Page 89 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

THE RECORDING AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE QUR'AN 69

ii. The Prophet's Dictation of the Qur'an

Upon the descent of wa!Jy, the Prophet routinely called for one of his
scribes to write down the latest verses." Zaid b. Thabit narrates that, because
of his proximity to the Prophet's Mosque, he was often summoned as scribe
whenever the wahy commenced. 10When the verse pertaining to jihad (~~)
was revealed, the Prophet called on Zaid b. Thabit with inkpot and writing
material (board or scapula bone) and began dictating; 'Arm b. Um-Maktum
al-A'ma, sitting nearby, inquired of the Prophet, "What about me? for I
am blind." And so came, «)paJ\ J)I y.P»11 ("for those who are not among
the disabled"]." There is also evidence of proofreading after dictation;
once the task of recording the verses was complete, Zaid would read
them back to the Prophet to ensure that no scribal errors had crept in."

iii. Recording the Qur'an was Very Common Among Companions

The prevalence of this practice among the Companions spurred the
Prophet to declare that no one should record anything from him save for
the Qur'an, "and whoever has written anything from me other than the
Qur'an should erase it"," by which he meant that Qur'anic and non-
Qur'anic (e.g. bad'ith) materials must not be written on the same sheet, so
as to avoid any confusion. In fact those who were unable to write often
appeared in the Mosque, vellum and parchment in hand, requesting
volunteers who might record for them. IS Based on the total number of
scribes, and the Prophet's custom of summoning them to record all new
verses, we can safely assume that in his own lifetime the entire Qur'an
was available in written form.

9 Abu 'Ubaid, Farfii'il, p. 280; See also Ibn I:Iajar, Fathul Biirf, ix:22, quoting
'Uthman, referring to Sunan of at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa'i, Abu Dawud, and al-Hakim
in his al-Mustadrak.
10 Ibn AbI Dawud, al-Masahif, p. 3; see also al-Bukhari, SaWl, Fada'il al-Qur'an:4.
11 Qur'an 4:95.
12 Ibn I:Iajar, Fatl;ul Biirf, ix:22; as-Sa'atI, Min~at al-Ma'biid, ii: 17.
13 As-Still, Adabal-Kuttiib, p. 165; al-Haithami, Mojma'az-Zawii'id, i:152.
14 Muslim, S~T~, az-Zuhd:72; also Ibn AbI Dawud, al-Ma~~if, p. 4. For a detailed
discussion see M.M. al-A'zami, Studies in Early Hadith Literature, American Trust
Publications, Indiana, 1978, pp. 22-24.
15 See al-Baihaqi, Sunan al-Kubrii, vi:16.