The Qur'an of the time of the Messenger of Allah is exactly...

The Qur'an of the time of the Messenger of Allah is exactly the same as that which we have today. The Prophet himself specified the placing of verses and chapters in the way we see now and there are many traditions that testify to this. It is widely related that the Prophet (S) said: 'Whoever completes a recitation of the Qur'an will receive such and such a reward.' 47 Had the Qur'an not been complete then this would not have been possible.

The Qur'an was also present at his time in a complete written form in the Prophet's mosque, by the Prophet's pulpit, from which anyone could make a copy. Also, thousands of Muslims had memorised the entire Qur'an as the chronicles of the time report. In this way the integrity, structure and organisation of the Qur'an remained until this day. 44 The Qur'an: Verses Explained (41): 42. 45 The Qur'an: The Rocky Tract (15): 9. 46 Al-Wasa'il ila al-Rasa'il (The Ways to the Messages): vol.2, p.97-100.

47 Usul al-Kafi: vol.2, p.604. The Qur'an of 'Ali As for the question of the Qur'an of 'Ali which he presented and was not allowed (by the ruler of the time), what is meant by this are the commentaries and interpretations which he collected and which he himself mentioned in a speech related from him. It is clear that they did not want the commentary or interpretation because it was a special merit of 'Ali's.

Also, what is meant by the gathering of the Qur'an by 'Umar or 'Uthman, if this was the case, is that the scattered incomplete documents of the Qur'an written by the companions of the Prophet were brought together so there would not be one complete Qur'an and several incomplete versions.

This is a natural thing, for example when the speeches of a lecturer are gathered by his students, some students will be absent for reasons of illness or travel or the like and hence not have the complete versions of the speeches. Those who had a full attendance record however will have the complete version. 'Umar and 'Uthman destroyed the scattered and different documents but not the complete Qur'an from the time of the Prophet.

I myself have seen copies of the Qur'an written over one thousand years ago in the coffer of the Shrine of Imam al-Hussein; they were absolutely no different to the Qur'an we have today. There are also a number of copies of the Qur'an written in the hand of the Imams in Iran and 'Iraq and Turkey, all of which are the same as the Qur'an existent today with no changes.