Who wrote the Qur’aan and how was it put together?.

Who wrote the Qur’aan and how was it put
together?.

Praise be to Allaah.

Firstly:
Allaah has guaranteed to preserve this Qur’aan
Himself. Allaah says (interpretation of the
meaning):

“Verily, We, it is We Who have sent down the Dhikr
(i.e. the Qur’aan) and surely, We will guard it (from
corruption)”
[al-Hijr 15:9]

Ibn Jareer al-Tabari said in his Tafseer, 14/8:

Allaah is saying, it is We Who have sent down the
Dhikr (Reminder), i.e. the Qur’aan, and We will
guard the Qur’aan against anything false being
added to it that is not part of it, or anything that is
part of it being taken away, whether that has to do
with rulings, hudood punishments or matters
having to do with inheritance.
Al-Sa’di said in his Tafseer (p. 696):

It is We Who have sent down the Qur’aan in which
there is mention of all issues and clear evidence,
and in which We remind those who want to be
reminded.
“and surely, We will guard it” means, when it is
being revealed and after it has been revealed. When
it is revealed, We protect it from the tampering of
every accursed devil, and after it has been revealed
Allaah instilled it in the heart of His Messenger.

Allaah protected the words from being changed and
from anything being added or taken away, or from
its meanings being distorted. So no one can
attempt to distort its meanings but Allaah will
guide someone to explain the truth of the Qur’aan.

This is one of the greatest signs of Allaah and His
blessing to His believing slaves. Another aspect of
this protection is that Allaah protects the people of
the Qur’aan against their enemies, and no enemy
can overpower them and eliminate them.

The Qur’aan was revealed to the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) in stages over
a period of twenty-three years. Allaah says
(interpretation of the meaning):
“And (it is) a Qur’aan which We have divided (into
parts), in order that you might recite it to men at
intervals. And We have revealed it by stages”
[al-Isra’ 17:106]

al-Sa’di (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

This means, We have revealed this Qur’aan in
stages, to differentiate between guidance and
misguidance, between truth and falsehood.
“in order that you might recite it to men at
intervals” means, slowly, so that they may ponder
and think about its meanings, and understand the
different branches of knowledge contained therein.
“And We have revealed it by stages” means,
gradually, over a period of twenty-three years.
Tafseer al-Sa’di, p. 760.

Secondly:

Literacy was not widespread among the Arabs.
Allaah described them in such terms when He said
(interpretation of the meaning):
“He it is Who sent among the unlettered ones a
Messenger (Muhammad) from among themselves”
[al-Jumu’ah 63:2]

They used to memorize the Qur’aan by heart, and a
few of them used to write down some verses or
soorahs on animal skins, thin white stones and the
like.

Thirdly:

At first the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah
be upon him) forbade the writing of anything other
than the Qur’aan, and he forbade them to write
down his words for a while, so that the Sahaabah
would focus on memorizing the Qur’aan and writing
it down, and so that the words of the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) would
not be confused with the words of Allaah, and so
the Qur’aan was protected from anything being
added or taken away.

Fourthly:

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) appointed a group of his companions
who were trustworthy and knowledgeable to write
down the revelation. They are known in their
biographies as those who wrote down the
Revelation, such as the four Caliphs, ‘Abd-Allaah
ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas, Mu’aawiyah ibn Abi Sufyaan,
Zayd ibn Thaabit and others – may Allaah be
pleased with them all.

Fifthly:

The Qur’aan was revealed in seven dialects as was
narrated in the saheeh hadeeth of ‘Umar ibn al-
Khattaab (may Allaah be pleased with him) from
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon
him). This was narrated by al-Bukhaari (2287) and
Muslim (818); these were the dialects of the Arabs
which were known for their eloquence.

Sixthly:

The Qur’aan continued to be preserved in the
hearts of the Sahaabah who had memorized it, and
on the skins and other materials until the time of
the caliph Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq (may Allaah be
pleased with him). During the Riddah wars many of
the Sahaabah who had memorized the Qur’aan
were killed, and Abu Bakr (may Allaah be pleased
with him) was afraid that the Qur’aan would be
lost. So he consulted the senior Sahaabah about
compiling the Qur’aan in a single book so that it
would remain preserved and would not be lost. He
entrusted this mission to the chief of memorizers
Zayd ibn Thaabit (may Allaah be pleased with
him). Al-Bukhaari narrated in his Saheeh (4986)
that Zayd ibn Thaabit (may Allaah be pleased with
him) said:

Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq sent for me when the people
of al-Yamaamah had been killed [i.e., a number of
the Prophet's Companions who fought against the
false prophet Musaylimah]. (I went to him) and
found ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab sitting with him. Abu
Bakr then said (to me), “ ‘Umar has come to me
and said: ‘Casualties were heavy among the Qurra'
of the Qur'aan (i.e. those who knew the Qur’aan
by heart) on the day of the battle of al-Yamaamah,
and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may
take place among the Qurra' on other battlefields,
whereby a large part of the Qur’aan may be lost.

Therefore I suggest that you (Abu Bakr) order that
the Qur’aan be collected.” I said to 'Umar, "How
can you do something that the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did
not do?" 'Umar said, "By Allah, this is something
good." 'Umar kept on urging me to accept his
proposal till Allaah opened my heart to it and I
began to realize the good in the idea which 'Umar
had realized." Then Abu Bakr said (to me). “You
are a wise young man and we do not have any
suspicion about you, and you used to write the
Divine Inspiration for the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). So
search for (the fragmentary scripts of) the Qur’aan
and compile it in one book." By Allah If they had
ordered me to move one of the mountains, it would
not have been heavier for me than this ordering me
to compile the Qur’aan. Then I said (to Abu Bakr),

"How can you do something that the Messenger of
Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
did not do?" Abu Bakr replied, "By Allaah, it is a
good thing." Abu Bakr kept on urging me to accept
his idea until Allaah opened my heart to that to
which He had opened the hearts of Abu Bakr and
'Umar. So I started looking for the Qur’aan and
collecting it from (what it was written on) palm
stalks, thin white stones and also from the men
who knew it by heart, until I found the last Verse of
Soorat al-Tawbah with Abu Khuzaymah al-Ansaari,
and I did not find it with anybody other than him.
The verse is (interpretation of the meaning):

"Verily, there has come unto you a Messenger
(Muhammad) from amongst yourselves. It grieves
him that you should receive any injury or
difficulty...” [al-Tawbah 9:128] until the end of
Soorat Baraa’ah (i.e., al-Tawbah).
Then the complete manuscript (copy) of the
Qur’aan remained with Abu Bakr until he died, then
with 'Umar until the end of his life, and then with
Hafsah, the daughter of 'Umar (may Allaah be
pleased with him).

The Sahaabi Zayd ibn Thaabit (may Allaah be
pleased with him) knew the Qur’aan by heart but
he was methodical in his confirmation; he would
not agree to write down any verse until two of the
Sahaabah testified that they had heard it from the
Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah
be upon him).

This Mus-haf (written copy of the Qur’aan)
remained in the hands of the caliphs until the time
of the Rightly-Guided Caliph ‘Uthmaan ibn ‘Affaan
(may Allaah be pleased with him). The Sahaabah
(may Allaah be pleased with them) had dispersed
to different lands, and they used to recite the
Qur’aan according to what they had heard of the
seven recitations from the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and
each of their students used to recite according to
what he had heard from his shaykh. If a student
heard someone reciting in a manner different from
what he knew, he would denounce him and accuse
him of making a mistake, and this went on until the
Sahaabah feared that there would be fitnah
(trouble) between the Taabi’een and successive
generations. So they thought that they should unite
the people in following one recitation, which was in
the dialect of Quraysh in which the Qur’aan had
first been revealed, so as to dispel any disputes
and resolve the matter. ‘Uthmaan (may Allaah be
pleased with him) was consulted, and he agreed
with this opinion.
Al-Bukhaari narrated in his Saheeh (4988) from
Anas ibn Maalik that Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamaan
came to ‘Uthmaan at the time when the people of
Shaam (Syria) and the people of Iraq were waging
war to conquer Armenia and Azerbaijan. Hudhayfah
was alarmed by their (the people of Sham and Iraq)
differences in the recitation of the Qur’aan, so he
said to 'Uthmaan, "O Ameer al-Mu’mineen! Save
this nation before they dispute about the Book
(Qur’aan) as the Jews and the Christians did
before." So 'Uthmaan sent a message to Hafsah
saying, "Send us the manuscript of the Qur’aan so
that we may make copies of the Mus-haf and we
will return the manuscript to you."
Hafsah sent it to 'Uthmaan. Then 'Uthmaan
ordered Zayd ibn Thaabit, 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr,
Sa’eed ibn al-‘Aas and ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn
Haarith ibn Hishaam to copy out the manuscripts.

'Uthmaan said to the three men who were from
Quraysh (the tribe of which the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) was a member),
“In case you disagree with Zayd ibn Thaabit on any
point in the Qur’aan, then write it in the dialect of
Quraysh, for the Qur’aan was revealed in their
tongue." They did so, and when they had written
many copies, 'Uthmaan returned the original
manuscripts to Hafsah.
'Uthmaan sent to every Muslim province one copy
of what they had copied, and ordered that all the
other Qur'aanic materials, whether written in
fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt.
Ibn Shihaab said: Khaarijah ibn Zayd ibn Thaabit
told me that he heard Zayd ibn Thaabit say: “When
we made copies of the Mus-haf I missed a verse of
al-Ahzaab that I used to hear the Messenger of
Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
recite. So we searched for it and we found it with
Khuzaymah ibn Thaabit al-Ansaari. (The verse
was) ‘Among the believers are men who have been
true to their covenant with Allaah’ [al-Ahzaab
33:23 – interpretation of the meaning]. So we put
it in its place in its soorah in the Mus-haf.”
Thus an end was put to dispute and the Muslims
were united. The Qur’aan has remained and will
remain narrated from generation to generation and
preserved in men's hearts until the Day of
Resurrection. This is how Allaah has preserved His
Book, in confirmation of the verse in which He says
(interpretation of the meaning):
“Verily, We, it is We Who have sent down the Dhikr
(i.e. the Qur’aan) and surely, We will guard it (from
corruption)”
[al-Hijr 15:9]
And Allaah knows best.