How the Quran was collected: from revelation to mushaf
The Quran came down in pieces over twenty-three years. What the verses on its keeping and gathering say, read in al-Tafsir al-Muyassar, al-Safi and al-Mizan, and the stages the books of Quranic sciences report: memorisation and writing, then one mushaf, then copies sent out.
The question
The Quran did not come down as a bound book. It came in pieces — a verse, a few verses, a surah — over some twenty-three years. The Quran says so itself, and treats it as deliberate:
And those who disbelieve say, "Why was the Qur'an not revealed to him all at once?" Thus [it is] that We may strengthen thereby your heart. And We have spaced it distinctly.
And [it is] a Qur'an which We have separated [by intervals] that you might recite it to the people over a prolonged period. And We have sent it down progressively.
So: how did what came in pieces become one mushaf, ordered, agreed upon, and read the same way everywhere? This article starts with what the verses themselves say and, at the two passages the question turns on, gives the Sunni reading of al-Tafsir al-Muyassar first, then the Shia readings of al-Safi (al-Fayd al-Kashani) and al-Mizan (al-Tabataba'i). Then it gives the stages the books of Quranic sciences report.
Quotations from the three commentaries are my renderings of the Arabic.
First: "We will be its guardian"
Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian.
Al-Muyassar: We sent down the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad, and We undertake to keep it from anything being added to it or taken from it, or any of it being lost. Al-Safi: "and We will be its guardian" — against distortion and alteration, addition and loss. Al-Mizan: rather, We sent down this Reminder in stages, and We will guard it, by what it has of the quality of a Reminder and by Our full care for it. So it is a living, lasting Reminder, kept from dying and being forgotten at its root; kept from additions that would undo its being a Reminder, and from loss likewise; kept from change in its form and arrangement such that its quality as God's Reminder, making plain the truths it teaches, would change. So the verse shows that God's Book is kept from distortion of every kind, insofar as it is God's Reminder: it is a living, lasting Reminder.
All three agree that the verse is God's promise to keep the Quran from addition and loss: al-Muyassar says "from anything being added to it or taken from it, or any of it being lost", al-Safi "against distortion and alteration, addition and loss", and al-Mizan "kept from additions... and from loss likewise; kept from change in its form and arrangement". Al-Mizan adds that the keeping holds "insofar as it is God's Reminder", and gives as its parallel the verse in Fussilat:
Falsehood cannot approach it from before it or from behind it; [it is] a revelation from a [Lord who is] Wise and Praiseworthy.
Second: "Upon Us is its collection and its recitation"
Move not your tongue with it, [O Muhammad], to hasten with recitation of the Qur'an.
Indeed, upon Us is its collection [in your heart] and [to make possible] its recitation.
So when We have recited it [through Gabriel], then follow its recitation.
Then upon Us is its clarification [to you].
Al-Muyassar: do not move your tongue with the Quran, Prophet, while the revelation comes down, in haste to memorise it for fear it slips from you. Upon Us is gathering it in your breast, then that you recite it with your tongue whenever you wish. When Our messenger Gabriel recites it to you, listen to his recitation and be silent; then recite it as he taught you. Then upon Us is making clear what you found hard to understand of its meanings and rulings. Al-Safi: do not move your tongue with the Quran, Muhammad, before its revelation is complete, to take it in haste for fear it slips from you; "upon Us is its collection" in your breast "and its recitation" — establishing its recitation on your tongue; this gives the reason for the prohibition; and: "then upon Us is its clarification" — making clear what you found hard of its meanings. Al-Mizan: the address is to the Prophet, and the two pronouns refer to the Quran revealed to him, or to the revelation. The meaning is: do not move your tongue with the revelation to take it hastily and so run ahead of Us to reciting what We have not yet recited — as in the sense of "and do not hasten with the Quran before its revelation is completed to you" (Ta-Ha 114); "upon Us is its collection and its recitation": qur'an here is a verbal noun, like furqan; the two pronouns refer to the revelation; the meaning is, do not hasten with it, since it is upon Us to gather what We reveal to you, joining its parts to one another, and to recite it to you, so that nothing of it escapes Us and you need not run ahead of Us to reciting what We have not yet revealed; and: "then upon Us is its clarification" — upon Us is making it clear to you, after it was upon Us to gather and recite it; "then" marks an order of rank, since clarifying comes after gathering and reciting.
Where they agree
All three agree that the Prophet was told not to hasten with the revelation, and that making it clear is God's: al-Muyassar says "in haste to memorise it for fear it slips from you", al-Safi "to take it in haste for fear it slips from you", and al-Mizan "to take it hastily and so run ahead of Us". On the clarification, al-Muyassar says "making clear what you found hard to understand of its meanings and rulings", al-Safi "making clear what you found hard of its meanings", and al-Mizan "making it clear to you".
Where they differ
They differ on what "its collection" means. Al-Muyassar and al-Safi take it as gathering it in the Prophet's breast: "upon Us is gathering it in your breast" and "its collection in your breast". Al-Mizan takes it as gathering the revelation itself: "to gather what We reveal to you, joining its parts to one another, and to recite it to you", and gives gathering it in the breast afterwards as another opinion. Al-Mizan pairs the passage with Ta-Ha:
So high [above all] is Allah, the Sovereign, the Truth. And, [O Muhammad], do not hasten with [recitation of] the Qur'an before its revelation is completed to you, and say, "My Lord, increase me in knowledge."
Other verses on the subject
We will make you recite, [O Muhammad], and you will not forget,
Except what Allah should will. Indeed, He knows what is declared and what is hidden.
And two passages describe it as being in a book:
Indeed, it is a noble Qur'an
In a Register well-protected;
But this is an honored Qur'an
[Inscribed] in a Preserved Slate.
Third: in the Prophet's lifetime, memorised and written at once
The books of Quranic sciences report that the Quran was both memorised and written during the Prophet's lifetime, memorisation in the breast being the primary carrier and writing a record of it.
What was written, though, was spread over whatever writing materials that time afforded — not gathered in a single bound volume with the surahs in order. That is what the next stage is about.
Fourth: gathered into one mushaf
What those books report is that the written material was gathered into a single mushaf in the caliphate of Abu Bakr, after a number of reciters were killed at the battle of Yamama; that Zayd ibn Thabit was charged with the work; and that his method was to write nothing that was not confirmed both by what was memorised and by what was written.
The difference between this stage and the one before it is not that the text came into being. It is that what had been scattered came to be in one place.
Fifth: copies sent to the provinces
The same books report that as the Muslims spread, copies were made in the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan and sent out to the regions to serve as the reference to be returned to, and that Zayd ibn Thabit and others were again charged with the work.
Everything after that is service to the written text: the vowel marks, the dots, the stop signs, the numbering of verses, the arrangement of the printing. All of these settled into the form the printed mushaf has today.
These stages come from the books of this discipline, not from the Quran's own words, and they are given here in outline rather than with chains of transmission.
Two questions this is not
Two other questions get mixed into this one:
- The readings. The existence of several qira'at is not a plurality in the collected text but in modes of recitation transmitted with their own chains. That is a separate subject, treated in What does "the narration of Hafs from Asim" mean?.
- Order and division. The order of the surahs, and the division of the mushaf into juz, hizb and page, is independent of the collection of the text. We gave that its own article: Surah, ayah, juz, hizb, page: how the mushaf is divided.
What the verses do not say
- They do not describe how the written text was gathered into a mushaf, nor name who did it; that comes from the books of Quranic sciences.
- They do not mention writing materials or the order of the surahs in the mushaf.
- Al-Hijr 9 promises the keeping without spelling out its means.
Counted on the mushaf
- "Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an": once in the whole Quran, Al-Hijr 9.
- "And indeed, We will be its guardian": three times — twice in Surah Yusuf (12 and 63), spoken by Joseph's brothers, and once in Al-Hijr 9, of the Quran.
- "Indeed, upon Us is": four times — twice in Al-Qiyamah (17 and 19), once in Al-Ghashiyah 26 and once in Al-Layl 12.
- "Move not your tongue with it": once, Al-Qiyamah 16.
The text you are reading here
The text this site displays is the text of the Madinah mushaf, in the narration of Hafs from Asim, from the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran. The pages and juz boundaries used on this site follow that printed mushaf, not a scheme of our own.
Sources
- Quran text: the Madinah mushaf, the narration of Hafs from Asim, King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran. The English is the Sahih International translation this site serves.
- al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran.
- Tafsir al-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
- al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Quran — al-Sayyid Muhammad Husayn al-Tabataba'i.
- What is attributed here to "the books of Quranic sciences" is the well-known account in that discipline, given in outline and without detailed chains of transmission.