He told me...

He told me, "'Umar, who is now here, says that qurra' of the Qur'an have been martyred at Yamamah. If a similar incident should recur, it is feared that a part of the Qur'an retained by them in their memories would be lost.

Since you are an intelligent man and happen to be one of the scribes of the revelation and are trustworthy as well, I ask you to collect the Qur'an.' Accordingly, I collected the Qur'an from original recordings and from the memories of men."12 According to al-Ya'qubi twenty-five men from among the Quraysh and fifty from among the Ansar helped Zayd in this task, 13 among whom 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham were permanent members of the committee.

According to al-Tamhid, the work was started by Zayd ibn Thabit along with some other; but later Ubayy ibn Ka'b assumed responsibility for reading and Zayd for writing down. In any case, the Qur'an was compiled in this manner and the compiled text was deposited first with Abu Bakr and after him with 'Umar and was a source of reference for the people.

After the death of 'Umar, this compilation remained in the possession of Hafsah until the year 22/642, when differences of reading appeared during the reign. of 'Uthman. Thereupon, on the Caliph's order, the mushaf was taken from Hafsah for transcription, and from it Zayd ibn Thabit (who was the main scribe) prepared several copies with the help of 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Hisham (both members of the original committee that compiled the Qur'an) and Said ibn al-'As.

While the original was returned to Hafsah, one of the copies was kept with the Caliph at Madinah and the rest were sent to major Islamic cities. 14 Thereafter, the handwritten compilations of the Qur'an were destroyed on the Caliph's order for the sake of eliminating differences among Muslims. 15 The compilation written during Abu Bakr's days remained with Hafsah until the reign of Marwan ibn al-Hakam. Marwan wanted to burn it also, but Hafsah refused to hand it over to him.

He waited until her death and thereat destroyed that compilation also. 16 Thus the task of ensuring the uniformity of the Qur'an was carried out in the year 22/642, 17 though 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud refused to hand over his compilation to 'Uthman, who wanted to destroy it. 18 Similarly, the compilation made by 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (A) was retained by him and later preserved by his family.…