ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith A Meditative Pause: I see it necessary here to make a short pause for making known the perplexity afflicting me while citing the reports about this collecting (of the Qur'an) and that much of contradiction they imply.

One report says that it was Umar who resorted to Abu Bakr for collecting the Qur'an, and another one claims that: this collecting wasn't made during the reign of Abu Bakr at all, but it was Umar who had undertaken it. A third report indicates that Umar was killed before completing the task of collecting the Qur'an, and that it was Uthman who completed the work. There are many other narrations containing such contradiction and incompatibility, the citing of which is out of scope here.

We have to consider the widely-known reports cited by al-Bukhari, that Umar betook himself to Abu Bakr bringing to his attention the need to collect and compile the Qur'an, after observing that the Battle of Yamamah played much havoc with the qurra’, taking the lives of hundreds of companions who were the Qur'an-bearers (memorizers), and if such bloody encounters should recur, much of the Qur'an would be lost!

Should we take all these reports into consideration, it would become clear for us that the Qur'an was preserved only through memorization in the hearts of the in the first era of Islam, meaning that with their death or murder the Qur'an would be lost and forgotten. We come to know also that there was no any source for preserving the Qur'an throughout all ages other than them as they were its material and scribes!

Whereas there were authentic and reasonable reports, indicating that the Prophet (S) used to write down whatever revealed to him of the Qur'an on palm branches, white stones and sheets of tanned sheepskin, and other things, appointing for this task several scribes whose names are recorded in history books, so what happened to that codex in which no one can ever doubt, or dispute in its regard?