FORMATION OF THE MUS-HAF
Hadrat [1] Jabrail used to come once every year to recite the Qur’an that had descended up to that moment according to its order in the Lawh-ul-mahfuz. And our master, the Prophet, used to listen to it and repeat it. In the year when he (the Prophet) would honour the Hereafter, Jabrail came twice, reciting the whole of it. Hadrat Muhammad and the majority of his Ashab [2] memorized the whole Qur’an. Some of the Ashab memorized some sections of it and wrote down most of its other sections. In the year when Hadrat Muhammad ‘alaihis-salam’ honoured the next world with his presence, Abu Bakr, the caliph, gathering those who knew it by heart and, uniting the written parts together, formed a committee to write down the whole of the Qur’an on paper.
Thus, a book (a manuscript) called a Mus-haf was formed. Thirty-three thousand Ashab of the Prophet decided unanimously that each letter of the mushaf was precisely in its correct place. The suras (chapters) were not separated. Hadrat Uthman, the third caliph, separated the suras from one another in 25 A. H. He put them in their order. After having six more mushafs written, he sent them to Bahrain, Damascus, Egypt, Baghdad, Kufa, Yemen, Mecca and Medina. The mushafs all over the world today have been multiplied by copying these seven. There is not even a point’s difference amongst them.
There are one hundred and fourteen suras[3] and six thousand two hundred and thirty-six ayats [4] in Qur’an-al karim. It is also reported that the number of ayats were sometimes more or less than 6,236, but these differences originate from the fact that one long ayat was considered several short ayats, or that a couple of short ayats were considered one long ayat, or that the Basmalas before the suras were considered to be within the suras (by some scholars) and to be independent ayats (by others).
GLOSSARY |
[1] Hadrat: title of respect used before the names of great people like and Islamic scholars. |
SERENITYFOUNTAIN.COM
No comments:
Post a Comment