We mentioned last week the indictment made by the rebels against Uthman, the third Caliph who was one of the closest to the Prophet of all his companions. The list includes no less than 15 charges, most of which were absolutely false like the two we discussed last week. The others were taken out of context and wrongly twisted so as to fit with the aims of the rebels. One of these relates to Uthman’s decision to standardize the copies of the Qur’an circulated among people throughout the Muslim state. The rebels claimed that Uthman “perpetrated a deviation from the Sunnah when he collated copies of the Qur’an and burned the rest.” They thus made out his action to be a willful one motivated by an unfair purpose. Let us look at what Justice Abu Bakr ibn Al-Arabi wrote in refuting this charge:

“As for collating the Qur’an, this is indeed Uthman’s greatest deed. He found the work already done, but he published it and made it available to all people, bringing all disagreement about the Qur’an to an end. God’s promise to preserve the Qur’an intact has thus been brought to fulfillment through Uthman, as we have explained in detail in our other books.

“All great scholars of Hadith (including Al-Bukhari, Muslim and Ahmad ibn Hanbal) transmit a report by Zayd ibn Thabit, (one of the scribes who wrote the Qur’an as it was dictated by the Prophet), who says: ‘Abu Bakr sent for me following the killing of a large number of people in the Battle of Yamamah. I found Umar ibn Al-Khattab with him. Abu Bakr said to me that Umar came to him and said that many of the Qur’an reciters were killed in Yamamah and that he feared that more of them might be killed in other battles, which presents a risk of large portions of the Qur’an being lost. He advised me to collate the Qur’an. I said to him, ‘how could we do something the Prophet did not do?’ He said that it is nevertheless a good thing. He kept talking to me about it until I was fully in agreement with him.

“Continuing his report, Zayd quotes Abu Bakr’s words as he entrusted the task to him: ‘You are a mature young man with whom we find no fault. You used to write the revelations as the Prophet dictated them. Now make sure you collate the Qur’an in full.’ By God, had they assigned to me the task of moving a mountain, it would not have weighed more heavily on me than what they ordered me to do. I protested: ‘How can you do something the Prophet did not do?’ Umar said: ‘But it is certainly good.’ He kept on explaining his point to me until I was happy with what they decided. I began to collect the Qur’an as it was written on pieces of palm frond, white stones, etc. and from people’s memorization. I found the last two verses of Surah 9, Repentance, with Khuzaymah Al-Ansari. I could not find them with anyone else.”

This a complete copy of the Qur’an was with Abu Bakr for the rest of his life and then with Umar until the day he died. It was then in the custody of Hafsah bint Umar, the Prophet’s wife. It then happened that Hudhayfah ibn Al-Yaman came to Madinah and met Uthman. Hudhayfah was a commander of some Muslim armies in battles in Armenia and Azerbaijan, with battalions composed of Syrian and Iraqi soldiers. The two groups differed in their readings of the Qur’an. Hudhayfah strongly advised Uthman, saying: ‘Save this nation before division over God’s Book creeps into it as happened with the Jews and the Christians.’ Uthman sent to Hafsah to send him the complete copy of the Qur’an so that he would make copies of it and return it later. Hafsah sent him the copy. He instructed Zayd ibn Thabit, Abdullah ibn Al-Zubayr, Saeed ibn Al-Aas and Abd Al-Rahman ibn Al-Harith ibn Hisham to prepare copies of it. The last three of the four people entrusted with the task belonged to the Quraysh, and Uthman said to them: ‘If you differ with Zayd over anything in the Qur’an, then write it as the Quraysh pronounce it, because the Qur’an is revealed in their tongue.’ They complied with his instructions.

“When they completed the required number of copies, they returned the original complete copy to Hafsah. Uthman sent a copy to every population center, and ordered the burning of all other pieces of Qur’anic writings.

“In his Sahih, Al-Bukhari quotes a report by Al-Zuhri through Kharijah ibn Zayd who says that he heard his father, Zayd ibn Thabit, say: ‘I lost a verse in Surah 33, Al-Ahzab, when we made the copies, and I had heard it from the Prophet. We looked for it and we found it with Khuzaymah Al-Ansari. It was Verse 23, and we included it at its place in the surah.

“As for Uthman ordering the burning or tearing into pieces of other writings, all companions of the Prophet present at the time approved his action. These writings might also have had some other writings that did not belong to the Qur’an. Therefore, they could have caused much confusion if they were to be preserved. Uthman’s action was met with unanimous approval by all the Prophet’s companions. However, a report suggests that in a speech he made in Kufah, Abdullah ibn Massoud quoted the Qur’anic verse: ‘He who holds on to something without proper authority shall be faced with what he has held on the Day of Resurrection.’ (3: 161) He went on to say: ‘I am holding on to my copy of the Qur’an. Any of you who wishes to hold on to his copy should do so.’ Apparently Ibn Massoud wanted his copy to be taken as reference and that what he had written in it should be taken into account. When this was not done, he was upset and expressed his feelings. However, Uthman forced him to remove his copy and rub it off. Thus, his method of recitation did not survive. It is clear that God has supported Uthman and the truth through the removal of all those writings.”

This explanation by Ibn Al-Arabi clarifies what Uthman did with the Qur’an. His work earned the praise of all Muslims in all generations, except for those rebels who were strongly hostile to Uthman, the Qur’an and Islam itself. In his annotation of Ibn Al-Arabi’s book, Muhibb Al-Deen Al-Khateeb mentions several other reports but we will quote here only two. The first relates to Ibn Massoud, who was one of the top scholars and the best reciters of the Qur’an among the Prophet’s companions. The Prophet praised his method of recitation. However, he wrote in his copy all the verses he learned as they were revealed. Thus, the arrangement of his copy differs with the arrangement in the Uthmani copies, written in accordance with the Prophet’s last recitation. Moreover, some verses might have escaped Ibn Massoud, as he might not have recorded them at the time. Furthermore, Ibn Massoud read mostly in accordance with the dialect of his tribe of Hudhayl, as the Prophet’s companions were permitted to do by the Prophet. Uthman’s action in uniting the recitation according to the Quraysh tongue is perfectly legitimate because it was the one spoken and recited by the Prophet.

The other report he quotes from Al-Shahristani’s commentary on the Qur’an. This report quotes Ali ibn Abi Talib as saying: “Beware of exaggerations against Uthman, or saying that he burned Qur’anic writings. By God, he only burned them in the full view of a large number of the Prophet’s companions. He called us all and asked us: ‘What do you suggest should be done about people’s differences in their recitation. A man says to another, ‘my way of reading is better than yours,’ and this could easily lead to disbelief?’

We asked him what he intended to do. He said that he wanted to standardize Qur’anic copies so that people would have the same copy throughout the world. If people today differ in their reading of the Qur’an, they will have much greater differences in future.’ We all agreed that his decision was the right one.”

Arab News Islam 11 August 2003