Preservation of the Qur'an
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The perfect and total preservation of the text of the Qur'an is an article of faith for most schools and sects of Islam. The textual integrity of the scripture is an important topic in Muslim circles and figures highly in the beliefs of Muslims around the divine nature of their religion. The orthodox Islamic scholars argue says that the text of 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.
Collection of the Qur'an
The most trusted collection of hadith and considered the most authentic book after the Qur'an is Sahih Bukhari but Bukhari contains contradictory material around the collection and preservation of the text:
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 .
Muhammad's Own Recollection of the Verses
Hadith exist to the point that Muhammad himself forgot parts of the Qur'an:
Allah in the Qur'an says that even his messenger might forget certain verses:
In the below hadith it seems Muhammad's companions also forgot passages of the Qur'an:
Claims of Missing Verses
There are claims in the hadith that certain verses are missing. For example the 'stoning verse' for adultery. The present day Qur’an does not contain the penalty of Rajm (stoning) for adulterers, which abrogated the previous penalty, rather the Qur'an we now possess assigns whipping as the punishment for adultery:
Al-Nurayn and al-Wilaya are two surahs (chapters) that are claimed to be included in the Qur'an by some Shi'ite sects. These sects would supposedly argue that Ali had a different copy of the Qur'an as compared with the third Caliph Uthman. However, these surahs are widely seen as fabrications in most of the Muslim world. Some believe these surahs to be forgeries, intended to increase animosity towards the Shi'ite Muslims in the Sunni world.
The Satanic Verses
The famous Satanic Verses were verses of the Qur'an which Muhammad recieved but later claimed came from Satan and not Allah, calling for the worship of the pagan "daughters of Allah" that were supposedly worshipped by the Meccans. There are reports of this incident in all major tafsirs to demonstrate this was an actual event during the time of the Prophet Muhammad.
And another, the third (goddess), Manat?
What! for you the male sex, and for Him, the female?
Behold, such would be indeed a division most unfair!
Under increasing pressure and boycotts from the pagan Meccans, a weakened and precarious Muhammad accommodated the Meccan pagans by 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.)
Al-Tabari
Al-Tabari was an early and prolific Islamic historian who also recorded the Satanic verses incident.
- 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.[2]
The Collection of the Qur'anic Corpus under Caliph Uthman
Various 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:
Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman came to Uthman at the time when the people of Sham and the people of Iraq were Waging war to conquer Arminya and Adharbijan. Hudhaifa was afraid of their (the people of Sham and Iraq) differences in the recitation of the Qur'an, so he said to 'Uthman, "O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Quran) as Jews and the Christians did before." So 'Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, "Send us the manuscripts of the Qur'an so that we may compile the Qur'anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you." Hafsa sent it to 'Uthman. 'Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit, 'Abdullah bin AzZubair, Said bin Al-As and 'AbdurRahman bin Harith bin Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. 'Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, "In case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point in the Qur'an, then write it in the dialect of Quraish, the Qur'an was revealed in their tongue." They did so, and when they had written many copies, 'Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. 'Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur'anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt. Said bin Thabit added, "A Verse from Surat Ahzab was missed by me when we copied the Qur'an and I used to hear Allah's Apostle reciting it. So we searched for it and found it with Khuzaima bin Thabit Al-Ansari. (That Verse was): 'Among the Believers are men who have been true in their covenant with Allah.' (33.23)Variant Readings
The hadith themselves confirm that variant readings not found in the Qur'an today were in circulation in the Muslim community at one time:
The Islamic Narrative
No copy of the Uthmanic rescension exists despite its centrality as the Ur-Qur'an of all modern readings, so no confirmation is available via comparison with it. A very old palimpset (imprinted scroll which was washed and written over) is extant from Sana'a, Yemen, which contains variants not found in any of the accepted readings of the Qur'an. The Islamic narrative itself comes to us mostly through the hadith tradition, which has been proven since Ignac Goldziher in the 19th century to be unreliable due to the nature of the "asaanid" or chains of authority supporting the hadith and the immense gulf of time between when the hadith were collected and when Muhammad lived. In addition the earliest copies of the Qur'an lack vowel and many diacritic markings, indicating that they were more a guide for memorization than the fully-fleshed out text that is extant today.
Conclusion
The earliest found copies of the Qur'an do not have diacritical marks, and evidence points to changes made to the Uthmanic recension.[3] Multiple people are said to have collected verses and surahs of the Qur'an after Muhammad's death. Differences existed among the various versions of the Qur'an before Caliph Uthman decided to burn all the copies except one. Muhammad himself forgot Qur'anic verses according to the hadith. Some verses, like the ones for stoning, are missing from the Qur'an we have today according to the hadith tradition.
See Also
- Corruption of Qur'an - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Corruption of the Qur'an
Translations
- A version of this page is also available in the following languages: Czech. For additional languages, see the sidebar on the left.
External links
References
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Taher, Abul, "Querying the Koran", The Guardian, Guardian News and Media Limited, 2000-08-08, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4048586,00.html.