ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Commentary On the Holy Qur'an Shia Traditions However, a thorough and critical study of the stories regarding the collection of the Qur'an, along with the external and internal evidences given above, proves beyond doubt that to credit the First, Second or Third Caliphs, or their deputies, with the collection of the Qiir'an is nothing but stories of wishflil thinking, the result of unauthorised, unwarranted and unnecessary attempts by them to produce a collection of their own and thereby gain honour and distinction.

These attempts failed miserably, were "much ado about nothing" and the collections disappeared into oblivion. The only thing supported by history is the bundle which was left under the bed of a lady and was paitly consumed by a goat. Thank God that the Holy Qur'an of the lifetime of the Holy Prophet remained the same, unrivalled by any in its text and its arrangement.

The only thing which is to the credit of Osman is that he ordered copies of the Qur'an to be made in accordance with the recitation which was current during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet, in an attempt to get rid of all the other recitations adopted by reciters of their own choice. However, these recitations were not entirely stopped, and have come down to us in the form of the seven or ten recitations of the Holy Book.

Even this act of Osman was not entirely approved of by many Muslims and earned for him the tifle "Harraqul Mosaahif' Crhe Burner of the Scriptures). of course, the flitile attempt of the ruling patty and the irresponsible utterances of its members gave rise to criticisrus of the Holy Prophet and the Holy Qur'an which have even deluded a few Shia traditionalists.

Therefore, to remove, once and for all, all doubts about the views held by the Shia school about the Holy Qur'an now in our possession, we will deal with all the Shia traditions which question the completeness and the arrangement of the existing version of the Holy Qur'an. It is said that the number of Shia traditions about the Holy Imams of the Ahiul-Bait are so many that there is no doubt that some at least are reliable and worthy of consideration.

We do not reject these traditions entirely upon the unreliability of the narrators, although most of these traditions are related by persons such as Ahmed ibne Muhanunad~-Sayyari and Mi ibne Muned Kufi, the first of whom was accused of heresy and the second accused of lies and heresy.