Writing Down The Qur’an

During the time of the Prophet was the Qur’an committed to memory and writing down?

The Qur’an was revealed to an illiterate Prophet who grew up in a society that was for the most part illiterate. Thus, the Prophet’s primary concern was to commit the Revelation to memory and to convey it to others. The following verse sheds light onto this fact:

He it is Who has sent among the unlettered ones a Messenger of their own, reciting to them His Revelations, and purifying them (of false beliefs and doctrines, and sins, and all kinds of uncleanness), and instructing them in the Book and the Wisdom, whereas before that they were indeed lost in obvious error. (Jumu’a 62:2)

The Prophet was eager to memorize and preserve the Revelations that came to him. He would hastily repeat the Revelation, worried that he might forget that which Archangel Gabriel had brought him. As indicated above, the Prophet was later assured that God would enable him to memorize the Revelations. As the Qur’an conveys to us below, among the many false objections raised by the Meccan polytheists was also the claim that some scholarly people in Mecca were secretly reciting from some old books to the Prophet, giving him these ideas that were later written down: “They also say: ‘(It consists of) only fables of the ancients which he has got written. They are being read to him in early mornings and evenings (while people are at home)’” (Furqan 25:5). The Prophet, however, received the Divine Revelation in its precise meaning and wording through Archangel Gabriel and committed it to his memory. He dictated it to his scribes and conveyed it to people in strict accordance with God’s command.

He also recited it during the prayers and on other occasions, whether they were during the day or at night. In addition, he recited and presented to Archangel Gabriel those verses and chapters he had received every Ramadan. In the year of the Prophet’s death this happened twice.

In the following verses, the Qur’an speaks of itself as the Book that has been written down or recorded:

Most certainly it is a Qur’an most honorable in a Book well-guarded. None except the purified ones can reach it (to obtain the knowledge it contains. And none except those cleansed of material and spiritual impurities should touch it). (Waqia 56:77-79) No indeed! It surely is a reminder and an admonition (that suffices for all who come to it with an open heart). So whoever wills receives admonition and takes heed. (It is recorded) in scrolls greatly honored, exalted (in God’s sight) and perfectly purified (of falsehood, vanity, and inconsistency). (Abasa 80:11-14)

The incident described below, which was the cause of Umar’s conversion to Islam, also indicates that the Companions had kept private records of some portions of the Qur’an from the very beginning. Umar, in accordance with a decision made by the Meccan polytheists at Dar al-Nadwa, was to

assassinate the Prophet. On his way to carry out this task, Umar met Nu’aym ibn Mas’ud, one of the early Muslim converts and learned from him that Umar’s sister and her husband had also become Muslim. So, Umar decided to go to kill them first. Upon arriving at their house, Umar heard the Qur’anic verses being recited inside. The people in the house quickly hid the Qur’anic pages when they heard Umar come in. He asked them what they had been reciting and, without waiting for their answer, he hit his brother-in-law.

Umar’s sister was angered by her brother’s behavior and told him that they had become Muslim. They then showed Umar what they had been reciting. Umar impatiently started to read the pages, but quickly became fascinated by what he was reading. He suddenly turned to Islam, went to the Prophet to declare that he had become Muslim.

God’s Messenger had the whole text of the Divine Messages, from the beginning to the end, committed to writing by the scribes of the Revelation. The Revelation scribes recorded the revealed verses on leather or scraps of parchment, palm leaves, flat and wide stones, wooden plates, pieces of bone, or whatever other suitable material they could find. The names of some of the scribes of the Revelations are: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Zayd ibn Thabit, Ubayy ibn Ka’ab, Muawiya ibn Abu Sufyan, Khalid ibn Walid, Ab’an ibn Said, and Thabit ibn Qays. The Prophet, as can be understood from relevant narrations, demanded that the Revelation scribe read the Revelation that had just been recorded to check its accuracy. After this, a large number of Companions who could write would make a copy of the text of the Qur’an, and would satisfy themselves that their record was correct by reading it out to the Prophet. Consequently, the preservation of the Revelations was not solely dependent on the compilation of verses that remained only in the memories of some people; it was also preserved in a written form so that even one change to one word would be noticed.

 

Akgul, Muhittin (2009). The Quran in 99 Questions (Abdullah Erdemli Trans.). New Jersey: Tughra Books. (Originally published in Turkish as Kur’an İklimine Seyahat)