Preservation of the Glorious
Qur’aan & Sunnah!
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Testimony of Glorious Qur’aan
itself.
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The compilation and/or preservation
of Glorious Qur’aan including the issue of preservation of Sunnah by Allaah
(SWT).
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The testimony of the Glorious
Qur’aan itself to prove the preservation of both i.e. Glorious Qur’aan &
Sunnah.
Putting into Writing:
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The first and the most
important point, which assisted in the preservationof the text of Glorious
Qur’aan, is that its every verse was put into
writing in the lifetime of the
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, BEFORE HIS OWN EYES. The Glorious Qur’aan
itself furnishes abundant evidence that
it existed in a written form.
Again and again the Divine Writ calls itself a Kitab (Book), which means a Book
or writing, which is complete in itself.
The application of the word
Book to the Glorious Qur’aan was destined, from the very beginning, to be a
complete Book. The Glorious Qur’aan is also
designated as
"Suhuf."
The Glorious Qur’aan,
Surah: 52. Tuur
Verses: 2And by a Book
Inscribed
-3 In parchment unrolled.
There are also testimonies of the enemies of the Qur’aan that
Qur’aan was reduced to writing such as:
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The Glorious Qur’aan, Sura:
25. Furqaan Verse: 5
And they say: "Tales of
the ancients, which he has written down: and they are dictated to him morning
and afternoon."
Sunan of Abu-DawoodHadith 3409
Narrated byUbaydah ibn as-Samit
I taught some persons of the
people of Suffah writing and the Qur'an. A man of them presented to me a bow. I
said: It cannot be reckoned property; may
I shoot with it in Allah's
path? I must come to the Apostle of of Allah (peace be upon him) and ask him
(about it). So I came to him and said :
Apostle of Allah (peace be
upon him), one of those whom I have been teaching writing and the Qur'an has
presented me a bow, and as it cannot be reckoned
property, may I shoot with it
in Allah's path? He said: If you want to have a necklace of fire on you, accept
it.(when something is taught for free then
later on any gifts on behalf
of that knowledge cannot be taken).
Glorious Qur’aan Verses
80:13 (It is) in Books held
(greatly) in honor.
14 Exalted (in dignity) kept
pure and holy
15 (Written) by the hands of
scribes
16 Honorable and Pious and
Just.
(It is) in Records held
(greatly) in honour (Al-Lauh Al-Mahfűz), Exalted (in dignity), purified, in the
hands of scribes. Honourable and obedient.
Memorizing of the Glorious
Qur’aan
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The memorizing of the Glorious
Qur’aan has also assisted in the preservation of its text. Whenever any portion
of the Glorious Qur’aan was revealed to
the Prophet (SAW), he
committed it to memory and continuously recited it from one end to the other.
Thus, he always carried the whole of the revealed
Qur’aan in his memory. The
Prophet (peace be upon him) used to stress the merit of committing the Glorious
Qur’aan to memory so much that he said that
if a person committed the
Qur’aan to memory he would be saved from the torment of Hell. When he made this
announcement, a large number of his
Companions began to commit the
Glorious Qur’aan to memory. The Prophet (peace be upon him) also used supervise
the recitation of the Glorious
Qur’aan and was anxious to see
that no errors crept into the process.
54:17 And We have indeed made
the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive
admonition?
54:22 But We have indeed made
the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive
admonition?
54: 32 And We have indeed made
the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive
admonition?
54:40 And We have indeed made
the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive
admonition?
Since the time of Umar (RA)
2nd Caliph, it has become customary to recite the whole text during
"TARAWIH" (late night) Prayer in the month of
Ramadaan. Memorizing the
Glorious Qur’aan is still considered highly noble, and the memorizing of Surahs
and small texts is still the first stage of
informal education among
Muslim families. No human-written book of this volume can ever be memorized
wholly by any human being, not even by its
author. It is only the
Glorious Qur’aan that, today, stands as the singular Book memorized and recited
wholly by millions of men, women, and even
children. It is the
fulfillment of God's promise that the Glorious Qur’aan is easily memorized.
The Arrangement of Glorious
Qur’aan!
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75:16 Move not thy tongue
concerning the (Qur'an) to make haste therewith.
17 It is for Us to collect it
and to promulgate it:
18 But when We have
promulgated it follow thou its recital (as promulgated):
19 Nay more it is for Us to
explain it (and make it clear):
75:Ayah 17 Yusuf Ali It is for
Us to collect it and to promulgate it:
Pickthall Lo! upon Us
(resteth) the putting together thereof and the reading thereof.
Transliteration In na alaina_
jamahu_ wa qura_nah
The word "jamahu" in
the above verse implies both collection and arrangement, which is a process
quite different from the revelation. It is
not true that the verses and
chapters of Glorious Qur’aan were arranged after the death of Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) by someone else, or
that they were arranged in the
order of their lengths; the longest coming first and shortest last. It is also
wrong to say that within the chapters
the passages are joined
together without any regard to either chronology of revelation or similarity of
subject, and that most heterogeneous materials
are put together without any
regard to logical sequence.
The whole Glorious Qur’aan,
complete in every aspect, was available in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad The
arrangement of chapters and verses in the
copies of the Glorious Qur’aan
at present in our hands does not follow the chronological order of revelation
and their arrangement is TAUQIF i.e.
affected by the Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) under the GUIDANCE of Divine revelation (Qur’aan 75:17-18].
It is for Us to collect it and
to give you (O Muhammad SAW) the ability torecite it (the Qur'an)...And when We
have recited it to you [O Muhammad SAW
through Jibrael (Gabriel)],
then follow you its (the Qur'an's) recital. [Glorious Quraan 75:17-18]
There was an arrangement
followed by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and we know that many
Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) committed the Glorious
Qur’aan to memory and could recite it in the recognized orders as followed by the
Prophet (peace be upon him). This shows
that there was a connection of
its verses and chapters, and there was a recognized division of the Book and a
fixed form and sequence. The chapters
were distinctly marked out and
their number was determined.
The present arrangement of the
Glorious Qur’aan does not differ from that followed by the Prophet Muhammed
(peace be upon him). There are several
sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) from which this can be inferred. The Prophet of
Allaah (peace be upon him) said,
Al-Tirmidhi HadithHadith 2145
Narrated byAn-Nu'man ibn Bashir
Allah's Messenger (peace be
upon him) said, "Two thousand years before creating the heavens and the
Earth, Allah inscribed a book of which He sent
down two verses with which He
concluded surat al-Baqarah. The Devil will not come near a house in which they
are recited three nights."
Tirmidhi and Darimi
transmitted it, Tirmidhi saying this is a gharib(strange) tradition.The book is
ummul ul kitaab (mother of the book)
13:39 Allah doth blot out or
confirm what He pleaseth: with Him is the Mother of the Book.
This shows that the Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) followed an arrangement, which he made known to
his Companions. If such had not been the
case he could not have referred
to two verses as the "last" two verses of a certain chapter.
According to another saying of
the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) he told his Companions to recite the
verses of the chapter entitled *AL-KAHF*
at a particular occasion.
Al-Tirmidhi HadithHadith 2146
Narrated byAbudDarda'
Allah's Messenger (peace be
upon him) said, "He who recites three verses at the beginning of al-Kahf
will be protected from the trial of the Dajjal."
Tirmidhi transmitted it,
saying this is a hasan sahih tradition.
Had there been no sequence of
verses, 'the first 3 ' would have been a meaningless phrase. Not only the
verses of Glorious Qur’aan but even its
chapters were arranged by the
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself under Divine Guidance.
Al-Tirmidhi HadithHadith 1113
Narrated byAbdullah ibn Umar
I observed the Prophet (peace
be upon him) for a month reciting chapters 109 and 112 in the two rak'ahs
before the dawn Prayer.
Transmitted by Tirmidhi.
later on
------------
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
4.709 Narrated byAnas
Uthman called Zaid bin Thabit,
Abdullah bin Az-Zubair, Said bin Al-'As and 'AbdurRahman bin Al-Harith bin
Hisham, and then they wrote the manuscripts
of the Holy Qur'an in the form
of book in several copies. 'Uthman said to the three Quraishi persons: "
If you differ with Zaid bin Thabit on any
point of the Qur'an, then
write it in the language of Quraish, as the Qur'an was revealed in their
language." So they acted accordingly. (Said bin Thabit
was an Ansari and not from Quraish
).
Sahih Muslim HadithHadith 1789
Narrated byUbayy ibn Ka'b
The Apostle of Allah (peace be
upon him) was near the cistern of Banu Ghifar when Gabriel came to him and
said: Allah has commanded you to recite the
Qur'an in one dialect to your
people. Upon this he said: I ask from Allah pardon and forgiveness. My people
are not capable of doing it. He then came
for the second time and said:
Allah has commanded you that you should recite the Qur'an to your people in two
dialects. Upon this he (the Holy Prophet)
again said: I seek pardon and
forgiveness from Allah, my people would not be able to do so. He (Gabriel) came
for the third time and said: Allah this
He said: I ask pardon and
forgiveness from Allah. My people would not be able to do it. He then came to
him for the fourth time and said: Allah has
commanded you to recite the
Qur'an to your people in seven dialects, and in whichever dialect they recite,
they will be right.
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith
9.381 Narrated byHudhaifa
Allah's Apostle said to us,
"Honesty descended from the Heavens and settled in the roots of the hearts
of men (faithful believers), and then the Qur'an
was revealed and the people
read the Qur'an, (and learnt it from it) and also learnt it from the
Sunna." Both Qur'an and Sunna strengthened their
(the faithful believers)'
honesty." (See Hadith No. 208)
Allah’s Preservation of the
Sunnah!
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The Proof that Allaah (SWT) preserved
the Sunnah are both i.e. textual and logical. The textual argument is based on
the Ayah:
Surah Al-Hijr 15:9
Verily, We, it is We Who have
sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur’ân) and surely, We will guard it (from
corruption)
5:15 O People of the Book!
there hath come to you Our Apostle revealing to you much that ye used to hide
in the Book and passing over much (that is now
unnecessary): There hath come
to you from Allah a (new) Light and a perspicuous Book.
It is a clear fact that more
than 1400 years have elapsed and not a single word of this Qur’ân has been
changed, although the disbelievers tried their
utmost to change it in every
way, but they failed miserably in their efforts. As it is mentioned in this
holy Verse: "We will guard it." By
Allâh! He has guarded it. On
the contrary, all the other holy Books (the Taurât (Torah), the Injeel
(Gospel).) have been corrupted in the form of
additions or subtractions or
alterations in the original text.
The word al-dhikr and it
derivatives have numerous meanings in the Glorious Qur’aan. It is sometimes
used for Qur’aan, as in,
Surah Al-Anbiyaa
21:50 And this is a blessed
Reminder (the Qur’ân), which We have sent down: will you then (dare to) deny
it?
10:37 This Qur'an is not such
as can be produced by other than Allah; on the contrary it is a confirmation of
(revelations) that went before it and a
fuller explanation of the Book
wherein there is no doubt from the Lord of the Worlds.
3:85 If anyone desires a
religion other than Islam (submission to Allah) never will it be accepted of
him; and in the Hereafter he will be in the
ranks of those who have lost
(all spiritual good).
And sometimes it is used for
Sunnah, as in,
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Surah An-Nahl 44
With clear signs and Books (We sent the Messengers). And We have also sent down unto you (O Muhammad salle ala hu alai hi wa sallim) the Dhikr
(reminder and the advice (i.e.
the Qur’ân)), that you may explain clearly to men what is sent down to them,
and that they may give thought.
Readers must know that in
addition, the word “Dhikr” may be used to be in reference to Allaah’s Deen and
law as a whole. This is its purport in the
Ayah (verse),
Surah An-Nahl 43:16 And before
thee also the apostles We sent were but men to whom We granted inspiration: if
ye realize this not ask of those who
possess the Message.
(And We sent not (as Our
Messengers) before you (O Muhammad pbuh) any but men, whom We sent revelation,
(to preach and invite mankind to believe in
the Oneness of Allâh). So ask
(you, O pagans of Makkah) of those who know the Scripture (learned men of the
Taurât (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)),
if you know not.)
The word “Dhikr” in the above
Ayah (verse) means Allaah’s religion, or everything that Allaah has revealed as
the guidance of mankind.
Surah Al-Hijr 15:9
Verily, We, it is We Who have
sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur’ân) and surely, We will guard it (from
corruption)
this is referring only to
Glorious Qur’aan. It is rather referring to Glorious Qur’aan and Sunnah both.
On this point ibn Hazm noted,
“There is no difference of
opinion from anyone among the specialists in language or of the Shariah that
all of what Allaah has revealed is [referred
to as] the sent down al-dhikr
. And all of the inspiration is preserved with certainty by its preservation by
Allaah. Anything that Allaah preserves with
His preservation will not have
anything lost from it. Nor will anything ever by distorted of it except that
there would appear clear proof showing the
falsehood [of that
distortion]” {Ali ibn Hazm, Al-Ihkaam fi Usool al-Ihkaam vol. 1, p. 109.}
Allaah (SWT) through humans
used many means by which He preserved the Sunnah. Some of these aspects are
unique to Muslim Ummaah. This is a great
blessing and bounty from
Allaah (SWT) for which every Muslim should be sincerely grateful to Allaah
(SWT) and grateful to those individuals who
sacrificed their time, wealth
in order to preserve the teachings of the best of the creations and last and
final Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Obviously, the
means of preservation had to
be followed from the earliest times in order to truly preserve the Hadith of
Prophet Muhammad (SAW), few are briefly
mentioned here.
First, there was the understanding
of the Companions about their responsibility for conveying the hadith of
Prophet Muhammad (salle ala hu
alai hi wa sallim); they must
have understood that they must convey the words of the Prophet (SAW) with the
utmost accuracy.
In the early years, there
began the work of Hadith criticism and criticism of the narrators. This
developed into a science known as al-jarh wa
al-tadeel.
There was also the recording
or writing down of the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (salle ala hu alai hi wa
sallim). Obviously, in general, one of the
ways of preserving something
is to record it. There have been many claim and misconceptions surrounding the
recording of Hadith. But the proof has been
cited above that shows that
the misconceptions are not true.
A very important and unique
aspect that worked to preserve the Sunnah was of the use of Isnaad or chain of
narrators, tracing one’s source all the way
back to the Prophet Muhammad
(salle ala hu alai hi wa sallim).
Another unique phenomena that
appeared and assisted in preservation of Sunnah was the traveling in search of
Hadith, in order to check the sources
and gather more Hadith
together.
Surah An-Nisaa 4:113 But for
the Grace of Allah to thee and His Mercy a party of them would certainly have
plotted to lead thee astray. But (in
fact) they will only lead
their own souls astray and to thee they can do no harm in the least. For Allah
hath sent down to thee the Book and wisdom and
taught thee what thou knewest
not (before); and great is the grace of Allah unto thee.
Had not the Grace of Allâh and
His Mercy been upon you (O Muhammad ), a party of them would certainly have
made a decision to mislead you, but (in
fact) they mislead none except
their own selves, and no harm can they do to you in the least. Allâh has sent
down to you the Book (The Qur’ân), and
Al-Hikmah (Quranic laws,
knowledge of legal and illegal things i.e. the Prophet’s Sunnah - legal ways in
detail), and taught you that which you knew
not. And Ever Great is the
Grace of Allâh unto you (O Muhammad salle ala hu alai hi wa sallim)
In the Above Ayaah by pairing
al-Kitaab (the Book) and al-Hikmah (the Wisdom) it has been pointed out that
Hikmah which is the name of Sunnah
and/or teachings of Prophet Muhammad
salle ala hu alai hi wa sallim was also sent down by none but Allaah (SWT). The
difference is that its words are not
from Allaah and that is why
they are not part of Glorious Qur’aan. But, its meanings and that of the
Qur’aan are certainly from Allaah, therefore, it is
obligatory to act in
accordance with both.
This again, explains about the Wahy being of two kinds: Matluww- That, which is recited, and Ghayr-Matluww- that which is not recited. Wahy Matluww or
the revelation that is recited
is the name of the Glorious Qur’aan and/or is the Glorious Qur’aan. Its words
and meanings are both from Allaah. And Wahy
Ghayr-Matluww or that is not
recited is the name of Hadeeth of the Rasul Allaah (the word of which are from
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and the meanings
of which is from Allaah.
Another point that we see gets
resolved is found in the words: and taught you that which you knew not.)
pointing to the fact that Prophet Muhammad
(salle ala hu alai hi wa
sallim)did not have all the comprehending knowledge of the entire universe
equal to Allaah, as some ignorant people do insist.
The truth is that the measure
of his knowledge was corresponding to what Allaah bestowed upon him. However,
there is no doubt that the knowledge
bestowed upon Prophet Muhammad
(salle ala hu alai hi wa sallim) exceeds the combined knowledge of all created
beings.
Evidence of this {Wahy Ghayr
Matluww} is found at many places in Glorious Qur’aan, that there were many
other things that were taught to Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) by Allaah (SWT)
through Wahy (Ghayr Matluww). only cited here one Ayaah i.e. 2:143 as proof
(Also see 66:3 beside many others).
2:143 Thus have We made of you
an Ummah justly balanced that ye might be witnesses over the nations and the
Apostle a witness over yourselves; and We
appointed the Qiblah to which
thou wast used only to test those who followed the Apostle from those who would
turn on their heels (from the faith).
Indeed it was (a change)
momentous except to those guided by Allah. And never would Allah make your
faith of no effect. For Allah is to all people
most surely full of kindness
Most Merciful.
Muslims were facing the
Baytal-Maqqadis (Jerusalem) while performing Salaat in the early day of Islaam.
The above Ayaah was revealed when it was
ordained to face Ka’abah
again. This Ayaah states that previous order of Allaah to face
“Baytal-Maqqadis” was test to know who obey the order and who
reject it. Readers must note
that the order to face Baytal-Maqqadis during worship has been attributed by Allaah
to Himself. That means that He was the
One Who had commanded His
Messenger Muhammad (SAW) to the direction of Baytal-Maqqadis. But the command
itself is not found anywhere in the
Glorious Qur’aan. It is
obviously clear that this order was given by Allaah through a Wahy (Ghayr
Matluww){revelation beside Glorious Qur’aan}, which is
not a part of the Glorious
Qur’aan. At this point we must point out that people of the Book were foretold
about the new Qibla i.e. Ka’bah and its
superiority over Jerusalem in
their Scripture.
most points were taken from
www.islam-is-the-only-solution.com
Allah knows best.