The First Codex: Abu Bakr's Compilation of the Qur’an
Published: December 11, 2023 • Updated: July 22, 2024
Authors: Ammar Khatib and Dr. Nazir Khan
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Introduction
Reports indicating it was the first codex
The circumstances preceding the compilation
[T]he traditional reports about the state of the Qurʾan at the time of the Prophet’s death are not unbelievable if one assumes that part of it—perhaps the greater part of it—had already been written down on sheets of the same format and material, while another, and possibly smaller, part had not yet been committed to writing in this form. This latter part, perhaps consisting of the more recent revelations, may have been written on disparate materials and not yet been transferred to sheets of the same format.
Setting up a master volume might have proved challenging; any divine naskh (نسخ; abrogation) revealed subsequently, affecting the legal provisions or wordings of certain verses, would have required proper inclusion. And a loose page format greatly simplified the insertion of new verses and new suras, for the revelations did not cease until a short time before the Prophet’s death. But with his death the [revelation] waḥy ended forever: there would be no more verses, abrogations or rearrangements, so that the situation lent itself perfectly for the compilation of the Qur’an into a single unified volume.
If it is asked: “Why were the Companions preoccupied with collecting the Qur’an in ṣuḥuf (parchment sheets), when Allah already promised to preserve it, given that one need not fear (losing) what Allah has preserved?”
The response is as follows: Their collection of the Qur'an was one of the means by which Allah preserved it. When He intended to preserve it, He appointed them for this purpose. Ibn al-Anbārī said: They wanted to facilitate learning the Qur’an for people and make it accessible through what they did, so that it would be easy for anyone who wanted to memorize it and read it when they saw it collected in a scroll. Even if they had not done what they did, it would not have been lost, as Allah guaranteed its preservation.
It is possible that what was meant by this is that they (i.e., those who were martyred) used to study the Qur’an extensively, recite it, and perform night prayers (tahajjud) with it. So, ‘what would be lost from the Qur’an’ from what they possessed is interpreted to mean that most of the Qur’an’s study and recitation would be lost, along with the abandonment of its recitation in night prayers and supplication. And this is what was intended.
The process and method of compiling the Qur’an
He mentioned four qualities about him which detailed his unique suitability for the task: being young so that he would have the energy for what was demanded of him, being intelligent so he would be more cognizant in his approach, being beyond reproach so that others could trust him, and having been a scribe of revelation, so he possessed the requisite experience. These qualities that he possessed could also be found in others but separately (rather than combined in one person).
It is said that Zayd b. Thābit attended the final review in which it was clarified what was abrogated and what remained. Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said, “Zayd recited the Qur’an twice to the Prophet ﷺ during the year in which he passed away, and this recitation is called the reading (qirāʾa) of Zayd because he transcribed it for the Prophet ﷺ and recited it to him and witnessed al-ʿarḍa al-akhīra, and he taught its recitation to people until he passed away. That is why Abū Bakr and ʿUmar relied upon him in its compilation and ʿUthmān appointed him in charge of writing the muṣḥafs—may God be pleased with them all.”
The story of a missing verse
So I started locating Qur’anic material and collecting it from parchments, scapulae, leaf-stalks of date palms, and from the memories of men [who knew it by heart]. I found with Khuzayma al-Anṣārī two verses of Sūrah al-Tawba that I had not found with anybody else [he cites Qur’an 9:128–129].
When we wrote the Holy Qur’an, I missed one of the verses of Sūrah al-Aḥzāb which I used to hear Allah’s Messenger ﷺ reciting. Then we searched for it and found it with Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣārī. The verse was “Among the Believers are men who have been true to their Covenant with Allah, Of them, some have fulfilled their obligations to Allah [i.e., they have been killed in Allah’s cause], And some of them are [still] waiting.” [33:23] So we wrote this in its place in the Qur’an.
I completed one review and I noticed I was missing this verse [33:23] so I asked the Meccan migrants (Muhājirīn) and the Medinan Helpers (Anṣār) and I did not find it [in written form] with any of them, although I knew the verse and the Prophet ﷺ had dictated it to me, however I disliked to establish it until someone else testified alongside me. And then I obtained it from Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣārī whose testimony the Prophet ﷺ had made equal to that of two witnesses. So I wrote the verse and then I conducted another review. And I found that I was missing two verses although I knew them [9:127–128]. So I inquired about them from the Muhājirīn and the Anṣār and I did not find them with any of them except with Khuzayma b. Thābit al-Anṣarī whose testimony the Prophet ﷺ had endorsed. So I wrote them at the end of Barāʾa [Sūrah al-Tawbah].
Differences between the compilations of Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān
Ibn al-Tīn and others have said: The difference between Abū Bakr’s compilation and ʿUthmān’s is that Abū Bakr compiled the Qur’an out of fear that parts of it might be lost with the loss of those who had memorized it, as it was not collected in one place. So, he gathered it into parchments, arranging the verses of its surahs as the Prophet ﷺ had directed.
ʿUthmān’s compilation, on the other hand, was due to the growing disagreement in the ways of recitation, to the extent that they recited it in their own dialects, given the diversity of dialects. This led some to mistake others’ readings. Fearing the exacerbation of this matter, ʿUthmān transcribed those parchments into a single muṣḥaf (codex), arranging its surahs, and limited the dialects to the dialect of Quraysh. His argument was that it was revealed in their dialect, even though the recitation was broadened to dialects other than theirs initially to ease difficulty and hardship. He saw that the need for that had ended, and thus he restricted it to one dialect.
The hadith provides clear evidence that the compilation of the Qur’an was not a single event. Some of it was compiled in the presence of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, then some of it was compiled in the presence of Abū Bakr as-Ṣiddīq. The third compilation, which involved arranging the surahs, occurred during the Caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful, ʿUthmān bin ʿAffān, may Allah be pleased with them all.
It appears that Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, compiled one, two, or more surahs onto a sheet of parchment, depending on the length of the surah. Hence it is said that he compiled the Qur’an in ṣuḥuf,
and similar expressions that indicate plurality. Then ʿUthmān, may Allah be pleased with him, copied from those sheets (ṣuḥuf) into a muṣḥaf which included them together, arranging the surahs in their current order.
The difference between the ṣuḥuf and the muṣḥaf is that the ṣuḥuf are the separate parchment sheets on which the Qur’an was compiled during the era of Abū Bakr. They contained the surahs [chapters] separately, each surah arranged independently with its verses, but the surahs were not arranged sequentially. When they were copied and arranged in a sequence, they became a muṣḥaf.
The variant readings and Abū Bakr’s compilation
If someone were to say, “Now that you have clarified what you were asked about in interpreting these two reports, then explain to us the reason that prompted ʿUthmān, may God be pleased with him, to compile the Qur’an in the maṣāḥif, although it was already compiled in the muṣḥaf, as you have narrated to us in the previous hadith of Zayid b. Thābit.” I would respond that the reason for this is clear, based on the report and the opinion of some scholars. It is that Abū Bakr, may God be pleased with him, first compiled the Qur’an according to the seven aḥruf [i.e., recitations] that God, the Almighty, allowed the Ummah to recite and he did not specify a particular ḥarf. Thus, when it was ʿUthmān’s time, and a disagreement arose between the people of Iraq and the people of Shām about the recitation, and Hudhayfa informed him of this, he, along with the companions in Madīnah, decided to unite the people on a single ḥarf of those aḥruf, and to drop the others. This would eliminate the differences and produce agreement.
As for Abū Bakr’s compilation of the Qur’an, he was the first to gather it between two covers. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib also compiled the Qur’an after the death of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and during Abū Bakr's caliphate. All of this was in accordance with the seven aḥruf, unlike ʿUthmān’s compilation based on a single ḥarf, the ḥarf of Zayd bin Thābit, which is what is in the hands of the people between the covers of the muṣḥaf today.
Abū Bakr’s aim was to compile the Qur’an with all its aḥruf and ways in which it was revealed, which are based on the dialect of [the Meccan tribe of] Quraysh and others. ʿUthmān’s aim, however, was to isolate the dialect of Quraysh from those other readings.
The subsequent use and ultimate fate of the compilation
ʿUthmān sent a message to Ḥafṣa saying, “Send us the manuscripts of the Qur’an so that we may copy the Qur’anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.” Ḥafṣa sent it to ʿUthmān. ʿUthmān then instructed Zayd b. Thābit, ʿAbdullāh b. Al-Zubayr, Saʿīd b. Al-ʿĀṣ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. al-Ḥārith b. Hishām to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies.
ʿUthmān delivered a sermon and said, “The people have diverged in their recitations, and I am determined that whoever holds any verses dictated by the Prophet ﷺ himself must bring them to me.” So the people brought their verses, written on parchment and bones and leaves, and anyone contributing to this pile was first questioned by ʿUthmān, “Did you learn these verses [i.e., take this dictation] directly from the Prophet ﷺ himself?” All contributors answered under oath, and all the collected material was individually labeled and then handed to Zayd b. Thābit.
I was among those upon whom the muṣḥaf was dictated [from the written sources], and if any controversies arose concerning a particular verse they would say, “Where is the scribe [of this parchment]? Precisely how did the Prophet ﷺ teach him this verse?” And they would resume scribing, leaving that portion blank and sending for the man in question to clarify his transcription.
One may wonder why Caliph ʿUthmān took the trouble to compile an autonomous copy when the end product was to be compared with the [compilation of Abū Bakr] anyway. The likeliest reason is a symbolic one. A decade earlier thousands of Companions, engaged in the battles against apostasy in al-Yamāma and elsewhere, were unable to participate in the Ṣuḥuf’s compilation. In drawing from a larger pool of written materials, ʿUthmān’s independent copy provided these surviving Companions with an opportunity to partake of this momentous endeavor.
In the above account, no inconsistencies were found between the [compilation of Abū Bakr] and the independent muṣḥaf and from this two broad conclusions emerge: first, the Qur’anic text was thoroughly stable from the earliest days and not (as some allege) fluid and volatile until the third century; and second, the methods involved in compilation during both reigns were meticulous and accurate.