And al-Hasan is reported to have said...

And al-Hasan is reported to have said: "Its meaning is that God has taken upon Himself to safeguard it until the end of time and charged the Ummah with transmitting it from generation to generation until the Day of Resurrection, in order to establish God's hujjah upon all those who have accepted the Prophet's invitation.9 Answers to objections against this argument: (a) It may be said that although the verse, undeniably, states the immunity of the Qur'an from textual corruption, it implies the textual security of the Book possessed by some individuals.

The answer to this is that the Qur'an has been revealed by God for the purpose of leading man to the ultimate goal of his creation and to guide him on the straight path through different ages. This objective is not served if the Qur'an is preserved only for some individuals. Hence the verse necessarily implies its preservation for mankind in general. Moreover, what is the use of its preservation for a few persons?

Is the purpose of its revelation only its preservation, not its usefulness for mankind? If the purpose were mere preservation, then it was sufficiently served by its preservation in al-Lawh al-Mahfuz. But if the purpose is general guidance, it is not secured by its mere preservation with some persons. Al-Sayyid al-Khui, rejecting this objection, says: `By 'Remembrance' (in the verse) is meant the same Qur'an either read or written - that was revealed to the Messenger of God (S).

By its `preservation' is meant safeguarding it from loss and corruption, so that it remains accessible to all human beings.

For instance, when we say that `the ode of so and so has been preserved,' we mean that its text, remaining secure from loss and destruction, is accessible to us."10 (b) It may be said that the various editions of the Qur'an that have been, or still are, published throughout the Muslim World, do contain errors and omissions, leading sometimes to unintentional omission of a word, or a verse, or two.

If the above-mentioned verse were taken to imply the immunity of the Qur'an from all kinds of tahrif, to be sure all its prints should have been free of such kind of typographical errors? The answer to this objection is that these kinds of errors do not cast any doubt on the Book's preservation by God, for they are not of such an extent as to destroy the real text. The available error-free prints of the Qur'an are sufficient to disclose these kinds of errors to anybody.