Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Textual History of the Qur'an: Difference between revisions

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According to orthodox Islamic belief, the Qur'an is the unchanging, eternal word of [[Allah]], pre-existent before all time and space, handed to the [[Muhammad ibn Abdullah|prophet]] through divine revelation. The text of this final word of Allah is thus eternal and unchanging, as opposed to the previous revelations given to [[People of the Book|people of the book]], which were changed and corrupted over the ages. This picture, though, is highly complicated by the fact that the Islamic tradition recognizes 7 historical reading traditions, each with two transmitters featuring different "harakat" or short vowels for the "rasm" or consonantal skeleton of the text. Recent work on the language of the Qur'an, extant manuscripts, and discoveries such as the [[Sana'a Manuscript]] complicate this picture significantly more. From the Sana'a palimpset it is apparent that the received text of the Qur'an at one point had variants which were not preserved in any of the 7 reading traditions, and the reading traditions themselves differ sometimes significantly in grammar and meaning. The Islamic tradition itself also complicates the picture. The below hadith traditions indicate that the complete, pristine text of the Qur'an did not make it out past the first generation of Muslims. According to the tradition, many of the Muslims who had memorized the entirety of the Qur'an were killed in battle before they could put their verses to writing, and some verses were lost with them; the ends and beginning of some of the suwar or chapters were in dispute, and several ahadith state that the entirety of the Qur'an was not passed down. Shi'ites in particular have traditions which claim that up to a quarter of the Qur'an was not passed down to the present day. Some hadith also claim that entire verses were "cancelled" or removed from the text for no apparent reason. All of these traditions were written down in or after the second Islamic century, so they likely reflect the thoughts and feelings of people alive at that time about the textual integrity of the Qur'an, which was by this time well known as the sacred text of the Muslims and their empire.  

{{Quote|1={{Bukhari|6|60|201}}, See Also {{Bukhari|9|89|301}}, {{Bukhari|6|61|509}}|2=Narrated Zaid bin Thabit Al-Ansari: who was one of those who used to write the Divine Revelation: Abu Bakr sent for me after the (heavy) casualties among the warriors (of the battle) of Yamama (where a great number of Qurra' were killed). 'Umar was present with Abu Bakr who said, 'Umar has come to me and said, The people have suffered heavy casualties on the day of (the battle of) Yamama, and I am afraid that there will be more casualties among the Qurra' (those who know the Qur'an by heart) at other battle-fields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost, unless you collect it. And I am of the opinion that you should collect the Qur'an." Abu Bakr added, "I said to 'Umar, 'How can I do something which Allah's Apostle has not done?' 'Umar said (to me), 'By Allah, it is (really) a good thing.' So 'Umar kept on pressing, trying to persuade me to accept his proposal, till Allah opened my bosom for it and I had the same opinion as 'Umar." (Zaid bin Thabit added:) Umar was sitting with him (Abu Bakr) and was not speaking. me). "You are a wise young man and we do not suspect you (of telling lies or of forgetfulness): and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle. Therefore, look for the Qur'an and collect it (in one manuscript). " By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) had ordered me to shift one of the mountains (from its place) it would not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Qur'an. I said to both of them, "How dare you do a thing which the Prophet has not done?" Abu Bakr said, "By Allah, it is (really) a good thing. So I kept on arguing with him about it till Allah opened my bosom for that which He had opened the bosoms of Abu Bakr and Umar. So I started locating Quranic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who knew it by heart). I found with Khuzaima two Verses of Surat-at-Tauba which I had not found with anybody else, (and they were)...}}

{{quote |{{citation|title=The History of al-Tabari|trans_title=Ta’rikh al-rusul wa’l-muluk|volume=vol. IX|ISBN=0-88706-691-7|year=1990|publisher=SUNY Press|author=al-Tabari (d. 923)|editor=Ismail K. Poonawala|url=https://archive.org/details/HistoryAlTabari40Vol/History_Al-Tabari_10_Vol/page/n2267/mode/2up|page=148}}<br>{{citation|title=تاريخ الرسل والملوك|author=أبو جعفر الطبري|url=https://app.turath.io/book/9783|publisher=al-Maktabah al-Shamilah|volume=vol. 11|page=540}}|'Abdallah b. Sa'd b. Abi Sarh used to write for him. He apostatized from Islam and later returned to Islam on the day of the conquest of Mecca. }}

{{quote | {{Abudawud|14|2677}} | Narrated Sa'd: On the day when Mecca was conquered, the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) gave protection to the People except four men and two women and he named them. Ibn AbuSarh was one of them. He then narrated the tradition. He said: Ibn AbuSarh hid himself with Uthman ibn Affan. When the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) called the people to take the oath of allegiance, he brought him and made him stand before the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him). He said: Apostle of Allah, receive the oath of allegiance from him. He raised his head and looked at him thrice, denying him every time. After the third time he received his oath. He then turned to his Companions and said: Is not there any intelligent man among you who would stand to this (man) when he saw me desisting from receiving the oath of allegiance, and kill him? They replied: We do not know, Apostle of Allah, what lies in your heart; did you not give us an hint with your eye? He said: It is not proper for a Prophet to have a treacherous eye.}}  

*[[Textual History of the Qur'an]]