Textual History of the Qur'an: Difference between revisions

Textual History of the Qur'an (view source)

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 The perfect transmission of the Quran in textual and oral form is an article of faith for most schools and sects of Islam and figures highly in the beliefs of Muslims around the divine nature of their religion. The orthodox Islamic scholars argue that the Qur'an today is identical to that received by Prophet [[Muhammad]]. This contention however is challenged both by parts of the Islamic tradition itself and the findings of modern scholarship.
-It is clear, nonetheless that with missing verses, a wide array of canonical and non-canonical readings, and the very best scholars and reciters of Islam (whom Muhammad himself had approved of) rejecting the Qur'an of Uthman, one is left with a very human text, as prone to corruption as any other medieval text, and those who deny this are left, it would seem, holding an untenable position.
 ==Introduction==
 The Qur'an is claimed to be a revelation from [[Allah]] to Prophet [[Muhammad]] through the Angel [[Gabriel]]. It was revealed to Muhammad in stages, taking 23 years to reach its completion.
-At no time during Muhammad's life did he ever order these alleged revelations to be compiled into a single book.<ref name="Abu Bakr">"''...Therefore I suggest, you (Abu Bakr) order that the Qur'an be collected." I said to 'Umar, "How can you do something which Allah's Apostle did not do?" 'Umar said, "By Allah, that is a good project...''" - {{Bukhari|6|61|509}}</ref> If Muhammad was, as he claimed, a messenger to all mankind, it is perplexing as to why he never gave thought to the written preservation of his message.
+The textual and oral transmission history of the Quran are interconnected. As discussed in this article, standardisation first occured in the written consonantal skeleton. This acted as a constraint on the variant oral readings, which too eventually became standardised in stages. This was accomplished by Muslims over a period of many centuries. Muslims would argue that the Qur'an was preserved by Allah as he had promised.<ref>"''We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).''" - {{Quran|15|9}}</ref>
-The textual and oral history of the Quran are interconnected. As discussed in this article, standardisation first occured in the written consonantal skeleton. This acted as a constraint on the variant oral readings, which too eventually became standardised in stages. This was accomplished by Muslims over a period of many centuries. Muslims would argue that the Qur'an was preserved by Allah as he had promised.<ref>"''We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).''" - {{Quran|15|9}}</ref>
+==Earliest Collection of the Quran==
+Unfortunately, at no time during Muhammad's life did he ever order the Quran to be compiled into a single book.<ref name="Abu Bakr">"''...Therefore I suggest, you (Abu Bakr) order that the Qur'an be collected." I said to 'Umar, "How can you do something which Allah's Apostle did not do?" 'Umar said, "By Allah, that is a good project...''" - {{Bukhari|6|61|509}}</ref>. Many Qurra' (“reciters”) had died before the Quran had been compiled in written form<ref>"''...Umar has come to me and said: "Casualties were heavy among the Qurra' of the Qur'an (i.e. those who knew the Quran by heart) on the day of the Battle of Yalmama, and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may take place among the Qurra' on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost...''" - {{Bukhari|6|61|509}}</ref>, so Abu Bakr asked Zaid bin Thabit to collect it into a book.<ref>"''...Then Abu Bakr said (to me). 'You are a wise young man and we do not have any suspicion about you, and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle. So you should search for (the fragmentary scripts of) the Qur'an and collect it in one book)." By Allah If they had ordered me to shift one of the mountains, it would not have been heavier for me than this ordering me to collect the Qur'an...''" - {{Bukhari|6|61|509}}</ref> Zaid was reluctant, for Muhammad had never ordered such an action to be taken.<ref name="Abu Bakr"></ref> He stated, "I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from (what was written on) palm-leaf stalks, thin white stones, and also from the men who knew it by heart, till I found the last [two] verse[s] of Surat at-Tauba (repentance) with Abi Khuzaima al-Ansari, and I did not find it with anybody other than him."<ref name="Zaid bin Thabit">"''...I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from (what was written on) palm-leaf stalks, thin white stones...''"{{Bukhari|6|61|509}}</ref>
-==Could the Qur'an have Been Preserved through Memorization?==
+[[Sahih Bukhari]] contains contradictory material around the collection and preservation of the text of the Qur'an:{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|61|525}}|
+Narrated Qatada: I asked Anas bin Malik: Who collected the Qur'an at the time of the Prophet? He replied, Four, all of whom were from the Ansar, '''Ubai bin Ka'b, Muadh bin Jabal, Zaid bin Thabit and Abu Zaid'''.}}{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|61|526}}|
+Narrated Anas bin Malik:
+When the Prophet died, none had collected the Qur'an but four persons: '''Abu Ad Darda, Mu'adh bin Jabal, Zaid bin Thabit and Abu Zaid'''. We were the inheritor (of Abu Zaid) as he had no offspring .}}
-Available evidence seems to disagree, and Muhammad himself had forgotten portions of the Qur'an and needed his followers to remind him.<ref>"''Allah's Apostle heard a man reciting the Qur'an at night, and said, "May Allah bestow His Mercy on him, as he has reminded me of such-and-such Verses of such-and-such Suras, which I was caused to forget."''" - {{Bukhari|6|61|558}}</ref> This led to him having a [[Muhammad's Just In Time Revelations|"just in time" revelation]]<ref>"''Whatever communications We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it...''" - {{Quran|2|106}}</ref> claiming that some verses were to be forgotten. Furthermore, evidence that Muhammad had a somewhat casual attitude to variant readings is provided in the Qira'at section later in this article.
+It is common to point out that even today there are many memorizers (huffaz) of the complete Qur'an. This is not necessarily a good analogy for the earliest period, because modern students have the benefit of choosing a standard qira'at (recitation) and standard written Qur'an as a complete book to help them or their teachers in the learning process.
-What about the great memorizers of Islam from among the [[Salaf]], maybe they had successfully memorized it? Well, that would not work as an argument. The best, and most, of the Qurra' (“reciters”) had died before its compilation.<ref>"''...Umar has come to me and said: "Casualties were heavy among the Qurra' of the Qur'an (i.e. those who knew the Quran by heart) on the day of the Battle of Yalmama, and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may take place among the Qurra' on other battlefields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost...''" - {{Bukhari|6|61|509}}</ref> Abu Bakr even knew that the Qur'an would be hard to collect<ref>"''...Then Abu Bakr said (to me). 'You are a wise young man and we do not have any suspicion about you, and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle. So you should search for (the fragmentary scripts of) the Qur'an and collect it in one book)." By Allah If they had ordered me to shift one of the mountains, it would not have been heavier for me than this ordering me to collect the Qur'an...''" - {{Bukhari|6|61|509}}</ref> and that Muhammad had never ordered such an action to be taken.<ref name="Abu Bakr"></ref>
+===Muhammad's Own Recollection of the Verses===
+Muhammad himself had forgotten portions of the Qur'an and needed his followers to remind him.<ref>"''Allah's Apostle heard a man reciting the Qur'an at night, and said, "May Allah bestow His Mercy on him, as he has reminded me of such-and-such Verses of such-and-such Suras, which I was caused to forget."''" - {{Bukhari|6|61|558}}</ref> This led to him having a [[Muhammad's Just In Time Revelations|"just in time" revelation]]<ref>"''Whatever communications We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it...''" - {{Quran|2|106}}</ref> claiming that some verses were to be forgotten.<ref>See also "By degrees shall we teach thee (Muhammad) to declare (the message), so thou shalt not forget, except as God wills. - {{Quran|87|6}}}}</ref> Furthermore, evidence that Muhammad had a somewhat casual attitude to variant readings is provided in the Qira'at section later in this article.
-The Qur'an in fact was ''not'' memorized in full by the [[Sahabah|companions]], and for proof of this we need only look to the words of Zaid bin Thabit, the companion who was charged with its collection.
-He had stated "I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from (what was written on) palm-leaf stalks, thin white stones, and also from the men who knew it by heart, till I found the last [two] verse[s] of Surat at-Tauba (repentance) with Abi Khuzaima al-Ansari, and I did not find it with anybody other than him."<ref name="Zaid bin Thabit">"''...I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from (what was written on) palm-leaf stalks, thin white stones...''"{{Bukhari|6|61|509}}</ref>
+Hadith also exist to the point that Muhammad himself forgot parts of the Qur'an:{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|61|556}}|
-The fact that in more recent times there have been many memorizers (huffaz) of the complete Qur'an is not a helpful analogy because modern students have the benefit of choosing a standard qira'at (recitation) and standard written Qur'an as a complete book to help them or their teachers in the learning process.
-===Muhammad's Own Recollection of the Verses===
-Hadith exist to the point that Muhammad himself forgot parts of the Qur'an:{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|61|556}}|
 Narrated Aisha: The Prophet heard a man reciting the Qur'an in the mosque and said, "May Allah bestow His Mercy on him, as he has reminded me of such-and-such Verses of such a Surah."}}{{Quote|{{Muslim|4|1720}}|
-'A'isha reported that the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) heard a person reciting the Qur'an at night. Upon this he said: May Allah show mercy to him; he has reminded me of such and such a verse which I had missed in such and such a surah.}}The Qur'an says that even the messenger might forget certain verses:{{Quote|{{Quran|87|6}}|
+'A'isha reported that the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) heard a person reciting the Qur'an at night. Upon this he said: May Allah show mercy to him; he has reminded me of such and such a verse which I had missed in such and such a surah.}}
-By degrees shall we teach thee (Muhammad) to declare (the message), so thou shalt not forget, except as God wills. }}In the below hadith it seems Muhammad's [[Sahabah|companions]] also forgot passages of the Qur'an:{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|61|559}}|
+In the below hadith it seems Muhammad's [[Sahabah|companions]] also forgot passages of the Qur'an:{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|61|559}}|
 Narrated Abdullah: The Prophet said, "Why does anyone of the people say, 'I have forgotten such-and-such Verses (of the Qur'an)?' He, in fact, is caused (by Allah) to forget."}}{{Quote|{{Muslim|4|1726}}|
 Ibn Mas'ud reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: Wretched is the man who says: I forgot such and such a sura, or I forget such and such a verse, but he has been made to forget.}}
-===The Satanic Verses===
-The famous [[Satanic Verses]] were verses of the Qur'an which Muhammad received but later claimed came from Satan and not Allah, calling for the worship of the pagan "daughters of Allah" that were supposedly worshiped by the Meccans. There are reports of this incident in all major tafsirs, demonstrating the faith that the tradition has in the event as reality.{{quote | {{cite quran|53|19|end=22|style=ref}} | Have ye seen Lat. and 'Uzza,<BR>And another, the third (goddess), Manat?<BR>What! for you the male sex, and for Him, the female?<BR>Behold, such would be indeed a division most unfair!}}So the story goes, under increasing pressure and  boycotts from the pagan Meccans, a weakened and precarious Muhammad accommodated the Meccan pagans by adding verses acknowledging the existence of the three pagan goddesses Lat, Uzza, and Manat, alongside Allah.
-====Ibn Ishaq====
-From Ibn Ishaq's "[[Sirat Rasul Allah]]". (Ibn Ishaq is the earliest extant Islamic historian to chronicle the life and times of Muhammad, though his work is only preserved in the later text of his pupil ibn Hisham):
-{{Quote||Because of his love for his people and his anxiety over them it would delight him if the obstacle ‎that made his task so difficult could be removed; so that he meditated on the project and longed ‎for it and it was dear to him. Then God sent down 'By the star when it sets your comrade errs not ‎and is not deceived, he speaks not from his own desire,' and when he reached His words 'Have ‎you thought of al-Lat and al-'Uzza and Manat the third, the other',‎ Satan, when he was ‎meditating upon it, and desiring to bring it (sc. reconciliation) to his people, put upon his tongue ‎‎'these are the exalted Gharaniq whose intercession is approved.' When Quraysh heard that, ‎they were delighted and greatly pleased at the way in which he spoke of their gods and they ‎listened to him; while the believers were holding that what their prophet brought them from their ‎Lord was true, not suspecting a mistake or a vain desire or a slip, and when he reached the ‎prostration ‎3 and the end of the Sura in which he prostrated himself the Muslims prostrated ‎themselves when their prophet prostrated confirming what he brought and obeying his command...<ref name="Ishaq Satanic Verses">Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, Translated by A. Guillaume, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, (Re-issued in Karachi, Pakistan, 1967, 13th impression, 1998) 1955, p. 146-148.</ref>}}
-====Al-Tabari====
-Al-Tabari was an early and prolific Islamic historian who also recorded the Satanic verses incident.
-{{Quote||Then God revealed:
-:''By the Star when it sets, your comrade does not err, nor is''
-:''he deceived; nor does he speak out of (his own) desire ...''
-and when he came to the words:
-:''Have you thought upon al-Lat and al-'Uzza and Manat, the third, the other?''
-Satan cast on his tongue, because of his inner debates and what he desired to bring to his people, the words:
-:''These are the high-flying cranes; verily their intercession is accepted with approval.''<ref name="Tabari Stanic Verses">Al-Tabari (838? – 923 A.D.), The History of al-Tabari (Ta’rikh al-rusul wa’l-muluk), Vol. VI: Muhammad at Mecca, Translated by W. M. Watt and M.V. McDonald, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1988, ISBN: 0-88706-707-7, pp. 107-112.</ref>}}
 ==Companion Codices and the Uthmanic Standard==
+===The Collection of the Quranic Corpus under Caliph Uthman===
-===Collection of the Qur'an===
+Multiple sources report that the third caliph Uthman ordered various copies of the Qur'an to be burnt because there were clear differences in the recitation of Qur'an among people of Sham and people of Iraq. The differences were so great Uthman and his companions feared future dispute about true Qur'an and its contents. So Uthman asked Hafsa for her copy so that a committee could make a single version, and he ordered that all other copies and fragments be burned. Uthman then sent out his official Quranic text to a small number of important cities. That this happened at all indicates at one time even the Muslim community acknowledged the existence of multiple divergent versions of the Quran.
-The most trusted collection of [[hadith]] and considered the most authentic book after the Qur'an is Sahih Bukhari, yet Bukhari contains contradictory material around the collection and preservation of the text of the Qur'an:{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|61|525}}|
-Narrated Qatada: I asked Anas bin Malik: Who collected the Qur'an at the time of the Prophet? He replied, Four, all of whom were from the Ansar, '''Ubai bin Ka'b, Muadh bin Jabal, Zaid bin Thabit and Abu Zaid'''.}}{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|61|526}}|
-Narrated Anas bin Malik:
-When the Prophet died, none had collected the Qur'an but four persons: '''Abu Ad Darda, Mu'adh bin Jabal, Zaid bin Thabit and Abu Zaid'''. We were the inheritor (of Abu Zaid) as he had no offspring .}}
-===The Collection of the Qur'anic Corpus under Caliph Uthman===
-Multiple sources report that the third caliph Uthman ordered various copies of the Qur'an to be burnt because there were clear differences in the recitation of Qur'an among people of Sham and people of Iraq. The differences were so great Uthman and his companions feared future dispute about true Qur'an and its contents. So Uthman asked Hafsa for her copy and he ordered to make many copies of Qur'an and to burn and destroy all the existing copies of the Qur'an. Uthman ordered others to accept Hafsa's copy as the official Qur'anic text. That this happened at all indicates at one time even the Muslim community acknowledged the existence of multiple divergent versions of the Qur'an.
 Narrated Anas bin Malik: