The Qur’an

How the Qur’an was preserved

Muslims hold that the Qur’an today is, word for word, what the Prophet ﷺ recited. Christians and many historians have questioned that claim. This topic sets out how the Qur’an was memorised, written and collected, what the earliest manuscripts show, and the questions Christians raise.

1The question

Is the Qur’an we have today the same text the Prophet ﷺ recited?

2What Christians believe

Christian scholars raise several questions. No complete copy survives from the Prophet’s lifetime, and the Qur’an was not gathered into one book until after his death. The caliph Uthman made a standard text and ordered other copies to be burned, so the early copies of companions such as Ibn Mas’ud, which differed in places, did not survive.

They also point to the different readings (qira’at) of the Qur’an, and to the Sana’a palimpsest, whose erased lower text differs from the standard text. Keith E. Small (<cite>Textual Criticism and Qur’an Manuscripts</cite>, 2011) argues that the Qur’an was edited and standardised, not preserved unchanged.

3What the texts say

God’s word stands for ever

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Isaiah 40:8 · KJVRead in context →

A scroll burned and written again

And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
Jeremiah 36:23 · KJVRead in context →
Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.
Jeremiah 36:28 · KJVRead in context →

Moses writes the Law in a book

And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
Deuteronomy 31:24 · KJVRead in context →
Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.
Deuteronomy 31:26 · KJVRead in context →

4What scholars say

Leaves of the Birmingham Qur’an were radiocarbon dated in 2015 to between 568 and 645, within or close to the Prophet’s lifetime, and their text matches today’s. François Déroche (Qur’ans of the Umayyads, 2014) studies the earliest dated copies and how the text was written in the first Islamic century.

Behnam Sadeghi and Uwe Bergmann (Arabica, 2010) compared early manuscripts, including the Sana’a lower text, and concluded that the standard text goes back to the Prophet ﷺ himself. Earlier, John Wansbrough (Quranic Studies, 1977) had argued that the Qur’an took its final form much later, a view most scholars now reject in light of the manuscript evidence.

Scholars agree that the Qur’an was recited publicly from the start, that it was collected under Abu Bakr and standardised under Uthman within about twenty years of the Prophet’s death, and that early copies show only small differences.

5The Islamic perspective

The Qur’an promises that God himself will guard it, that he will gather and recite it, and that falsehood cannot reach it:

Lo! We, even We, reveal the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its Guardian.
Qur’an 15:9 · PickthallRead in context →
Stir not thy tongue herewith to hasten it. Lo! upon Us (resteth) the putting together thereof and the reading thereof.
Qur’an 75:16–17 · PickthallRead in context →
Falsehood cannot come at it from before it or from behind it. (It is) a revelation from the Wise, the Owner of Praise.
Qur’an 41:42 · PickthallRead in context →

The Qur’an has been kept in two ways at once from the beginning: in writing and in memory. It is recited aloud in every prayer, and millions of people know it by heart. The reading most used today, Hafs from Asim, and others such as Warsh, are recitations taught with chains of teachers back to the Prophet ﷺ.

6Objections and responses

“Uthman burned the other copies, so we cannot know what was lost.”

Response: Uthman’s copies were made from Abu Bakr’s collection, which had been checked against those who memorised the Qur’an, and many companions who had heard the Prophet ﷺ were still alive to object. The recited Qur’an also continued in memory, independently of any written copy.

“The different readings (qira’at) show there is no single text.”

Response: The readings differ mainly in pronunciation and small word forms, and each is traced back to the Prophet ﷺ, who taught the Qur’an in more than one mode, as reported in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. A few slightly change the sense, as in 1:4, “King” or “Owner” of the Day of Judgement, but none changes the teaching.

7Conclusion

Both sides agree that the Qur’an was recited from the start, collected within a generation, and that the earliest manuscripts are very close to today’s text. Christians ask about the copies Uthman destroyed and the small early differences. Muslims see a text guarded in memory and writing at once, as God promised.

Read Qur’an 15:9 and 75:16–19, then Jeremiah 36, and compare how each scripture describes the keeping of God’s word.

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