The History of the Qurʾān

Contents (Fihris)

Prelude (Tamhīd)

All praise belongs to Allah, who teaches man what he knew not. Blessings be upon the noble Prophet (ṣ), who brought the Qurʾān that guides mankind to what is most upright; and peace be upon his Family and his Companions, the shining lamps amid the darkness.

From the day the Qurʾān was revealed and delivered by the tongue of the Arabian Prophet (ṣ), all Muslims — beginning with the Companions of the Prophet (ṣ), the Tābiʿūn (the second generation of Muslims, who had known the Companions), the Muslim scholars, and the masters of Qurʾānic recitation — have shown a care and scrupulousness the like of which had never before been devoted to any heavenly scripture.

The great number of books composed on the Qurʾānic sciences from the earliest Islamic centuries onward by scholars, exegetes, reciters of the Qurʾān, and men of learning suffices to substantiate this claim. In plumbing the difficulties and mysteries of this divine Book, in studying and discussing it, they struck out in many directions and traversed untrodden paths and far-flung lands in pursuit of their scholarly aims.

From the sixth/twelfth century the European scholars, too — emulating their Oriental colleagues — set out upon this path and began to study the questions bearing on the history and exegesis of the Qurʾān, and to compile books on the Qurʾān and its commentaries methodically, from an academic point of view, and with great care.

In recent years the Germans have undertaken a great and commendable labour. The Scientific Society of Munich has made great efforts with regard to this exalted Book, resolving to gather together by every possible means all the original sources relating to the Holy Qurʾān and the books composed on the Qurʾānic sciences, such as the expositions and interpretations of Qurʾānic terms, symbols, and metaphors. Mr G. Bergsträsser,¹ the German orientalist and scholar, was appointed to carry out this task in view of his expertise. He set to work in this field, and when he died in 1933 the aforementioned society entrusted the task and its continuation to Dr Otto Pretzl. This professor wrote a letter to the Arab Academy of Damascus, stating that, for the convenience and information of their colleagues, they had resolved to set out every verse of the Qurʾān on its own pages, copying from all the manuscripts known and available to them from the old codices of the Qurʾān, together with the various forms of recitation (qirāʾāt) found in the different texts and their several expositions as these had been written and published over the course of time, arranged by century — so that all the material, brought together in one place, might be accessible to anyone interested in the subject, sparing him the trouble of consulting scattered books, commentaries, and sources.

As a first step this institute undertook the publication of the most important books on the Qurʾān, such as al-Taysīr of Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dānī,¹ which treats of the seven ways of reciting (qirāʾāt) the Qurʾān and is regarded as one of the most accurate and authoritative books written on the science of Qurʾānic reading; further, al-Muqniʿ, on the different styles of writing the Qurʾān in the various centres of Islam, and al-Nuqaṭ, likewise by al-Dānī; the Mukhtaṣar al-shawādhdh of Ibn Khālawayh;² the al-Muḥtasib of Ibn Jinnī,³ issued in Latin script among the publications of the Scientific Society of Munich; the Ghāyat al-nihāya, on the classes of the readers of the Qurʾān (al-qurrāʾ), by Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Jazarī⁴ (d. 833 AH); the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ;⁵ and a treatise in German on the history of the sciences of the Qurʾān, being a bibliography of the books written on the Qurʾānic sciences that are preserved in the various libraries of the world.

The one subject to which attention had not been paid, and in which scholars had taken little interest, is the history of the Qurʾān itself and the successive phases through which this Book passed from the days of the Prophet (ṣ) into the early Islamic era. Such studies as exist in this field are concerned merely with the sciences of the Qurʾān; no book or compilation on this subject — one of great significance and of general benefit, capable of covering all the questions involved and of resolving the ambiguities of the problem — had come into existence until now.

For the compilation of the present history of the Qurʾān (Tārīkh al-Qurʾān) I began long ago to gather the relevant material on this subject and its cognate questions from a wide range of books, and I have examined it critically and with care. The present book offers a summary of my studies and researches, which in reality form part of an introduction to the commentary on the Qurʾān that I intend to compile in the manner of a rational analysis and logical study of the Qurʾān. Accordingly I open this book with a brief account of the character of the Prophet (ṣ), drawn from trustworthy traditions and authentic sources. I hope that readers will derive benefit from this work. May God Almighty have mercy upon me; Him alone do I ask for help.

Muḥammad (ṣ), the Prophet of Islam and of the Qurʾān

Just as the divine law operates within the system of creation to keep the whole world of matter and being alive by the light of the sun, so too does the divine law work to quicken the human soul by means of the prophets and the prophetic mission. And just as the rays streaming from the sun can be the best guide for man towards light in the world of being, so the rays of light that issue from the divine revelation (waḥy) of the prophets are the best guide for men, leading them towards the radiant Word of God. The Word of God, the Most High, that was revealed to the Prophet (ṣ) is the Holy Qurʾān, which is called “the Light” in the following verse:

“… Certainly there has come to you a light from Allah, and a manifest Book. With it Allah guides those who follow [the course of] His pleasure to the ways of peace, and brings them out from darkness into light by His will, and guides them to a straight path.” (Qurʾān 5:15–16)

If one interprets this verse in its historical context, one finds that at the beginning of the seventh century AD the lands of the Middle East, and the Western world as well, were in a state of turmoil. The whole world was plunged in the darkness of ignorance, and the masses were drifting towards destruction and waywardness. Human civilization and culture meant nothing more than comforts for a privileged few, and political life lay in the fetters of ignorant notions. The morality of the general public had sunk to its lowest point through unbridled sensuality, and men’s beliefs were corrupted by incessant dispute and polemic. Their blood was shed by oppressors and tyrants without higher purpose or noble cause. The nations of the world had long since lost their beauty and their charm, and were leading an animal existence.

At this juncture of moral and intellectual decay the bright light of Muḥammad (ṣ) appeared upon the dark horizon, for the guidance of a world gone astray, and breathed new life into its lifeless body. With the Holy Book in his hands, holding aloft the ever-shining torch of the unity of God (tawḥīd) and of guidance, he invited the peoples of East and West to embrace this light. He transformed the unseemly and degrading manners of the earth’s inhabitants into righteousness and virtue. He built up the people’s structure of belief on the foundation of mutual kindness and forgiveness, and cemented their social relations by fostering among them a spirit of friendship and unity. His struggle and his efforts were all directed towards realizing the beauty of good conduct. He harboured no worldly ambitions of any kind, nor did he intend to seize riches or to found an empire. His aim was to make this world, by every possible means, a perfectly unblemished and civilized place, and to free human thought from the age-old fetters of ignorance. He proclaimed to the world the immutable law of the freedom of reason in these words:

“Do not follow that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed hearing, eyesight, and the heart — all of these are accountable.” (Qurʾān 17:36)

I shall now give a brief glimpse of the character of this Prophet (ṣ) and great reformer, on the basis of the most authentic sources.

The Birth of the Prophet (ṣ)

Those who have tried to determine the date of the Prophet’s (ṣ) birth have encountered two principal obstacles in their investigations:

1. The Arabs did not commit their history to writing, since writing had only recently arisen among them at that time.
2. The absence of any information concerning the calendar followed by the Arabs in the age of ignorance (jāhiliyya): we do not know whether their year was lunar or solar, so as to be able to fix the correct date of his birth in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, the more so as the names of the pre-Islamic months also differed from those in use today.

Caussin de Perceval¹ held that the pre-Islamic Arabs followed the lunar calendar. In this he followed the view of Abū al-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī² and certain other Muslim historians, according to whom the Arabs intercalated a month every three years and thereby removed the disparity of months and seasons between their year and the solar year. Their years were thus both solar and lunar. As regards the biography of the Prophet (ṣ), we possess no documents other than the accounts of the reliable and trustworthy Shīʿī and Sunnī scholars.

The majority of Muslim scholars — the early traditionists (muḥaddithūn), the jurists, and the historians — agree that the Prophet (ṣ) was born in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal in the Year of the Elephant (ʿĀm al-Fīl),³ though they differ as to the day.

Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Nuʿmān⁴ says in his book Ḥadāʾiq al-riyāḍ, which gives an account of the religiously significant dates, that the Prophet (ṣ) was born on 17 Rabīʿ al-Awwal.

Ibn Ṭāwūs al-ʿAlawī¹ writes in his book al-Iqbāl: “The scholars whom I happened to meet held and observed Friday, 17 Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the Year of the Elephant, as the day of the Prophet’s (ṣ) birth.”

Al-Majlisī,² the author of Biḥār al-anwār, writes: “With the exception of a few, the Imāmī Shīʿa generally believe that the Prophet (ṣ) was born on the 17th of the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, in the forty-second year of the reign of Khusraw Anūshirwān; and this view is supported by the Prophet’s own reported saying: ‘I was born in the reign of Anūshirwān, the just king.’”

The author of al-Kāfī does not agree with this group of Shīʿī scholars, and maintains that the Prophet (ṣ) was born when twelve nights of the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal had passed, in the Year of the Elephant.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Zakariyyā Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277) writes in his book Tahdhīb al-asmāʾ wa-l-lughāt that it is generally accepted that the Prophet (ṣ) came into the world in the Year of the Elephant.

Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mundhir al-Khuzāmī, the shaykh of al-Bukhārī, Khalīfa ibn al-Khayyāṭ, and others agree that the Prophet was born on a Monday in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, but they differ as to whether it was the second, the eighth, the tenth, or the twelfth day of that month. All four of these dates enjoy general acceptance.

In order to determine the Prophet’s (ṣ) birthday, Maḥmūd Pāshā,³ the well-known Egyptian professor of mathematics, adopted a method that leads reliably to a correct date. His method is as follows. He first investigated the calendar followed by the Arabs, examining whether it was a solar or a lunar one. He assembled all the ancient traditions and pieces of evidence and drew his conclusion on the basis of three dates:

1. the day of the death of Ibrāhīm, the Prophet’s son;
2. the day of the Prophet’s (ṣ) arrival at Medina upon his emigration from Mecca;
3. the day of the Prophet’s birth —

all of these dates being reckoned by the Julian calendar. The professor drew his conclusion from the astronomical phenomena:

• the solar eclipse that, according to the reports of the traditionists, occurred on the day of Ibrāhīm’s death in the tenth year after the emigration;
• the conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the house of Scorpio, which in the opinion of some astronomers occurred in the year of the Prophet’s (ṣ) birth, a few days before it, and which was regarded as a portent or omen of the advent of Islam;
• the day of the Prophet’s arrival at Medina, which is fixed by the Jewish Day of Atonement, since the majority of the traditionists and biographers of the Prophet (ṣ) hold that the Prophet (ṣ) arrived at Medina on the day of the Jewish festival.

Maḥmūd Pāshā then converted these events into the solar calendar and concluded: “Since the Arabic months in which these three events took place are known, the Prophet’s birthday is Monday, 9 Rabīʿ al-Awwal, corresponding to 20 April 571 AD.”

The Circumstances of the World at the Manifestation of the Prophet’s Light

The blessed light of Muḥammad — the son of ʿAbd Allāh, the son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, of the clan of Banū Hāshim of the tribe of Quraysh — appeared at the beginning of the seventh century AD. He proclaimed the religion of Islam, and his message spread across the whole Arabian Peninsula with a speed never before witnessed. This true religion spread through the lands of the East by all the means then available.

During this period Egypt and Syria were under the dominion of the Byzantine Empire — known among the Arabs as the Roman Empire — and were ruled by Heraclius; Mesopotamia and Yemen were under the dominion of the Persian Empire and were ruled by Anūshirwān’s successors.

These two great empires made war upon one another and were disintegrating through internal revolts and intrigues; their treasuries were plundered. In 611 AD the troops of Khusraw took the city of al-Ruhā¹ from the Romans and carried off a great number of rare and precious objects. In 617 Egypt was attacked and Alexandria taken. Another division of the Iranian army marched on Asia Minor and occupied it; no obstacle remained between the army and the capital save the Bosphorus. Meanwhile Heraclius awoke from his deep slumber and made preparations for war, and he recovered all the cities. At the time of the rise of Islam these two vast empires were locked in a war with one another that ended only in 638 AD.

In that age the two empires were rivals for their spheres of dominion, and also for the extension of their rule over Arabia, which had acquired great importance, on the one hand by reason of its wealth in minerals and gold, and on the other because of its geographical position, lying as it did on the route to India.

After the Romans under the command of Aelius Gallus had attacked Arabia several times about 18 BC, they abandoned, under the government of Augustus Caesar, the design of conquering Arabia and resolved instead to conclude a treaty of peace with it. The Romans chose the kings of Ghassān as their allies, entrusting to them the task of guarding the frontiers of Arabia towards Syria and Palestine and of increasing their influence in the land.

The Iranian rulers pursued the same policy: they placed their trust in the kings of the house of al-Mundhir, the rulers of al-Ḥīra, charging them with the task of withstanding the Romans and enhancing the prestige of Iran in Arabia.

At that time Christianity was the religion of the Romans, and Zoroastrianism¹ the official religion of the Iranians. The Zoroastrians shunned the Christians, while favouring the Jews; and both the Christians and the Jews were divided into numerous sects.

In their own land the Arabs practised the worship of stars and idols. Judaism and Christianity had come to Arabia by way of Syria, and the Magian religion entered Arabia by way of Iraq.

Among the Arabs some believed in God but did not believe in the hereafter, while others denied both God and the hereafter, holding that nature was the creator of life and time (dahr) its destroyer. All of them believed in fate, in spirits and demons, and were firmly convinced of the influence of the stars and of the interpretation of dreams. Among their many evil customs and habits were the burying alive of their daughters, unkindness and cruelty, wine-drinking, gambling, and other depravities. In short, waywardness and corruption prevailed in the political, institutional, religious, and moral life of the East, and the peoples of the East were themselves striving hard to free themselves from this waywardness and to be rid of its evils.

When the Prophet of Islam (ṣ) appeared, he invited his people to embrace the glorious profession, “There is no god but God, and Muḥammad is His Messenger,” and turned their attention away from the stars of heaven towards the Holy Qurʾān.

It was the Qurʾān — with all its eloquence, its fluency of rhetoric, and its beautiful arrangement — that embodied the doctrine of the unity of God (tawḥīd), the belief most congenial to human nature. Beyond this, the Qurʾān contains within itself the code of human conduct, wisdom (ḥikma), laws, science, history, politics, and a noble morality.

The Holy Prophet (ṣ) was born in the vicinity of the Holy Kaʿba, and Mecca was a centre of trade to which the Arabs came from distant and far-flung places. The Prophet (ṣ) belonged to the tribe of Quraysh, who enjoyed the privilege of the religious leadership of the Arabs and maintained their own commercial relations with Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.

The Prophet (ṣ) moved his people to spread Islam and summoned them to strive in the way of God, for which he promised the highest rank in Paradise. The Arabs prized eloquence and the excellences of rhetoric most highly; their innate love of freedom was kindled by the sublime values of generosity, dignity, valour, and courage. Moreover, they were accustomed on the one hand to constant warfare and to the hazardous life of the desert, while on the other the promise of Paradise, the eloquence of the Prophet, and the beauty of his character proved a living spur to their energies. They therefore supported him willingly during his lifetime, and his caliphs after him. Thus they were able to enlarge their dominion and, within the span of a single century, to spread their law and their language from Sind and India to the Atlantic Ocean in the one direction, and from the Caspian Sea, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and the upper reaches of the Sudan in the other.

The Character of the Prophet (ṣ)

I shall give here a brief account of the Prophet’s praiseworthy character, of his message, and of the manner and nature of the spreading of his religious summons, with reference to the most authentic sources and to the books written by eminent Muslim scholars.

The Prophet (ṣ) was born at Mecca on the 12th day of Rabīʿ al-Awwal according to the popular Sunnī traditions, on the 9th day of that month according to the most exact calculation, and on its 17th day according to the belief of the Imāmī Shīʿa — coinciding with 20 April 571 AD and the Year of the Elephant. His father died before he was born, and his paternal grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib took charge of his maintenance and guardianship for the first eight years of his life. When his grandfather too died, his uncle Abū Ṭālib assumed the responsibility of bringing him up.

In those days the Quraysh carried on trade with Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, and Abū Ṭālib was engaged in the same occupation as his fellow tribesmen. When Muḥammad was thirteen years old, Abū Ṭālib took him with him on a journey to Syria. He was regarded as an intelligent, wise, noble, honest, and pure-hearted youth; the signs of his noble character, his wisdom, his greatness and excellence shone forth from his venerable bearing.

It is related that when he arrived with his uncle at Buṣrā,¹ a Christian monk named Baḥīrā, famed for his piety and righteousness, saw him and said: “A great mission awaits this youth; soon he will be known from the East to the West of the earth.”

When Muḥammad (ṣ) reached his twenty-fifth year, he was sent to Syria by Khadīja, the daughter of Khuwaylid — one of the wealthiest women of Arabia — together with her slave. From this journey he brought back great profits. Khadīja was pleased with his abilities, his sincerity, and his honesty, and she offered him marriage.

As already mentioned, Khadīja was one of the most respected women of the Quraysh; both by reason of her wealth and of her excellences she held a higher and more honoured station than the others. Owing to her fortune and her noble descent she proved the best companion and supporter of the Prophet (ṣ), both before the beginning of his prophetic mission and after it.

In his youth the Prophet (ṣ) had acquired the best of habits and a sense of self-respect, honour, and dignity. The condition of his people lay especially close to his heart, and he could not bear to see them going astray. He believed firmly in the existence and unity of God, in the hereafter, and in the immortality of the soul. He was free of sin, a devout man who loved to worship God with great devotion.

The Prophet would most often withdraw into seclusion, choosing the solitude of the cave of Ḥirāʾ near the holy city of Mecca in order to venerate and worship God. Thus he lived until his fortieth year. In that year, on the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr), on 1 February 610 AD, as he meditated in the solitude of the cave of Ḥirāʾ, he was visited by the archangel Gabriel, whom God had sent to him to deliver the divine message.

The Prophet (ṣ) brought the news to his wife Khadīja; and she, his cousin ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, his freedman Zayd ibn Ḥāritha, and his friend Abū Bakr were the first to accept Islam. They invited persons whom they trusted, in secret, to embrace Islam: ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and Ṭalḥa ibn ʿUbayd Allāh accepted Islam. These people were called the first Muslims (al-sābiqūn).

During the first three years the Prophet (ṣ) summoned people to Islam quietly, until they numbered forty. Prominent among them were ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and his own uncle Ḥamza ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. Thereafter he summoned his fellow men to Islam publicly, and awe of it took hold of their hearts. Some rejected his summons and fought him by every means. As guardians of the Holy Kaʿba and custodians of the Arab cult, they feared to accept this new religion of Islam, apprehending that it might call down the wrath of the other Arab tribes and move them to break off their trading relations with them. Moreover, the thought that Muḥammad, despite his limited resources, might come to outstrip them was painful to them. Consequently the most powerful and effective opponents and critics were the dignitaries and wealthiest members of the Quraysh. In any event, the Prophet (ṣ) was protected by some of his near kinsmen.

Under these circumstances, when his Companions were exposed to severe oppression, those among them who could not defend themselves resolved to emigrate to Abyssinia; among them were ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, and Jaʿfar al-Ṭayyār. The Abyssinian ruler accorded them a cordial reception. Some of them returned to Mecca before the emigration to Medina (the Hijra), but most of them came back only in the seventh year after the Hijra.

Khadīja, the Prophet’s (ṣ) wife, died after twenty-five years of marriage, and after her died the Prophet’s uncle Abū Ṭālib. With the death of these two strong supporters the number of his adherents declined. But these events could not discourage him or weaken his resolve. Rather, he began to frequent the market-places, to attend the gatherings of the ḥajj, and openly to invite the Arabs to belief in the One God and the natural religion. He exhorted them to abandon the worship of idols and of the stars of heaven. He forbade the people wine, gambling, the burying alive of their daughters, and everything else in the pagan Arab custom that he judged lawless and harmful.

Meanwhile six men of Medina (Yathrib), all belonging to the tribe of al-Khazraj, had accepted Islam. When they returned to their kinsfolk, many more were drawn to Islam and committed themselves to this faith.

In the following year twelve further persons of the tribes of al-Aws and al-Khazraj came to the Prophet (ṣ) and swore allegiance to him and to his faith, Islam. The Prophet (ṣ) sent Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr back with them to teach these people the religious foundations of Islam, and thanks to his efforts Islam spread through Medina until there was no house in which the name of the Prophet (ṣ) was not mentioned.

In the third year, on the occasion of the ḥajj, seventy-three men and two women came to him, pledged their allegiance, and declared their readiness to stand by him with every means at their command whenever he should wish to come to Medina. The Prophet (ṣ) thought of joining his followers in Medina together with his Meccan followers, with their consent. When the Quraysh learned of this plan, they feared that the people of Medina would attack them and wage war against them in their own land; to prevent this they resolved to kill the Prophet (ṣ).

The Prophet (ṣ) emigrated secretly from Mecca to Medina on 20 September 622 AD. Thereafter his adherents and supporters from Mecca followed him; they were later called the Muhājirūn (the Emigrants), while the adherents in Medina were called the Anṣār (the Helpers). The Prophet (ṣ) bound these two groups together in brotherhood, and each of the Muhājirūn was made the brother of one of the Anṣār.

As the number of his followers in Medina grew, the Prophet (ṣ) set about propagating his religion, and whenever circumstances compelled him he drew the sword in order to make the message of Islam manifest. The Prophet (ṣ) desired to attain nothing but the inculcation of the values of piety and virtue, which he wished to attain for himself as well.

The battles (ghazawāt) in which the Prophet (ṣ) took part in person were twenty-seven in number; of these, actual fighting between the two sides occurred in only nine. The expeditions in which he did not take part, and which were fought by his followers, amount to forty-eight; among these, seven engagements are famous.

Chapter One

1. The Rise of Writing in the Ḥijāz (Mecca and Medina) and Its Development into the Script in Which the Qurʾān Was Written

The Arabic script is cognate with the Demotic (or Egyptian) script that was in common use in those days.¹ From it branched off the Phoenician script, which was used in the land of the Phoenicians near Canaan, on the coast of the White Sea (the Mediterranean), in the region known today as Mount Lebanon.

The Phoenicians belonged to the family of Semitic peoples, but most of them had mingled with the Egyptians and others as a result of their trade and business relations. From them they learned the writing of characters, out of which they developed simple and uncomplicated letters for commercial use.

From the Egyptian systems of writing the Phoenicians borrowed some fifteen letters, altering them slightly, as the famous archaeologist Maspero² has described in his book Histoire ancienne des peuples de l’Orient classique; they then added the remaining letters. In this way their alphabet, by virtue of its simplicity and ease, became popular and spread through Europe and Asia.

Its third offshoot is the Aramaic script,³ concerning which there is a controversy between the European and the Arab historians.

The View of the European Historians

The European historians hold that the following four scripts were derived from the Phoenician:

1. the ancient Greek script, which is cognate with all the European scripts and with Coptic;
2. the ancient Hebrew script, which is associated with Samaria;
3. the Ḥimyaritic Musnad script,¹ from which the Ethiopic script developed;
4. the Aramaic script, which is cognate with six other scripts:
   1. the Indian scripts in all their forms;
   2. the Old Persian (Pahlavi) script;
   3. the square Hebrew script;
   4. the Palmyrene script (of Palmyra, or Tadmur);
   5. the Syriac script;
   6. the Nabataean script.

According to the European historians the Arabic script is of two kinds. The first is the Kufic script, which evolved out of the Syriac characters known as Estrangelo;² the second is the Naskhī form of the Arabic character, which evolved out of the Nabataean³ script. For this reason the Musnad script is not regarded as cognate with the Arabic character, and Syriac is considered the last script cognate with the Nabataean.

The Views of the Arab Historians

The Arab historians, pre-Islamic and post-Islamic alike, believe that their Ḥijāzī script was borrowed from the people of al-Ḥīra⁴ and al-Anbār,⁵ and that this script reached the peoples of those two cities through the Arabs of Kinda⁶ and the Musnad characters of the Nabataean nation.

The Arab historians agree unanimously that the Arabic character was brought to Mecca by Ḥarb ibn Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams, who learned it in the course of his travels from various individuals, among whom Bishr ibn ʿAbd al-Malik — the brother of al-Ukaydir, the ruler of Dūmat al-Jandal — deserves particular mention. Bishr stayed with Ḥarb ibn Umayya in Mecca and took his daughter al-Ṣahbāʾ in marriage. He taught the script to some of the people of Mecca and died there. A poet of Kinda, giving voice to the indebtedness of the Quraysh to Kinda, says:

Deny not the bounty that Bishr bestowed upon you —
blessed of nature was he, and radiant of face.
He brought you the script of decisive strokes, whereby you preserved
wealth that had lain scattered and in disarray;
and he made you rich, dispensing with the Musnad of Ḥimyar
and with what the princes of Ḥimyar had inscribed in their books.

Ibn ʿAbbās¹ relates that the people of al-Anbār borrowed that script from the people of al-Ḥīra. Thus, according to the Arab historians, the Musnad script was cognate with the Arabic script. One of the Arab researchers, in his book Ḥayāt al-lugha al-ʿarabiyya, has preferred the view held by the Arab historians, on the strength of the following arguments:

1. Four types of the Musnad script are known to have existed, and the Ṣafawī script is considered the closest to the Phoenician. It is argued that this proves that the Musnad script was in essence a single script, closely akin to the Phoenician character, and that its likeness to the Aramaic cannot be ignored; it travelled from Yemen and the Aramaeans, by way of Kinda and the Nabataeans, through al-Ḥīra and al-Anbār to the people of the Ḥijāz. I (the author of Ḥayāt al-lugha al-ʿarabiyya) consider this journey of the script a remote possibility, for its likeness to the Phoenician and the Ṣafawī script rather supports the view that the Musnad script is derived from the Phoenician, and that after gaining currency in Yemen it reached al-Ḥīra and al-Anbār by way of Yemen. The view that this script was received from the Aramaeans supports the view that the Aramaic character is cognate with the Ḥijāzī character, since it is not possible that the Aramaeans should have put into circulation any character other than their own.

2. The intermingling of the Nabataeans with the Yemenis, and their close contacts with some of the Aramaic groups, implies that the Nabataeans must have learned the Musnad script from them. This possibility too I regard as very remote; for if the Nabataeans derived their script from the Yemenis on account of their connection with them, it would be equally possible that the Nabataeans derived their script from the Aramaeans for the same reason, since they had close contact with them as well.

3. The consensus of the Arab historians, the abundance of the traditions, and their unanimity on this disputed question prove that this character reached Yemen by way of the Ḥijāz. The third argument, too, I regard as weak; for the arrival of this script by way of Yemen does not contradict the view that it had its origin in the Aramaic script, and it is even possible that the Yemenis developed their script out of the Aramaic, since they had intermingled with the Aramaeans.

4. The presence of the paired supplementary letters, al-rawādif — such as those in thakhkhadh and ḍaẓigh — which exist in the Musnad script, is Ḥimyaritic in origin and is not found in Aramaic. The fourth argument also is weak in my view; for had the Musnad belonged to the branch of the Ḥijāzī script, there would certainly have been specific forms for these paired letters, as for the other letters that are essentially contiguous with them. The absence of specific forms for these letters in the Ḥijāzī script proves that the Aramaic character — which lacks the specific paired letters — is one of the roots of the Ḥijāzī script. It was the presence of the sounds of these paired letters, rooted in the very nature of the Arabs’ language, that led them to devise and introduce these letters, by means of diacritical marks, in order to express those sounds.

This theory is supported by the author of Ḥayāt al-lugha al-ʿarabiyya (p. 88), who says: “Those who devised signs for the paired letters inevitably singled out the following letters and placed dots upon them — bāʾ, jīm, dāl, ṣād, ṭāʾ, and ʿayn — in order to make them distinguishable.” The other proof that the Aramaic character is cognate with the Arabic character is this: al-Ḥāfiẓ Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī,¹ in his Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ, in connection with the tradition transmitted by Khārija ibn Zayd,² writes that the latter’s own father, Zayd ibn Thābit, told him that at the behest of the Prophet of God (ṣ) he had learned the script of the Jews within fifteen days and mastered it. Zayd’s learning of the script within a fortnight indicates that what he learned was the Estrangelo script, from which the Aramaic character is derived — one of the two types of the Syriac script, and the script used by the Jews. It is for this very reason that the account of Zayd ibn Thābit records that he knew Syriac; and it was from the Syriac characters that the Kufic writing evolved.

Besides this, the Kufic script bears the closest resemblance to the Ḥīrī script, which in its turn resembles the Nabataean; the Nabataean script resembles the Aramaic, and the Aramaic the Phoenician, which shows affinities with the Demotic current in Egypt — and this proves the connections between these scripts in the order stated above.

The Script in Use in Medina

As for the script used in Medina (Yathrib) when the Prophet (ṣ) arrived there, the accounts of the transmitters of ḥadīth and the biographers of the Prophet (ṣ) establish that it was the script that a Jew used to teach to the children. There were a dozen or more men who could write, among them Saʿīd ibn Zurāra, al-Mundhir ibn ʿAmr, Ubayy ibn Wahb, Zayd ibn Thābit, Rāfiʿ ibn Mālik, and Aws ibn Khawlī. Evidently they knew the Ḥijāzī script, which was derived from the script of the people of al-Ḥīra. This view also accords with Zayd’s learning of the script of the Jews at the Prophet’s (ṣ) command after his arrival at Medina.

The first to give general currency to the art of writing was the Prophet Muḥammad (ṣ), who popularized it after his emigration to Medina. In the battle of Badr some seventy men of the Quraysh and other tribes were taken prisoner, among them many who could write. From those who were illiterate and could not write, the Prophet (ṣ) demanded ransom in money; but as the ransom of those who could read and write, he made it obligatory upon each of them to teach reading and writing to ten of the children of Medina. This they did, and from that time reading and writing spread gradually through Medina and the other cities that came within the domain of Islam, and illiteracy remained confined to the desert regions alone.

The Ḥijāzī character is of two types: the Naskhī script, which was used for correspondence, and the Kufic script, which is attributed to Kūfa after that city was founded; for it was at Kūfa that the rules of the Ḥijāzī script were refined and the forms of its letters perfected, and for this reason the script remained associated with Kūfa.

Scholars and researchers have succeeded in tracing the original letters written and sent by the Prophet (ṣ) to al-Muqawqas and to al-Mundhir ibn Sāwā. They have photographed them and had them printed. The original letter sent to al-Muqawqas is preserved in the Museum of the Prophet’s Relics in Istanbul.

A French scholar discovered this letter in an Egyptian monastery near Akhmīm. When Sultan ʿAbd al-Majīd the Ottoman¹ received this news, he invited the scholar to come to him with this priceless letter. He showed it to experts and scholars, who confirmed that the letter in question was the very one that the Prophet (ṣ) had sent to al-Muqawqas. Sultan ʿAbd al-Majīd bought the letter for a very high price. The other letter is preserved in the library of Vienna, the capital of Austria.

2. The Beginning of Waḥy (the Divine Revelation)

Waḥy (the divine revelation) began on the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr), which according to the text of the Qurʾān fell in the month of Ramaḍān, in the forty-first year after the Prophet’s (ṣ) birth:

“Indeed We sent it down on the Night of Ordainment.” (Qurʾān 97:1)

“Indeed We sent it down on a blessed night, and indeed We have been warning [mankind]. Every definitive matter is resolved in it, as an ordinance from Us. Indeed We have been sending [apostles].” (Qurʾān 44:3–5)

“The month of Ramaḍān is one in which the Qurʾān was sent down as guidance to mankind, with manifest proofs of guidance and the Criterion …” (Qurʾān 2:185)

The month of Ramaḍān is the month in which the Prophet (ṣ) used to withdraw to the cave of Ḥirāʾ² and seclude himself there for fasting and the worship of God.

There is much difference of opinion regarding the night on which the revelation began. A Qurʾānic verse states:

“… if you have faith in Allah and what We sent down to Our servant on the Day of Separation, the day when the two hosts met …” (Qurʾān 8:41)

This verse points to the 17th of Ramaḍān as the day on which the Prophet (ṣ) first received revelation, since the two hosts confronted one another on 17 Ramaḍān in the second year of the Hijra — the two hosts being the army of the Muslims and that of the idolaters at the battle of Badr. The verse thus commemorates two auspicious occasions: on that day God Almighty chose Muḥammad (ṣ) as His Prophet, and He bestowed honour and glory on the Muslims by granting them victory.

In his exegesis Abū Jaʿfar ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī¹ writes, on the authority of a tradition from al-Imām al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī (ʿa), that the Night of Separation — the day when the two hosts met — was the 17th of Ramaḍān.

3. The Qurʾānic Verse That Was Revealed First

It is correct that the first Qurʾānic verse to be revealed was:

“Read in the Name of your Lord who created.” (Qurʾān 96:1)

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, generally known as Ibn Abī Yaʿqūb al-Nadīm, writes in his book Fawz al-ʿulūm, known as al-Fihrist: “Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf related to me that he heard from Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ghālib, who had it from Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Madīnī, who had heard it from Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Wāqidī,² to whom it had been communicated by Muʿammar ibn al-Rāshid, who had heard it from al-Zuhrī, who had heard it from Muḥammad ibn Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, who reported that the first verses of the Qurʾān revealed to the Prophet (ṣ) were:

“Read in the Name of your Lord who created; created man from a clinging mass. Read, and your Lord is the most generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.” (Qurʾān 96:1–5)

The two Shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim) relate that the Prophet (ṣ) used often to visit the cave of Ḥirāʾ, sojourning there for several nights and taking provisions with him. He would then return and spend some time with Khadīja (ʿa), then take provisions again and go back for several more nights to the same place. So he continued until one day a flood of the light of Truth suddenly blazed up in his heart. Then an angel descended upon him. “Read!” said the angel. The Prophet (ṣ) related: “I said to him, ‘I cannot read.’ He seized me and pressed me so hard that all my strength left me. Then he released me and said, ‘Read!’ And I answered, ‘I cannot read.’ Then he seized me a second time and pressed me very hard, then released me and said, ‘Read!’ I answered, ‘I cannot read.’ Then he seized me a third time and pressed me very hard, and said: ‘Read in the Name of your Lord who created; created man from a clinging mass. Read, and your Lord is the most generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know’ (Qurʾān 96:1–5).” Then the Prophet (ṣ), his whole body still trembling, returned from Ḥirāʾ to Khadīja (ʿa).

In Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān, Abū ʿUbayda says that he was told by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who heard it from Sufyān, who heard it from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, that Mujāhid reported to him that the first verses of the Qurʾān revealed to the Prophet (ṣ) were: “Read in the Name of your Lord …” (Qurʾān 96:1) and “Nūn. By the pen …” (Qurʾān 68:1).

Ibn Ashta reports in his Kitāb al-maṣāḥif that ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr said that Gabriel (ʿa) descended to the Prophet (ṣ) with a special kind of parchment and called on him to read. The Prophet (ṣ) said, “I cannot read.” The angel said again: “Read in the Name of your Lord …” It is believed that this was the first sūra revealed to the Prophet (ṣ).

Al-Zuhrī likewise reports, on the basis of the traditions, that the Prophet (ṣ) was in the cave of Ḥirāʾ when the angel of God descended with a fine parchment upon which was written: “Read in the Name of your Lord who created; created man from a clinging mass. Read, and your Lord is the most generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know” (Qurʾān 96:1–5).

After the revelation of these verses of the Qurʾān, no further verses were revealed for a period of three years. This interval became known as zamān fatrat al-waḥy, the time of the intermission of revelation. Thereafter the Qurʾān was revealed to the Prophet (ṣ) gradually, verse by verse, in the course of time. This mode of the revelation of the verses was criticized by the unbelievers. The Qurʾān refers to this subject, and the objection is refuted in Sūrat al-Furqān in these words:

“The faithless say, ‘Why has not the Qurʾān been sent down to him all at once?’ So it is, that We may strengthen your heart with it, and We have recited it [to you] in a measured tone.” (Qurʾān 25:32)

This ordering and sequence of the revelation, and the ever-recurring flashes of waḥy in the Prophet’s (ṣ) heart with the resplendent light of knowledge, became for him a source of strength and peace. There is no contradiction between the gradual revelation of the Qurʾān and those verses which seem to say otherwise, such as: “Indeed We sent it down on the Night of Ordainment” (Qurʾān 97:1); “The month of Ramaḍān is one in which the Qurʾān was sent down …” (Qurʾān 2:185); “Indeed We sent it down on a blessed night …” (Qurʾān 44:3).

For there are certain verses in the Qurʾān which, according to the words of God Almighty, are themselves called “the Qurʾān,” such as:

“[This is] a Book, whose signs have been made definitive and then elaborated …” (Qurʾān 11:1)

(We can understand this point) when we take into account that the Qurʾān also contains verses of ambiguous meaning. In addition, it may be said that the essence and the general aims of the Qurʾān as a whole were revealed to the pure heart of the Prophet (ṣ) on that single night:

“… brought down by the Trustworthy Spirit upon your heart …” (Qurʾān 26:193–194)

and that later the verses were revealed to him one by one, separately, over the span of several years:

“We have sent the Qurʾān in [discrete] parts so that you may read it to the people a little at a time, and We have sent it down piecemeal.” (Qurʾān 17:106)

From the study of the ḥadīth it may be inferred that the greater part of the Qurʾān was revealed verse by verse — like Sūrat Iqraʾ, whose opening verses down to “… what he did not know” were revealed on the first occasion. The case of Sūrat al-Ḍuḥā is similar, whose opening five verses down to fa-tarḍā (“… and you will be pleased”) were revealed at first. On the other hand, some sūras of the Qurʾān were revealed complete at one time, such as al-Fātiḥa, al-Ikhlāṣ, al-Kawthar, al-Lahab, al-Bayyina, and al-Naṣr¹ among the shorter ones, and al-Mursalāt² among the longer sūras.

This inference rests also on the revelation of five or ten verses together — as with the revelation of the ten opening verses of Sūrat al-Muʾminūn — and on the revelation, in isolation, of the single phrase ghayru ulī l-ḍarar (“excepting those who suffer from some disability”), which forms part of the verse “Not equal are those of the faithful who sit back …” (Qurʾān 4:95). The case is similar with the following verse:

“… Should you fear poverty, Allah will enrich you out of His grace, if He wishes. Indeed Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.” (Qurʾān 9:28)

The passage just quoted is only a part of verse 28 of Sūrat Barāʾa (al-Tawba), and it was revealed separately, by itself, after another part of the verse had already been revealed.

4. The Period in Which the Qurʾān Was Revealed

The period of time in which the Qurʾān was revealed is divided into two distinct phases: first, the time before the Prophet’s (ṣ) emigration, and secondly, the time after it.

1. The period before the emigration. The verses and sūras revealed during the twelve years, five months, and thirteen days of the sojourn at Mecca — from 17 Ramaḍān of the forty-first year after the Prophet’s (ṣ) birth, the day known as the Day of al-Furqān (the Day of Separation), until the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the fifty-fourth year after his birth — within the confines of Mecca and before the Prophet’s (ṣ) emigration (Hijra), are regarded as the Meccan sūras and verses.

2. The period following the Prophet’s (ṣ) Hijra to Medina. This period embraces all the verses revealed after the Hijra. Even if some verses were revealed during this period outside Medina, they are nevertheless regarded as Medinan sūras and verses.¹ The portion of the Qurʾān revealed at Medina accordingly amounts to about 11/30 of the Book.

Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥiṣār writes in his book al-Nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh that the number of sūras unanimously agreed to have been revealed at Medina is twenty. The sūras about whose place of revelation there is disagreement number twelve. Apart from these, all the other verses and sūras are unanimously declared by the Muslims to be Meccan. The twenty Medinan sūras are the following:

1. al-Baqara; 2. Āl ʿImrān; 3. al-Nisāʾ; 4. al-Māʾida; 5. al-Anfāl; 6. al-Tawba (Barāʾa); 7. al-Nūr; 8. al-Aḥzāb; 9. Muḥammad; 10. al-Fatḥ; 11. al-Ḥujurāt; 12. al-Ḥadīd; 13. al-Mujādala; 14. al-Ḥashr; 15. al-Mumtaḥana; 16. al-Jumuʿa; 17. al-Munāfiqūn; 18. al-Ṭalāq; 19. al-Taḥrīm; 20. al-Naṣr.

Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī agrees with all of these except al-Anfāl,¹ and Abū ʿUbayda,² in his book Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān, concurs in all but al-Ḥujurāt, al-Jumuʿa, and al-Munāfiqūn. The author of al-Fihrist, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, following the report of Muḥammad ibn Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr — whose name was mentioned in the section on the first-revealed verse of the Qurʾān — likewise agrees on all the sūras except Sūrat al-Aḥzāb. Hence the sūras on which these four authorities, whose views are accepted as authentic and reliable, unanimously agree are fifteen of those that Abū al-Ḥasan listed in his book al-Nāsikh wa-l-mansūkh.

The disagreement concerns five sūras, in this order: al-Anfāl, which Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī does not accept as Medinan; al-Ḥujurāt, al-Jumuʿa, and al-Munāfiqūn, regarding which Abū ʿUbayda expresses a dissenting opinion in Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān; and al-Aḥzāb, which Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, the author of al-Fihrist, does not regard as Medinan.

5. The Recitation of the Qurʾān in the Time of the Prophet (ṣ)

The Holy Prophet (ṣ) was ummī, that is, unlettered, in the sense that he could neither read nor write.³ The Qurʾān throws light on this matter in verse 157 of sūra 7 and verse 48 of sūra 29. When a sūra or a verse had been revealed, the Prophet (ṣ), having first impressed it upon his own memory, communicated it to the people and recited it to the worthiest of those who enjoyed his company, bidding them also to commit it to memory.

Reports transmitted through reliable chains of authorities and set down in the collections of the traditionists, upon whose works the Muslims rely, confirm this. Al-Bukhārī relates in the Ṣaḥīḥ from ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr that al-Miswar ibn Makhzama and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Qārī informed him that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said that in the lifetime of the Prophet (ṣ) he heard Hishām ibn al-Ḥakīm recite Sūrat al-Furqān. As he listened to Hishām’s recitation, ʿUmar noticed that he was reading it in a manner in which he had never heard it from the Prophet (ṣ). At first ʿUmar wanted to fall upon Hishām, who was at prayer; but he resolved to wait until he had finished. Then he seized Hishām by the collar and asked him who had taught him to recite the sūra as he had heard him recite it. Hishām told him that the Prophet (ṣ) had taught it to him. ʿUmar retorted that he lied, for the manner of recitation the Prophet (ṣ) had taught him was different from that in which Hishām recited. He then dragged him before the Prophet (ṣ) and complained that he had heard Hishām recite Sūrat al-Furqān in a manner in which he had never heard the Prophet (ṣ) recite it. The Prophet (ṣ) first told ʿUmar to release Hishām’s collar, and then asked Hishām to recite. Hishām recited it as ʿUmar had heard him. Thereupon the Prophet (ṣ) said: “Thus was it revealed.” Then the Prophet (ṣ) asked ʿUmar to recite, and ʿUmar recited it as he had heard the Prophet (ṣ) recite. On hearing this the Prophet (ṣ) said again: “Thus was it revealed.” Then he added: “This Qurʾān was revealed in seven readings (sabʿat aḥruf); therefore recite of it whatever comes easily to you.”

Again, al-Bukhārī relates from Shaqīq ibn Salama, who reported: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said in an address: “By God, the Companions of the Prophet know that among them I am the most versed in the Book of God, though I am not the best of them.”

Shaykh al-Ṭāʾifa Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī (385–460/995–1067), the Imāmī jurist, states in his book al-Amālī that Ibn Masʿūd had learned seventy sūras from the Prophet (ṣ) and the remainder from Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa). In al-Mustadrak it is reported of Ibn Masʿūd that he related: “We were with the Prophet (ṣ) in a cave when al-Mursalāt was revealed to him. I learned the sūra from his mouth …”

Abū ʿUbayda in al-Faḍāʾil, and likewise Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Mundhir, and Ibn Mardawayh, report from ʿUmar ibn ʿĀmir al-Anṣārī that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb recited verse 100 of sūra 9 as follows: “The early vanguard of the Emigrants — and the Helpers, who followed them in virtue …”, with al-anṣār (the Helpers) in the nominative case (rafʿ) and without the wāw (“and”) before alladhīna (“those who”). Zayd ibn Thābit, seeking to correct him, recited: “… and those who followed them in virtue” — a reading that sets the Helpers on a par with the first Emigrants among “the early vanguard” — and then added: “Yet the Amīr al-Muʾminīn knows best.” ʿUmar had Ubayy ibn Kaʿb summoned. When he came, ʿUmar asked him about the verse, and Ubayy too recited it as Zayd ibn Thābit had done, adding: “By God, the Prophet (ṣ) taught me to recite it thus, at a time when you were still selling wheat.” ʿUmar was convinced and said: “In that case, follow Ubayy’s reading.”

In al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ it is reported that the Prophet (ṣ) said to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: “God has commanded me to recite the Qurʾān to you.” Ubayy asked the Prophet (ṣ) whether God had mentioned him by name. The Prophet (ṣ) answered: “Yes, your name was mentioned before the Lord of the Worlds.” All these traditions make clear that the Prophet (ṣ) used to recite the Qurʾān before the learned among his Companions, and was so scrupulous about their committing it to memory that he told Ubayy that God had commanded him to recite the Qurʾān to him. These traditions also indicate that the Companions memorized the text conscientiously, so much so that the addition or omission of a single wāw was a matter of serious concern to them, even though it altered the meaning but little.¹

Note

By al-ḥurūf al-sabʿa (the seven readings) are meant the seven ways of reciting the Qurʾān in which different words of identical meaning were employed — such as aqbil, halumma, and taʿāla (all meaning “come!”), or ʿajjil and asriʿ (“hurry!”), or akhkhir and amhil (“delay!”), or imḍi and isri (“go!”). This interpretation was adopted by Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī in the preface to his commentary on the Qurʾān.²

This account is likewise borne out by trustworthy traditions transmitted from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd,¹ and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, which show that the nature of their disagreement concerned merely the manner of reading the Qurʾān, not its meaning. Once, to settle the matter, they went to the Prophet (ṣ); the Prophet (ṣ) bade each of them read, listened to their recitation, and approved their different ways of reading. Some of them wondered how the Prophet (ṣ) could approve such diverse readings, until the Prophet (ṣ) himself resolved their doubt with the words: “Allah has commanded me to read the Qurʾān in seven readings.”²

The Prophet’s (ṣ) answer reveals the fact that the seven readings yield the same meaning. Again al-Ṭabarī, in the preface to his commentary, reports from Abū Karīb, through a chain of authorities, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr, from his father, that the Prophet (ṣ) said that Gabriel had bidden him read the Qurʾān in one reading. Then Michael bade him read it in more than one way — that is, in two — until the number finally reached six or seven. Michael then told him that all of these were good enough, so long as a verse concerning God’s chastisement did not conclude with His mercy, nor a verse concerning His mercy end in a threat of chastisement — as with the words halumma and taʿāla (“come!”).

The above interpretation is also supported by what the jurists have understood this tradition to mean. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr¹ says that Ibn Wahb² reported in Kitāb al-targhīb that Mālik was once asked whether he thought it permissible to read the verse as ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb did, namely fa-mḍū ilā dhikri llāh (“proceed to the remembrance of Allah”) instead of fa-sʿaw ilā dhikri llāh (“hurry toward the remembrance of Allah”; Qurʾān 62:9). He answered that it was permissible, and added that the Prophet (ṣ) had said: “This Qurʾān was revealed in seven readings; therefore recite of it whatever comes easily to you.”

This interpretation is by no means rejected by reason. For if there were differences of meaning among the seven readings, a single statement would yield two different and opposite meanings. How, then, could the Prophet (ṣ) have permitted something contrary to the meaning intended by God? And yet various traditions indicate that the Prophet (ṣ) approved different readings. It is evident that no verse of the Qurʾān may be interpreted in two opposite ways, lest the impermissible be made to appear permissible and the permissible impermissible; for Allah has said:

“… Had it been from [someone] other than Allah, they would have surely found much discrepancy in it.” (Qurʾān 4:82)

In another tradition al-Aʿmash relates from Anas that the latter read verse 6 of sūra 73 thus: “Indeed the watch of the night is firmer in tread and more correct (aṣwabu) in respect to speech.” Someone told him that the reading was aqwamu (“more upright”). He replied: “Ahdā, aṣwabu, and aqwamu — all three have the same meaning.” It is possible that he intended something of what Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahristānī¹ affirmed in his commentary, when he said that the Prophet’s (ṣ) words, “The Qurʾān was revealed in seven readings,” imply those variations which distinguish the seven readings of the Qurʾān from one another by reason of imāla (giving the fatḥa a sound approaching that of kasra), ishmām (giving a quiescent letter a slight colouring of ḍamma or kasra, yet not so as to lengthen the syllable or create an additional one), and idghām (the merging of one letter into another, doubling it by tashdīd — coalescence).

Whenever the Companions of the Prophet (ṣ) received a verse or a sūra from him, they would come to him again and again and recite it in his presence, so as to impress it correctly upon their memories. Having recited it to him, they would ask him whether they had learned it exactly as it had been revealed to him; and the Prophet (ṣ) would then confirm their reading.

Al-Dhahabī² writes in his Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ that Khārija ibn Zayd related from his father, who said that when the Prophet (ṣ) came to Medina he could already read seventeen sūras, and that he read them to him; the Prophet (ṣ) was pleased with his reading. Then he said to him: “Learn the script of the Jews for my sake, for I cannot rely upon them as my scribes.” Zayd relates that he learned it within half a month.³

Having learned the Qurʾān by heart and fixed it firmly in his memory, every ḥāfiẓ (one who preserves the Qurʾān in his memory) would pass on what he had learned, teaching it to the children and to his sons, and to those people of Mecca and Medina who had not been present at the time of its revelation. For this reason, within a day or two of every revelation the portion of the Qurʾān that had come down was recorded and preserved in the hearts and memories of most of the Companions. The ḥuffāẓ and qurrāʾ (reciters of the Qurʾān) would recite in the presence of the Prophet (ṣ) whatever of the Qurʾān they had committed to memory, and sometimes they recited a portion of it at his command.

It is related of Ibn Masʿūd that he reported that the Prophet (ṣ) once asked him to recite the Qurʾān to him. He relates that he began to read Sūrat al-Nisāʾ and came to the verse:

“So how shall it be, when We bring from every nation a witness and We bring you as a witness to them?” (Qurʾān 4:41)

Ibn Masʿūd relates further that tears flowed from the eyes of the Prophet (ṣ) as he recited this, and he told him that this much was enough for the occasion. Al-Āmidī¹ writes in his book Abkār al-afkār that the well-known copies (maṣāḥif) of the Qurʾān in the time of the Companions had been read out before the Prophet (ṣ). The codex of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān was the last to be read to the Prophet (ṣ),² and until his death he recited his prayers according to it.

Ibn Ashta in al-Maṣāḥif, and Ibn Abī Shayba in al-Faḍāʾil, relate from Ibn Sīrīn,³ who reports ʿUbayda al-Salmānī as saying that the qirāʾa (recitation of the Qurʾān) performed before the Prophet (ṣ) in the year of his death was the same as that of the people of his own day.

Al-Baghawī¹ writes in Sharḥ al-sunna that Zayd ibn Thābit was present at the last reading of the Qurʾān, when the abrogated and unabrogated verses were specified. He wrote it down for the Prophet (ṣ) and read it to him, and he taught the people that reading until the time of his death. It is for this reason that Abū Bakr and ʿUmar relied upon Zayd ibn Thābit for the collection of the Qurʾān, and that ʿUthmān later charged him with the task of preparing the copies (maṣāḥif) during his reign.

The Prophet (ṣ), while still at Mecca, sent a group of readers of the Qurʾān to Medina to teach the Qurʾān to the people. Al-Bukhārī relates from Abū Isḥāq, who reports al-Barāʾ as saying: “The first of the Companions of the Prophet to come to us (that is, to Medina) were Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr and Ibn Umm Maktūm, who came and taught us the recitation of the Qurʾān. After them came ʿAmmār and Bilāl. When the Prophet (ṣ) had conquered Mecca, he appointed Muʿādh ibn Jabal to teach the Qurʾān there. And whoever emigrated from Mecca to Medina, the Prophet (ṣ) sent him to one of the ḥuffāẓ of the Qurʾān, that he might teach him the Qurʾān.” In this way the number of the ḥuffāẓ of the Qurʾān increased during the Prophet’s (ṣ) lifetime; and in that period some seventy qārīs fell in the battle of Biʾr Maʿūna, as al-Suyūṭī records in al-Itqān as a sound report (khabar ṣaḥīḥ). There are many traditions to the effect that Abū Bakr had memorized the Qurʾān during the lifetime of the Prophet (ṣ).²

Abū ʿUbayda has listed the names of the qārīs among the Companions in his Kitāb al-qirāʾāt. Among the Muhājirūn, besides the four caliphs, they were: Ṭalḥa, Saʿd, Ibn Masʿūd, Ḥudhayfa, Sālim, Abū Hurayra, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Sāʾib, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ,¹ ʿĀʾisha, Ḥafṣa, and Umm Salama. Among the Anṣār, ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit, Muʿādh (whose kunya was Abū Ḥalīma), Majmaʿ ibn Jāriya, Faḍāla ibn ʿUbayd, and Maslama ibn Mukhallad are named among the qārīs, with the clarification that some of them completed the Qurʾān only after the Prophet’s (ṣ) death. Ibn Abī Dāwūd² adds to their number the names of Tamīm al-Dārī and ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir.

Ibn Saʿd³ relates in his Ṭabaqāt that he heard from Faḍl ibn Dukayn, who heard from al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jamīʿ, that his grandmother reported from Umm Waraqa, the daughter of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith, that the Prophet (ṣ) used to visit her and called her al-Shahīda (“the Martyr”). This lady had collected the Qurʾān, and the Prophet (ṣ) had commanded her to lead the prayers of her household.

6. The Writing of the Qurʾān in the Era of Revelation

The Prophet (ṣ) had certain scribes who wrote down the revelation for him in Naskhī, the script then current; they were about forty in number. The best known among them are the following: the four caliphs; Abū Sufyān and his sons Muʿāwiya and Yazīd; Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ¹ and his sons Abān and Khālid; Zayd ibn Thābit; al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām; Ṭalḥa ibn ʿUbayd Allāh; Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ; ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayra; ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Arqam; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥa; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Sarḥ;² Ubayy ibn Kaʿb;³ Thābit ibn Qays; Ḥanẓala ibn al-Rabīʿ; Shuraḥbīl ibn Ḥasana; al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥaḍramī; Khālid ibn al-Walīd; ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ; al-Mughīra ibn Shuʿba; Muʿayqīb ibn Abī Fāṭima al-Dawsī; Ḥudhayfa ibn al-Yamān; and Ḥuwayṭib ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā al-ʿĀmirī.

The scribes whose services the Prophet (ṣ) called upon most often were ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa) and Zayd ibn Thābit. It is manifest from the traditions that the Prophet (ṣ) devoted the utmost care to the writing down of the Qurʾān.

Al-Bukhārī relates from al-Barāʾ that when the verse “Not equal are those of the faithful who sit back — excepting those who suffer from some disability — and those who wage jihād in the way of Allah …” (Qurʾān 4:95) was revealed, the Prophet (ṣ) had Zayd summoned with pen, ink, and katif (the shoulder-blade of a sheep). When Zayd came, he asked him to write the verse down.

In the episode of the conversion of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb it is related that a man of the Quraysh told him: “Your sister has abandoned your religion.” ʿUmar went and struck his sister in the face so hard that the skin split. But when his anger had cooled, he saw lying in the house a sheet of writing (ṣaḥīfa) upon which verses 1–8 of sūra 57 were written; and he saw another sheet upon which verses 1–8 of sūra 20 were written. When ʿUmar perceived the force of these verses, he accepted Islam. All these traditions and narratives prove that the Prophet (ṣ) took the greatest care that the Qurʾān should be written down, and it was written down with the utmost exactness and completeness during his lifetime.

7. The Writing Materials Used

The scribes of the Qurʾān wrote upon palm-wood, tablets of white stone, or pieces of cloth; sometimes they wrote upon silk, upon the shoulder-bones of sheep and camels, and upon parchment. It was customary among the Arabs to write on such things. Once written upon, these were called ṣuḥuf; and such ṣuḥuf were written for the Prophet (ṣ), handed over to him, and kept in his house.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm writes in his al-Fihrist that the Qurʾān was written down in the presence of the Prophet (ṣ) on palm-wood, tablets of white stone, and the shoulder-bones of camels. Al-Bukhārī relates from Zayd ibn Thābit that he sought out the Qurʾān and assembled it from pieces of palm-wood, stone tablets, and the breasts of those who had learned it by heart.

Al-ʿAyyāshī¹ relates in his Tafsīr, in connection with a tradition he transmits, that Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī (ʿa) said that the Prophet (ṣ) had enjoined upon him in his testament that after the burial of his body he should not leave his house until he had gathered and compiled the Book of Allah; for at that time the Qurʾān was written on pieces of palm-wood and the shoulder-bones of camels.

In a tradition transmitted by ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm,² from Abū Bakr al-Ḥaḍramī, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad (ʿa), it is related that the Prophet (ṣ) said to ʿAlī (ʿa): “O ʿAlī, the Qurʾān is kept behind my bed, on leaves of silk and paper. Take them and gather them together; do not let the Qurʾān be lost, as the Jews lost the Torah.” ʿAlī set himself to this task, gathered the Qurʾān in a yellow cloth, and set a seal upon it.

Al-Ḥārith al-Muḥāsibī writes in his book Fahm al-sunan: “The writing down of the Qurʾān is nothing newly undertaken, for the Prophet (ṣ) himself ordered that it be written; but the Qurʾān lay scattered upon the shoulder-bones of camels, stone tablets, and pieces of palm-wood and paper.” There are traditions from which it appears that the verses of the Qurʾān were set in their proper places at the command and direction of the Prophet (ṣ). The traditions likewise prove that the verses of the Qurʾān were gathered and written down during the very lifetime of the Prophet (ṣ).³

8. The Collectors of the Qurʾān during the Prophet’s Lifetime

Some of the Companions collected the Qurʾān during the lifetime of the Prophet (ṣ), and some collected part of it in his lifetime and completed the work after his death.¹

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm has recorded the names of those who collected the Qurʾān in his book al-Fihrist as follows: Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa), Saʿd ibn ʿUbayd ibn al-Nuʿmān ibn ʿAmr ibn Zayd,² Abū al-Dardāʾ ʿUwaymir ibn Zayd,³ Muʿādh ibn Jabal ibn Aws,⁴ Abū Zayd Thābit ibn Zayd ibn al-Nuʿmān,⁵ Ubayy ibn Kaʿb ibn Qays Mālik Imruʾ al-Qays, ʿUbayd ibn Muʿāwiya,⁶ and Zayd ibn Thābit.

Al-Bukhārī, in one of the traditions he transmits from Qatāda, concurs in four of the names mentioned above. Qatāda relates that he asked Anas ibn Mālik who had collected the Qurʾān in the days of the Prophet (ṣ). He said that they were four individuals, all of them of the Anṣār (the Helpers): Ubayy ibn Kaʿb,⁷ Muʿādh ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Thābit, and Abū Zayd. Elsewhere the name of Abū al-Dardāʾ is given in place of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.

It is reported in al-Itqān that Ibn Abī Dāwūd, in a ḥasan tradition, relates from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī that those who collected the Qurʾān were five: Muʿādh, ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit,⁸ Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Abū al-Dardāʾ, and Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī.

Ibn Sīrīn reports that they were four: Muʿādh, Ubayy, Abū Zayd, and Abū al-Dardāʾ — or ʿUthmān, or ʿUthmān together with Tamīm al-Dārī.

Al-Bayhaqī and Ibn Abī Dāwūd relate from al-Shaʿbī that they were six: Muʿādh, Zayd ibn Thābit,⁹ Ubayy, Abū al-Dardāʾ, Saʿd ibn ʿUbayd, Abū Zayd — and Majmaʿ ibn Jāriya.

In his al-Manāqib, al-Khwārizmī reports ʿAlī ibn Riyāḥ as saying that the Qurʾān was collected in the time of the Prophet (ṣ) by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa) and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb. Some of the traditions show that Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī (ʿa) wrote the Qurʾān down in the order of the revelation of its verses, placing the abrogated verses before the abrogating ones. Ibn Ashta has related in al-Maṣāḥif from Ibn Sīrīn that ʿAlī (ʿa) wrote the abrogating and the abrogated verses in his muṣḥaf of the Qurʾān. Ibn Sīrīn adds that he wrote a letter to Medina asking for that muṣḥaf, but was unable to obtain it.

Ibn Ḥajar¹ says that it is reported of Imam ʿAlī (ʿa) that he collected the Qurʾān according to the order of revelation of its verses. Ibn Abī Dāwūd, too, has transmitted this report.

In the commentary on al-Kāfī, Mawlā Ṣāliḥ al-Qazwīnī quotes from the book of Sulaym ibn Qays al-Hilālī that after the passing of the Prophet (ṣ), ʿAlī (ʿa) withdrew to his house and busied himself with collecting and compiling the Qurʾān; he did not leave the house until he had completed the work of collecting the Qurʾān, writing down the abrogating (nāsikh) and the abrogated (mansūkh), the clear (muḥkam) and the ambiguous (mutashābih) verses in the order of their revelation.

Al-Shaykh al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Nuʿmān al-Mufīd² wrote in al-Irshād and in al-Risāla al-Sarwiyya that ʿAlī (ʿa) set the abrogated (mansūkh) verses before the abrogating (nāsikh) ones in his muṣḥaf of the Qurʾān, and wrote out in detail the taʾwīl and tafsīr of some of the verses.

In the introduction to his tafsīr of the Qurʾān, al-Shahristānī writes: “The Companions of the Prophet (ṣ) were unanimous that knowledge of the Qurʾān was the special province of the Ahl al-Bayt (the members of the Prophet’s Family) (ʿa), for they used to ask ʿAlī (ʿa) whether the Ahl al-Bayt had, besides the knowledge of the Qurʾān, yet another exclusive distinction.” This acknowledgement by the Companions of the prerogative of the Ahl al-Bayt with respect to the Qurʾān proves that there was a consensus among them that knowledge of the contents of the Qurʾān and of their exposition was the special province of the members of the Prophet’s (ṣ) House.

9. The Dating of the Sūras

Here I have relied upon the Naẓm al-durar wa-tanāsuq al-āyāt wa-l-suwar of Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Biqāʿī¹ (Egypt), the al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadīm (Egypt), and the work of Abū al-Qāsim ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī. As mentioned earlier, Professor Nöldeke,² in his book Geschichte des Qorāns, quoted from ʿAbd al-Kāfī’s book, which according to his statement was preserved in the Leiden library (Cod. Lugd. 674).

10. The Order of Revelation of the Sūras of the Qurʾān at Mecca and Medina

Here we adopt the report transmitted by Ibn al-Nadīm,¹ through a chain of transmitters from Muḥammad ibn Bashīr, since it is an ancient and trustworthy document. Moreover, there is little difference between the order given in it and that given in the works of Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Biqāʿī and Abū al-Qāsim ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī, as Nöldeke observes. The verses and sūras revealed to the Prophet (ṣ) at Mecca stand in the following order:

The Order of the Meccan Sūras

1. al-ʿAlaq (96), verses 1–5
2. al-Qalam (68)
3. al-Muzzammil (73): its last verse was revealed on the way to Mecca
4. al-Muddaththir (74)
5. al-Lahab (111), according to a tradition from Mujāhid; then followed by:
6. al-Takwīr (81)
7. al-Aʿlā (87)
8. al-Inshirāḥ (94)
9. al-ʿAṣr (103)
10. al-Fajr (89)
11. al-Ḍuḥā (93)
12. al-Layl (92)
13. al-ʿĀdiyāt (100)
14. al-Kawthar (108)
15. al-Takāthur (102)
16. al-Māʿūn (107)
17. al-Kāfirūn (109)
18. al-Fīl (105)
19. al-Ikhlāṣ (112)
20. al-Falaq (113); also said to be Medinan
21. al-Nās (114)
22. al-Najm (53)
23. ʿAbasa (80)
24. al-Qadr (97)
25. al-Shams (91)
26. al-Burūj (85)
27. al-Tīn (95)
28. Quraysh (106)
29. al-Qāriʿa (101)
30. al-Qiyāma (75)
31. al-Humaza (104)
32. al-Mursalāt (77)
33. Qāf (50)
34. al-Balad (90)
35. al-Raḥmān (55)
36. al-Jinn (72)
37. Yā-Sīn (36)
38. al-Aʿrāf (7)
39. al-Furqān (25)
40. al-Malāʾika (35)
41. Fāṭir (35); identical with al-Malāʾika
42. Maryam (19)

43. Ṭā-Hā (20)
44. al-Wāqiʿa (56)
45. al-Shuʿarāʾ (26)
46. al-Naml (27)
47. al-Qaṣaṣ (28)
48. Banū Isrāʾīl (17)
49. Hūd (11)
50. Yūsuf (12)
51. Yūnus (10)
52. al-Ḥijr (15)
53. al-Ṣāffāt (37)
54. Luqmān (31): its last part is assigned to Medina
55. al-Muʾminūn (23)
56. Sabaʾ (34)
57. al-Anbiyāʾ (21)
58. al-Zumar (39)
59. al-Muʾmin (40)
60. Ḥā-Mīm al-Sajda (Fuṣṣilat) (41)
61. al-Shūrā (42)
62. al-Zukhruf (43)
63. al-Dukhān (44)
64. al-Jāthiya (45)
65. al-Aḥqāf (46): one of its verses was revealed at Medina
66. al-Dhāriyāt (51)
67. al-Ghāshiya (88)
68. al-Kahf (18): its last part was revealed at Medina
69. al-Anʿām (6): some of its verses were revealed at Medina
70. al-Naḥl (16)
71. Nūḥ (71)
72. Ibrāhīm (14)
73. al-Sajda (32)
74. al-Ṭūr (52)
75. al-Mulk (67)
76. al-Ḥāqqa (69)
77. al-Maʿārij (70)
78. al-Nabaʾ (78)
79. al-Nāziʿāt (79)
80. al-Infiṭār (82)
81. al-Inshiqāq (84)
82. al-Rūm (30)
83. al-ʿAnkabūt (29)
84. al-Muṭaffifīn (83); also assigned to Medina
85. al-Qamar (54)
86. al-Ṭāriq (86)

Al-Thawrī relates from Firās, who reports from al-Shaʿbī, that the latter said that al-Naḥl was revealed at Mecca, except its last three verses (126–128).

In al-Fihrist, Ibn Jurayj relates from ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, who reports Ibn ʿAbbās as saying that eighty-five sūras of the Qurʾān were revealed at Mecca and twenty-eight at Medina. The sūras revealed at Medina are the following:

The Order of the Medinan Sūras

1. al-Baqara (2)
2. al-Anfāl (8)
3. al-Aʿrāf (7)
4. Āl ʿImrān (3)
5. al-Mumtaḥana (60)
6. al-Nisāʾ (4)
7. al-Zilzāl (99)
8. al-Ḥadīd (57)
9. Muḥammad (47)
10. al-Raʿd (13)
11. al-Dahr, or al-Insān (76)
12. al-Ṭalāq (65)
13. al-Bayyina (98)
14. al-Ḥashr (59)
15. al-Naṣr (110)
16. al-Nūr (24)
17. al-Ḥajj (22)
18. al-Munāfiqūn (63)
19. al-Mujādala (58)
20. al-Ḥujurāt (49)
21. al-Taḥrīm (66)
22. al-Jumuʿa (62)
23. al-Taghābun (64)
24. al-Ḥawāriyyūn (al-Ṣaff) (61)
25. al-Fatḥ (48)
26. al-Māʾida (5)
27. al-Barāʾa (al-Tawba) (9)

It is said that the Muʿawwidhatān were revealed at Medina (al-Fihrist, p. 26).

Conclusion

From what has been said above it may be concluded that during the lifetime of the Prophet (ṣ) the Qurʾān was written down on materials of various kinds, such as palm-branches, shoulder-bones, and silk.

Al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī reports, on the basis of the accounts of the two Shaykhs (Muslim and al-Bukhārī), a tradition from Zayd ibn Thābit, according to which he said: “We were in the presence of the Prophet (ṣ), arranging the Qurʾān, which was on stone tablets. This arrangement was made according to the sequence of the verses and at the direction of the Prophet (ṣ). But these written ṣuḥuf were in an unconnected (mutafarriqa) state; therefore the Prophet (ṣ) commanded ʿAlī (ʿa) to gather them together (bi-jamʿihā), for he feared that they might be lost (min taḍyīʿihā).”

The tradition transmitted by ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qummī likewise indicates that certain men among the Companions preserved the Qurʾān exactly as they had heard it from the Prophet (ṣ). In the episode of the battle of Biʾr Maʿūna (the Well of Maʿūna), in the fourth year after the Hijra, a group of some seventy persons known as al-qurrāʾ were slain.

Chapter Two

1. The Qurʾān in the Days of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar

When the Prophet (ṣ) departed this world and his immaculate spirit attained the blissful nearness of the All-Merciful, and Abū Bakr ibn Abī Quḥāfa took charge of the affairs of the Muslims, Musaylima raised the claim of prophethood in Yamāma in the first year of Abū Bakr’s caliphate. Abū Bakr dispatched an army to fight him, in which, among others, was a group of reciters of the Qurʾān and of those who knew it by heart. The Muslims emerged victorious from this war; Musaylima was killed, but many of the Qurʾān-reciters also fell. It was at this time that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb drew the caliph’s attention to the need to collect and compile the Qurʾān.

In al-Itqān, Ibn Abī Dāwūd relates from al-Ḥasan that ʿUmar once inquired about a certain verse of the Qurʾān and was told that someone who had fallen in the battle of Yamāma could have remembered it. Thereupon he uttered the words of istirjāʿ (“We belong to Allah, and to Him do we return”), and then gave the order that the Qurʾān be collected and compiled. He was the first to collect the Qurʾān in a muṣḥaf.

Al-Bukhārī relates from ʿUbayd ibn al-Sibāq that Zayd ibn Thābit said: “After the battle of Yamāma, Abū Bakr sent for me. When I came to him, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was also present. Abū Bakr said to me: ‘ʿUmar has brought me word that the battle of Yamāma has wrought great havoc among the reciters of the Qurʾān. He said: “I fear that if such bloody encounters should recur, much of the Qurʾān will be lost. I consider it advisable for you to give the order that the Qurʾān be collected.” I said to ʿUmar: “How will you (or, according to the report of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq: how shall I) do something that the Prophet (ṣ) did not do?” He replied: “By God, this is a good thing.” And he kept returning to the matter, until God opened my breast to it and I saw the point of ʿUmar’s argument.’”

Zayd ibn Thābit continued: “Abū Bakr said to me: ‘You are a young and intelligent man, and I hold you free of any blame, for you used to write down the revelation for the Prophet (ṣ). Search out the Qurʾān and collect it.’ I answered: ‘By God, had I been ordered to carry a mountain from one place to another, it would not have been harder for me than this order you give me, to collect the Qurʾān.’ I said: ‘How can you do a thing that the Prophet of God did not do?’ He replied: ‘By Allah, this (collecting of the Qurʾān) is a good thing.’ And he kept pressing me until God opened my heart to do that to which He had opened the hearts of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. Then I sought out the Qurʾān and gathered it from pieces of palm-branches, white stones (likhāf), and the breasts of men, until I found the last part of Sūrat al-Tawba (sūra 9) with Abū Khuzayma al-Anṣārī and with no one else — from ‘There has certainly come to you an apostle from among yourselves. Grievous to him is your distress …’ (Qurʾān 9:128) to the end of Sūrat al-Barāʾa.”

This tradition, on its face, refers to the initial reluctance of Abū Bakr and Zayd towards “collecting the Qurʾān,” although according to other traditions and statements, as noted earlier, the Qurʾān had been collected during the lifetime of the Prophet (ṣ). Yet a little reflection, together with certain indications, shows that the novelty of ʿUmar’s proposal regarding the collection of the Qurʾān lay in its compilation as a codex.

According to al-Itqān, it is reported in al-Maghāzī of Mūsā ibn ʿUqba, from Ibn Shihāb, that he said: “When the Muslims were confronted with the episode of Yamāma, Abū Bakr feared that some parts of the Qurʾān might be lost. Thereupon the people brought whatever of the Qurʾān they had with them, until the Qurʾān was collected on sheets (fī l-waraq) in the time of Abū Bakr. Thus Abū Bakr was the first to collect and compile the Qurʾān in a codex (muṣḥaf). Afterwards ʿUmar had it proclaimed in Medina that whoever had received any part of the Qurʾān from the Prophet (ṣ) should bring it. Abū Bakr told ʿUmar and Zayd: ‘Sit at the door of the mosque and write down the verses of the Qurʾān from anyone who brings two witnesses (to attest them).’”¹

It is probable that the witnesses were called upon to attest that whatever was brought had been present at the final recitation before the Prophet (ṣ) in the year of his passing, and had been written down in his presence. Hence the statement of Zayd ibn Thābit that he found the last part of Sūrat al-Barāʾa with Abū Khuzayma and with no one else. For if the calling of witnesses had had any other meaning, it would make no sense to say that Sūrat al-Barāʾa was “not available” to Zayd, since Zayd had collected and memorized the whole Qurʾān, having learned it from the Prophet (ṣ). Zayd accepted Abū Khuzayma’s word because the Prophet (ṣ) had reckoned his testimony as equal in weight to that of two witnesses. The verse of al-rajm (stoning), however, which ʿUmar brought, was not written down by Zayd, since ʿUmar alone had brought it. Moreover, according to some traditions, a collection of the Qurʾān written on palm-branches, silk, and shoulder-bones was preserved in the house of the Prophet (ṣ). This later “collecting” of the Qurʾān, then, consisted in bringing together the verses previously written on shoulder-bones, palm-branches, and white stone tablets, and copying them onto adīm, that is, sheets of tanned sheepskin. Ibn Ḥajar reports ʿUmāra ibn Ghaziyya as stating that Zayd ibn Thābit said: “Abū Bakr ordered me to write the Qurʾān down on pieces of adīm. These ṣuḥuf remained with Abū Bakr until God caused him to die; then they were with ʿUmar during his lifetime; and thereafter they remained with his daughter Ḥafṣa.”

It is reported that ʿUmar said: “Our codices (maṣāḥif) should be dictated only by the young men of Quraysh and Thaqīf”; and ʿUthmān said: “Take those who dictate from the tribe of Hudhayl, and the scribes from Thaqīf.”¹

2. The Qurʾān during the Reign of ʿUthmān

It was mentioned earlier that some words of the Qurʾān were read differently by the Companions; that is, they substituted various synonyms as they recited — such as imḍi and isri, ʿajjil and asriʿ, akhkhir and amhil, and so on. ʿUmar read fa-mḍū ilā dhikri llāh; Anas read inna nāshiʾata l-layli hiya ashaddu waṭʾan wa-aṣwabu qīlā. In their view this difference of reading did not alter the meaning of the Qurʾān, and for this reason the Prophet (ṣ) had approved their readings despite the change of wording. After the Prophet (ṣ), these differences increased in the days of Abū Bakr, and by ʿUthmān’s reign they had assumed such serious proportions that teachers and pupils quarrelled over them, and the qurrāʾ and ḥuffāẓ of the Qurʾān in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Armenia, and Azerbaijan diverged from one another. These differences also grew as a result of the various factors that were producing linguistic change, such as the cohabitation of Arabs with non-Arab peoples. The situation was a cause for concern and alarm. At that time an eminent Companion, Ḥudhayfa ibn al-Yamān,² voiced his deep anxiety over its disastrous consequences if it were allowed to continue. In those days he was engaged, together with the Iraqis, in the war against the Syrians for the conquest of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Al-Bukhārī relates (and the author of al-Fihrist also confirms this report³) from Ibrāhīm, from Ibn Shihāb, that Anas ibn Mālik told him that Ḥudhayfa ibn al-Yamān came to ʿUthmān (who according to al-Fihrist was then in Iraq) while he was fighting alongside the people of Iraq against the Syrians for the conquest of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ḥudhayfa was alarmed at the divergent ways in which the people were reciting the Qurʾān. He said to ʿUthmān: “Rise to the rescue of this Umma before they fall into disagreement over the Scripture as the Jews and the Christians did.” ʿUthmān then sent to Ḥafṣa, asking her to send him the copy that was in her keeping, to be returned to her afterwards. Ḥafṣa sent it to ʿUthmān, who ordered Zayd ibn Thābit, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām to make several codices. ʿUthmān instructed the three Qurashīs that, in the event of any difference between Zayd ibn Thābit and themselves, they should write it in the dialect of Quraysh, since the Qurʾān had come down in their dialect.⁴

According to some trustworthy reports, when ʿUthmān decided to have the codices of the Qurʾān prepared, he gathered twelve men from among the Quraysh and the Anṣār. Ibn Abī Dāwūd relates from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from Kathīr ibn Aflaḥ, who reported: “When ʿUthmān decided on preparing uniform copies of the Qurʾān, he gathered twelve men from the Quraysh and the Anṣār and sent for the chest that was kept in ʿUmar’s house. When it was brought, ʿUthmān told them that if they could not agree upon a particular matter, they should defer it before reaching a decision.” Muḥammad says that they would postpone a matter until they were certain that it belonged to the final recitation before the Prophet (ṣ). In any event, they carried out the work of copying according to ʿUthmān’s directions.

Ibn Ḥajar says: “The Companions were unanimous that whatever was contained in the final version recited before the Prophet (ṣ) should be copied, and that the rest should be left out.”¹

This statement of Ibn Ḥajar is borne out by a tradition given by al-Bukhārī from Khārija ibn Zayd ibn Thābit, in which the latter said: “When we were preparing the copies of the Qurʾān, a verse of Sūrat al-Aḥzāb which I had heard from the Prophet (ṣ) could not be found. We searched for it and found it with Khuzayma ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī: ‘Among the faithful are men who fulfill what they have pledged to Allah …’ (Qurʾān 33:23). We inserted it in its sūra in the muṣḥaf.” As appears from this, it was their inquiry and searching that led them to recover this verse, which had been present in the final version recited before the Prophet (ṣ) in his last days.

When the codices of the Qurʾān had been prepared, ʿUthmān returned the original muṣḥaf to Ḥafṣa. Four copies were made, of which one remained with him; of the three others, one was sent to Baṣra, one to Kūfa, and one to Syria. He charged Zayd ibn Thābit with teaching the people of Medina the Qurʾān from the Medinan codex. ʿĀmir ibn Qays¹ was sent to Baṣra with the copy destined for that city; Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī² was sent to Kūfa with the codex intended for Kūfa; and Mughīra ibn Shihāb went with the one sent to Syria.

Thus the first collection of the Qurʾān took place through the writing down of the verses as soon as they were revealed to the Prophet (ṣ); they were recorded on the materials customarily used by the Arabs for writing, and this first collection was recited before the Prophet (ṣ). The second “collection” of the Qurʾān took place in the reign of Abū Bakr, when the collecting of the Qurʾān consisted in writing it down as a codex on sheets of tanned leather. The third “collection” took place in the reign of ʿUthmān, and its effect was to unite the Muslims upon a single reading.

In his book Saʿd al-suʿūd, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭāwūs al-ʿAlawī al-Fāṭimī, quoting from the book of Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr the report (riwāya) transmitted by Muḥammad ibn Zayd ibn Marwān concerning variations in the copies (maṣāḥif) of the Qurʾān, mentions that Zayd ibn Thābit collected the Qurʾān during Abū Bakr’s reign. Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, and Sālim, the mawlā of Abū Ḥudhayfa, opposed Zayd in this matter. Thereupon ʿUthmān began the whole work afresh and had the Qurʾān compiled according to the advice and approval of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa). ʿUthmān seized the copies of the Qurʾān that were in the possession of Ubayy, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, and Sālim, and had them washed clean.¹ ʿUthmān had one codex of the Qurʾān written for himself, one for the people of Medina, one for the people of Baṣra, and one for the people of Syria. The Syrian codex was seen by Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-ʿUmarī in the middle of the eighth/fourteenth century; describing the Mosque of Damascus, he says: “On the left side is placed the ʿUthmānic codex in the handwriting of Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿUthmān.”² Most probably that muṣḥaf is the same as the one that was kept in the Leningrad library and was later taken to England.

In Dhū al-Ḥijja 1353 I myself saw a manuscript of the Qurʾān in Kufic script in the ʿAlawī Library at Najaf, at the end of which was written: “Written by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in the fortieth year of the Hijra.” Owing to the close similarity of Abū and Abī in the Kufic script, some people, unaware of this, supposed that it had been written by ʿAlī ibn Abū Ṭālib.

The statement of Ibn Ṭāwūs in his book Saʿd al-suʿūd — that ʿUthmān began the work anew and compiled the Qurʾān with the approval of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa) — is confirmed by al-Shahristānī in the introduction to his tafsīr. There he cites a tradition from Suwayd ibn ʿAlqama, who heard ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa) say: “O people, for God’s sake refrain from taking an extreme stand with regard to ʿUthmān, and desist from calling him ‘the burner of the maṣāḥif.’ By God, he burned them only in the presence of the Companions of the Prophet (ṣ), whom we had gathered together. He asked them: ‘What is your counsel regarding this matter of reading, over which the people are at variance? One man meets another and tells him that his own reading is superior to his; this state of things will lead them to apostasy.’ We gave him our opinion. He said: ‘I wish to unite the people upon one muṣḥaf; for if you differ today, the differences among those who come after you will be graver still.’ We agreed with him. Then ʿUthmān sent for Zayd ibn Thābit and Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, directing the one to write and the other to dictate. These two disagreed over nothing except a single letter in Sūrat al-Baqara: one of them said it should be التابوت (al-tābūt), while the other said it ought to be التابوه (al-tābūh). Thereupon the spelling of Zayd ibn Thābit was adopted, for he had been a scribe of the revelation.”

3. The Order of the Sūras in ʿAlī’s (ʿa) muṣḥaf

Let us now consider the order of the sūras in the copies of the Qurʾān made by certain eminent Companions and Tābiʿūn, as it is recorded in old and reliable sources where they treat of questions concerning the history of the Qurʾān. The differing arrangement of the sūras adopted by each of them rested upon his own individual judgement (ijtihād).

In al-Fihrist, Ibn al-Nadīm relates from Ibn Munādī, from al-Ḥasan ibn al-ʿAbbās, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥammād, from al-Ḥakam ibn Ẓāhir al-Sadūsī, from ʿAbd Khayr, that at the time of the Prophet’s (ṣ) death ʿAlī (ʿa) perceived ominous signs among the people. Thereupon he swore that he would not lay aside his cloak until he had collected the Qurʾān. He sat at home for three days and collected the entire Qurʾān. It was the first codex of the Qurʾān, which ʿAlī (ʿa) compiled from his own memory. “This codex was in the keeping of the family of Jaʿfar. In our own time I saw in the possession of Abū Yaʿlā Ḥamza al-Ḥasanī — God have mercy upon him — a codex of the Qurʾān from which some leaves were missing, written in the hand of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa). The descendants of al-Ḥasan (ʿa) had received it as a legacy from their forefathers.”

The order of the sūras according to this codex of the Qurʾān was lacking in the manuscript of al-Fihrist from which the Leipzig edition was printed (1871–72). However, al-Yaʿqūbī¹ gives the order of the sūras of ʿAlī’s muṣḥaf in the second part of his History (Brill, 1883, pp. 152–154). Al-Yaʿqūbī states that some have related that after the death of the Prophet (ṣ) ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa) collected the Qurʾān, brought it on the back of a camel, and declared: “This is the Qurʾān which I have collected.” He had divided it into seven parts (ajzāʾ):

Part I — Juzʾ al-Baqara

1. al-Baqara (2)
2. Yūsuf (12)
3. al-ʿAnkabūt (29)
4. al-Rūm (30)
5. Luqmān (31)
6. Ḥā-Mīm al-Sajda (41)
7. al-Dhāriyāt (51)
8. al-Insān (al-Dahr) (76)
9. al-Sajda (32)
10. al-Nāziʿāt (79)
11. al-Takwīr (81)
12. al-Infiṭār (82)
13. al-Inshiqāq (84)
14. al-Aʿlā (87)
15. al-Bayyina (98)

Part II — Juzʾ Āl ʿImrān

1. Āl ʿImrān (3)
2. Hūd (11)
3. al-Ḥajj (22)
4. al-Ḥijr (15)
5. al-Aḥzāb (33)
6. al-Dukhān (44)
7. al-Raḥmān (55)
8. al-Ḥāqqa (69)
9. al-Maʿārij (70)
10. ʿAbasa (80)
11. al-Shams (91)
12. al-Qadr (97)
13. al-Zilzāl (99)
14. al-Humaza (104)
15. al-Fīl (105)
16. Quraysh (106)

Part III — Juzʾ al-Nisāʾ

1. al-Nisāʾ (4)
2. al-Naḥl (16)
3. al-Muʾminūn (23)
4. Yā-Sīn (36)
5. al-Shūrā (42)
6. al-Wāqiʿa (56)
7. al-Mulk (67)
8. al-Muddaththir (74)
9. al-Māʿūn (107)
10. al-Masad (111)
11. al-Ikhlāṣ (112)
12. al-ʿAṣr (103)
13. al-Qāriʿa (101)
14. al-Burūj (85)
15. al-Tīn (95)
16. al-Naml (27)

Part IV — Juzʾ al-Māʾida

1. al-Māʾida (5)
2. Yūnus (10)
3. Maryam (19)
4. al-Qaṣaṣ (28)
5. al-Shuʿarāʾ (26)
6. al-Zukhruf (43)
7. al-Ḥujurāt (49)
8. Qāf (50)
9. al-Qamar (54)
10. al-Mumtaḥana (60)
11. al-Ṭāriq (86)
12. al-Balad (90)
13. al-Inshirāḥ (94)
14. al-ʿĀdiyāt (100)
15. al-Kawthar (108)
16. al-Kāfirūn (109)

Part V — Juzʾ al-Anʿām

1. al-Anʿām (6)
2. al-Isrāʾ (17)
3. al-Anbiyāʾ (21)
4. al-Furqān (25)
5. Mūsā wa-Firʿawn
6. al-Muʾmin (40)
7. al-Mujādala (58)
8. al-Ḥashr (59)
9. al-Jumuʿa (62)
10. al-Munāfiqūn (63)
11. al-Qalam (68)
12. Nūḥ (71)
13. al-Jinn (72)
14. al-Mursalāt (77)
15. al-Ḍuḥā (93)
16. al-Takāthur (102)

Part VI — Juzʾ al-Aʿrāf

1. al-Aʿrāf (7)
2. Ibrāhīm (14)
3. al-Kahf (18)
4. al-Nūr (24)
5. Ṣād (38)
6. al-Zumar (39)
7. al-Jāthiya (45)
8. Muḥammad (47)
9. al-Ḥadīd (57)
10. al-Muzzammil (73)
11. al-Qiyāma (75)
12. al-Nabaʾ (78)
13. al-Ghāshiya (88)
14. al-Fajr (89)
15. al-Layl (92)
16. al-Naṣr (110)

Part VII — Juzʾ al-Anfāl

1. al-Anfāl (8)
2. al-Barāʾa (9)
3. Ṭā-Hā (20)
4. al-Malāʾika (35)
5. al-Ṣāffāt (37)
6. al-Aḥqāf (46)
7. al-Fatḥ (48)
8. al-Ṭūr (52)
9. al-Najm (53)
10. al-Ṣaff (61)
11. al-Taghābun (64)
12. al-Ṭalāq (65)
13. al-Muṭaffifīn (83)
14. and 15. al-Muʿawwidhatān: al-Falaq and al-Nās (113 and 114)¹

4. The Order of the Sūras in Ubayy’s muṣḥaf

Ibn al-Nadīm² relates from al-Faḍl ibn Shādhān, who reported: “I was informed by one of our trustworthy (thiqa) companions that at a distance of two parasangs from Baṣra, in a village called Qaryat al-Anṣār, there was a compilation of the sūras in the possession of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Anṣārī, who showed us the muṣḥaf and said: ‘This is the muṣḥaf of Ubayy, which has been handed down to us from our forefathers.’ I examined it and copied out from it the opening and closing portions of the sūras and the number of the verses.” The order of the sūras given by Ibn al-Nadīm’s source is as follows:³

1. al-Fātiḥa (1)
2. al-Baqara (2)
3. al-Nisāʾ (4)

4. Āl ʿImrān (3)
5. al-Anʿām (6)
6. al-Aʿrāf (7)
7. al-Māʾida (5)
8. “The one about which I am uncertain” (sic)
9. Yūnus (10)
10. al-Anfāl (8)
11. al-Tawba (9)
12. Hūd (11)
13. Maryam (19)
14. al-Shuʿarāʾ (26)
15. al-Ḥajj (22)
16. Yūsuf (12)
17. al-Kahf (18)
18. al-Naḥl (16)
19. al-Aḥzāb (33)
20. Banū Isrāʾīl (17)
21. al-Zumar (39)
22. al-Sajda (32)
23. Ṭā-Hā (20)
24. al-Anbiyāʾ (21)
25. al-Nūr (24)
26. al-Muʾminūn (23)
27. al-Muʾmin (40)
28. al-Raʿd (13)
29. Ṭā-Sīn-Mīm, al-Qaṣaṣ (28)
30. Ṭā-Sīn Sulaymān (27)
31. Sabaʾ (34)
32. al-Ṣāffāt (37)
33. Dāwūd (Ṣād) (38)
34. Yā-Sīn (36)
35. al-Ḥijr (15)
36. al-Shūrā (42)
37. al-Rūm (30)
38. al-Zukhruf (43)
39. Ḥā-Mīm al-Sajda (41)
40. Ibrāhīm (14)
41. al-Malāʾika (35)
42. al-Fatḥ (48)
43. Muḥammad (ṣ) (47)
44. al-Ḥadīd (57)
45. al-Ẓihār¹ (al-Mujādala) (58)
46. Tabārak (67)
47. al-Furqān (25)
48. Alif-Lām-Mīm Tanzīl (32)
49. Nūḥ (71)
50. al-Aḥqāf (46)
51. Qāf (50)
52. al-Raḥmān (55)
53. al-Wāqiʿa (56)
54. al-Jinn (72)
55. al-Najm (53)
56. al-Qalam (68)
57. al-Ḥāqqa (69)
58. al-Ḥashr (59)
59. al-Mumtaḥana (60)
60. al-Mursalāt (77)
61. al-Nabaʾ (78)
62. al-Insān (al-Dahr) (76)
63. al-Balad (90)
64. al-Takwīr (81)
65. al-Nāziʿāt (79)
66. ʿAbasa (80)
67. al-Muṭaffifīn (83)
68. al-Inshiqāq (84)
69. al-Tīn (95)
70. al-ʿAlaq (96)
71. al-Ḥujurāt (49)
72. al-Munāfiqūn (63)
73. al-Jumuʿa (62)
74. al-Nabī
75. al-Fajr (89)
76. al-Mulk (67)
77. al-Layl (92)
78. al-Infiṭār (82)
79. al-Shams (91)
80. al-Burūj (85)
81. al-Ṭāriq (86)
82. al-Aʿlā (87)
83. al-Ghāshiya (88)
84. ʿAbasa (80)
85. al-Ṣaff (61)
86. al-Ḍuḥā (93)
87. al-Inshirāḥ (94)
88. al-Qāriʿa (101)
89. al-Takāthur (102)
90. al-Khalʿ, 3 verses
91. al-Jid [?], 6 verses
92. Allāhumma iyyāka naʿbudu, down to bi-l-kuffār
93. al-Humaza (104)
94. al-Zilzāl (99)
95. al-ʿĀdiyāt (100)
96. al-Fīl (105)
97. al-Tīn (95)
98. al-Kawthar (108)
99. al-Qadr (97)
100. al-Kāfirūn (109)
101. al-Naṣr (110)
102. Abū Lahab (111)
103. Quraysh (106)
104. al-Ṣamad (112)
105. al-Falaq (113)
106. al-Nās (114)

This makes up one hundred and sixteen sūras.

5. The Order of the Sūras in Ibn Masʿūd’s muṣḥaf

Ibn al-Nadīm reports al-Faḍl ibn Shādhān as saying that he saw the muṣḥaf of the Qurʾān made by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (d. 32 or 33/652–3 or 653–4), with the sūras of the Qurʾān arranged in the following order:¹

1. al-Baqara (2)
2. al-Nisāʾ (4)
3. Āl ʿImrān (3)
4. al-Aʿrāf (7)
5. al-Anʿām (6)
6. al-Māʾida (5)
7. Yūnus (10)
8. al-Barāʾa (9)
9. al-Naḥl (16)
10. Hūd (11)
11. Yūsuf (12)
12. Banū Isrāʾīl (17)
13. al-Anbiyāʾ (21)
14. al-Muʾminūn (23)
15. al-Shuʿarāʾ (26)
16. al-Ṣāffāt (37)
17. al-Aḥzāb (33)
18. al-Qaṣaṣ (28)
19. al-Nūr (24)
20. al-Anfāl (8)
21. Maryam (19)
22. al-ʿAnkabūt (29)
23. al-Rūm (30)
24. Yā-Sīn (36)
25. al-Furqān (25)
26. al-Ḥajj (22)
27. al-Raʿd (13)
28. Sabaʾ (34)
29. al-Malāʾika (35)
30. Ibrāhīm (14)
31. Ṣād (38)
32. Alladhīna Kafarū (47)
33. al-Qamar (54)
34. al-Zumar (39)
35. al-Ḥawāmīm al-Musabbiḥāt [?]
36. al-Muʾmin (40)
37. al-Zukhruf (43)
38. al-Sajda (32)
39. al-Aḥqāf (46)
40. al-Jāthiya (45)
41. al-Dukhān (44)
42. Innā Fataḥnā (48)
43. al-Ḥadīd (57)
44. Sabbaḥa [?]
45. al-Ḥashr (59)
46. Tanzīl (39)
47. al-Sajda (41)
48. Qāf (50)
49. al-Ṭalāq (65)
50. al-Ḥujurāt (49)
51. Tabāraka lladhī (al-Mulk) (67)
52. al-Taghābun (64)
53. al-Munāfiqūn (63)
54. al-Jumuʿa (62)
55. al-Ṣaff (61)
56. al-Jinn (72)
57. Nūḥ (71)
58. al-Mujādala (58)
59. al-Mumtaḥana (60)
60. al-Taḥrīm (66)
61. al-Raḥmān (55)
62. al-Najm (53)
63. al-Dhāriyāt (51)
64. al-Ṭūr (52)
65. Iqtarabat al-Sāʿa (54)
66. al-Ḥāqqa (69)
67. al-Wāqiʿa (56)
68. al-Qalam (68)
69. al-Nāziʿāt (79)
70. al-Maʿārij (70)
71. al-Muddaththir (74)
72. al-Muzzammil (73)
73. al-Muṭaffifīn (83)
74. ʿAbasa (80)
75. al-Insān (76)
76. al-Qiyāma (75)
77. al-Nabaʾ (78)
78. al-Takwīr (81)
79. al-Infiṭār (82)
80. al-Ghāshiya (88)
81. al-Aʿlā (87)
82. al-Layl (92)
83. al-Fajr (89)
84. al-Burūj (85)
85. al-Inshiqāq (84)
86. al-ʿAlaq (96)
87. al-Balad (90)
88. al-Ḍuḥā (93)
89. al-Inshirāḥ (94)
90. al-Ṭāriq (86)

91. al-ʿĀdiyāt (100)
92. al-Māʿūn (107)
93. al-Qāriʿa (101)
94. al-Bayyina (98)
95. al-Shams (91)
96. al-Tīn (95)
97. al-Humaza (104)
98. al-Fīl (105)
99. Quraysh (106)
100. al-Takāthur (102)
101. al-Qadr (97)
102. al-ʿAṣr (103)
103. al-Naṣr (110)
104. al-Kawthar (108)
105. al-Kāfirūn (109)
106. al-Masad (111)
107. al-Ikhlāṣ (112)

This makes one hundred and ten sūras.

Ibn al-Nadīm goes on to say: “According to another report, al-Ṭūr is mentioned before al-Dhāriyāt. Al-Faḍl ibn Shādhān says that Ibn Sīrīn said that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd would write neither al-Muʿawwidhatān (that is, al-Falaq and al-Nās) nor al-Fātiḥa. Al-Faḍl has also reported, with his isnād from al-Aʿmash, that the latter said: ‘In the reading of ʿAbd Allāh it is حمسق (ḥā-mīm-sīn-qāf).’”¹

Ibn al-Nadīm continues: “Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq says that he saw several maṣāḥif of the Qurʾān described by their scribes as belonging to Ibn Masʿūd; but no two copies agreed with each other, and many of them were written on parchment in the Naskhī script. He says further that he also saw one such muṣḥaf, more than two centuries old, which contained the Fātiḥat al-Kitāb as well. Al-Faḍl ibn Shādhān was one of the great authorities on the Qurʾān (aḥad al-aʾimma fī l-Qurʾān) and its transmitted readings; it is for this reason that we have quoted him here.”²

6. The Order of the Sūras in Ibn ʿAbbās’s muṣḥaf

We find in history and tradition that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/687),¹ the illustrious Companion of the Prophet (ṣ), was a specialist in the exposition of the Qurʾān. He stood in close connection with ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa), and whatever is reported from him concerning the Qurʾān is of inestimable value.

Ibn Ṭāwūs² states in his book Saʿd al-suʿūd that it is well known among the Muslims that Ibn ʿAbbās was a pupil of ʿAlī (ʿa). Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Rāzī writes in his al-Arbaʿīn that “Ibn ʿAbbās, the master of the exegetes (raʾīs al-mufassirīn), was a pupil of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa).” On account of this distinction of his we give here the order of the sūras in his muṣḥaf as recorded by al-Shahristānī in the introduction to his commentary — and he is a trustworthy source.

1. al-ʿAlaq (96)
2. al-Qalam (68)
3. al-Ḍuḥā (93)
4. al-Muzzammil (73)
5. al-Muddaththir (74)
6. al-Fātiḥa (1)
7. Abū Lahab (111)
8. al-Takwīr (81)
9. al-Aʿlā (87)
10. al-Layl (92)
11. al-Fajr (89)
12. al-Inshirāḥ (94)
13. al-Raḥmān (55)
14. al-ʿAṣr (103)
15. al-Kawthar (108)
16. al-Takāthur (102)
17. al-Dīn (107)
18. al-Fīl (105)
19. al-Kāfirūn (109)
20. al-Ikhlāṣ (112)
21. al-Najm (53)
22. al-Aʿmā (80)
23. al-Qadr (97)
24. al-Shams (91)
25. al-Burūj (85)
26. al-Tīn (95)
27. Quraysh (106)
28. al-Qāriʿa (101)
29. al-Qiyāma (75)
30. al-Humaza (104)
31. al-Mursalāt (77)
32. Qāf (50)
33. al-Balad (90)
34. al-Ṭāriq (86)
35. al-Qamar (54)
36. Ṣād (38)
37. al-Aʿrāf (7)
38. al-Jinn (72)
39. Yā-Sīn (36)
40. al-Furqān (25)
41. al-Malāʾika (35)
42. Maryam (19)
43. Ṭā-Hā (20)
44. al-Shuʿarāʾ (26)
45. al-Naml (27)
46. al-Qaṣaṣ (28)
47. Banū Isrāʾīl (17)
48. Yūnus (10)
49. Hūd (11)
50. Yūsuf (12)
51. al-Ḥijr (15)

52. al-Anʿām (6)
53. al-Ṣāffāt (37)
54. Luqmān (31)
55. Sabaʾ (34)
56. al-Zumar (39)
57. al-Muʾmin (40)
58. Ḥā-Mīm al-Sajda (41)
59. al-Shūrā (42)
60. al-Zukhruf (43)
61. al-Dukhān (44)
62. al-Jāthiya (45)
63. al-Aḥqāf (46)
64. al-Dhāriyāt (51)
65. al-Ghāshiya (88)
66. al-Kahf (18)
67. al-Naḥl (16)
68. Nūḥ (71)
69. Ibrāhīm (14)
70. al-Anbiyāʾ (21)
71. al-Muʾminūn (23)
72. al-Raʿd (13)
73. al-Ṭūr (52)
74. al-Mulk (67)
75. al-Ḥāqqa (69)
76. al-Maʿārij (70)
77. al-Nisāʾ (4)
78. al-Nāziʿāt (79)
79. al-Infiṭār (82)
80. al-Inshiqāq (84)
81. al-Rūm (30)
82. al-ʿAnkabūt (29)
83. al-Muṭaffifīn (83)
84. al-Baqara (2)
85. al-Anfāl (8)
86. Āl ʿImrān (3)
87. al-Ḥashr (59)
88. al-Aḥzāb (33)
89. al-Nūr (24)
90. al-Mumtaḥana (60)
91. al-Fatḥ (48)
92. al-Nisāʾ (4)
93. al-Zilzāl (99)
94. al-Ḥajj (22)
95. al-Ḥadīd (57)
96. Muḥammad (ṣ) (47)
97. al-Insān (76)
98. al-Ṭalāq (65)
99. Lam Yakun (98)
100. al-Jumuʿa (62)
101. al-Sajda (32)
102. al-Munāfiqūn (63)
103. al-Mujādala (58)
104. al-Ḥujurāt (49)
105. al-Taḥrīm (66)
106. al-Taghābun (64)
107. al-Ṣaff (61)
108. al-Māʾida (5)
109. al-Tawba (9)
110. al-Naṣr (110)
111. al-Wāqiʿa (56)
112. al-ʿĀdiyāt (100)
113. al-Falaq (113)
114. al-Nās (114)

7. The Order of the Sūras in the muṣḥaf of Imam al-Ṣādiq (ʿa)

In the introduction to his commentary, al-Shahristānī gives the following order¹ of the sūras in the muṣḥaf of al-Imām Abū ʿAbd Allāh Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq (ʿa):

1. al-ʿAlaq (96)
2. al-Qalam (68)
3. al-Muzzammil (73)
4. al-Muddaththir (74)
5. Abū Lahab (111)
6. al-Takwīr (81)
7. al-Aʿlā (87)
8. al-Layl (92)
9. al-Fajr (89)
10. al-Ḍuḥā (93)
11. al-Inshirāḥ (94)
12. al-ʿAṣr (103)
13. al-ʿĀdiyāt (100)
14. al-Kawthar (108)
15. al-Takāthur (102)
16. al-Dīn (107)
17. al-Kāfirūn (109)
18. al-Fīl (105)
19. al-Falaq (113)
20. al-Nās (114)
21. al-Ikhlāṣ (112)
22. al-Najm (53)
23. al-Aʿmā (80)
24. al-Qadr (97)
25. al-Shams (91)

26. al-Burūj (85)
27. al-Tīn (95)
28. Quraysh (106)
29. al-Qāriʿa (101)
30. al-Qiyāma (75)
31. al-Humaza (104)
32. al-Mursalāt (77)
33. Qāf (50)
34. al-Balad (90)
35. al-Ṭāriq (86)
36. al-Qamar (54)
37. Ṣād (38)
38. al-Aʿrāf (7)
39. al-Jinn (72)
40. Yā-Sīn (36)
41. al-Furqān (25)
42. al-Malāʾika (35)
43. Maryam (19)
44. Ṭā-Hā (20)
45. al-Wāqiʿa (56)
46. al-Shuʿarāʾ (26)
47. al-Naml (27)
48. al-Qaṣaṣ (28)
49. Banū Isrāʾīl (17)
50. Yūnus (10)
51. Hūd (11)
52. Yūsuf (12)
53. al-Ḥijr (15)
54. al-Anʿām (6)
55. al-Ṣāffāt (37)
56. Luqmān (31)
57. Sabaʾ (34)
58. al-Zumar (39)
59. al-Muʾmin (40)
60. Ḥā-Mīm al-Sajda (41)
61. al-Shūrā (42)
62. al-Zukhruf (43)
63. al-Dukhān (44)
64. al-Jāthiya (45)
65. al-Aḥqāf (46)
66. al-Dhāriyāt (51)
67. al-Ghāshiya (88)
68. al-Kahf (18)
69. al-Naḥl (16)
70. Nūḥ (71)
71. Ibrāhīm (14)
72. al-Anbiyāʾ (21)
73. al-Muʾminūn (23)
74. al-Sajda (32)
75. al-Ṭūr (52)
76. al-Mulk (67)
77. al-Ḥāqqa (69)
78. al-Maʿārij (70)
79. al-Nabaʾ (78)
80. al-Nāziʿāt (79)
81. al-Infiṭār (82)
82. al-Inshiqāq (84)
83. al-Rūm (30)
84. al-ʿAnkabūt (29)
85. al-Muṭaffifīn (83)
86. al-Baqara (2)
87. al-Anfāl (8)
88. Āl ʿImrān (3)
89. al-Aḥzāb (33)
90. al-Mumtaḥana (60)
91. al-Nisāʾ (4)
92. al-Zilzāl (99)
93. al-Ḥadīd (57)
94. Muḥammad (47)
95. al-Raʿd (13)
96. al-Raḥmān (55)
97. al-Insān (76)
98. al-Ṭalāq (65)
99. Lam Yakun (98)
100. al-Ḥashr (59)
101. al-Naṣr (110)
102. al-Nūr (24)
103. al-Ḥajj (22)
104. al-Munāfiqūn (63)
105. al-Mujādala (58)
106. al-Ḥujurāt (49)
107. al-Taḥrīm (66)
108. al-Taghābun (64)
109. al-Ṣaff (61)
110. al-Jumuʿa (62)
111. al-Fatḥ (48)
112. al-Tawba (9)
113. al-Māʾida (5)

The differing arrangements of the sūras in the maṣāḥif of the Companions indicate that the order given them depended on the ijtihād of the Companions and compilers, in contrast to the order of the verses, which was arranged at the command of the Prophet (ṣ). It is apparent from the accounts that the Qurʾān was written on pieces of palm-branch, stone tablets, and shoulder-bones in the presence of the Prophet (ṣ), and that these were separate from one another — unlike the pages of the sheets of parchment of the codices written at the second and third collections. It is certain that the collectors and compilers of the Qurʾān must have devised certain marks by which they distinguished the earlier sūras from the later ones, just as we today use numerical and alphabetical signs for this purpose.

It is worth mentioning here that Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahristānī, quoting from al-Istighnāʾ in the introduction to his exegesis Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa-maṣābīḥ al-abrār, cites a report of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥārith al-Dhimārī according to which the Qurʾānic verse “Certainly We have given you [the sūra of] the seven oft-repeated verses …” (Qurʾān 15:87) alludes to the seven long sūras, namely al-Baqara, Āl ʿImrān, al-Nisāʾ, al-Māʾida, al-Anʿām, al-Aʿrāf, and Yūnus. Read in the light of this report, the verse indicates that the verses of these seven sūras had already been arranged at the Prophet’s (ṣ) direction, so that the verse refers to this fact.

8. The Seven Famous Qurrāʾ and Their Well-Known Transmitters¹

1. Nāfiʿ al-Madanī, Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Nuʿaym al-Laythī (c. 70–169/689–785). He learned the reading of the Qurʾān from about seventy persons among the Tābiʿūn, including Abū Jaʿfar Yazīd ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hurmuz al-Aʿraj, Yazīd ibn Rūmān, Muslim ibn Jundab, and Shayba ibn Naṣṣāḥ. Al-Aʿraj had been taught by ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās and Abū Hurayra; and Ibn ʿAbbās and Abū Hurayra had learned the qirāʾa of the Qurʾān from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, and Ubayy from the Prophet (ṣ). Originally of Iṣfahān, Nāfiʿ was an authority on qirāʾa at Medina and its leading teacher. After the era of the Tābiʿūn the people gathered around him, and he taught the recitation of the Qurʾān for more than seventy years.

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr relates that he heard Mālik ibn Anas say that the Qurʾān-recitation of the people of Medina was sunna. Asked whether he meant the recitation of Nāfiʿ, he answered in the affirmative.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal says that when he asked his father which recitation he preferred most, he answered: “The recitation of the people of Medina”; and when he asked for his second choice, he said: “The recitation of ʿĀṣim.” (The sign for Nāfiʿ’s qirāʾa is أ.) Qālūn and Warsh were the two transmitters of his recitation.

(a) Qālūn, Abū Mūsā ʿĪsā ibn Mīnā (120–220/738–835), studied under Nāfiʿ for fifty years and was closely attached to him; it is said that he was the son of Nāfiʿ’s wife. He was called “Qālūn” on account of his excellent recitation, for qālūn means “beautiful” in Greek (kalos = beautiful). Qālūn was the qāriʾ of Medina and its grammarian, and it is said of him that he was so hard of hearing that he could not hear the sound of a trumpet; yet when the Qurʾān was recited to him, he could hear it. He himself states: “I read the Qurʾān to Nāfiʿ several times and wrote down his recitation. Nāfiʿ said to me: ‘How long will you remain my pupil in recitation? Sit beside a pillar, and I will send you pupils to learn the qirāʾa from you.’” (The sign for his qirāʾa is ب.)

(b) Warsh, ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Miṣrī (110–197/728–812). His kunya was Abū Saʿīd — also said to be Abū ʿAmr or Abū al-Qāsim — and Warsh was his laqab (nickname). He went to Medina in 155/772 to learn recitation from Nāfiʿ, and completed several rounds of the qirāʾa before him. After returning to Egypt he became the recognized authority on qirāʾa there, and his command of the Arabic language and of the science of tajwīd was uncontested. He had a fine voice, and Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā says of him: “The recitation of Warsh was excellent, and his voice was beautiful.” He gave full value to the hamza, the madd, and the shadda, and pronounced the iʿrāb (the vowel endings) with such clarity that the listener never wearied. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ج.)

2. Ibn Kathīr al-Makkī, Abū Maʿbad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr ibn ʿUmar ibn Zādān (45–120/665–738), learned the recitation from Abū al-Sāʾib ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Sāʾib al-Makhzūmī; and ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Sāʾib had learned it from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and Ibn ʿAbbās, who had learned it from the Prophet (ṣ) and from ʿAlī (ʿa). (The sign for his qirāʾa is د.) Ibn Kathīr was the undisputed master of Qurʾān-recitation at Mecca. A man of great eloquence and of dignified bearing, Ibn Kathīr had met some of the Companions, such as ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī, and Anas ibn Mālik. Among the transmitters of his qirāʾa are al-Bazzī and Qunbul.

(a) Al-Bazzī, Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Qāsim (170–250/786–864), was the muʾadhdhin, imam, and teacher of Qurʾān-recitation in the Masjid al-Ḥarām. He learned the qirāʾa from ʿIkrima ibn Sulaymān al-Makkī; ʿIkrima had learned it from Shibl, and Shibl from Ibn Kathīr. An authority on qirāʾa, trustworthy and of sure memory, the chains of the Meccan tradition of recitation end with al-Bazzī. (The sign for his qirāʾa is هـ.)

(b) Qunbul, Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Khālid ibn Muḥammad al-Makhzūmī al-Makkī (195–291/810–904). His kunya was Abū ʿAmr, and Qunbul was his nickname. He learned the recitation from Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAwn al-Qawwās. Al-Qawwās had learned it from Abū al-Ikhrīṭ, and Abū al-Ikhrīṭ from al-Qisṭ, who told him that he had learned it from Shibl; and Shibl was among the pupils of Ibn Kathīr and had completed the qirāʾa in his presence. Qunbul was an authority on recitation and the head of the Ḥijāzī school of qurrāʾ; people used to come to him from every quarter. (The sign for his qirāʾa is و.)

3. Abū ʿAmr, Zabbān ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār al-Baṣrī (68 or 70–154/687 or 689–771), learned the recitation from a group of scholars including Abū Jaʿfar Zayd ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī had learned it from Ḥiṭṭān and Abū al-ʿĀliya, and the latter from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.

Abū ʿAmr was supremely versed in recitation and in Arabic usage, besides being an honest and truthful transmitter and a pious and trustworthy man. Once, when al-Ḥasan happened to pass by, he saw Abū ʿAmr surrounded by a great circle of eager pupils. “Lā ilāha illā llāh,” said al-Ḥasan, remarking: “Scholars are near to becoming lords (arbāb)”; and he continued: “Every honour that is not sustained by learning ends in degradation.”

It is related of Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna that he once saw the Prophet (ṣ) in a dream and said to him: “O Messenger of God, I have found divergent kinds of reading. Whose recitation do you command me to follow?” The Prophet (ṣ) said: “Follow the recitation of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ.” (The sign for his qirāʾa is ز.) The transmitters of his reading are al-Dūrī and al-Sūsī, who transmit from Abū ʿAmr through Yaḥyā ibn Mubārak al-Yazīdī (d. 202/817).

(a) Al-Dūrī, Abū ʿAmr Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar al-Muqriʾ al-Ḍarīr (d. 246/860). He came from al-Dūr, a place east of Baghdad. He was an authority (imam) on Qurʾān-recitation in his own day and the leading reciter of his time; a highly reliable and precise transmitter, he was the first to collect the different readings (qirāʾāt) of the Qurʾān. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ح.)

(b) Al-Sūsī, Abū Shuʿayb Ṣāliḥ ibn Ziyād (d. 261/874, at the age of ninety), came from Sūs, the modern Shūsh near Ahwāz. A trustworthy and precise teacher of qirāʾa, he was one of the most eminent of al-Yazīdī’s pupils. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ط.)

4. Ibn ʿĀmir al-Tābiʿī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir al-Yaḥṣabī al-Dimashqī (8 or 21–118/629 or 642–736). Yaḥṣab was a subdivision of Ḥimyar. His kunya was Abū Nuʿaym, though some report it as Abū ʿImrān. Ibn ʿĀmir was the imam of the Mosque of Damascus and the city’s qāḍī. He was a Tābiʿī and had met Wāthila ibn al-Asqaʿ and al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr. Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥārith al-Dhimārī states that he had learned the reading from ʿUthmān, who in turn had it from the Prophet (ṣ). He served as imam of the great Umayyad Mosque in the reign of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and both before and after that time, and the caliph prayed behind him. To indicate his eminent position it is enough to note that he simultaneously held the offices of imam, judge, and authority on qirāʾa at Damascus. In those days Damascus was the capital of the caliphate and a centre of scholars and Tābiʿūn. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ي.) The transmitters of Ibn ʿĀmir’s qirāʾa were Hishām and Ibn Dhakwān.

(a) Hishām, Abū ʿAmmār ibn Naṣīr al-Salamī (153–245/770–859), served as qāḍī of Damascus; his kunya was Abū al-Walīd. He had learned the reading of Ibn ʿĀmir by oral recitation before ʿIrāk ibn Khālid al-Mazzī, he from Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥārith al-Dhimārī, and the latter from Ibn ʿĀmir. He was mufti, muḥaddith, muqriʾ (teacher of qirāʾa), and khaṭīb (preacher) of the people of Damascus, trustworthy and precise. ʿAbdān relates that he heard him say: “In twenty years I have never repeated a sermon.” (The sign for his qirāʾa is ك.)

(b) Ibn Dhakwān, ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Bashīr ibn Dhakwān al-Qurashī al-Dimashqī (173–242/789–856), known by his kunya Abū ʿAmr, had learned Ibn ʿĀmir’s reading from Ayyūb ibn Tamīm, who had learned it from Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥārith al-Dhimārī, who in turn had learned it from Ibn ʿĀmir himself. The chair of iqrāʾ (the teaching of qirāʾa) passed to him after Ayyūb ibn Tamīm. Abū Zurʿa al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dimashqī states that in all of Iraq, the Ḥijāz, Syria, Egypt, and Khurāsān no qāriʾ of the Qurʾān surpassed him. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ل.)

5. Abū Bakr ʿĀṣim, Ibn Abī al-Najūd ibn Bihdala al-Asadī al-Kūfī (76–127 or 128/695–744‑5 or 745‑6), mawlā of the Banū Khuzayma ibn Mālik ibn al-Naḍr, had learned the recitation of the Qurʾān from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥabīb al-Sulamī; and Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān had learned from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (ʿa), Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, Zayd ibn Thābit, and ʿUthmān. Eloquent and well versed in taḥrīr and tajwīd, he recited the Qurʾān with a beautiful voice. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal relates that when he asked his father about ʿĀṣim, he told him that ʿĀṣim was a man of right conduct (ṣāliḥ) and reliable (thiqa). Ibn ʿAyyāsh states that when he visited ʿĀṣim in his dying hour, he was repeating the verse: “Then they are returned to Allah, their real master” (Qurʾān 6:62). (The sign for his qirāʾa is م.) The transmitters of his reading were Abū Bakr Shuʿba and Ḥafṣ.

(a) Abū Bakr Shuʿba, Ibn ʿAyyāsh ibn Sālim al-Asadī al-Kūfī (95–193/713–808), whose name is also said to have been Muḥammad or Muṭriq. He was an authority and a great scholar. It is related that at the hour of his death, when his sister began to weep, he said to her: “Why do you weep? Look at that corner, in which I have read the Qurʾān to its end (khatamtu) eighteen thousand times.” (The sign for his qirāʾa is ن.)

(b) Ḥafṣ, Abū ʿAmr ibn Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīra al-Bazzāz al-Asadī (90–180/709–796). He learned the recitation from ʿĀṣim five verses at a time, as a child learns from a teacher. He was the ablest of ʿĀṣim’s pupils in the qirāʾa of the Qurʾān and a scholar who acted upon his knowledge (ʿāliman ʿāmilan); he was the son of ʿĀṣim’s wife. According to Yaḥyā ibn Muʿīn, the trustworthy transmission of ʿĀṣim’s reading is that of Ḥafṣ. (The sign for his qirāʾa is س.)

6. Ḥamza ibn Ḥabīb ibn ʿUmāra al-Zayyāt al-Taymī al-Kūfī (80–156/699–773), mawlā of ʿIkrima ibn Ribʿī al-Taymī; Abū ʿUmāra was his kunya. He learned the recitation from Abū Muḥammad Sulaymān ibn Mihrān al-Aʿmash; al-Aʿmash learned it from Abū Muḥammad Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb al-Asadī, Yaḥyā from Abū Shibl ʿAlqama ibn Qays, and ʿAlqama from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who had learned the qirāʾa from the Prophet (ṣ). After ʿĀṣim and al-Aʿmash he was the leading authority on recitation in Kūfa. He was trustworthy as a transmitter and an authority on the Qurʾān, well versed in tajwīd, in the farāʾiḍ (the prescribed shares of inheritance), and in the Arabic literary sciences, and he retained traditions well in his memory. He was pious and humble, devout, abstinent, and obedient to God — a man whose peer was not to be found. He used to carry oil from Iraq to Ḥulwān and export cheese and walnuts thence to Kūfa. Abū Ḥanīfa once said to him: “You have bested us in two things in which we cannot compete with you: the Qurʾān and the farāʾiḍ.” His teacher al-Aʿmash used to say whenever he caught sight of him: “Here comes the doctor (ḥabr) of the Qurʾān”; and Ḥamza himself declared: “I have never recited a single word of the Book of God without the support of a tradition.” (The sign for his qirāʾa is ع.) The transmitters of his reading are Khalaf and Khallād, who transmitted from him through Salīm.

(a) Khalaf, Abū Muḥammad ibn Khalaf ibn Hishām ibn Ṭālib al-Bazzāz al-Kūfī (150–229/767–843), knew the Qurʾān by heart at the age of twenty, having begun his education at thirteen. He was a scholar and an authority, a trustworthy transmitter, and a devout and pious man. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ف.)

(b) Khallād, Abū ʿĪsā ibn Khālid al-Ṣayrafī al-Kūfī (142–220/760–835), was an authority on qirāʾa, trustworthy as a transmitter, and a master of the science of tajwīd. Al-Dānī says that he was the most precise (aḍbaṭ) and the most eminent of all the pupils of Salīm. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ص.)

7. Al-Kisāʾī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ḥamza al-Naḥwī al-Kūfī (119–189/737–805), was of Persian descent, from the Sawād of Iraq. Asked why he had been given the name al-Kisāʾī, he answered that he was so called because he had used a kisāʾ (a linen sheet) for the iḥrām. Al-Kisāʾī studied the reading of the Qurʾān under Ḥamza, who placed his trust in him; he completed four recitations of the Qurʾān in his presence. He also studied under Muḥammad ibn Abī Laylā and ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar, and ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar had studied under ʿĀṣim. He was the most learned in the Qurʾān among the scholars of his time and an authority on its recitation.

Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī says of him: “Al-Kisāʾī united several excellences in himself: mastery of syntax (naḥw), unparalleled knowledge of the gharīb (the difficult words and phrases of the Qurʾān), and superb knowledge of the Qurʾān. So many pupils thronged about him that it became difficult for each of them to take anything down from him. He therefore gathered them into one assembly, where he himself sat upon a chair and recited the Qurʾān aloud from beginning to end, while the pupils listened attentively and noted down every detail, even the beginnings and the endings.” Ibn Muʿīn says: “My eyes have never fallen on any person more truthful in his speech than al-Kisāʾī.” (The sign for his qirāʾa is ق.) Abū al-Ḥārith and al-Dūrī were the transmitters of his qirāʾa.

(a) Abū al-Ḥārith, al-Layth ibn Khālid al-Marwazī al-Muqriʾ al-Baghdādī (d. 240/854), learned the qirāʾa from al-Kisāʾī. His reading was reliable and accurate; according to al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿUmar he was among the most eminent pupils of al-Kisāʾī. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ر.)

(b) Al-Dūrī has already been mentioned in the account of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ. (The sign for his qirāʾa is ت.)

In the foregoing account of the seven qurrāʾ we have relied upon al-Mukarrar fī mā tawātara min al-qirāʾāt al-sabʿ wa-taḥarrar by Sirāj al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Zayn al-Dīn Qāsim ibn Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī al-Miṣrī, generally known as al-Nashshār al-Muqriʾ, in al-Jāmiʿ of al-Atābakī.¹

9. The Use of Iʿrāb in the Qurʾān

History shows us that the Companions of the Prophet wrote the early codices without any diacritical points (nuqaṭ) or vowel signs (ashkāl). The script inherited by the Arabs contained no diacritical marks to indicate vowelled and unvowelled consonants (ḥarakāt wa-sakanāt) such as are in use today; indeed it lacked even those signs that distinguish the vowels in writing. Yet by long habit, before their intermingling with non-Arab peoples, they possessed the ability to distinguish the consonants from one another and to read them with the appropriate vowels. Their speech in those days was free from ungrammatical usage, and the Arab Bedouins spoke a flawless literary Arabic. They composed lucid poetry, understood the eloquence of the Qurʾān, and appreciated the rhetorical refinements of orations, which made a lasting impression on their minds. When Islam spread and the Arabs mingled with non-Arab peoples, symptoms of decay began to appear in the Arabic language: grammatical errors occurred even in the speech of eloquent Arabs. The growing frequency of such lapses shocked them and impelled them to take measures to save the Qurʾān, which was the foundation of the faith, and to guard Islam against the spread of such errors.

Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī, who had learned the principles of Arabic grammar and syntax from Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī (ʿa),¹ became famous as an expert in the Arabic language. Among the many who learned Arabic grammar and syntax from him were Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar al-ʿAdwānī, the qāḍī of Khurāsān, and Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim al-Laythī, both of whom themselves excelled in Arabic grammar, in the recitation of the Qurʾān, and in the literary arts. Yet the interest of a small circle in Arabic grammar and syntax could not stem the spreading tide of decay set in motion by the intermingling of the peoples.

At that time Ziyād ibn Sumayya, the governor of Baṣra, called upon Abū al-Aswad to devise a method of linguistic reform. Ziyād said to him: “This corruption has spread everywhere and disfigured the Arabic tongue. If only you would devise something to help people reform their speech and recite the Qurʾān correctly.” At first Abū al-Aswad refused, for certain reasons that seemed to him decisive. But Ziyād did not abandon his idea. He ordered a man to sit by the road along which Abū al-Aswad usually passed and to recite the Qurʾān aloud as soon as he drew near, while taking care that it should not appear that it was meant for his ears. The man recited: inna llāha barīʾun mina l-mushrikīna wa-rasūlihi,² with a kasra beneath the lām of rasūli. Abū al-Aswad, appalled at the enormity of this distortion, said: “God is too exalted in His majesty to be displeased with His Prophet (ṣ)!” He returned to Ziyād at once and said to him: “I consent to do what you asked of me. I wish to begin with the iʿrāb of the Qurʾān; so send me the scribes.” Ziyād sent him thirty scribes, of whom he chose one, a man of ʿAbd al-Qays. He then directed the scribe to take a copy of the Qurʾān and to select an ink of a colour other than black. The scribe was to watch Abū al-Aswad carefully as he read the Qurʾān, and to place a dot above the letter when he saw his lips open (fatḥa), a dot beneath it when he parted them (kasra), and a dot in the middle of the letter when they came together (ḍamma); and he was to place two dots whenever these movements were accompanied by a nasal sound. Then Abū al-Aswad began to read the Qurʾān slowly while the scribe set down the dots; and whenever a page was finished, Abū al-Aswad examined it. In this way the whole Qurʾān was furnished with diacritical signs.

Others followed this practice. When a guttural consonant followed the tanwīn (the marking of the final letters of nouns with nasalized vowels), one of the two dots was written above the other to show that the nūn was to be pronounced; otherwise the two dots were set side by side to show that the nūn was either assimilated or suppressed.

Thereafter the people of Medina devised an arch-shaped sign with both ends turned upward to mark the tashdīd. Later the followers of Abū al-Aswad invented further vowel signs, drawing a separate horizontal stroke above the letter to indicate sukūn (vowellessness), regardless of whether it was a hamza or some other letter. They drew a stroke above the alif al-waṣl (the alif of the article, which is elided in liaison) when it followed a fatḥa, a stroke beneath it when a kasra sign preceded, and a stroke through its middle when a ḍamma sign stood before it.

10. The Use of Iʿjām in the Qurʾān

The purpose of the iʿjām is to distinguish letters of identical shape by means of diacritical points, so as to avoid error. Thus the hamza is one of the iʿjām, intended to exclude the possibility of incorrect reading.

It is generally supposed that the iʿjām were invented in the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān; but research shows that their use was current even before Islam. Books written before the caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān have been found bearing iʿjām on certain letters such as al-bāʾ, al-yāʾ, and the like. Moreover, it is highly improbable that, given the close similarity in shape of several letters — such as al-bāʾ, al-tāʾ, and al-thāʾ — they should not have been marked with some sign to enable them to be distinguished from one another. It is therefore true that the use of diacritical points was current before Islam, but through neglect they gradually fell out of use and were almost forgotten by the time of ʿAbd al-Malik, who then made their use obligatory for the official scribes.

This shows that for more than forty years the people continued to read the Qurʾān from the codices compiled by ʿUthmān; and we have already mentioned that ʿUthmān’s maṣāḥif were devoid of diacritical points and signs.¹ For this reason the readers of the Qurʾān were often uncertain as they read, not knowing whether their reading was correct or not. If, for example, one read ننشزها (nunshizuhā), one could not tell whether it was to be read with ز (zāy) or with ر (rāʾ). In the verse li-takūna li-man khalfaka āyatan (Qurʾān 10:92) one could not know whether li-man khalfaka (“for those who come after you”) was to be read with ف (fāʾ) or with ق (qāf) — which would yield li-man khalaqaka (“for Him who created you”). On this account mispronunciation (taṣḥīf) became common in Iraq. Al-Ḥajjāj, who was governor of Iraq in the reign of ʿAbd al-Malik, grew apprehensive of it and ordered his scribes to devise signs by which similar-looking letters could be distinguished. Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim al-Laythī and Yaḥyā ibn Yaʿmar, the pupils of Abū al-Aswad, were called in for this work. The ordinary Muslims, out of fear of bidʿa (innovation in the faith), detested adding anything to the muṣḥaf of ʿUthmān, even by way of improvement; most had already hesitated to accept the corrections introduced by Abū al-Aswad. After much deliberation and debate, Naṣr and Yaḥyā — God-fearing men, blameless in their faith and conduct — introduced the second reform of the Arabic script. Their work consisted in devising single and multiple pointings by which similar letters could be distinguished from one another, in the same form in which we have them today. As mentioned before, the marking of vowelled and unvowelled consonants (ḥarakāt wa-sakanāt) was done by means of dots; and this was true of the iʿjām as well, which were likewise indicated by dots. In order, therefore, to avoid confusion between the ḥarakāt and sakanāt on the one hand and the iʿjām on the other, the practice was, for instance, to mark the ḥarakāt with red ink, while the dots of the iʿjām were set down in ink of another colour. Abū ʿAmr says: “I do not consider it permissible to set the diacritical marks (nuqaṭ) in black ink, for that would alter the form of the writing of the codex (that is, the writing of the codex of ʿUthmān); and I prefer that the hamza be written in yellow ink.” The people of Medina followed this practice in their codices. ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dānī writes in his book al-Muqniʿ: “I see no objection to your using green ink to write the alif al-waṣl, as the people of our city began to do many years ago.” He came from Dāniya (Denia) in al-Andalus. The Andalusians used inks of four colours in writing the codices of the Qurʾān: black for the letters, red for the vowel signs, yellow for the hamza, and green for the alif al-waṣl. The method employed by Abū al-Aswad did not become popular, but it continued to be used for copies of the Qurʾān in order to preserve their structure.

Chapter Three: The Europeans and the Qurʾān

1. Translations into European Languages

At first, and until a number of dictionaries had been published, no one in Europe thought of translating the Qurʾān. The first translation of the Qurʾān into Latin — then the language of learning in Europe — was probably undertaken in 1143 by Robert of Ketton, on the initiative of Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny. It was thus by way of al-Andalus that the Qurʾān reached Europe. Peter of Cluny’s purpose in having the Qurʾān translated was to refute it. The Latin translation was later printed, in 1509, but readers were not permitted to circulate the copies because that edition was not accompanied by a refutation.

In 1594 Hinckelmann published his translation of the Qurʾān, followed in 1698 by that of Marracci, which included a refutation; some scholars have come upon a copy of Marracci’s translation in the library of the American missionaries in Beirut. Thereafter translations of the Qurʾān began to appear in the modern European languages — English, French, German, Italian, and Russian — so that there is now no language in which one or more translations do not exist. George Sale’s English translation of the Qurʾān is one of the very early ones; it first appeared in 1734. Although it is an expanded paraphrase rather than a literal translation, it is nevertheless one of the best and most useful translations available.

2. The Views of Some Orientalists on the Chronological Order of the Sūras

The most important work by a European on the history of the Qurʾān is that of Theodor Nöldeke, in German. The book contains some valuable analytical studies, but also other matter for which the researcher may be taken to task for not having met the demands of scholarly inquiry.¹

In his study of the history of the Qurʾān, Nöldeke has treated its various aspects in a manner that attests his command of the subject and the extent of his learning. He has discussed the nature of revelation and prophethood, the personality of the Holy Prophet (ṣ), the revelation of the Qurʾān, the chronological order of the sūras, and the question whether they were revealed at Mecca or at Medina. For discovering the dates of the revelation of the sūras Nöldeke follows a sound method, which occasionally leads to correct conclusions.

He takes his cues from the battles, campaigns, and other events that occurred in the Prophet’s (ṣ) lifetime — such as the battles of Badr and Khandaq, the truce of Ḥudaybiyya, and so on, whose dates are established — in order to date the Qurʾānic passages that relate to those events. Similarly, he treats the differences and changes in the tone and style of the Qurʾān as a further indicator for determining the chronology of the sūras and verses. Thus Nöldeke believes that most of the verses containing the address “O mankind!”, and those among them that carry a stern, threatening tone, were revealed in the early years of the prophetic mission, when the Muslims were few; while the verses containing the address “O you who have faith!”, together with the assurances of divine mercy, were revealed after the number of Muslim believers had increased.

In the course of his analytical study Nöldeke expresses doubts about the reports and traditions, and about the views of the exegetes concerning the chronology of the Qurʾān; yet at the same time he takes from them whatever suits his ideas and helps him to discover the chronology of the sūras and, on occasion, their order.

He has adopted the chronological order of the sūras given in the work of Abū al-Qāsim ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī, one of the scholars of the fifth/eleventh century. We have cited above the chronological order given by him; Nöldeke, however, has divided the sūras into two parts, belonging respectively to the Meccan and the Medinan periods. Thus, for example, Sūrat al-ʿAlaq — which according to the reports of the traditionists is the first sūra to have been revealed — is placed by him at the beginning, and Sūrat al-Qalam, which according to the scholars of ḥadīth was revealed after it, is placed next, and so on.

Nöldeke’s arrangement of the Meccan sūras:

96, 68, 73, 74, 111, 81, 87, 92, 89, 93, 94, 103, 100, 108, 102, 107, 109, 105, 113, 114, 112, 53, 80, 97, 91, 85, 95, 106, 101, 75, 104, 77, 50, 90, 86, 54, 38, 7, 72, 36, 25, 35, 19, 20, 56, 26, 27, 28, 17, 10, 11, 12, 15, 6, 37, 31, 34, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 51, 88, 18, 16, 71, 14, 21, 23, 32, 52, 67, 69, 70, 78, 79, 82, 84, 30, 29, 83.

Nöldeke’s arrangement of the Medinan sūras:

2, 8, 3, 33, 60, 4, 99, 57, 47, 13, 55, 76, 65, 98, 59, 110, 24, 22, 63, 58, 49, 66, 62, 64, 61, 48, 5, 9.¹

3. On the Openings of the Sūras

One of the most abstruse problems confronting the researcher who studies the scholarly and historical aspects of the Qurʾān is the meaning of the Arabic letters (al-ḥurūf al-muqaṭṭaʿa) at the opening of certain sūras, and their specific relevance to the history of the Qurʾān. Although the exegetes, from the time of the Companions down to the present day, have offered various interpretations, these letters have remained incomprehensible and mysterious; the very abundance of views and diversity of explanations point to the mystery and ambiguity surrounding the matter. Here we shall cite some of the views and interpretations of these letters, mentioning only the most plausible ones.

1. It is reported from Mujāhid that طسم (ṭā-sīn-mīm), ق (qāf), ص (ṣād), and حم (ḥā-mīm) are the openings of the respective sūras.
2. It is reported from Ibn ʿAbbās¹ that الم (alif-lām-mīm), حم (ḥā-mīm), and ن (nūn) are abbreviated divine names; thus الم, for instance, means أنا الله أعلم (“I am Allah, the All-knowing”).
3. ʿIkrima² is reported to have suggested that الم and حم allude to the conclusion of the preceding sūra.

In his book Tahdhīb al-asmāʾ wa-l-lughāt, al-Nawawī³ mentions five interpretations of حم:

1. These letters stand for one of God’s Names, by which He swears — as Ibn ʿAbbās maintains.
2. They stand for one of the names of the Qurʾān, as related from Qatāda.
3. They are an abbreviation of the Names of the Almighty, namely al-Raḥmān and al-Raḥīm.
4. They stand for “Muḥammad,” as stated by Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad (ʿa).
5. They represent an opening verse, as related from Mujāhid.

A tradition runs: شعاركم حم لا يُنصَرون (“Let your battle-cry be: ḥā-mīm — they shall not be helped”). Al-Azharī reports that Abū al-ʿAbbās was asked about this utterance of the Prophet (ṣ) — حم لا يُنصَرون — and explained that it means: “By Allah, they shall not be helped.” As mentioned in Lisān al-ʿArab,¹ the tradition “If you are attacked by night, say: ḥā-mīm, they shall not be helped” is explained by Ibn al-Athīr as meaning: “O Allah, may they not be helped.”

Al-Ṭabarī² states that one group holds that the sūras open with these letters in order to catch the attention of the idolaters; for they counselled one another not to listen to the Qurʾān, and so, when they turned their ears to hear these letters, they had also to listen to the verses that followed.

Al-Nawawī reports Qatāda as saying that ق (qāf) stands for one of the names of the Qurʾān; and Abū ʿUbayda and al-Zajjāj have said that the ق at the beginning of the sūra is of the same kind as the letters ن, الم, and المر at the head of other sūras.

According to what al-Wāḥidī, al-Farrāʾ, and al-Zajjāj relate, a group from Medina said that ق implies قضى الله ما هو كائن (“God has decreed that which is to be”); they grounded their argument on the words of the poet: قلتُ لها قِفي فقالت قافِ — “I said to her, ‘Halt!’ (qifī), and she said: ‘qāf’” — that is, she meant قالت: قف, the single letter standing for the whole word “I halt.”

In his book Saʿd al-suʿūd, Ibn Ṭāwūs, quoting from the first part of Sharḥ taʾwīl al-Qurʾān wa-tafsīr maʿānīh¹ by Abū Muslim Muḥammad ibn Baḥr al-Iṣfahānī, says regarding the al-ḥurūf al-muqaṭṭaʿa: “Abū Muslim says: ‘What we believe is this: these letters being the elements of the Arabic language, the challenge of the Qurʾān — to produce a sūra like one of its sūras — lies precisely in the fact that the Qurʾān too is composed of these detached letters, which are known to you and over which you have full command. Your inability to produce anything like the Qurʾān, or like any of its sūras, is therefore proof that this incapacity and failure on your part is indeed from God; and this is the evidence of the prophethood and truthfulness of the Prophet (ṣ).’ He then adds: ‘Among the things that strengthen this explanation is that in every sūra opening with such letters, the letters are immediately followed by an allusion to the Qurʾān — implying that the Qurʾān is composed of these very letters, which you know so well and command.’ Later he asks himself whether, if this were the intention, it would not have sufficed to use these letters in a single sūra only; and he answers himself that it is customary with the Arabs to repeat a thing when they wish to make it plain.” From a rational point of view, the last two opinions — those reported by al-Ṭabarī and by Ibn Ṭāwūs — appear the most plausible.

According to the former, the sūras open with such letters in order to arrest the attention of the idolaters and induce them to listen to the verses of the Qurʾān. According to the latter — the view transmitted by Ibn Ṭāwūs al-ʿAlawī from Abū Muslim Muḥammad ibn Baḥr al-Iṣfahānī — their purpose is to bring home to the people that the Qurʾān is composed of the ordinary letters of the alphabet, and yet it is not possible for anyone to produce anything like the Qurʾān, although these letters are used by all.

Western writers, too, have discussed the openings of the sūras; but my examination of their views has shown that they have produced nothing well founded, or of historical or scholarly worth.

In the Encyclopaedia of Islam, F. Buhl, in the article dealing with the Qurʾān, has set out the views of H. Bauer and of Nöldeke, after enumerating the opinions of the Muslim scholars, the substance of which we have given above from reliable sources. Here we shall refrain from reproducing the views of these European scholars, for they lack foundation and do not rest upon any scholarly basis. And God guides to the Truth.

Concluded — wa-l-ḥamdu li-llāh.