Skip to main content
Refutations

Reasons for Not Collecting the Holy Quran in One Mushaf

3 min read 580 words

Reasons for not collecting the Holy Qur’an in one Mushaf

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) died while the Qur’an was scattered across scraps of paper, palm leaves, bones and stones, and the Qur’an was not collected in his time in scrolls or Mushafs:

Zayd ibn Thaabit (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) passed away and the Qur’an had not been collected in anything. (36)

Al-Suyuti said: This does not contradict this (37) because the speech was in a specific writing in a specific manner. (38)

Al-Qastalani said: The entire Qur’an was written during his time, but it was not collected in one place, nor was the surahs arranged in order. (39)

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) left the collection of the Qur’an in one Mushaf for many reasons, including:

1 - There were no reasons to write it collected in scrolls or Mushafs like what was found during the time of Abu Bakr (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) until he wrote it in scrolls, nor like what was found during the time of Uthman (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Even copying it into copies of the Qur’an, the Muslims at that time were fine, the readers were many, the state of Islam had not yet expanded, the strife was safe, and reliance was still on memorization more than writing, and writing tools were not readily available, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was among them, and his care for memorizing the Qur’an was beyond description, so there was no fear of losing anything of it during that period.

2 - That the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was about to receive revelation to copy whatever Allah willed to copy from the Qur’an, and if the Qur’an had been collected in one copy at that time, it would have been subject to the copies being changed whenever an abrogation occurred

3 - That the Qur’an was not revealed all at once, but rather it was revealed in stages over a period of twenty years or more, and the arrangement of the verses and surahs was not in the order of revelation, and if the Qur’an had been collected in one copy at that time, it would have been subject to the copies being changed whenever a verse or surah was revealed.

(36) It was included by Al-Dair’aqouli in his Fawa’id. See Fath Al-Bari (8/627) and Al-Itqan fi ‘Ulum Al-Quran (1/164). It was also narrated by Al-Tabari on the authority of Al-Zuhri, with a mursal chain of transmission traceable back to the Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him). Tafsir Al-Tabari, Introduction (1/28).

(37) This means that the Qur’an was written during his time.

(38) This means that what Zaid denied regarding the collection was the collection of the scattered Qur’an into pages, and the collection of pages into mushafs was the writing of the entire Qur’an. See Al-Itqan fi ‘Ulum Al-Quran (1/164).

(39) Irshad al-Sari for explaining Sahih al-Bukhari (7/446), and Dalil al-Hiran for explaining the source of the thirsty in the drawing of the Qur’an by al-Marghani, p. 17.

(40) Irshad al-Sari for explaining Sahih al-Bukhari (7/446), al-Itqan (1/164), Manahil al-Irfan (1/248-249), and Dalil al-Hiran for explaining the source of the thirsty in the drawing of the Qur’an by al-Marghani, p. 17, and Dala’il al-Nubuwwah (7/154).