Prolegomena Lesson 13

1. Prolegomena Lesson 13 Chapter 8 Collection of the Qur'an: Who took the action? How did they gather? A. The argument B. Contradictions among the Traditions in their Account of the Collection of the Qur'an C. The Contrariety of the Collection Traditions to the Book of God D. The Contrariety of the Collection Traditions to Rational Judgment E. Qur'an proven by Tawatur F. Collection Traditions and the possibility of Alteration of Qur'an CONCLUSION:

2. Collection of the Qur’an • In the narrations narrated by the school of companion, after several battles which happened after the death of the Prophet (S), several companions were killed. So it was feared that the Qur’an will be lost and forgotten. Therefore, the action taken, in order to prevent such incidence, was to write the Qur’an by whatever means of writing they had at that time. • Who took the action? • There is a bit of controversy in this issue; some narrations narrate that it was Abu-Bakr, some say it was Umar, and some say it was Othman.

3. How did they gather? • They announced that whosoever has any part of the Qur’an memorized should come with two witnesses and recite it, so that it may be recorded. • The writer was ZAID IBN THABIT. • Therefore, the whole Qur’an was written by one person, and two witnesses for the recitation. • This concept is supported by 22 narrations, after studying the narrations the followings pointed could be discussed.

4. A- The argument: • All the narrations are contradicting each other, in the following points: • When was the Qur’an collected in one book? Some say in the time of ABU-BAKR, others UMAR and yet others point out the collection in the time of UTHMAN. • Who did the compilation in the time of ABU-BAKR? ABU-BAKR, ZAID IBN THABIT, ZAID and UMAR, • Was ZAID given the complete authority on the collection? Some say it was completely by him, others say by the help of two witnesses. UMAR was rejected because he had only one witness. • Was it completely compiled in the time before UTHMAN or there were some verses still missing in until they were found in the time of UTHMAN. • Some narrations point out that UTHMAN removed some parts of the Qur’an, and some point out that it was same.

5. 6. What was the source of OTHMAN’s scripture? Was it the one which was compiled by ABU-BAKR, or he did the whole collection by the two witnesses, or from any one who heard the Prophet (S). 7. Who initiated the idea of collecting the Qur’an? Was it ABU-BAKR, or UMAR, or ZAID or both requested ABU-BAKR? 8. Who made the master copy, was it UMAR or UTHMAN. 9. When were the two verses of Sura al-BARA’A or TAWBA added to the Qur’an? In the time of ABU-BAKR or UMAR, (and if the Qur’an was collected in the time of OTHMAAN then it has to be in the time of OTHMAAN.) 10. Who brought these two verses of Sura al-BARA’A? Was it ABU-KHOZAYMA, or was it KHOZAYMA son of THABIT? 11. How the above two verses were proven to be from the Qur’an? Was it through one witness or two witnesses? 12. Who was assigned to write the Holy Qur’an? Was it ZAID, or Son of ZOBAYR, or SA’EED, or ABDURRAHMAAN, or THAQEEF, or UBAY son of KA’AB?

6. The narrations are contradicting each other in the School of Companions. Based on what was said above, these narrations are considered unreliable. On the contrary, there are many narrations narrated by other scholars—from the School of Companions—which clearly state that Qur’an was collected in the time of the Prophet (S).

7. B—Contradictions among the Traditions in their Account of the Collection of the Qur'an • The narrations point out that several people used to write the holy Qur’an in the time or Prophet like Ubay ibn Ka'ab, Zaid bin Thabit, Muad ibn Jabal, Abu Darda, Said ibn Ubaid, Abu Zaid. • It may be said that these were the reciters of Holy Qur’an and not the ones who wrote Qur’an.—How can this be correct, because there were hundreds of reciters of Holy Qur’an and hundreds who memorized Holy Qur’an in different parts of Islamic Lands at that time  So, how can we say that there were only 4 or 6 reciters of Holy Qur’an.

8. C—The Contrariety of the Collection Traditions to the Book of God Hadith Thaqlain, which is a very strong narration, clearly states that the Holy Qur’an was collected by Prophet before He died. Prophet said He is leaving for Muslims two things, and one of them is the Holy Qur’an. How can someone leave a thing which does not exist physically or it is in the minds of people. The Prophet said “I am leaving you Qur’an” and he did not say “verses” of the Holy Qur’an. • The narrations, which say Quran was collected after the Prophet’s death, conflict the Holy Qur’an. • Qur’an Challenges the non-believers to bring a similar Qur’an. That means that the whole Qur’an has to exist in order to face the challenge and in order to be compared by the challenging book. Also, the words “written book” has been mentioned in several places in the Qur’an.

9. D—The Contrariety of the Collection Traditions to Rational Judgment • D-1 Intellectualism of Prophet (S): • Narrations of collections after the death of Prophet conflict the Rational Evidences. • The prophet is the most intelligent person in his time. This fact is even acknowledged by the westerners. • The Prophet was very concerned person for his work, especially Islam • Islam is the final and worldwide religion  this makes Holy Qur’an the most important book. • From the above three points, we can conclude that such great project as recording the final and worldwide book presented by Allah, who is all wise, through his intelligent messenger, can never be ignored. Therefore, the logical fact is that Qur’an must have been compiled in a written form before the death of Holy Prophet.

10. D-2 Intellectualism of the Community: • The intellectual community always practices recording the important information. It was done by important people before Islam, by scientists, and by philosophers. Even the Arabs used to record the best poetries written and they used to hang them on the walls of the Holy Ka’ba. These poetries were called “The Hanged Ones” [معلقات — Moallaqat]. So it impossible to even assume that such community, who gets the best work of art in speech and eloquence ever heard, not record/write the Holy Qur’an.

11. D-3 Importance of Memorization in that Time: • The ranks of the people of that time were appreciated and based on the amount of information they memorized. So the memorized facts were the one of the criterion used to rank the people of that time. • In a community where many do not know how to read or write the best tool would be relying on the brain power and the memorization to spread the word. • Memorizing the Qur’an was easier than learning how to read and write in that time.

12. D-4 Importance by Prophet (S) on Memorization of the Holy Qur'an: • People in the time of Prophet were very much concerned for memorizing the Qur’an. It is said that more than 400 people memorized the Qur’an. And there are so many narrations that the Prophet used to emphasize on memorizing the Holy Qur’an and in giving importance to the Holy Qur’an. Therefore, this shows that the mentioned logical point that it is impossible that Prophet never told the companions to write the Qur’an. Zaid by himself narrates that “We used to record the Qur’an from [written text on a sheet] in the presence of the Messenger of God.” • If this much importance was given on the memorization of Qur’an, then how can it be said that Qur’an was not recorded and compiled in the time of Prophet???

13. E—Qur'an proven by Tawatur • The whole Qur’an is proved by Tawatur [تواتر]. All the contradicting narrations about Qur’an being collected after the death of Prophet(s), even if were correct, cannot be taken into consideration because Qur’an has been proven by Tawatur [تواتر] and all the contradicting narrations are testimonies and Solitary narrations. How can Qur’an be proven by one or two testimonies?

14. F—Collection Traditions and the possibility of Alteration of Qur'an • The Qur’an was collected by one or two witnesses which creates the possibility of alteration in the Holy Qur’an, because a solitary narration or a testimony of a witness is not supported by logic as a source of fact, it gives only a possibility, which even if it is taken into consideration by the intellects, the opposite part of such possibility still exists. If the Qur’an was based on testimonies and solitary narrations, then the possibility of alterations, by adding or removing text in Holy Qur’an, exists. The fact is that the Holy Qur’an is a Tawatur [تواتر] narration.

15. CONCLUSION: • It seems that Othman unified a master copy of Qur’an and eliminated all the copies which had alterations when compared to this master copy. • The question is: Is the master copy of Holy Qur’an which Othman standardized, considered authentic or not? • The Answer: Based on the belief of the followers of Ahlul-Bayt a.s, whenever the companions used to make a mistake, Imam Ali a.s came out and corrected the mistake by setting a proof. Therefore, how can Imam Ali a.s ignore protesting on such a huge issue like the Qur’an being altered? If, for example, Imam Ali a.s protested on the issue of Khilafat and Bib Fatima [s.a] protested on the issue of Fadak, how can the Infallibles ignore such a huge issue for 250 years during their Imamate among the entire Muslim community? Imam Ali a.s in his time of ruling never brought this issue. This proves that the standardized copy of Othman was approved by the Infallibles a.s.