1- The prophet chose scribes form among his companions, who wrote down
everything that had been inspired to him by Divine Revelation immediately after
its revelation. They wrote on whatever was available such as parchment, wood,
pieces of leather, stones or flat bones. According to authentic sources there
were twenty nine scribes, the most renowned among whom were the four Orthodox
Caliphs,Abu Bakr,Omar, Othman and ‘Ali in addition to Muawiya,Al Zubeir Ben
Alawwam, Sa’eed ben Al’Aas,Amr ben Al Aas, Ubay ben Ka’b and Zaid ben Thabit .
2- In addition to the scribes who wrote down the inspired Revelation of the
verses of the Quran there were others who learnt what was revealed by heart.
This fine tradition has continued throughout the centuries and exists up to
this very day. There were hundreds of Muslims who learnt the Quran by heart and
specialized in reciting it during the prophet’s life time. The prophet declared
that he always revised the recital of the Quran once a year during the month of
Ramadan in the presence of the Angel Gabriel, and he revised its recital twice
during the last Ramadan of his life. The Quran was arranged in its final from
according to the prophet’s instructions and every single verse was placed
exactly as he had commanded.
3- One years after the prophet’s death, seventy of the learned men who had
learnt the Quran by heart were slain in the Battle of Al Yamama against
Musaylima the liar, Omar ben Al khattab advised the Caliph Abu Bakr to charge
Zeid ben Thabit one of the scribes, with collecting the various documents upon
which the Quran was written and to have them written in a complete copy that
would be easy to refer to. Following this a rule was enforced by which
manuscripts were considered authentic and accepted or rejected as not being
authentic .The authentic manuscripts were those that had been dictated by the
prophet Muhammad as witnessed by two persons. Naturally the Companions of the
prophet who had learnt the Quran by heart played an important role in this
matter when Zeid ben Thabit completed his mission of recording in writing the
whole Quran, he presented it to Abu Bakr who presented it before his death to
‘Omar ben Al Khattab who gave it to his daughter Hafsa before his death.
4- During the Caliphate of “Othman ben ‘Affan, a committee of four scribes
including Zeid ben Thabit was formed. These scribes wrote five copies of the
original manuscript preserved by Hafsa, mother of the Faithful. One copy was
sent to Mecca,
another copy to Al Madina and the third copy was sent to Al Basra. The fourth
and fifth copies were sent to Kufa and to Damascus.
These four diligent and precise scribes had copied the original authentic
manuscript and had also checked it with what the learned men, who had lived
during the Prophet’s life time had committed to memory. This is the Mushaf,
namely the Holy Book of the Quran, which has been in circulation in the Muslim
world ever since.
No
one has ever disputed the authenticity of the Quran since it was first recorded
in writing more than fourteen centuries ago up to this very day. This point has
been confirmed by a number of orientalists among whom are Loblois, Muir and the
contemporary German Orientalist Rudi Paret who stated in the introduction of
his translation of the Quran:" There is no reason to doubt that any verse
in the Quran could be ascribed to any person other than Muhammad". He
meant that after the death of Muhammad no one had altered anything in the
Quran, either by adding a single word to it or removing a single word form it.
No
proof has ever been presented to dispute or deny the authenticity of the
manuscript compiled during the Caliphate of ‘Othman ben Affan.If any of the
companions of the prophet had had any other manuscripts in their possession,
they would have produced them and disputed the authorized copy .Such an
allegation has never been made in the history of Islam and even the sects that
have been looked upon as dissenters, such as the contemporary Ahmadites,
sanction the same certified copy of the Quran.