`Uthman said, 'Let the one write and the other dictate.' The two
then set to work and in this way `Uthman united the Muslims on the
basis of a single text.
`Ali concludes his report with the declaration, 'Had I been in power,
I should have done just what `Uthman did.'
(p. 144, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al
Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 22)
'Am I,' asks Abdullah, 'to abandon what I acquired from the very
lips of the Prophet?'
(pp. 166-167, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud,
"K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo,
1936/1355, p. 15)
4. The `Uthmanic collection
4.1 Reason for collection - Unity of the Muslims
`Uthman's purpose and achievement was to unite the Muslims on the
basis of a single agreed Qur'an reading.
(p. 143, Ahmad b. `Ali b. Muhammad al `Asqalani,
ibn Hajar, "Fath al Bari", 13 vols, Cairo,
1939/1348, vol. 9, p. 15)
Abu Bakr's aim had been to collect the Qur'an between two covers.
`Uthman's was to collect those readings attested as coming from
the Prophet and to reject all non-canonical readings. He aimed to
unite the Muslims on the basis of a single text, containing no
interpolations and no Qur'an provisions whose wording had been
withdrawn but which still appeared in the written text with verses
whose inclusion in the final version of the text had been endorsed
and thus preserved as required to be publicly recited [at prayer].
(p. 161, Jalal al Din `Abdul Rahman b. abi Bakr
al Suyuti, "al Itqan fi `ulum al Qur'an", Halabi,
Cairo, 1935/1354, pt 1, p. 60)
By God! he did not act on the mushaf except in the fullest consultation
with us, for he said, 'What is your view in this matter of reading? I
have heard that some even say, "My reading is superior to yours." That
is tantamount to heresy.' We asked him, 'What are you thinking to do?'
He replied, 'My view is that we should unite the Muslims on the basis
of a single mushaf. That way, there will be no disagreement, no
segmentation.' We replied, 'An excellent idea!' Someone then asked,
'Whose is the purest Arabic? and whose the greatest acquaintance with
the recitation [alt. Qur'an]?' They said that the purest Arabic was
that of Sa`id b. al `As and that the one most acquainted with the
recitation [Qur'an] was Zaid b. Thabit.
Hudaifa said to `Uthman, 'Whatever you would do if you heard someone
talking of the reading of so-and-so, and reading of another, as the
non-Muslims do, then do it now.'
(p. 146, Anu `Amr `Uthman b. Sa`id al Dani, "K. al
Muqni`", ed. O. Pretzl, Istanbul, 1932, p. 9)
`Uthman organised the suras in the order we are now familiar with.
In addition, he restricted the reading to a single dialect -- that
of Qurais in which it had been revealed. Hitherto, there had been
a concession permitting the reciting of the Qur'an in dialects
other than that of Mecca so that the burden of scruple imposed upon
converts at the outset of the new revelation should be minimal.
Those days were now recognised by `Uthman to be gone, not least
since much danger was to be feared from the continuation of that
freedom and especially since some overliteralness in the local
attachment to a particular reading might give the impression of, or
even lead to, the fragmentation of the Islamic unity.
(pp. 155-156, Jalal al Din `Abdul Rahman b. abi Bakr
al Suyuti, "al Itqan fi `ulum al Qur'an",
Halabi, Cairo, 1935/1354, pt 1, p. 60)
4.2 Different reactions to the collection
... Ubayy stoutly refused to abandon any part of the Qur'an wording he
had received direct from the Prophet. Ubayy, we are told, would have
none of the doctrine of the withdrawal of any part of the Qur'an text.
(p. 179, Bukhari, "K. al Tafsir", ad Q 2.106 and
commentaries)
'The Prophet taught me [ie. ibn Mas`ud] to recite seventy suras which
I had mastered before Zaid had even become a Muslims.'
(p. 166, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al
Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 17)
'Am I [ie. ibn Mas`ud] to be debarred from copying the mushafs and
the job given to a man who was an infidel in his father's reins when
I first became a Muslim?'
(p. 166, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al
Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 17)
ibn Mus`ud, the eponym of the Qur'an of the Kufans, is reported to
have burst out,
'I recited from the very mouth of the Prophet some
seventy suras while Zaid still had his ringlets and was playing with
his companions.'
(p. 166, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al
Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 14)
`Abdullah is supposed to have enjoined his followers,
'Lay up your
Qur'an's! How can you order me to recite the reading of Zaid, when I
recited from the very mouth of the Prophet some seventy suras?"
I went to Abu Musa's house and saw there `Abdullah and Hudaifa. I sat
with them. They had a mushaf that `Uthman had sent ordering them to
make their Qur'an conform with it. Abu Musa declared that anything in
his mushaf and lacking in `Uthman's was not to be omitted. Anything in
`Uthman's and lacking in his own was to be added. Hudaifa asked, 'What
is the point of all our work? Nobody in this region will give up the
reading of this saikh, meaning `Abdullah, and nobody of Yemeni origin
will give up the reading of Abu Musa.' Hudaifa it was who had advised
`Uthman to unite the mushafs on the basis of a single mushaf.
(p. 167, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al
Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 35)
4.3 `Uthman allowed variant readings
That his [ie. `Uthman's] initiative in this direction was a total
failure is, however, admitted in further hadiths which show `Uthman
either resignedly permitting, or himself using, readings at variance
with those enshrined in the mushaf associated with his name.
(p. 168, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al
Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 39)
`Uthman sent for `Ali for information on the grievances of the rebels.
Among these was resentment at his having 'expunged the mushafs'.
`Uthman replied,
'The Qur'an came from God. I prohibited the variant
readings since I feared dissension. But now, read it as you please.'
(p. 168-169, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud,
"K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355,
p. 36)
4.4 `Uthman's complaint about Zaid's text
It is said that when `Uthman received the completed mushaf, he noticed
certain linguistic irregularities.
'Had he who dictated it been of
Hudail and the scribe of Thaqif,' he said, 'this would never had
happened.'
(p. 169, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al
Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 33)
Note: `Abdullah was Hudail.
4.5 The destruction of the codex of Hafsa
After Othman's death, Marwan the Governor of Medina sent to Hafsa and
demanded it. She refused to give it up so it stayed with her until she
died. But Marwan was so concerned to have it that as soon as he
returned from her funeral, he immediately sent to get it. The story is
recorded by Ibn Abi Dawud (died 316 AH) in his Kitab Al-Masahif. He
gives the Isnad down to Salem ben Abdullah who said,
When Hafsa died and we returned from her funeral, Marwan sent with
firm intention to Abdullah ben Omar (Hafsa's brother) that he must
send him those pages, and Abdullah ben Omar sent them to him, and
Marwan ordered it and they were torn up. And he said, I did this
because whatever was in it was surely written and preserved in the
(official) volume and I was afraid that after a time people will be
suspicious of this copy or they will say there is something in it
that wasn't written.
(William Campbell, "The Quran and the Bible in the
Light of History and Science", Section Three, III.C)