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History and importance of Quran

1 a: Write an account of how Quran came into a book form that we


have today. [10]
Allah has not only created us, but He continues and will continue to
sustain and guide us. He has provided us with many blessings, and
among His blessings is the sending of guideline for mankind. The
guidance came through all the Prophets until the last Messenger, who
received Allah’s last and final revelation, the Quran. When revelations
came to him by Hazrat Jibrail, the scribes were said to write them
down on bones of animals, barks of trees, pieces of pottery or any
other things they could find. The Quran was completely written and
arranged in sequence by the Holy Prophet’s (saw) , but it was
scattered in different pieces. During the caliphate of Abu Bakr, at least
seventy of the memorizers of the Qur’an lost their lives in the Battle of
Yamama. After that incident, Hazrat Umar suggested to Hazrat Abu
Bakr to make a written collection of the Quran in order to preserve it.
Hazrat Abu Bakr did not want to do this, because the Prophet had not
taken any step of compiling the Quran in a book form. But Hazrat
Umar persuaded him and ultimately, he asked Zayd bin Thabit to do
the work. He called Zaid bin Thabit and said’ ’You are a wise young
man and we do not suspect you of telling lies or forgetfulness, and
you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah’s Apostle SAWW.
Therefore look for the verses of Quran and collect it in one
manuscript’’.(Sahih Bukhari) .
Zaid Bin Sabit is reported to have said: “had I been asked to carry a
mountain on my head, it would have been a much easy task than to
shoulder this responsibility.
A commission was appointed, headed by Zaid Bin Sabit. It traced out
and collected the chapters of Quran from every person who had it in
their possession. Zaid Bin Sabit even collected verses of the Quran
written on stones, bones and palm leaves.
Zayd worked very hard between 11 and 14 AH. Although he himself
was a hafiz of the Quran, he always tried to find a written verse before
adding it to his manuscript in order to check and ensure authenticity
of the verse. Finally, a collection of the Holy Quran was made into a
single volume. It remained under the first caliph, then transferred to
the second caliph, Hazrat Umar, and after his death, Hazrat Hafsa took
it under her custody. The copy of Quran under Hazrat Hafsa came to
be known as Mashaf al-Hafsa.
During the Khilafat of Hazrat Umar, the Muslim Empire was extended
a lot. New converts to Islam in countries like Syria and Iraq recited the
Quran in different ways. This disturbed Hazrat Anas (RA) who went to
Hazrat Uthman and requested him to take immediate action against
this otherwise it might create a rift in the Muslims. Hazrat Uthman
nominated Zayd bin Thabit along with three other companions to
make copies of the Quran in Quraishi dialect from the original text,
because the Quran was revealed in that dialect. After preparing
copies of the Quran, they were read loudly in the Prophet’s mosque
so that no confusion may arise in the minds regarding alteration. The
copies were finally sent to different parts of the empire with the
instructions that future copies would be made from the official text
only. All remaining variations were destroyed through fire so that no
misunderstanding may arise in the future. As a result, only one
authentic text has remained in use to this day.

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