The collection and compilation of the Quran

 

The compilation of the Qur’an went through three stages:

First: The Noble Qur’an was compiled in writing from the mouth of the Messenger (may God bless him and grant him peace): Initially, the Companions continued to memorize the Qur'an by heart, as Arabs were very famous for memorizing different things, then they narrated it to those who came after them in two ways:

One: the writing that was done for the Qur’an by the order of the Messenger (may God bless him, and before the demise of the prophet Muhammad - May Allah bless him- the Quran was well written and saved, yet not in one book, rather on various things.

 The second is the Memorization of the Quran.

Collecting the Noble Qur’an in one Mushaf during the era of Abubakr Al-Siddiq, may God be pleased with him:

 

Among the martyrs in the war against Musaylimah, the liar in al-Yamamah were many of the Qur’an’s memorizers. As a result, Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with him, under the advice of Umar ibn al-Khattab, may (God be pleased with him) collected the Qur’an, as it was collected from parchments, bones, fronds, and from the people who have memorized it.

             Abubakr Al-Siddiq, this great work, and the huge civilizational project to the great companion Zaid bin Thabit Al-Ansari, the written scriptures were with Abu Bakr during his lifetime, then with Umar, and then with Hafsa bint Omar.

                                   May Allah shower his mercy upon all of them.

 

 

 

 

 

Collecting the Noble Qur’an in one Mushaf during the era of Abubakr Al-Siddiq, may God be pleased with him: (2)

12 People

            During the 23 years of Muhammad's time as a prophet, the verses of the Quran were memorized as they were revealed, and about 42 scribes wrote the verses on different materials such as paper, cloth, bone fragments and leather.

In ancient times, literacy was a skill that few people had and Muhammad himself did not know how to read or write.

            During the time of Caliph Abu Bakr, when 70 people who knew the Quran by heart (qari), were killed in the Battle of Yamama, Umar ibn al-Khattab became concerned and appealed to Abu Bakr in order to compile the Quran into a book.

Abu Bakr formed a delegation under the leadership of Zaid ibn Thabit, one of the leading scribes.

This delegation of 12 people, including famous figures such as Uthman ibn Affan, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Talha ibn Ubaydullah, Abdullah ibn Masood, Ubayy ibn Kab, Khalid ibn al-Walid, Hudhaifah and Saleem, came together in Umar's house and collected all the materials on which verses from the Quran were written.

In addition, the verses memorized by the companions were heard as well. Each of them was asked to show two witnesses for the verse they read.

 

Mushaf

         Thus, all the verses of the Quran that describe the creation of the universe and people, judgment day, exemplary stories of the people who lived before and the beliefs, worship, morals and legal bases that believers should obey were collected together into a single-volume book. Each of the verses was taught by the archangel Gabriel and declared by Prophet Muhammad. The verse is the name given to each sentence of the Quran and the surah is the name given to each part of the holy book. There are 6,236 verses, 114 surahs and about 323,000 letters in the Quran.

Saeed ibn al-Aas, who was renowned for the beauty of his handwriting, wrote them down on gazelle skin. The writing used was the Arabic script of the time, which was already old and used commonly at that time in Hejaz.

The companions reached a consensus that this writing, which was used by Prophet Ismail in Hejaz, is the writing of Muslims.

      The copy of the Quran was recited to the companions at a general meeting. There was no objection. So, a book called "mushaf" emerged, which means written verses.

A total of 33,000 companions agreed that every letter of the Quran was in the right place. Then this mushaf was sent to Umar ibn al-Khattab. After his death, this book passed on to Hazrat Hafsah, the daughter of Umar and a wife of Prophet Muhammad.

   Dialect of Quraysh

            A difference was observed in the recitation of the Quran in the Armenia battles between Muslims from Damascus and Iraq during the period of the third caliph, Uthman.

Hudhaifah, one of the companions, went before the caliph on his way back from an expedition and asked him to prevent this.

On the 25th year of the hijra (647), Uthman gathered a delegation attended by Abdullah ibn al-Zubair, Saeed ibn al-Aas, and Abd al-Rahman ibn Harith under the leadership of Zaid ibn Thabit. All of them, except for Zaid, were from Quraysh. Uthman said that the dialect of Quraysh should be preferred if they were to fall into conflict with Zaid regarding the dialect since Muhammad was from the Quraysh tribe. The Quran had been revealed in seven dialects of the Arabic language of the time.

The first Muslims, who were literate, could easily read the writing of their own language, but somewhat differently, since at the time the Arabic script did not have diacritical marks to differentiate letters or vowel symbols.

For example, those from the Tameem tribe pronounced the letter "sin" as "te" and read the word "nas" as "nat." It was diverse and convenient and did not change the meaning.

The delegation brought the original mushaf from Hafsah. In this mushaf, the surahs were not separated from each other. The surahs were sorted according to the order of their descent in Ali's manuscript and according to their lengths in the manuscript of Abdullah ibn Masood.

 

Year of Elephant  

 

The Year of the Elephant (عام الفيل), known in Arabic as the Amu ul-Fil, is the name in Islamic history for the year approximately equating to 570 CE. According to Islamic tradition, it was in this year that Muhammad ﷺ was born. The year came to be known as the Year of the Elephant, beginning a trend for reckoning the years in the Arabian Peninsula used until it was replaced with the Islamic calendar during the rule of Umar.

Overview

Abraha, in Islamic tradition, is believed to have launched an expedition of forty thousand men against the Ka‘bah at Mecca. The Christian ruler of Yemen, which was subject to the Kingdom of Aksum of Ethiopia, marched upon the Kaaba with a large army led by a white elephant named Mahmud (and possibly with other elephants - some accounts state there were several elephants, or even as many as eight) intending to demolish it the Ka‘bah. However, the lead elephant known as Mahmud is said to have stopped at the boundary around Mecca, and refused to enter. Several other Arab tribes attempted to fight him on the way but were defeated.

This event is referred to in the Qur’an, in Surah 105, Al-Fil (Arabic: الـفِـيـل‎, "The Elephant"). The reference to the story in Qur’an is rather short. According to Surah al-Fil, the next day [as Abraha prepared to enter the city], a dark cloud of small birds named 'Ababil' (Arabic: أَبـابـيـل‎) appeared. The birds carried small rocks in their beaks, and bombarded the Ethiopian forces and smashed them like "eaten straw".