Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith
Revelation Scribes:
The well-known of the wahy scribes — as stated — were the four caliphs, and Sa’id ibn al-As and others. It is said also that the most famous among them and most prolific in writing was Zayd ibn Thabit, though the first one who wrote for the Prophet in Makkah, from Quraysh, was Abd Allah bn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarah, who apostatized after conversion to Islam and was reconverted on the day of the conquest of Makkah. And the first who wrote in al-Madinah was Ubayy ibn Ka'b and Zayd ibn Thabit.
In al-Mawahib al-fathiyyah, 461 it is stated:
Al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Jaham ibn al-Salt were charged with writing the estates collected through sadaqah (alms), while Hudayfah used to write the produce of date-palms, with al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah and al-Husayn ibn Numayr being charged with writing the credit deals and transactions.
Collection of Qur'an and its Reason:
With the demise of the Messenger of Allah the Qur'an was not collected or compiled yet, as it was kept memorized and learnt by hearts. When Abu Bakr assumed caliphate, and on eruption of setback (riddah) wars that took lives of a large number of Companions, Umar was afraid that much of the Qur’an would be lost with the death of the Companions. Once upon a
day he entered upon Abu Bakr saying to him: The Battle of Yamamah is taking the lives of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah as fire devouring the butterflies, and I am afraid that such bloody encounters should recur, many of the Qur'an memorizers
Abu Bakr distinguished Zayd with this task as he was one of the scribes of the wahy and memorizers of the Qur'an. So he collected the scattered pieces of the Qur'an, written in codices (suhuf) making it in one mushaf.
Seeking to Collect the Qur'an:
When it was unanimously agreed on collecting and writing of the Qur'an, Umar addressed the people saying: Whosoever has acquired any part of the Qur'an from the Prophet should bring it. Abu Bakr told Umar and Zayd: Sit at the door of the mosque and write down the verses of the Qur'an from anyone who brings two witnesses (to testify it). It is known that Umar was never accepting from anyone any hadith reported from the Messenger of
Allah, unless when bringing two witnesses testifying they have acquired it from the Prophet (directly). Then Bilal was charged with announcing all over Madinah that whosoever had acquired any part of the Qur'an should bring it to the mosque and hand it to the scribes.
Abu Shamah says: It is likely that the witnesses were called to testify that whatever was brought had been presented at the last presentation before the Prophet (S) in the year of his demise and was written in front of him (S). Hence Zayd ibn Thabit said at the last part of the Surat al-Tawbah that he could not find it with anybody else (other than Abu Khuzaymah), i.e. I did not find it written with other than him, as he was never satisfied with what was memorized alone other than what was written.
Ibn Wahb reported in his Muwatta’ from Malik, on the authority of Ibn Shihab, from Salim ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar that he said: Abu Bakr has collected and compiled the Qur'an in masahif. Thus he was the first to collect the Qur'an in suhuf (codices), and this was the first collecting.
The aforementioned was only an abstract of what is said briefly about the subject of writing of the Qur'an. I haven't gone into details in regard of this critical matter, on which multifarious narrations, were cited, and the words of the narrators differed, since that being not of our concern and out of the scope of this book.
Whoever desires to be acquainted with whatever said about this issue, can refer to al-Suyuti's book al-Itqan, and al-Jaza’iri’s al-Tibyan, and the first volume of al-Bayan fi tafsir al-Qur’an of al-Allamah the great researcher al-Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Musawi al-Khu'i.
This book is sufficient in manifesting this matter as its author has exerted much effort in studying it, and elaborated in its discussion in a way that the like of which can never be found in any other book. So it can be said
that it is incumbent upon any Muslim to read it so as to gain more knowledge and information.
A Perplexing Oddity:
The strangest and embarrassing point is that they have never even included the name of Ali within those encharged with collecting and writing down the Qur'an, neither during the reign of Abu Bakr nor that of Uthman! mentioning instead the names of those lower than him in degree of knowledge and fiqh! Was Ali unable of undertaking such a task? Or was he among those untrustworthy men? Or among those who were incompetent to be consulted or committed to shoulder this responsibility?
While in fact reason and logic necessitate that Ali should be the foremost and most competent man entrusted with this job, due to possessing attributes and merits of which all other Companions were deprived. He was reared and grown up under the care of the Prophet (S), living long under his protection, attending the wahy from the first days of revelation up to the day of cessation, in a way that he did not miss even one of his verses?!!
So if he was not to be called for such a critical task, what thing else would he be called for?!!
And if they invented justifications for ignoring him (Imam Ali) in regard of the caliphate of Abu Bakr, never consulting him or seeking his opinion about it, what excuse they can give for not inviting him to the task of writing the Qur'an? Is there any logical reason for this behaviour? What judgement can be issued by any just judge? What a surprising matter it is, and we have nothing to say but: May God help you O Ali! They have never treated you with equity in anything!
The Qur'an During Reign of Uthman:
Those codices (suhuf) written during the reign of Abu Bakr were kept with him till when he expired, and after him were preserved by Umar throughout the years of his caliphate. Before his death he handed them to his daughter Hafsah, who kept them with her till the time when required by Uthman in order to review with them the mushaf written during his reign.
Writing of the Qur'an During Reign of Uthman:
When Umar was on the point of dying and before assuming caliphate by Uthman, the conditions of Muslims started to change utterly and they differed even in the reading of the Qur'an.
In al-Masahif, Ibn Abi Dawud reported on the authority of Abu Qullabah that he said:
During his caliphate, Uthman gathered some individuals instructing that who had command over the Qur'an to teach others the correct way of reading it. Then there were meetings among the youths in which they differed in reciting the Qur'an, after which the teachers quarrelled over them accusing each other with kufr. When Uthman become aware of this situation, he gathered the memorizers and qurra’, addressing them saying: I heard that you disagree and differ (regarding the reading of the Quran)... whoever is farther from me his difference is stronger.
Al-Bukhari has narrated that Anas ibn Malik told him that Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman came to Uthman, when he was fighting along with the people of Iraq against the Syrians for the conquest of Armenia and Azarbaijan. Hudhayfah was frightened at the differences in the people's reciting of the Qur'an. He said to Uthman: O Amir al-Muminin, rise to the rescue of this Ummah before they fall into disagreement about the Scripture
like the Jews and Christians.
Among the words of Hudhayfah, were the following:
I found people of Hams claiming their reading to be better than that of others, and that they learnt reading of the Qur'an from al-Miqdad. I found also people of Damascus claiming theirs to be better and to be the reading of Ubayy ibn Ka'b. Further, the people of Kufah alleged the same saying that they learnt that reading at the hands of Abu Musa, calling his mushaf "Lubab al-qulub".
In another narration by Ammarah ibn Ghazyah reported by Ibn Hajar in al-Fath (vol. IX, p. 14), he said that when Hudhayfah returned from a battle, he came to Uthman, directly, before going home, saying to him: O Amir al-Mu`minin, rise to the rescue of the people! He said: What is the matter? He replied: I participated in the fighting in Armenia where I saw the Syrians reading the Qur'an the way adopted by Ubayy ibn Ka'b, citing words that were never heard by people of Iraq... while finding people of Iraq adopting the reading of Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, citing words never heard by the Syrians. Then each party would charge the other with disbelief.
When Uthman became aware of this, finding the situation reaching that critical stage, he sent someone to Hafsah,
metropolis one copy of those copied before, giving his orders to burning every other sahifah or mushaf. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar says that all this happened in the end of the year 24 H. and beginning of the year 25 H.
Difference between Collecting of Abu Bakr and that of Uthman:
Ibn al-Tin and others said: The collecting of Abu Bakr differed from that of Uthman in the reason for collecting, as Abu Bakr was afraid lest some part of the Quran should be lost with the death of its memorizers, since it was not collected in one book. So he collected and compiled it in codices arranging the verses of every surah according to their order of revelation as presented at the last presentation before the Prophet (S). While Uthman gave his orders to collect the Qur'an when observing the much difference in the ways of reading, that every group were reading with their dialect, the practice causing much dispute among several parties. So being frightened at the exacerbation of the situation, Uthman copied these suhuf in one mushaf, with its surahs being in order, choosing the dialect of Quraysh arguing that the Qur'an had come down in their dialect. For making it easy and relieving people of any trouble (haraj), he allowed reading the Qur'an with other dialects in the first stages, but when coming to know that there was no need any more for this, he determined to have it written with one dialect.
Number of Masahif Sent By Uthman to Metropolises:
There was disagreement regarding the number of the masahif written with the order of Uthman, but they were widely-known to be five, four of which were sent to the metropolises and the other one he kept for himself.
That was a brief abstract of the information I gathered in this article, which I found necessary to cite. May Allah help us to find opportune time to publish the lengthy research which I prepared for a separate full book, about this significant subject, so as to be benefited by Muslims in particular, and all those concerned with Islamic themes in general.
Between the revelation of first verses and last verses of the Qur'an were 20, or 23, or 25 years, based on difference in period of his (S) residence in Makhah after the bi'thah (mission), which is said to be ten, or thirteen or fifteen years. But there was no disagreement in regard of period of his settlement in al-Madinah to be ten years. The Qur'an was revealed according to necessity, in five and ten verses, or less or more. And the revelation of "other than those who have a (disabling) hurt" was confirmed alone, which is a part of a verse (al-Tibyan of al-Jaza'iri).
See vol. II, p. 85.
What is worth attention and good care, the fact that Umar when stood in awe of rushing of the Sahabah like flying into the flame, and resorted to Abu Bakr to make him accelerate in collecting and writing the Qur'an, he never named them as bearers of hadith but called them bearers of the Qur'an. He laso never asked them to collect and write the hadith, but he mustered all his resolution to collecting and inscribing the Qur'an alone. Not only this, but when doing this, we have never seen any of them suggest collecting and writing the hadith but only the Qur'an, the fact indicating the strongest evidences and most truthful proofs, that they were not concerned in writing of the hadith, nor to have a preserved book on it, staying for ever like the Qur'an.
Al-Usub, is plural of 'asib, meaning palm-leaf stalks, of which they used to skim the fronds and write on the wide side. Al-Lakhaf is plural of lakhfah, meaning plates of stones. These were the materials on which they used to write the Qur'an on its revelation.
Refer to hadith of Zayd ibn Thabit, that was reported by al-Bukhari in this regard.
Umar has appointed his daughter Hafsah as an executor over his endowments and legacy, as he was not trusting his son Abd Allah. Al-Suyuti, in his book Ta'rikh al-Khulafa' (p. 98) said: Al-Nakha'i reported that some man said to Umar: Aren't you going to make Abd Allah your successor? He (Umar) said: May God curse you! By God, you never intended to please God by this. Do you want me to appoint as my successor a man who knows not how to divorce his wife? It is reported that he (Umar) said: Had Salim mawla of Hudhayfah been alive, I would have made him my successor (Siyar a'alm al-nubala', vol. I, p. 123). In regard of the divorce referred to by Umar, it is reported by al-Bukhari, from Nafi', from Abd Allah ibn Umar that he divorced his wife when she was menstruant, during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, when he (S) said: Order him to revoke it and retain her till she is cleansed, and menstruates again and purifies herself. After that he can retain her if he wills, or he can divorce her before touching her. This be the waiting period (iddah) to which Allah commanded us to follow when divorcing the women (Fath al-Bari, vol. IX, p. 288). Ibn Daqiq al-'Id reported that the Prophet (S) was enraged at this act done by Ibn Umar.