thousands of schools devoted specially to the teaching of the Qur’an to children for the purpose of memorization. It is said that the Caliph 'Umar first ordered the construction of these schools when he was the leaders of believers. In fact these schools flourished and in the period of Ibn 'Amir, who was the judge of
The Number of similar schools in
two thousand. Currently both in the Muslim and non-Muslim countries thousands of schools with each instructing tens of hundreds of students the art of memorizing the entire Qur’an are a living testimony to this fact.
From the facts presented above it becomes clear that Qur’an is the only book, religious or secular, on the face of this planet that has been completely memorized by millions. These memorizers range from ages 6 and up, both Arabic and non-Arabic speakers, blacks, whites, Orientals, poor and wealthy.
Thus the process of memorization was continuous, from Prophet Muhammad's (S) time to ours with an unbroken chain.
"The method of transmitting the Qur’an from one generation to the next by having he
young memorize the oral recitation of their elders had mitigated somewhat from the
beginning the worst perils of relying solely on written records…" relates John Burton
John Burton, An Introduction to the Hadith, Edinburgh University
Written records
The Prophet himself was unlettered, did not knew how to read and write, therefore he called upon his numerous scribes to write the revelation for him. Complete Quran thus existed in written form in the lifetime of the Prophet.
'Some people visited Zaid Ibn Thabit (one of the scribes of the Prophet) and asked him
to tell them some stories about Allah's Messenger. He replied: "I was his (Prophet's)
neighbour, and when the inspiration descended on him he sent for me and I went to him
and wrote it down for him…" Tirmidhi
'The Prophet, while in Medina, had about 48 scribes who use to write for him'
'Besides the official manuscripts of the Qur’an kept with the Prophet, many of his
companions use to possess their own written copies of the revelation'
'A list of Companions of whom it is related that they had their own written collections
included the following: Ibn Mas'ud, Ubay bin Ka'b, Ali, Ibn Abbas, Abu Musa, Hafsa, Anas
bin Malik, Umar, Zaid bin Thabit, Ibn Al-Zubair, Abdullah ibn Amr, Aisha, Salim, Umm
Salama, Ubaid bin Umar'.
'The best known among these (Prophet's Scribes) are: Ibn Masud, Ubay bin Kab and
Zaid bin Thabit'.
'Aisha and Hafsa, the wives of the Prophet had their own scripts written after the Prophet
had died'. Reported by Adu Dawoud and Mauta Of Imam Malik
At the battle of Yamama (633 CE), six months after the death of the Prophet, a number of Muslims, who had memorized the Qur’an, were killed. Hence it was feared that unless a written official copy of the Qur’an were prepared, a large part of revelation might be lost.
Then, a committee was formed to under take the task of collecting the written Quranic
material in the form of a book. The committee was headed by Zaid bin Thabit, the
original scribe of the Prophet, who was also a memorizer of the complete Qur’an.
'…Zaid bin Thabit had committed the entire Qur’an to memory…'
The compilers in this committee, in examining written material submitted to them, insisted
on very stringent criteria as a safeguard against any errors.
1. The material must have been originally written down in the presence of the Prophet;
nothing written down later on the basis of memory alone was to be accepted.
2. The material must have been confirmed by two witnesses, that is to say, by two trustworthy persons testifying that they themselves had heard the Prophet recite the passage in question.
This copy of the Qur'an, prepared by the committee of competent companions of the
Prophet (which included Memorizers of the Qur’an) was unanimous approved by the
whole Muslim world. If they committee would have made a error even of a single alphabet in transcribing the Qur’an, the Qurra (memorizers of the Qur’an) which totalled in the tens of hundreds would have caught it right away and correct it. This is exactly where the neat check and balance system of preservation of the Qur’an comes into play, but which is lacking for any other scripture besides the Qur’an.
'Two of the copies of the Qur'an which were originally prepared in the time of Caliph
Uthman, are still available to us today and their text and arrangement can be compared, by anyone who cares to do, with any other copy of the Qur’an, be it in print or handwritten, from any place or period of time. They will be found identical'
Of the copies made by Uthman, one is in the city of
Here are a few quotes of Non-Muslims about its originality.
'In the ancient times, when writing was scarcely used, memory and oral transmission was exercised and strengthened to a degree now almost unknown' relates Michael Zwettler, The Oral Tradition of Classical Arabic Poetry, p.14
"There is probably no other book in the world which has remained twelve
centuries (now fourteen) with so pure a text".
Sir William Muir. Life of Mohamet, vol.1, Introduction
This divine protection provided to the Qur’an, the Last Revealed Guide to Humanity, is proclaimed in the Qur’an:
'We (Allah) have, without doubt, send down the Message; and We will assuredly Guard it (from corruption)' (Qur’an - Chapter 15, Verse 9).
It is this very essence of preservation from corruption of any sort that distinguishes the Holy Qur’an from any other scripture on the face of the earth- old or new; religious or secular. Hence we be certain that the belief arising out of this scripture is divine and not man made; as against any other religious or secular teaching, and it gives a believer great peace and surety about his/her salvation in the hereafter.