The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page cccx
GENERAL INTRODUCTION During the Caliphate of 'Uthman seven copies of the Quran were despatched to different parts of the Muslim world and they in turn became the standard texts from which other copies were made and thereafter in each generation hundreds of thousands of people have been in the habit of committing the entire text of the Quran to memory. Even the bitterest enemies of Islam do not allege that any interference with the text of the Quran has taken place since the time of 'Uthmān. Those who seek to raise doubts regarding the purity of the text of the Quran direct their criticism to the period between the death of the Holy Prophet and the Caliphate of 'Uthmān. Whenever any portion of the Quran was revealed to the Holy Prophet, he used to commit it to memory and, as he continuously recited the Quran from one end to the other, he always carried the whole of the revealed Quran at all times in his memory. In addition to this the following devices were adopted for safeguarding and preserving intact the text of the Quran: Devices Adopted to Safeguard the Text of the Quran (1) As soon as a revelation was received by the Holy Prophet it was recorded in writing from his dictation. A number of persons are known to have been employed by the Holy Prophet for this purpose. Of these the names of the following fifteen have been mentioned in the traditions (Fathul-Bārī, Vol. 9, p. 19): 1. Zaid bin Thabit. 2. Ubayy ibn Ka‘b. 3. 'Abdullah bin Sa'd bin Abi Sarah. 4. Zubair bin al-'Awwām. 5. Khalid bin Sa'īd bin al-'Āṣ. 6. Abān bin Sa'īd bin al-'Āṣ. 7. Hanzalah bin ar-Rabī al-Asadī. 8. Mu'aiqib bin Abi Fățimah. 9. ‘Abdullah bin Arqam az-Zuhrī. 10. Shuraḥbil bin Hasana. 11. 'Abdullah bin Rawāḥah. 12. Abū Bakr. 13. 'Umar. 14. 'Uthmān. 15. 'Alī Whenever the Holy Prophet received a revelation, he would send for one of these persons and dictate to him the text of the revelation he had received. (2) As is well known, the five daily congregational prayers are obligatory upon every Muslim and a portion of the Quran must be recited in each of cclxxxiv