Listen to the following holy verse...

Listen to the following holy verse: “But verily over you (are appointed angels) to protect you; kind and honorable, writing down (your deeds).” (Holy Qur’an: 82:10-1) It may be true that the talent of memory becomes stronger through training just like the sense of hearing for the blind, which is usually stronger than it for the endowed with eyesight, because the earlier use it as a substitute for the sight.

The same thing can be said about the illiterate merchant whose memory is usually stronger than that of the literate for the same reason. Albeit the previous fact is undeniable, it cannot be applied to the Sahabah whom Almighty Allah has chosen for protecting and conveying the religious laws to the next generations.

If the reason beyond the prohibition of the recording was to keep the Sahabah’s brilliant memories as strong as they were, we have to find appropriate interpretation for the following narration: Al-Khatib al-Baghdadiy, al-Bayhaqiy, in Dala’il al-Nubuwwah , and al-Qurtubiy have narrated on the authority of authenticated series of narrators that `Abdullah ibn `Umar said, “Umar ibn al-Khattab required twelve years to memorize the Surah of al-Baqarah.[^7] When he did, he slaughtered a sheep on that occasion.”[^8] Accordingly, we have to condemn Shaykh `Abd al-Ghaniy and Mr.

Abu-Zahw as well as the other scholars who have adopted the same opinion, otherwise we have to belie Ibn al-Jawziy, al-Dhahbiy, and al-Qurtubiy as well as the other narrators of the previous report. As a result, there must have been a reason other than the preservation of the talents of memorization. Such a reason will be exposed in the coming chapters of this book. In the preface to Taqyid al-`Ilm , Mr.

Yusuf al-`Ishsh says, “The memories of most of people are too weak to load a whole material of a science and safeguard it from waste. Naturally the capacity of memorization is different among people; as it be strong for some people, it will surely be weak for others and, consequently, it will not always help them and keep its material forever.”[^9] Biographers have listed the names of the Sahabah who used to confuse the narrations by interfering.

The question is thus not as accurate as conceived by some scholars. Another point must be aroused in this regard; to accept the justifications of Shaykh `Abd al-Ghaniy and Mr. Abu-Zahw who have claimed that the Arabs enjoyed brilliant memories, we must believe that the Holy Sunnah has been dedicated to the Arabs exclusively.