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This post will reveal the truth about how was the Quran revealed and compiled.
Muslims claim with absolute confidence that the Quran is preserved. Still, that claim does come with much evidence and an immaculate history explaining in striking detail how was the Quran revealed and compiled.
But hey, of course, you’re going to find orientalists who completely reject it. But I’ve found the reason behind this is ignorance or malice with no evidence to back their claims.
In this post, you’re going to learn the REAL truth and history of how was the Quran revealed and compiled, which amazingly can be traced all the way back to the source- the Prophet Muhammad.
This post will walk you through exactly how was the Quran revealed and compiled.
How Was The Quran Revealed And Compiled
Before I walk you through the journey of how was the Quran revealed and compiled I want to make it clear that Muslims believe every word in the Quran is the divine words of God. The creator of everything. The author is not a man nor Muhammad himself.
So, How Was The Quran Revealed?
The journey begins in Arabia with a man named Muhammad who was born in 571 CE and died in 632 CE. By the age of 6, he was orphaned. His grandfather Abdul Muttalib took care of him and then his uncle Abu Talib took the responsibility.
He was known by everyone in Makkah as the trustworthy and truthful one. This is what attracted Khadijah to Muhammad so she sent a proposal to him, and their marriage of 25 years turned out to be beautiful. He would often spend time alone in a cave on a mountain called Hira.
When Muhammad reached the age of 40 whilst isolated in the cave he received the first revelation from God via an angel. Every revelation he received was spoken not written because he couldn’t read or write. Then over the next 23 years, he continued to receive revelations from God sometimes in small sections and sometimes in large sections.
These were the first verses revealed to him:
“Read[O Muhammad] in the name of your Lord who created Created human beings from a clinging clot. Read and your Lord is most generous, who taught by the pen, taught Humanity what they knew not.”
[QURAN 96:1-5]
These were the different ways the Quran was revealed:
- In the form of dreams
- Directly in the heart of Prophet Muhammad
- The angel Gabriel brought him revelation in the form of a man (the most common way)
- Revelation through angel Gabriel in his true form
How Verses Were Recorded Meticulously
As soon as revelation started the Prophet’s focus was the preservation of every verse. The two main methods of preservation were memorisation and recording every verse in written form.
One may ask but what if there was a mistake in memorisation?
Well, the majority of the people in Arabia couldn’t read or write. The main way they used to transmit information was through memorisation. They had extremely good memories and it was necessary. It was a normal tradition for the Arabs to memorise thousands of verses of poetry. So this was easy for them.
It’s not like the society we live in today where information is transmitted largely through technology. It’s so bad that we can’t even remember phone numbers because we’re so heavily reliant on technology to do it for us.
Yeah, the majority of us can read and write but memorisation isn’t a norm but it was the norm in Arabia back then.
So, the Prophet would memorise the verses and then recite them to his followers. They would memorise every verse that was revealed which is the first method of preservation.
The second method was through writing. Every time the Prophet received a new verse he called upon his scribes and ordered them to write the verses on whatever material that was available. i.e. leaves of trees, leather, rocks, bone, animal skin etc. He would then proofread them through the scribes reading back what they wrote to ensure no scribal errors were made and it was 100% accurate.
The prophet had over 60 scribes he selected who were also his companions. One of the main scribes was called Zaid Bin Thabit. He lived very close to the Prophet’s mosque so he was often the first one called to act as a scribe when revelation started.
Based on the total number of scribes and the Prophet’s custom of summoning them to record all new verses. We can safely assume in his lifetime the entire Quran was available in written form.
The Arrangement Of The Quran
The arrangement of verses (ayats) and chapters (surahs) in the Quran is unique. They’re not in chronological order of revelation or subject matter.
So, you’re probably wondering who arranged the order of the Quran.
The author of the Quran is God and through divine inspiration, Prophet Muhammad instructed his scribes on the exact place to put each verse within the Chapters. Then he also organised the chapters in the divinely chosen order we see today. The Muslim community nor anyone else had any say in it.
Here are some references (testimonies) of companions of the Prophet who were actively involved in the process of preserving the Quran:
- Zaid Bin Thabit Says: “We in the presence of the prophet would compile the Quran in pieces of parchment.”
- ‘Uthman bin Abi al-‘As reports that he was sitting with the Prophet when the Prophet fixed his gaze upon a definite point, and said, “The Archangel Jibril has just come to me and expressly asked me to place the verse: [QURAN 16;90] in a certain position in a particular surah.”
- Al-Kalbi narrates from Abi Salih on Ibn ‘Abbas’ authority regarding the verse: [QURAN 2:281] He states, “This was the last verse revealed to the Prophet. The Archangel Jibril descended on him and instructed him to place it after verse two hundred and eighty in Surah al-Baqarrah.”
The clearest evidence of all is that the Prophet in his lifetime with his companions used to pray in congregation and recite full surahs in their order. No public recital can occur if the sequence of verses is not universally agreed upon.
In fact, there is no known incident of a congregation disagreeing with its Imam on his sequence of verses in our time or the Prophet’s time.
The Prophet used to recite entire Surahs during the Jummah (Friday) sermons. So, it’s clear that in the lifetime of the Prophet verses and chapters were organised and companions memorised surahs in their orders taught by the Prophet himself.
The First Written Compilation Of The Quran
Although in the Prophet’s lifetime, all the verses of the Quran were written entirely with the most meticulous preservation methods he didn’t collect them into a book.
Evidence of this is Zaid Bin Thabit’s testimony:
“The Prophet was taken [from this life] whilst the Quran had not yet been collected into a book.”
After the Prophet’s death, Abu Bakr became caliph. After the battle of Yamamah occurred which led to a lot of the Quran memorisers being martyred. Another companion of the Prophet Umar ibn Khattab advised Abu Bakr to compile the Quran into a written book.
His main concern was the witnesses of the Quran were going to be killed. So, his focus was on its preservation.
Abu Bakr didn’t want to do something the Prophet didn’t but eventually agreed. So, he assigned Zaid bin Thabit as supervisor for this massive project.
Here’s why Zaid would be the perfect candidate for the role:
- He memorised the entire Quran directly from the Prophet
- He also had an abundance of experience acting as a scribe for the Prophet
- He was young and intelligent
- He was trusted by everyone
- He was present with the Prophet in the last year of his life when he reviewed the Quran with the angel Gabriel twice
The compilation of the Quran wasn’t a secret thing it happened in public view everyone was involved. So, no verses could be added or removed.
Abu Bakr told Zaid and Umar to sit at the entrance of the Prophet’s mosque which was the gathering place. They made a public announcement to anyone who held verses of the Quran that were written by the prophet’s instruction in his presence to bring them.
The method of preservation was strict and unbiased. Every time someone came with a Quranic verse that was written by the instruction of the Prophet they had to bring two witnesses to testify that they saw the scribe writing the verse in the presence of the Prophet. Only then would it be recorded and accepted as authentic. It was further authenticated by a couple of companions who memorised the entire Quran directly from the Prophet.
Finally, this magnificent project was complete and all the surahs and verses were properly arranged and compiled through writing into one book.
The companions and all of the Muslim ummah agreed on the order of the Quran. That’s the order we have today the first chapter being Surah Al Fatihah and the last being Surah Nas.
So just two years after the Prophet’s death, the entire Quran was written in the order we have today in the presence of the companions, followers and wives of the Prophet who knew him, lived with him and learnt the Quran directly from him.
This copy of the Quran stayed with Abu Bakr until his death. Then, it was handed over to the next Caliph Umar Ibn Khattab who massively grew the Islamic empire and spread Islam far and wide. Then after Umar’s death, his daughter Hafsa who was also the wife of the Prophet held the written copy of the Quran.
The Second Written Compilation Of The Quran
We know the Quran was already organised and compiled into a written book at the time of Abu Bakr. But why was it being compiled again?
Well, at the time of Uthman’s reign, the third caliph, there was a problem with the reading of the Quranic text. The original text was flexible for Arabs to read in their own dialects because Arabs have different dialects.
So, some companions read the Quran in one style and others read in another style. This was approved by the Prophet at that time to make it easier for the Muslims to learn the Quran as it would be difficult to abandon their native language so suddenly.
However, as Islam started spreading far and wide more non-arab people embraced Islam. Companions were sent to teach the new Muslims how to read the Quran. But they taught in their own dialect. This caused disputes between Muslims in different parts of the Muslim world such as in Iraq and Syria. Each thought their reading of the Quran was right.
A companion called Hudhaifah saw this problem and advised Uthman to standardise the Quran’s text so it can only be read in the Quraishi dialect and no other dialect. This was the dialect the Prophet spoke in and the Quran was mainly revealed in.
To solve this, Uthman appointed a committee of companions who started the second compilation from scratch. They completely standardised the text of the Quran so it can only be read in the Qurashi dialect and nothing else. The alphabets were strictly Quraishi and so were the spelling and reading. All the companions agreed on this.
This second compilation came to be known as the Uthmani Mushaf. Copies were made and sent to different parts of the Muslim world along with teachers to help them recite it properly.
After compiling the Quran completely and everyone agreed, Uthman ordered any written copies of the Quran to be burnt. This was because the prophet’s companions would write in their own notes each verse when it was recited publically and these weren’t proofread by the Prophet. So, they’re not accurate. These were destroyed to avoid confusion for future generations to come.
In Ali’s time, the fourth caliph, vowels were added and later on, dots were placed and other reading aids for non-Arabic speaking Muslims to learn the Quranic Arabic with ease. Slowly the Quran took shape into what we see today.
The fact that you can go anywhere in the world and you’ll find every Quran is the same is proof of its preservation.
Physical, and Scientific Proof Of The Qurans Immaculate Preservation
At the University of Birmingham, a Quran manuscript was discovered and after researchers conducted radiocarbon dating they concluded that it is at least 1370 years old. So, it was written in the lifetime of the Prophet. When observing this Quran manuscript they found that it is the exact same as the one we have today letter for letter, word for word and the meaning being accurate.
There aren’t just 5 or 6 manuscripts that match the Quran we have today but hundreds of thousands that have been found in the Muslim world that match the Quran we have today.
That is another category of indisputable evidence that the Quran really truly is preserved. This shows the truly miraculous nature of the Quran as it defends itself.
This post completely broke down the true history of how was the Quran revealed and compiled with references as well as modern-day physical evidence. It should make you come to the conclusion that this book is from God. A living intellectual miracle and guide for all of mankind.
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