FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Dr. Farida Khanam has been a professor at the Department of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. A Study of World's Major Religions, A Simple Guide to Sufism are two of the books amongst many others, of which she is the author. She has also translated many books on Islam authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Currently, the chairperson of Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS International), an organization founded by her father Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, she is a regular contributor of  articles  to journals, newspapers and magazines. Dr. Khanam has edited Maulana’s English translation of the Quran and has also translated his Urdu commentary of the Quran into English. Under Maulana Wahiduddin Khan Peace Foundation, along with the CPS team, she is designing a series of courses on peacebuilding, countering extremism and conflict resolution.


THE QURAN

THE Quran, addressed to humankind, tells us of God’s scheme for human existence—man is placed on earth for the purpose of being tested. The freedom he is given here is not as a matter of right, but as a matter of trial. On the outcome of this test, rests the eternal fate of man. The Quran asserts that human beings are eternal creatures, yet only an extremely small part of their lifespan has been assigned to this present world, the remainder is ordained for the Hereafter. As we learn from the Quran, all the revealed books were sent by God so that man might be informed of the nature and purpose of his life.

The teachings of the Quran can be summed up under two basic headings:

1. Believing in one God and worshipping Him alone.
2. Regarding all human beings as equal and according them equal rights.

The Quran was revealed as circumstances demanded and not in a purely theoretical way. It enshrines only the basic teachings of Islam. The detailed application of these teachings is to be found in the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad.

The most repeated invocation in the Quran is “In the name of God, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful”. The occurrence of this invocation 114 times in the Quran is in itself an indication of its importance. Every piece of work must have a beginning. It is the Quran’s desire that when one initiates any undertaking one should begin by uttering the name of God. One is thus always reminded of God’s attributes of benevolence and compassion.

The Quran is a medium sized book as far as its volume is concerned. It comprises of 114 chapters or surahs. The Quran is a revealed book: it is not authored by a human being. It is the actual word of God in human language. The Quran began to be revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, through the angel Gabriel, in 610 AD, while the Prophet was sitting in seclusion in the cave of Hira at the top of the Mountain of Light, two miles from Makkah. The Quran was not revealed in book form at one point of time. Its various parts were revealed as the occasion demanded. It was later compiled in Madinah during the last days of the Prophet. The entire revelation was completed over a period of 23 years. The last passage was revealed to the Prophet while he was addressing a gathering at Mount Arafat after performing his last Hajj in 622 AD.


The Quran asserts that human beings are eternal creatures, yet only an extremely small part of their lifespan has been assigned to this present world, the remainder is ordained for the Hereafter.

Since the Quran came into existence prior to the era of the press, it could be preserved in only two ways: either by committing the entire text to memory or by writing it on paper or other materials. That is why there have always been a large number of hafiz (those who committed the entire Quran to memory), in every age right from the moment of revelation of the Quran to the present day. The earliest written copies of the Quran are still available in different museums, one of these being in Tashkent.

When any part of the Quran was revealed to the Prophet, he used to recite it to his Companions. Since the verses of the Quran were recited during prayer the Companions had to memorize them in order to recite them in their daily prayers.

In this way the memorization and the transcription of the Quran both started from the very first day of revelation. Whenever a revelation was received, the Prophet would call one of his scriber Companions and dictated the verses to him. After dictation the Prophet would ask the scriber to read out to him what had been put in writing. This was done in order to correct any mistakes committed while writing.

This was the beginning of the compilation of the Quran. The next stage after the transcription was to memorize the text. The Prophet himself asked the Companions to memorize the revealed verses and repeat the same in their prayers. Thus the message of the Quran was transmitted by oral tradition and written medium even during the lifetime of the Prophet. Among his Companions were a select group of about half a dozen katib-e-wahy—transcribers of the revelations. A few of these scribes were always present in the Prophet’s company, and whenever any part of the Quran was revealed, the Prophet would recite it to them. Thereupon, at the exact moment of revelation, they would not only commit it to memory, but would write it down on any available material, such as paper, bones, leather or animal skin. In former times, when the accepted way of disseminating the subject matter of a book was to memorize it, then recite it, it was quite exceptional that the Quran should have been both memorized and preserved in writing. This was like having a double checking system, whereby memorized words and written words could be constantly checked against each other.


The Quran is a revealed book: it is not authored by a human being. It is the actual word of God in human language.

The second point concerns the arrangement of the verses and chapters of the Quran. When the Quran was revealed in parts, at different times according to the demand of circumstances, how did it come to be arranged in its present form? We find the answer in the books of Hadith. It has been proved from authentic traditions that the angel Gabriel, who conveyed the revelations of God to the Prophet, had himself arranged these verses.

According to the traditions, each year during the month of Ramazan, the angel Gabriel came to the Prophet and recited before him all the Quranic verses revealed till that time, in the order in which they exist today. And after listening to the recitation by the angel Gabriel, the Prophet repeated the verses in the order in which he had heard them. This dual process has been termed al-Irza—mutual presentation—in the books of Hadith. (Fathul Bari)

It is also established in these books that in the last year of the Prophet’s life, when the revelations had been completed, Gabriel came to the Prophet and recited the entire Quran in the existing order twice, and similarly the Prophet also recited to Gabriel the entire Quran twice. This final presentation is called al-Arz al-Akhirah in the books of Hadith. (Fathul Bari)

In this way, when the Quran was fully arranged by the help of angel Gabriel, the Prophet recited it to his Companions on different occasions in the order with which we are familiar today. The Quran was thus preserved in its present order in the memory of tens of thousands of the Companions during the lifetime of the Prophet himself.

In 632 AD, when the Prophet died at the age of 63 years, the Quran existed in two forms: one, in the memory of the several thousand Companions, since they repeated the Quran daily on different occasions, having learned it by rote in what is now its present order; two, in writing—on pieces of paper and other materials used for writing in those days. These scriptures were preserved by the Companions. Although not in their present order, all the parts of the Quran existed at that time in written form.


It is the Quran's desire that when one initiates any undertaking one should begin by uttering the name of God. One is thus always reminded of God's attributes of benevolence and compassion.

After the death of the Prophet, Abu Bakr Siddiq was appointed the first Caliph. It was during his caliphate that the compilation of the Quran was carried out. Zaid Ibn Thabit, the Prophet’s foremost scribe, and an authority on the Quran was entrusted with this task. His work was more a process of collection than of compilation. The scattered bits and pieces of the Quran in written form were collected by him, not so that they could be assembled and bound in one volume, but so that they could be used to verify the authenticity of the Quran as memorized by countless individuals and passed on in oral tradition. Once this exact correspondence between the oral and written forms of the Quran had been established beyond any doubt, Zaid proceeded to put the verses of the Quran down on paper in their correct order. The volume he produced was then handed over to the Caliph, and this remained in the custody of the Prophet’s wife Hafsa. The third Caliph Uthman arranged for several copies of this text to be sent to all the states and placed in central mosques where people could prepare further copies.


The message of the Quran was transmitted by oral tradition and written medium even during the lifetime of the Prophet.

In this way, the message of the Quran spread further and further, both through oral tradition and handwritten copies until the age of the press dawned. When printing press was established in Muslim countries,the beautiful calligraphy of the scriptures was reproduced after its content had been certified by memorizers of the Quran. Thus, once again with the help of memorized versions and written texts, authentic copies were prepared; then with the publication of these copies on a large scale, the Quran spread all over the world. It is an irrefutable fact that any copy of the Quran found in any part of the world at any time will be exactly the same as that handed down to the Muslims by the Prophet in his last days, arranged in the form still extant today.

Dr. Farida Khanam
hub@the spiritofislam.org