The Qur'an is the Muslims' Holy Book. The words of the Qur'an are the exact words spoken by God, and were revealed to Prophet Muhammad by Archangel Gabriel. The revelation of Qur'an took place over a period of nearly twenty three years of the Prophet's life. It consists of one hundred and fourteen chapters of unequal length. These chapters contain Ayat or verses that totals 6616 verses, and were composed of 77,639 words.

The Qur'an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad piecemeal at different times and on different occasions according to events, incidents and in answer to questions. As soon as he received one, he used to communicate it to his disciples and ask them not only to learn it by heart, but also to write it down and to multiply the copies. Diverse materials were used for inscription: parchment, leather, wooden tablets, camels' scapula, soft stone, etc. On each occasion, Prophet Muhammad indicated the precise place of the new revelation in the text of till-then-revealed Qur'an. Whenever a passage of the Qur'an was revealed to him, he not only dictated it to one of his amanuenses, but also ordered him at the end to read out what he had taken down, in order to be able to correct if a mistake was committed by the scribe. During the last years of his life, the Prophet used to employ several amanuensis for taking the dictation of the newly received revelation. Among them one can mention: Ibn Mas'ud, Ubaiy ibn Ka'b, and Ali ibn Talib. The chief of those amanuenses was Zaid ibn Thabit, an early Muslim and one of the Prophet's close Companions.

Prophet Muhammad recommended that the faithful learn the Qur'an by heart. Thus, during the Prophet's lifetime, there were large numbers of "Hafizoon" who knew the whole of the Qur'an by heart. (This practice of memorizing the Qur'an continues to this our day. It is very common now a days to find hundreds of thousands of Muslims, some of them as young as 12 years old, who are memorizing the whole of Qur'an by heart. Special schools now exist that train their students on how to memorize the Qur'an and properly recite the verses. Local and international competitions are also held in many Muslim countries between those "Hafizoon".)

The nature of the revelation necessitated that the Prophet should recite the verses of the Qur'an constantly to his Companions and check continually that the sequence and the contents of the fragments were correct. It is authoritatively known that the Prophet recited every year in the month of Ramadan, in the presence of the Archangel Gabriel, the portion of the Qur'an till then revealed, and that in the last year of his life, Gabriel asked him to recite the whole of it twice. The Prophet concluded thereupon that he was soon going to depart his life. The Prophet's Companions used to attend these public recitations (called ardan) and corrected their private copies of the Qur'an. The chief amanuenses, Zaid ibn Thabit, was present at this final bringing-together of the texts.

It is also known that the Prophet was in the habit of celebrating an additional service of worship during the fasting month of Ramadan. Every night, sometimes even in congregation, portions of the Qur'an were recited during special prayers (called Taraweeh) that were held after the night prayer (Isha prayer). In the Taraweeh prayers the whole of Qur'an was recited from the beginning to end in the course of the month. This service continues to be observed with great devotion to this our day.

After the death of the Prophet, some of the Arabs revolted against the rule of the Caliph in Medina, some refused to pay Zakat, and some renegades Islam. In quelling these rebellions, several people fell who knew the whole of the Qur'an by heart. The Caliph Abu-Bakr felt the urgency of codifying the Qur'an, and acting on a suggestion from Omar (the future second Caliph), Abu-Bakr asked Zaid ibn Thabit to prepare a fair copy of the entire text of the Qur'an in the form of a book. The Caliph instructed Zaid to consult all the information he could assemble at Medina: the witness of the "Hafizoon", and the copies of the Qur'an written on various materials belonging to private individuals, all with the object of avoiding possible errors in transcription.

The fair copy of the Qur'an thus prepared was called the Mus'haf (literally bound leaves). This copy remained in the custody of Abu-Bakr until his death, and then went into the custody of his successor Omar. Omar later gave this copy to his daughter Hafsa, the Prophet's widow.

As Islam was spreading rapidly into different parts of the world, the second Caliph, Omar, felt the need of sending authentic copies of the text of Qur'an to the provincial centers, to avoid deviations. However, Omar died before he could start this task, and it was left to the third Caliph, Uthman, to accomplish it. Uthman caused immediately the Mus'haf prepared for Abu-Bakr to be entrusted to a commission, presided over by Zaid ibn Thabit, for preparing seven copies of the Mus'haf, and he authorized them to revise the old spelling if necessary. When the task was completed, the Caliph ordered a public hearing of the new edition before the experts present in Medina, from the Companions of the Prophet, and then sent these copies of the Mus'haf to the different centers of the vast Islamic world. These original copies of the Mus'haf are known as the "Uthmani Mus'hafs." The Caliph Uthman gave an order to destroy all versions or copies of the Qur'an in circulation that deviate in any way from the text thus officially established.

It is known now that two copies of the original Mus'hafs sent by Uthman to the provincial centers of the Muslim world are still in existence; one of them in the Topkapi Museum of Istanbul, and another in Tashkent. In addition to these copies there exist many manuscripts of the Qur'an, both complete and fragmentary, dating from the first century of the Hijrah onwards. The millions copies of Qur'an in circulation amongst the Muslims these days are exact copies of the original Uthmani Mus'haf. The only differences are in the spelling of some words and the way they are written, which in no way change the meanings of the verses. This stands as a clear attestation to the authenticity of the Holy Qur'an and its preservation for more than 1400 years since its revelation to Prophet Muhammad.

The Qur'an is the only Holy Script that survived without changes, additions, or deletions. There are many circumstances and factors that collaborated in preserving the original text of Qur'an which were not enjoyed by other Holy Scripts (the Old Testament or the New Testament). These factors are summarized in the following:

i- The Qur'an was preserved in a written form during the life of the Prophet. Although Prophet Muhammad did know how to read or write, however, he had several amanuensis who were entrusted with the inscription of the revelations.

ii- The whole text of the Qur'an was memorized by heart by many of the Companions of the Prophet. This formed an additional means to guarantee the correctness of the written text of the Qur'an.

iii- Prophet Muhammad used to review the till-then-revealed verses of Qur'an with Archangel Gabriel every year in a process called "ardan". In the last year of his life, the Prophet reviewed the whole text of the Qur'an twice. The Companions of the Prophets also reviewed the Qur'an they were memorizing and what they have in written form with the Prophet.

iv- The Qur'an was compiled in a single book (Mus'haf) a few months after the death of the Prophet. The correctness of the text of this Mus'haf was reviewed and attested by the "Hafizoon" from the Companions of the Prophet.

v- When Prophet Muhammad died he left behind a strong Islamic State in Arabia with thousands of devout companions and followers. Those Muslims are the ones who carried Islam to different parts of the world, and in less than ten years from the death of the Prophet were able to conquer both the Roman and Persian Empires. Devout followers usually preserve the teachings of their leader after his death, and protect it from any changes or corruption.

vi- The Qur'an was revealed in Arabic and in the dialect of Kuraish, the tribe that was living in Mecca; this dialect was the most widely used among Arabs. Arabic is a highly stable language that, for the last 1400 years, has not suffered any changes in vocabulary, grammar, spelling, or pronunciation. The stability of the Arabic language is definitely an important factor in preserving the teachings of Islam. It is fair to say here that the Qur'an and the Arabic language have positive mutual effects on each other. The fact that the Qur'an was revealed in Arabic made Arabic the language of Islam that all Muslim ought to learn and use in reciting Qur'an and studying the different sciences related to the religion of Islam.

For Further Readings:

1- Mohammed Hamidullah, Preservation of the Original Teachings in Islam, Da'Wah Academy, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

2- Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, The Qur'an and Science, American Trust Publications, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.

3- Hamza M. Njozi, The Sources of the Qur'an, World Assembly of Muslim Youth, Riyadh, 1991.

4- Ahmed M. Soliman, Scientific Trends in the Qur'an, Ta Ha Publishers, London, U.K., 1985.

5- Malek Bennabi, The Qur'anic Phenomenon, International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations, Kuwait, 1983.