CHAPTER 10 - CRITERION:[8] MUST REMAIN PRESERVED AND NOT BE TAMPERED WITH……….

--------------------------------------------------------
· A claim of a Book from God must be on the basis of its original writing. Not something that has been doctored with or edited, with the intention of giving it credibility, based on newly discovered knowledge.

---------------------------------------------------------



THE CASE FOR AL-QUR’AN

إِنَّا نَحۡنُ نَزَّلۡنَا ٱلذِّكۡرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ ۥ لَحَـٰفِظُونَ

“Behold, it is We Ourselves who have bestowed from on high, step by step, this reminder (i.e. this Qur’an): and, behold, it is We who shall truly guard it (from all corruption).”

(Qur’an: al-Hijr: 15: 9)

The Qur’an, firstly must be noted, was revealed to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., who was an “ummiy” (one unable to neither read nor write) – as a recitation[1]. When discussing issue of preservation of religious scriptures, many overlooked this important distinction with regard to the Qur’an in that, it is not merely preservation of what was written but importantly the preservation even of what was originally recited.

The nature of the Prophet’s mission was to impart and teach with the Qur’an; to establish al-Islam with the Guidance from God. Although Muhammad’s explanations and practical manifestation in life from its teachings are also important, yet he was careful to ensure that all the recordings and memorisations of the Qur’an were to be done distinctly separate from that of his own utterances. (These, which are sayings from Muhammad s.a.w., termed as “as-Sunnah”, were later preserved, meticulously scrutinized and categorized separately, in the distinct corpus called “Ahadith”).

.

- [scroll bottom of this page to powerpoint regarding "Ahadith - its significance & development of science of its compilation" or click here]

.

Recitation and memorization – the preservation through chain of reciters (muqri’) and memorizers (Huffaz) of the Qur’an.

Whenever Muhammad s.a.w. received a revelation of the Qur’an, these would be memorised and recited to his companions who, on their part, also committed them to memory. He would also direct them to collate these within the other earlier Qur’anic verses already committed or recorded, and even at times apportioned them with a given name (or theme) for each chapter (termed as “Surah”).

The companion’s recitations, memorizations, and readings from their personal recordings, were constantly checked by the Prophet s.a.w. Memorization was by far the most common method, although some companions did compile their own individual recordings (for their personal reference), but this was not commonly referred to by the general Muslims when learning the Qur’an. Some of these companions such as ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, Ubbay ibn Ka’ab, Ibnu Mas’ud, Ibnu Abbas, Abu Musa, Ibn Zubayr, Zaid ibn Tsabit, Salim, Umm Salamah, ‘Ayesha, Muadz ibn Jabal r.a etc. were known to have these[2].

The Prophet also appointed from among his companion who can write, to serve as scribes to record them down in written form, and these were collected and kept in the Prophets safe-keeping (in the house of Hafsah r.a[3]., one of the Prophet’s wives). The while, al-Qur’an was taught through persons whom the Prophet appointed as “Muqri’ ” (literally “readers” – i.e. reciter’s, whose memorisation was constantly checked by the Prophet s.a.w. and assigned as teachers for others to learn and memorise the Qur’an from). This method ensured that even the vocalization of every word is to be meticulously checked and preserved through an unbroken chain of reciters and teachers (referred to as the “isnad” or “sanad” literally meaning “chain”) linked back up to the Prophet s.a.w. Much like learning songs or music, it is to be noted that the masses then, can even checked their own memorization directly whenever the Prophet s.a.w., (as was the nature of his mission), recited Qur’anic verses publicly, especially in congregational prayers. This primary preoccupation towards preserving the Qur’an by recitation, memorization and constant checking was the dominant method that at the end of the Prophets’ life, memorization of Qur’an has become an essential part of the general Muslims’ education. And it even continues until today. This system had ensured that for the Muslims, there can only be one al-Qur’an. This factor later proved very useful when an official written corpus was needed due to increase in literacy amongst people, and indiscriminate writing of them can lead to conflicting versions.

History of the preservation of recorded writings of the Qur’an

As stated, there were already in existence the written text of the Qur’an even during Muhammad’s time, but this (the written form) did not become important for Muslims to consider as method of learning is directly from teacher to student, in an unbroken chain that are linked back to the Prophet s.a.w., emphasizing vocal verbalization, much like learning songs or music. This can be appreciated and memorised even by common people who may be totally illiterate in the reading of musical scores.

It was during the first Caliphate of Abu Bakr’ r.a., in the campaign against the “ahl-al-riddah” (“those who renegade”), in one battle, many memorizers of the Qur’an (Huffaz) were slain. This made the Muslims to realise that reliance on something already written down during the time of the Prophet can also ensure another means as an added insurance, towards ensuring the preservation of the Qur’an - apart from dependence upon memorizers alone. Advised by ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a., the loose collection of the writings of the Qur’an which were still kept by the Prophet’s widow were taken out, sifted, checked collated against the general memorizations of the Muslims, and then bounded together into one “al-Mushaf” (literally “the bounded scrolls”). But this was still kept by the Prophet’s widow Hafsah r.a. until the time of the third Caliph ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan r.a. when it’s used became important and essential.

By this time (the third Caliph ‘Uthman’s), the expansion of Islam has included vast regions and has gained multitudes of followers from various ethnicities, many of whom were non-Arabs; the need for an official written copy of the Qur’an became important. This was when Hudzaifah al-Yamani r.a., a Companion of the Prophet s.a.w. whilst in Azerbaijan, Armenia, he witnessed altercations amongst Muslims with regard to written copy of the Qur’an. Although learning of the Qur’an was through teachers, yet those who wanted to write it down were left to their own devise. Written Arabic (because as a Semitic language, it does not have vowels and letters then do not have diacritical markings) for the uninitiated and non-Arabs, this can lead to misreading. Even amongst Arabs, due to differences in dialect, such error in recitations can occur. And if these were to be then dictated and again (without an official written copy) re-written, and others misread them again – the disunity it can cause would be immense. This worry was then communicated to the Caliph.

Caliph ‘Utman ibn ‘Affan r.a. convened a special committee comprising of muqri’ and Huffaz amongst the Prophet’s Companions, and to be headed by Zaid ibn Tsabit r.a., who had been the chief amanuensis or scribe to the Prophet s.a.w. in the writing of the Qur’an during the Prophets time. The “Mushaf” already compiled during Abu Bakr’s time was taken out to be referred to. Yet, their task was to reproduce 7 identical copies of the Qur’an, with meticulous care in terms of spelling (rasm) and with strong emphasis in basing them upon pronunciations of words in the Quraysh dialect (the dialect of the Prophet s.a.w.). When completed, these were publicly checked by all the Companions of the Prophet and memorizers of the Qur’an in Madinah, before being endorsed by the Caliph’s marking. Since then these exact identical copies were referred to as the “mushaf Uthmaniy”. One was kept by the Caliph in Madinah (sometimes called “Mushaf Imam”), while others were dispatched to the various centres of Islam accompanied by a Muqri’ (teacher or reciter of the Qur’an). A decree was then issued to Muslims to destroy all other previous written copies and that reference for the written text of the Qur’an henceforth should be based on this official Mushaf, which has been reliably authenticated, verified unanimously accepted by the whole Ummah.

Copies of these “mushaf Uthmaniy” are still extant even until today, kept in Egypt (Cairo), Samarqand (Tashkent), Iraq (Baghdad), Syria (Damascus) Iran (Qum), Morocco (Fez) and Turkey (Istanbul). It is also known that copies – some microfilmed from the original – is also available elsewhere e.g. Columbia University Library, USA; the British museum, London UK, and in other Islamic countries etc.)[4].

- to view some of these [click here] & [here] & [here] & [here]

But it must be remembered that the method for learning of the Qur’an through recitation and memorization directly with teachers and memorizers who are linked to the unbroken chain of teachers of the Qur’an, still continued even till today. The famous school of recitations are still being taught up to the present day in the science of Qur’anic recitation (‘ilm Qiro’atil-Qur’an) variously named: viz. Hafaz from ‘Asim (the most famous), Abu ‘Amer ibn ‘Ala’, Hamzah al-Kufy, Qolun from Imam Nafi’ , Abdullah ibn ‘Amir, Ibn Katsir, al-Kisa-iy etc. and ‘ijazah (licence or permission from the teacher) are continually being conferred through the method called “talaqqi” (student having to recite, face to face, the whole of the Qur’an with the Sheikh [teacher] who possesses link to the isnad).

Diacritical markings added to script

To assist non-Arabic speakers, as well as to ensure correctness in reading of text especially by those who do not know Arabic grammar, Abu’ al-Aswad ad-Du’ali r.a. a companion of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib r.a., was assigned to add diacritical markings to the text. This do not in any way changes the recitation, but rather ensure conformity with the original recitation.

The high regard for the sanctity of the written Qur’an flowered into the art of calligraphy (khat) for writing the scripts, emphasising beauty with clarity in its written form. This can be seen in the Muslims continuing to develop beautiful styles of writing the Arabic scripts, and copies of the Qur’an were handwritten by Islamic calligraphers (khattat) and even embellished with motifs and decorations – but always faithful to the original recitation. This is important to note that the concern was not only what was written but how it will be recited.

With the increase use of paper and with the introduction of printing press, in 1926, the renown University al-Azhar was commissioned by King Fuad to publish a Mushaf for the Muslim world. This Mushaf was more towards ensuring that recitation conformed to the famous school of recitation of Hafaz from ‘Asim ibn Abin-Nujud.. The chain reads: “from Hafaz, from ‘Asim ibn Abi an-Nujud, from Abi ‘Abdur Rahman ‘Abdullah ibn Habib as-Sulaim, who studied under various Companions of the Prophet namely ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, Uthman ibn ‘Affan, Zaid ibn Tsabit and Ubay ibn Ka’ab (all of them were tutored directly by the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. whose recitation were constantly checked by Jibra’il a.s.)”


In 1980, another Mushaf was compiled and published in Saudi Arabia called Mushaf al-Madina. Its peculiarity is in terms of strictly following the rasm or spelling of the ‘Uthmaniy Mushaf, by segregating all vowels which in previous Mushaf may have been written as part of a word (these are now put separately, to still ensure that the recitations do not change).

Many other countries[5] also, since then published their own Mushaf but strictly following the same convention as mentioned above. The universal scrutiny by Muslims has also ensured no deviation in this matter will ever occur.

“Musabaqah tilawah al-Qur’an” and proliferation of “Ma-ahad Tahfiz al-Qur’an”

Today, international Qur’an recitals (musabaqah tilawah al-Qur’an) are organized annually where Muslim reciters from many countries present their recitation to be judged by experts in this field. This is unique only to the Qur’an and demonstrates clearly that indeed there is only one Qur’an – and it conforms to the same recitation through the unbroken chain of reciters up to our Prophet s.a.w. The tradition for committing Qur’an to memory also has now begun to be re-emphasized worldwide with special centres for memorization of the Qur’an called “ma’ahad tahfiz al-Qur’an” sprouting in many Muslim countries, adding to those being done in mosques. Also, Islamic institutes of higher learning such as Al-Azhar have made memorization of the Qur’an as a primary entrance requirement for their students pursuing higher Islamic studies.

With all these factors, no one can doubt the authenticity and purity of the preservation of the Qur’an. Any attempt to tamper, to exclude or to add on to it has been and would be easily detected. Discovery of so-called ancient text, like the so-called Sana’a, (Yemeni) text is irrelevant, for these are already accounted for as unverified or perhaps even spurious copies, either pre-dating the caliph Uthman’s period or, if post dated, then, it would already have been rejected universally by the Muslim ummah. Orientalists and other non-Muslim scholars of religion should note that in Islamic scriptural history of the Qur’an, we do not have such problems as that found in other religious traditions, like that of the ‘apocrypha’ as in Biblical studies. Absence of any gaps or lacunae; affirmed through the unbroken chain of memorizers / reciters; it being subjected to scrutiny universally amongst the Muslims – are unique factors which has no equal amongst the history of religious scriptures, which indeed only the Qur’an can claim.

وَإِنَّهُ ۥ لَكِتَـٰبٌ عَزِيزٌ۬ لَّا يَأۡتِيهِ ٱلۡبَـٰطِلُ مِنۢ بَيۡنِ

.

يَدَيۡهِ وَلَا مِنۡ خَلۡفِهِۦ‌ۖ تَنزِيلٌ۬ مِّنۡ حَكِيمٍ حَمِيدٍ۬

“For behold, it is a sublime divine writ: no falsehood can ever attain to it openly, and neither in a stealthy manner, [since it is] bestowed from on high by One Who is truly wise, ever to be praised.”

(Qur’an: al-Fussilat: 41: 41-42)

--------------------------------------------------------

Endnotes:

[1] Thus the literal meaning of “Al-Qur’an” is “the Recitation”.

[2] (Ibn Abi Dawud in “Masaahif” counted 23 written copies existed during the Prophets lifetime – reference: “The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society” – Karachi 1973)

[3] r.a. (abbreviation from Arabic “radiallaahu an-ha” or “radiallahu anhu”) meaning “may Allah be pleased with him or her.” A respectful address whenever the wives or companions of the Prophet are mentioned.

[4] Ahmad Von Denffer “’Ulum al-Qur’an: An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur’an”: published in 1983 by The Islamic Foundation, London UK.

[5] Example such as Brunei, Malaysia etc.

--------------------------------------------------