A Brief Introduction to a Scripture

[1] Pulau Lang Tengah
Last time i used to go on vacations with friends to Islands in Malaysia. Part of the trip is for snorkelling. I have not going to any island these few years (Pulau Langkawi and Nami Island in Korea not considered that island) and i am kind of missing the scenery.

Pulau Lang Tengah..

I really wish to go there now, but nobody is around to go with...

[1] A Brief Introduction to A Scripture
Received this in one of my mailing list; have not been active lately (or for a long time huuhuh) in the group. Hope i will be able to joining them back soon... Worth reading! : )

Written by alFaisal
http://demipena. blogspot.com

Edited by Habibah Binti Abdul Razak
Cyberjaya
17 April 2008/ 10 Rabiul Akhir 1429

Mohandas K. Gandhi once said, "It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty."

If you do not agree that it is a duty, then just take Gandhi's words as an advice and consider it as one of the options for peaceful interfaith approach.

To me, the idea of a religion is reflected from every single message within its scriptures, since the scriptures are able to speak to us much more than what we can see from its followers. And yet Malaysia , for a country which is so rich with its multi ethnic and multi religion communities, is very lacking in people who would actually take the initiative to embrace the spirit of what Gandhi had called upon.

But not so for Ash. A man with brilliant thoughts, a good friend and my rap guru, he's the very first person I've known who has made a genuine effort to study the scriptures from other faiths. He's a Hindu and yet that does not stop him from reading the Bible and the Quran. I was only a young teenager back then, and I couldn't bring myself to even touch any scriptures other the Quran. There had always been a permeated sense of how taboo it is to read other religion's scriptures.

But as I grew up, I finally gave myself a chance to see what the scriptures besides the Quran have to say, to help me in understanding about other people's faiths. But it takes more than just a simple reading, having a clear perspective of the history and background of the scriptures is very important in understanding it.

For example, to read the verse of 1 Corinthians of the Bible and simply assume that the whole book was written by Jesus Christ, would be terribly erroneous and a severe case of ignorance. Lack of interest in research and exploring the background of a scripture would definitely lead the reader towards confusion and misconceptions.

THE HISTORY AND BACKGROUND OF QURAN

This is an invitation to learn briefly about Muslims' Holy Scripture, the Quran. You don't have to become a Muslim or a future Muslim to know this. Regardless of what your opinions are about Islam, you still have every right to know this information.

Quran is an Arabic word, which literally means 'the recitation' or 'the reading'. Muslims believe that it is the Word of God, which He had revealed to His Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. It was memorized by Prophet Muhammad and then was dictated to his companions.

Before analyzing the Quran or going deep into its history, a question should be asked. Are the words in the Quran that we have today exactly the same with the ones revealed to us through Prophet Muhammad centuries ago? This is an important issue to resolve, because there would be no point in discussing the Quran itself if what we have today has been changed from its revelation to the Muslims during the time of Prophet Muhammad.

In order to answer that question, we need to look into the methods on how the Quran has been preserved to this very day, which includes:

[1] Memorization

[2] Recorded in writing

It is through the combination of these two elements that has ensured the preservation of the Quran.

MEMORIZATION

The literacy level in Arab back then was not like what it is today -- not everybody had the ability to write down the revelation. But everybody was able to recite the verses and commit them to memory.

Prophet Muhammad had encouraged his companions to learn and practice each verse of the revelation and transmit it to others. To recite the Quran regularly is an encouraged act of worship. Besides that, it is also compulsory to recite the Quran in the daily ritual/prayers called 'solah'. In other words, the verses of Quran were repeatedly recited by the believers, memorized and used in the daily prayers (solah). And everything that I have just mentioned is still happening to this day.

During the time of Prophet Muhammad (even before it), memorization was like a second nature to the Arabs. Dr. Michael Zwettler, an expert in Classical Arabic language and literature, as well as in pre- and early Islamic culture and civilization had mentioned:

"The poetry of Arabs, in the ages which preceded the rise of Islamism, was perpetuated by oral tradition; for in ancient times, when writing was not used or scarcely used, memory was exercised and strengthened to a degree now almost unknown."

If it has crossed your mind on how impossible it is to memorize the whole Quran, consider this. Today, when the literacy level is far better than centuries ago, we still have hundreds of thousands of people who memorized the whole Quran. And each Muslim would definitely memorize at least one or two Surah (chapter) from the Quran.

For the early Muslims among the companions of Prophet Muhammad, it was much easier for them to memorize since the Quran took approximately 23 years before the entire revelation came to an end. With the Arabs' memorization culture and the capacity of time in over two decades for them to absorb the Quran, nothing is impossible.

RECORDED IN WRITING

Other than the companions who had followed Prophet Muhammad in reciting the text by heart, there were also some of them who were able to read and write. Those companions had acted as scribes and wrote down the verses. Prophet Muhammad was unlettered, he did not know how to read and write, and therefore he called upon numerous scribes to write for him.

But the Quran that was recorded in writings during the the time of Prophet Muhammad was not in the form of a book. The materials used to record the verses were many – stones bark of trees, wood, cloth and various other things. The task of collecting Quran as a book was undertaken by Abu Bakr, the leader of the Muslims after Prophet Muhammad's death.

QURAN IN THE FORM OF MANUSCRIPT

Below are the simplified chronicles on how the Quran was compiled into the form of a book.

Abu Bakr (the first Caliph and successor to the Prophet) had ordered Zaid Bin Thabit to collect the Quran into one manuscript six months after the death of Prophet Muhammad. It was suggested by Umar al-Khattab (who would later become Abu Bakr's successor), worried about the great number of Qurra (memorizers of the Quran) who had been killed during the battle of Yamama.

A committee was formed to complete this task of collecting the written Quranic material in the form of a single book, led by Zaid Bin Thabit himself. The compilers had insisted on very stringent criteria when it came to examining the written material that had been submitted to them as a safeguard against any errors.

This manuscript of the Quran remained with Abu Bakr until he died. It was then passed on to and remained with Umar al-Khattab (successor to Abu Bakr). After Umar al-Khattab died, the manuscript stayed with Hafsah, Umar's daughter and wife of Prophet Muhammad.

The copy of the Quran that was prepared and compiled by the committee had also included the list of memorizers of the Quran who had been unanimously approved by the Muslim world. If the committee had made the slightest error, tens of hundreds of the Qurra (memorizers of the Quran) would be able to notice and correct it.

That is how the memorization and written records of the Quran complement each other, offering a check and balance method in preserving the Quran from any slight change or error during its compilation.

Until to this very day, anyone who tried to create a false Quran will fail miserably because any error is easy to be detected by the Muslims. Even if entire copies of the Quran today are burned until there's no copy left in the whole world, there's no worries at all since we would still have the 'copies' in the heart of those who memorized the whole Quran.

QURAN DURING THE TIME OF UTHMAN

First of all, a person who studies the history of Islam should be very clear in making the distinction between Caliph Uthman and the caliphs of the Ottoman Empire . I've encountered who have made this mistake, when they heard Caliph Uthman had made an official copy of Quran in the Quraishi dialect (the dialect in which the Quran was revealed to the Prophet and was memorized by his companions), they thought he was one of the caliphs from Ottoman Empire.

Quran was originally revealed in the Quraishi dialect of Arabic. But God then revealed the Quran into seven dialects to facilitate the people who did not speak other dialects. During the time of Caliph Uthman (one of Prophet Muhammad's companions and the successor to Umar al-Khattab), the differences in reading the Quran among the different tribes were getting obvious. The situation worsened when each tribe started claiming that their way of reciting was the correct one.

Uthman then took a proactive approach by making an official copy of Quran in the Quraishi dialect. It should be noted that this compilation of the Quran by the Uthman Committee is not a new version of Quran. It is still the Quran with the same message that what has been revealed by God through Prophet Muhammad, and the purpose of this new copy is simply as an official standardization of the dialect.

In order to accomplish this, Uthman had asked Hafsah for the copy of the manuscript that had been compiled during the time of Abu Bakr so that he could compile the Quranic material in perfect copies. The early copy prepared by Abu Bakr served as the principal basis of the new one. He asked Zaid Bin Thabit again and a few other companions of the Prophet to rewrite the manuscript in perfect copies.

When it had been completed, Uthman sent the perfect copy to each major city like Makkah, Madinah, Damascus , Kufah and Basrah.

Uthman then proceeded to burn any other copies other than this final copy. Although the action was quite drastic, it was for the betterment and the harmony of the whole Muslim community. Uthman's action had also been unanimously approved by the companions of the Prophet.

Uzbekistan - Holy Koran Mushaf of Othman

The final copy that had been perfectly compiled by Uthman can still be seen until today. The copy that Uthman had sent to Madina was removed by the Turkish authorities to Istanbul . The treaty of Versailles contains the following clause:

"'Article 246: Within six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, Germany will restore to His Majesty, King of Hedjaz, the original Koran of Caliph Othman, which was removed from Madina by the Turkish authorities and is stated to have been presented to the ex-Emperor William II"." [Fred L. Israel, Major Peace Treaties of Modern History, New York, Chelsea House Pub., Vol. II, p. 1418]

The copy reached Tashkent in 1924 and it remains there until today. Visit the link below to see the news and UNESCO reports about the copy.

Tashkent's hidden Islamic Relic [click]

Uzbekistan - Holy Koran Mushaf of Othman (UNESCO) [click]

THEY SAID…

Sir William Muir in Life of Mohamet said, "There is probably no other book in the world which has remained twelve centuries (now fourteen) with so pure a text".

In Geschichte des Qorans (History of the Quran), the book written by Theodore Noeldeke, Friedrich Schwally (who had helped Noeldeke) had mentioned in the book, "As far as the various pieces of revelation are concerned, we may be confident that their text has been generally transmitted exactly as it was found in the Prophet's legacy."

I hope that this simple explanation and chronology of the history and background of the Quran would help my brothers and sisters from other religions to have a quick understanding about the Quran. I have tried my best not to burden readers with heavy historical facts and quotes. More personal research and endeavor are greatly encouraged for those who would like to gain more information than what I have shared here.

Galileo Galilei said, "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."