Written compilation of the Qur'an

Had a "wow that's quite freaky" moment whilst reading on the coach into London from Stansted airport yesterday. Read a bit of Chris Kuzneski's novel 'Sword of God' (not all that great a book but will write a full-er review when I get to the end) and a bit of Mufti Muhammad Shaafi's 'Ma'aariful Qur'an' from where I last left off in both books. And, strangely, the exact topic of both passages I read was the written compilation of the Qur'an initiated by the third caliph of Islam, Uthman ibn Affan.

Great to see in 'Sword of God' first hand what Mufti Muhammad Shaafi sets out to clarify in his 'Ma'aariful Qur'an'. That is, the Qur'an in the early generation of Muslims was hardly, if at all, spread by the written word. There were many many individuals around the Prophet who had committed the entire Qur'an to memory and this is what the Qur'an is (something to be spoken, recited rather) and how the Muslims of the time functioned. And these individuals were still around when the first caliph, Abu Bakr, assigned Zayd Ibn Thabit the task of collecting all the parchments (materials) on which verses of the Qur'an had been written in the presence of the Prophet. And many of these individuals (and many more) who had committed the Qur'an to memory/heart were still around when Uthman ibn Affan commissioned a group of four individuals (Zayd Ibn Thaabit, 'Abdullah ibn Zubayr, Sa'eed ibn al-'Aas, Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Harith ibn Hishaam) to put together a single-volume surah-ordered written copy of the Qur'an which incorporated all the different possible readings which the Prophet taught.

Quite an achievement in my opinion to put together a single written copy which served as an authority and incorporated and unified the multiple readings which the revelation allowed. Shame the point of it got missed and it clarified one misunderstanding for those of the time (i.e. the different readings the Qur'an allowed) only to give birth to another years later (i.e. none of the copies compiled at the time of Uthman ibn Affan can be found so there's no guarantee that the Qur'an we have is the unaltered version as taught by the Prophet). I guess there's no pleasing all. To each his goal.