Introduction

Introduction
How were the verses as revealed to the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) collected, complied and put together as The Book the Muslims revere as the Qur'an?
What is basis for the arrangement of Surahs in the Qur’an? Has there ever been a change in them?
What is basis for the arrangement of Surahs in the Qur’an? Has there ever been a change in them?
ABLUTION for holding the Qur'an. "A friend of mine maintains that it is not permissible to hold the Qur'an without performing the ablution. Is this correct?

"Ramadhan is the (month) in which was sent

down the Qur'an, as a guide to mankind, also

clear (signs) for guidance and Judgement

(between right and wrong)".

(11 : 185)

The Qur'an is the sacred book of the Muslims and believed to be the inspired word of God. It is written in the Arabic language.

The word Qur'an is derived from the Arabic "QARA", which occurs at the commencement of Sura XCV, which is said to have been the first chapter revealed to Mohammad (PBUH) and has the same meaning as the Hebrew word KARA “to read” or "to recite". The Qur'an is also called "AL QURAN AL MAJID", and AL QURA AS SHARIF the "NOBLE QURAN", it is also called the FURQAN, "Distinguisher". KALAMULLAH, the "word of God", and AL-KITAB, "the Book".

According to the Islamic scholar Jalaluddin Sayuti in his "Itqam" the Qur'an is distinguished in the Book with fifty five different titles. According to Abu Hanifah, the great Islamic Imam, the Qur'an is eternal in its original essence. He says "The Qur’an is the word of God, and is His inspired word and Revelation. It is a necessary attributes of God. It is not God, but still it is inseparable from God. It is written in a volume. It is read in a language, it is remembered in the heart, and its letters and its vowel points, and its writing are all created for these are the works of man, but God's word is uncreated. Its words, its writing, its letters and its verses are for the necessities of man, for its meaning is arrived at by their use, but the word of God is fixed in the essence of God and he who says that the word of God is created is an infidel”. (KITAB-E-WASIYAH).

Muslims believe the Qur'an to have been:

"written by the Hands of scribes-honourable and pious and just"

(LXXX : 15-16),

and to have been sent down to the lowest heaven complete from whence it was revealed from time to time to the Prophet by the Angel Gabriel (11:97).

Q1) How were the verses as revealed to the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) collected, complied and put together as The Book the Muslims revere as the Qur'an?

A1) Quranic proof that the Qur'an was being compiled during the lifetime of the Prophet (PBUH).

"Move not thy tongue concerning the (Qur'an) to

make haste therewith. It is for us to collect it and

to promulgate it. But when we have promulgated

it, follow thou its recital (as promulgated)".

(LXXV : 16-18).

"We have without doubt, sent down the message;

and we shall assuredly guard it (from corruption)". (XV : 9)

"By the pen and by the (record) which (men) write, thou art not by

the grace of thy Lord mad or possessed".

(LXVIII: 1-2)

"And they say: "Tales of the ancients, which he has

caused to be written; and they are dictated before

him morning and evening". Say "the (Qur'an) was

sent down by Him who knows the mystery (that is)

in the heavens and the earth:

(XXV:5 6).

"An apostle from God, rehearsing scriptures kept

pure and holy: wherein are laws (or decrees) right straight.

(XCVIII : 2-3).

"That this is indeed a Qur'an most honourable, in

a Book (well guarded) which non shall touch but

those who are clean:".

(LVI : 77-79)

"When the Qur'an is read, listen to it with attention

and hold your peace; that you may receive mercy".

(VII : 204)

"(It is) a Qur'an which we have divided (into parts

from time to time), in order that thou mightest

recite it to men at intervals, We have revealed it

by stages.

(XVII : 106)

There are also various Hadith from SAHIH AL BUKHARI regarding the collection and compilation of the Qur'an.

From the above verses from the Qur'an it is quite clear "that all the chapters and verses of the Qur'an had been revealed to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). That scribes were putting to writing all revelations (LXXX : 13-16) that the Qur'an was divided into parts (XVII : 106). It is also that God confirms that the Book has been sent down by Him and He shall guard it (XV : 9).

The whole book was not arranged until Mohammad's death, but it is understood that the Prophet himself divided the Surahs of the Qur'an and gave them most of their present titles, which are chosen from some word which occurs in the chapter. The following is the account of collection and arrangement of the Qur'an, as it stands at present, as given in tradition recorded by Al-Bukhari (see Sahih al Bokhari vol 6, book virtues of the Qur'an. Chapter the collection of the Qur'an).

509 : NARRATED ZAIN BIN THABIT : Abu Bakr As Siddiq sent for me when the people of Yamama had been killed (i.e. a member of the Prophet's companions who fought against Mussailama) (I went to him) and found "Umar bin Al-Khitab sitting with him, Abu Bakr then said (to me) "Umar has come to me and said, "casualties were heavy among the Qurra of the Qur'an (i.e. those who knew the Qur'an by heart) on the day of the battle of Yamama, and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may take place among the Qurra's on other battle fields whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost. Therefore I suggest you (Abu Bakr) order that the Qur'an be collected". I said to Umar "how can you do something which Allah's apostle (PBUH) did not do?" Umar said "By Allah, that is a good project". Umar kept on urging me to accept the proposal till Allah opened my chest for it and I begun to realize the good in the idea which Umar had realized". Then Abu Bakr said (to me) "You are a wise young man and we do not have any suspicion about you, and you used to write the divine inspiration for Allah's Apostle (PBUH). So you should search for (the fragmentary scripts of) the Qur'an and collect it (in one book)". "By Allah! If they had ordered me to shift one of the mountains, it would not have been heavier for me than ordering me to collect the Qur'an. Then I said to Abu Bakr "How will you do something which Allah's Apostle (PBUH) did not do?" Abu Bakr replied, "By Allah it is a good project". Abu Bakr kept on urging me to accept his idea until Allah opened my chest, for what He had opened the chests of Abu Bakr and Umar. So I started looking for the Qur'an and collecting it from (what was written on) palm leaf stalks, thin white stones and also from the men who knew it by heart, till I found the last verse of Surat At-Tauba with Abu Khuzaima Al-Ansari and I did not find it with anybody other than him. The verses is:

"Now hath come unto you an apostle from amongst

yourselves. It grieves him that you should perish ….

(till the end of Sura At-Tauba

(9:128-129)

Then the complete manuscripts (copy) of the Qur'an remained with Abu Bakr till he died, then with Umar till the end of his life, and then with Hafsa, the daughter of Umar.

510: NARRATED ANAS BIN MALIK: Hudaifa bin Al Yaman Came to Uthman at the time when the people of Sha'am and the people of Iraq were waging war to conquer Arminya and Azdharbaijan, Hudaifa was afraid of their (people of Shaam and Iraq) differences in the recitation of the Qur'an, so he said to UTHMAN, "O the chief of the believers! save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur'an) as Jews and the Christians did before". So Uthman sent a message to Hafsa Saying "send us the manuscripts of the Qur'an so that we may compile the Quranic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you". Hafsa sent it to Uthman. Uthman then ordered Zaid Bin Thabit, Abdullah bin Az Zubair, Saad bin Al-As and Abdur Rehman bin Harith bin Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, in case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point in the Qur'an, then write it in the dialect of Quraish as the Qur'an was revealed in their language". They did so and when they had written many copies, Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Quranic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies be burnt. Zaid bin Thabit added, "A verse from Surat AHZAB was missed by me when we copied the Qur'an and I used to hear Allah's Apostle (PBUH) reciting it. So we searched for it and found it with KHUZAIMA BIN THABIT AL-ANSARI.(the verse was):

"Among the believers are men who have been

true in their covenant with Allah".

Thus the copy of the Qur'an produced by the Khalifa Al Uthman has been handed down to us unaltered: and there is probably no other Book in the world, which has remained fourteen centuries with so pure a text.

Q2) What is basis for the arrangement of Surahs in the Qur’an? Has there ever been a change in them?

A2) The revelation of the Qur’an took over 23 years to complete. While most of the short Surahs were revealed in full, each at one time, most of the longer ones were revealed in parts over different periods of time. Moreover, two or three or more could be revealed simultaneously with one part of one Surah following a part of another. It was important, therefore, to know to which surah belonged every new part revealed to the Prophet (PBUH). That information was given to him by Gabriel, the angel, who was entrusted with the communication of revelation to the Prophet (PBUH). When he read him a certain part of a particular surah, he would tell him to put it in its place, at the end of verse number so and so of the surah to which it belonged. The Prophet (PBUH) always complied and told his companions the new revelation and its particular place in the order of the Qur'an.

Every year in Ramadhan, the Prophet and Gabriel recited the Qur'an during the night. In the last year of the Prophet's (PBUH) life, they recited it twice. This served to make a final check for the Prophet (PBUH) with regard to the Qur'an and its arrangement. Since the Qur'an is the message of Allah, and the Prophet (PBUH) is entrusted with conveying that message to mankind, it follows that the mission also included giving his followers the relevant information with regard to the arrangement of Surahs and verses. That he did, since he conveyed his message complete. The Muslims of Madinah heard the Qur'an in full from the Prophet in its proper order. In fact, the Prophet never read one surah and followed it with another, which precedes it in the Quranic arrangement.

When the Qur'an was compiled for the first time during the reign of Abu Bakr and then again in the time of Uthman, the committee charged with its compilation, headed by Zaid bin Thabit, followed the arrangement which it had learned from the Prophet (PBUH), indeed it could not be otherwise, because the Qur'an is the divine message which Allah has guaranteed to preserve intact. That preservation includes its proper arrangement. Allah describes the Qur'an as the book into which

"No falsehood can approach it from before or behind it" (XLI:42).

That description also includes its arrangement. How can we imagine that something that Allah has guaranteed to be preserved in its original form would allow it to be arranged in a way, which is different from the original?

Some people suggest that the committee, which compiled the Qur'an used its own description in its arrangement. Had that been true, we would have had a report outlining what criterion that committee used for the arrangement it ultimately produced. But we have no such report. Nor do we have any report of anyone objecting to one surah coming before another. The truth is that the companions of the Prophet (PBUH) who heard the Qur'an from him knew its arrangement and no one had any objection to make about the work of the committee because that committee followed the proper arrangement it had learned from the Prophet (PBUH).

Q3) It is difficult for Non-Arabs to understand the Arabic of the Holy Qur'an. Is it sufficient to learn the Qur'an without understanding it? And can we use the translation to do so?

A3) The first thing to be said on this question is that we worship Allah as He wants us to worship Him, not according to what each one of us may think best. Opinions differ on every question. If worship is to be left to personal opinion, we will soon discover that every small group of Muslims worship Allah in a way, which is different from that of every other group. This leads to confusion and deprives the Muslim community of the sense of unity, which the use of one form of worship provides. When you go to pilgrimage and look at Muslims from every corner of the world offering their worship in the same way, wearing the same dress, repeating the same phrases, doing their rituals at the same time, in the same place, following the same guidance, you are bound to appreciate the sense of unity that this gives to the Muslim nation. If the Muslims of world today can only broaden that sense of unity so as to develop a common sense of direction for all their countries, they will become a force to be reckoned with in the world affairs. It is their division and internal quarrels, which deprive them of that strength.

There is a great difference between learning the meaning of the Qur'an and reciting it. The first can be done in any language. There is enough Islamic literature in almost every Muslim language for the ordinary Muslim to understand his religion and its practices. There is no doubt that more scholarship and more publications are needed about Islam and how it should be implemented in the modern world in every language, including Arabic. The message of Islam, however, must remain in its original form, because it is in that form that it has been revealed by Allah. Translations can never be adequate.

Moreover, when you give one page of writing to the translators, you will have two different translations, which may vary greatly on certain points. This applies to the translation of the Qur'an, i.e. Allah's word in a much greater measure. The number of English translations of the Qur'an perhaps exceeds 20. Differences abound between them. Certain verses, and these are by no means few, have a different rendering in every single Quranic translation available. If we were to use an English version of the Qur'an in or prayer, which of the twenty full translations will we use? Someone may answer that we should use the most accurate one. Another person may suggest that we appoint a committee of learned scholars to compare the translations of every verse in the Qur'an and select the most accurate one, producing a translation, which is free of mistakes. Neither answer is satisfactory.

To start with, there is no such thing as "the most accurate" translation of the Qur'an. Each translator has adopted a certain method. Some are very literal, others prefer an idiomatic approach, some translators prefer a very concise mode of expression, others find that tedious, and adopt, instead, a more fluent style. No one can take any of these translators to task for adopting the method he has chosen. After all, this is a personal choice and as long as the translator has done his best to render the meaning of the Holy Book accurately, he cannot be blamed, even when he makes a mistake, but can you imagine what confusion would arise from English speaking Muslims, using twenty different translations of the Qur'an in their worship.

To produce out of the existing twenty translations a new one taking the most accurate rendering of each verse, will achieve nothing except adding one more translation, making the total 21 instead of 20. The new translation will lack in consistency, since it will take different renderings by different translators and group them together: Nor is it adequate to try to improve on any particular one of these translations, correcting its mistakes. Recently, the Presidency of Research, Islamic Rulings and Preaching (i.e. DARUL IFTAH) has attempted to produce a revised edition of the translation made by Yousuf Ali, entrusting the task to two prominent scholars. I have looked at their proposed amendments and I have found their task a very demanding one. It was extremely difficult for them to draw a line separating what they may amend and what they may keep in the original translation. When the amended version appears in print, there will be no shortage of criticism of their work, and there will be much praise.

This shows the difficulty of translating the Qur'an into English, and providing what we may term as a "standard" translation. The problem is far greater with translating it into other languages. "WHAT WE HAVE TO REMEMBER HERE IS THAT THE ARABIC VERSION OF THE QUR'AN IS ALLAH'S WORD AS HE REVEALED IT. ANY TRANSLATION CAN ONLY BE WORD OF THE TRANSLATOR. ALTHOUGH IT EXPRESSES THE MEANING OF THE REVEALED TEXT, IN SOME MEASURE, IT REMAINS THE WORD OF A HUMAN BEING WHO IS LIABLE TO MAKE MISTAKES". Allah's word admits of no mistake. It is therefore, the only one to be used in worship. Moreover we worship Him as He wants us to.

Q4) ABLUTION for holding the Qur'an. "A friend of mine maintains that it is not permissible to hold the Qur'an without performing the ablution. Is this correct?

A4) It is certainly better to have ablution before holding the Qur'an or reading it. The Qur'an is the book containing Allah's revelations and its recitation is an act of worship. Hence, to have ablution before holding or reciting it is a sign of respect. Whether it is obligatory to have ablution in each case is a different matter.

Some people cite the Quranic verse which states in reference to the Quran

"That this is indeed a Qur'an most honourable,

in a Book well guarded, which none shall touch

but those who are clean"

(LVI : 77-78)

as evidence for their argument that it is obligatory to have ablution for holding the Qur'an. If we examine the verse carefully, we cannot find to notice that it refers to those "who are clean". It means that purification has been done to them, not by them. In the Arabic text the difference appears very clearly. Most commentators on the Qur'an agree that this verse refers to angels, who alone are allowed to touch the Qur'an. In their view, this verse does not refer to holding the book, which contains Allah's revelation.

While some scholars felt it necessary to have ablution before holding the Qur'an, many do not make that obligatory. All of them, however, agree that it is highly recommended for us to have ablution before reciting it.