9.3. THE ERA OF ‘UTHMAAN 644-656 C.E.
After the death of the second Caliph, ‘Umar, a committee made up of six of the most famous companions of the Prophet chose ‘Uthmaan ibn ‘Affaan to be the third Caliph.
During the reign of Caliph ‘Umar (634-644 C.E.), the Islamic state expanded beyond the borders of the Arabian peninsula into Egypt, Syria and Iraq. In the subsequent reign of Caliph ‘Uthmaan, the expansion continued on into Persia, India, Russia, China, Turkey and across North Africa. Many of the people of these regions accepted Islaam and learned the recitation of the Quran from the early Muslims. The Quran was revealed to the Prophet in seven different Arabic dialects, and the early Muslims taught the Quran in its different readings.
The Second Writing
In the Muslim provinces, some Arabs began to boast that their dialect was superior to that of others. Also, when new Muslims made mistakes in their recitation of the Quran, it was sometimes difficult to tell whether it was really an error or whether it was one of the seven readings which were taught by the Prophet. These problems eventually became a source of confusion in the Muslims provinces outside of Arabia. One of the prophet’s companions (Sahaabah) by the name of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamaan noticed the confusion while he was in Itaq, and feared that it might lead to a breakup of the Muslim nation and the changing of the Qur’aan. On his return to the capital, he informed Caliph ‘Uthmaan of what he had heard and seen. Caliph ‘Uthmaan realized the seriousness of the situation and called the major Sahaabah together in order to find a solution to the problem. They decided to make official copies of the Quran from the one compiled in Caliph Abu Bakr’s time and limit the people to its recitation.
‘Uthmaan asked Hafsah for the original copy of the Quran and called on Zayd ibn Thaabit to head a committee of four Quranic scholars who would take on the task of making the official copies. When the copies were completed, the original was returned to Hafsah. A total of seven copies were made and one was sent to Makkah, another to Syria, one to Basra, one to Kufah, one to Yemen, one to Bahrain and one was kept in the capital, al-Madeenah. Caliph ‘Uthmaan sent an official reciter of the Quran with each copy in order to clear up any problems which might later arise. He also ordered that all other copies of the Quran be destroyed, as people had made notes in their personal copies and some copies were incomplete. All new copies were then made from the official copy called Mus-haf Uthmaan, and in that way the Quran was saved from any kind of change or loss. This process was completed in the year 646 C.E., two years after ‘Uthmaan became the new Caliph.
MEMORIZATION OF THE QURAN
Although the total number of Sahaabah who had memorized all of the Quran and read it back to the Prophet before his death were only eight, many others memorized it after his death. In fact, with every succeeding generation of Muslims, the numbers of those who memorized all of the Quran has increased. Today there are literally hundreds of thousands of Muslims throughout the world who have done so.
There is no other book, religious or otherwise, which has been memorized on this scale in recorded history. The Quran is about four fifths the length of the New Testament of the Christians, yet not a single person in recorded history is known to have memorized the New Testament completely. In fact, if all of the books in the world were somehow to be destroyed, the only book which could be rewritten, word for word without a single mistake is the Glorious Quran.
Significance Of The Quran’s Preservation
Allaah promised in the Quran that He would take on the responsibility of protecting His final Word from loss. He said,
“Verily We have revealed the Reminder (Quran) and verily We shall preserve it.”3
Thus, the Quran has been preserved in both the oral as well written from the way no other religious book in history has been.
Why did Allaah preserve the Quran and allow His earlier Books of Divine Revelation to be changed or lost? The answer to that question lies in the following three facts:
1. The earlier prophets and their Books were sent to particular people in particular periods of history. Once the period ended, a new prophet was sent with a new Book to replace the previous Book. So, it was not necessary that these Books be preserved by Allaah, Himself. The preservation of the earlier Books was left up to the people as a test for them. Thus, when the people went astray, they changed what was written in the books which the prophets brought, in order to make allowable the things which were forbidden to them. In that way all of the earlier Books of Revelation became either changed or lost.
2. The Prophet Muhammad was the last prophet whom Allaah sent, and he was not sent to a particular people or a particular time. He was sent to all of mankind until the end of the world.
Allaah said in the Quran:
“We have only sent you (Muhammad) as a giver of glad tidings and a warner to all mankind, but most men do not understand.”4
Thus, his Book of revelation, the Quran, had to be specially preserved from any form of change or loss so that it would be available to all the generations of man until the last day of the world.
3. The Qur’aan was the main miracle which was given to Prophet Muhammad to prove that he was a true prophet of God and not an imposter. So, the Qur’aan had to be saved to prove to the later generations that Muhammad was really the last prophet of God. All of the false prophets who came after Prophet Muhammad brought books which they claimed to be revealed from Allaah, but none of them have the miraculous ability to be memorized by thousands, nor have they improved on the message in the Qur’aan.
The significance of the Quran’s preservation is that Islaam has been kept in its original purity because of it. Man can always return to the sources of Islaam no matter what people may have added or forgotten in time. All of the essential principles of Islaam are to be found in the Quran. Consequently, the preservation of the Quran meant the preservation of Islaam in its final form. The loss of the Gospel of Jesus means that Christians can never return to the true teachings of Prophet Jesus except by accepting Islaam. Similarly, the original Torah was lost when Prophet Soloman’s Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. Thus, the Jews can not return to the pure teachings of Prophet Moses except by following Islaam.
It is only in Islaam that the pure teachings of the prophets have been preserved without any change. That is why Allaah said in the Quran,
“Verily the only acceptable religion to Allah is Islaam.”5
By Bilal Philips
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