Appendix A

You might have heard that the Holy Qur'an was not delivered to the Holy Prophet just once as a complete book, but was revealed to him bit by bit and piece by piece, through the Archangel Gabriel (peace be with him!). 

The Holy Prophet (God bless him!), had completed forty years of his age and was engaged in a special form of communion with God in the solitude of the Cave of Hira, when the angel first appeared before him and delivered to him the first revelation which reads:

“Read! in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created, created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: 
Read! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful, Who taught (the use of) the Pen, taught man that which he knew not.” [Qur'an 96:1-5]

“O thou wrapped up (in the mantle)! Arise and deliver thy warning! And thy Lord do thou magnify! And thy garments keep free from stain! And all abomination shun! Nor expect in giving, and increase (for thyself)!” [Qur'an 74:1-6]

In the meantime, revelations continued to come. The Holy Prophet would remember them himself and would teach them to his Companions, like Khadija, Abu Bakr and Ali (God be pleased with them!), so that they could remember them by heart. 

A race of illiterates as the Arabs were, there were very few in Mecca who could read or write. There was no paper, and the pen and the ink pot were scarce. It was, indeed, a most difficult task to get the revelations written down as they came. But the arrangement was made. A few of those who knew the art of writing embraced Islam. The verses of the Holy Qur'an were inscribed on palm leaves and leather sheets. Some of the Companions were specially charged with the duty of learning the portions of the Qur'an as they were revealed. Persons were specially selected from among the Companions who would take lessons from the Holy Prophet (peace be with him!), each lesson consisting of ten verses of the Holy Qur'an. They would learn those verses by heart and learn their meanings and interpretations as taught by the Holy Prophet, and teach the same to others. 

Then came the time of the Migration to Medina. The Muslim group had been growing gradually. At Medina it was knit into a functioning community. Among other things, the Holy Prophet made the arrangements whereby a larger number of Companions could learn to read and write. The work of writing down the revelations of the Qur'an continued with the fullest exertion. Its compilation in the form of a scripture was attended to. Zaid bin Thabit, who was a freed slave, was one of those Companions who were entrusted with the task of writing down the Qur'an. The revelations continued to come, and they were not only preserved in writing, but the Holy Prophet, under Divine guidance, would fix up the chapters and would instruct the scribes to insert a certain revelation at a certain place in a certain chapter. 

Gradually, the delivery of the Word of God reached compilation and, at the Farewell Pilgrimage, in the plain of Arafat, came the revelation: 

“This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed my favour upon you and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” [Qur'an 5:4]

Different portions of the Qur'an written by different people continued to remain, however, in their possession. The people of different places also continued to follow their local pronunciations of Quranic verses. 

Then came the period of the third Caliph, Osman (God be pleased with him!). Islam was no more confined to Mecca and Medina, but had crossed the boundaries of the Arabian peninsula and had entered Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Iran. People were entering the fold of Islam in ever-growing numbers. The interest in Quranic recitation was becoming universal. Large numbers of people had only portions of the Qur'an in their possession. Misunderstandings could arise that only such and such a portion formed the whole Qur'an, and that the others portions were not part of it. Hence, Caliph Osman got several copies made of the manuscript compiled during Caliph Abu Bakr’s regime and sent those copies to the different centres of the Islamic empire. The copy which Caliph Osman himself used for study and on which, it is said, the drops of his blood fell at the time of his martyrdom, remained preserved first at Medina and was later transferred from there to the Imperial library at Istanbul by the Turkish Sultans. 

All the copies of the Holy Qur'an which exist in the world today are true copies of that manuscript, and, not only the Muslims, but also the opponents of Islam, find themselves compelled to admit that the Holy Qur'an has maintained the original purity of its text, even to a letter. 

As regards the vowels, it is customary in the Arabic language not to mention them in writing, because they are only symbolic and are not expressed in the letter form. But when Islam spread among the non-Arab populations, those non-Arab Muslims experienced difficulty in reading the Qur'an. Hence under the orders of Hajjaj bin Yusuf, the vowel symbols were included in written copies according to the universal form in which thousands of Muslims had learnt the Quranic text by heart, and which form had been transferred by the “Preservers” (i.e., Huffaz) from generation to generation. The seven styles of intonation which the Holy Prophet (peace be with him!) was himself taught by God, were taught to the people by qualified teachers. All those styles have been preserved down to the present day by hundreds of thousands of people, though there is one style which is more universal than the rest. 

Thus, it is clear as daylight that the Qur'an exists in the world today in its absolute original purity, and that, not only as a written text, but also in the brains of hundreds of thousands of Muslims which makes it impossible for anyone to effect the change even of a dot. 

Ch. 3: Compilation of Prophetic Traditions and Biographies of Reporters

It has been proved in the foregoing that the basis of understanding the Holy Qur'an is the interpretation given by the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be with him!). The verses of the Qur'an mean that which the Holy Prophet understood and made us to understand, whether through action or through saying. Consequently, the Companions of the Holy Prophet were always extremely attentive to every word that he said and tried to remember it to the very letter. They were so cautious in the matter that if they were ever apprehended that they had forgotten some actual word and had only remembered its synonym, they would always point it out while narrating a certain Prophetic Tradition (or Hadith). Thus not only was the Holy Prophet's Life account preserved for us, but also the solutions of the various problems of religion and law which the Holy Prophet (peace be with him!) gave. 

When it was emphasized that the Holy Qur'an should be written down, and arrangements were made accordingly, some of the Companions thought of putting down the Traditions of the Holy Prophet also in writing. But, because Islam was still in its early stage, the Holy Prophet feared that if his Traditions were committed to writing side by side with the Qur'an, people might get confused and might mix up both things. Hence he forbade them in the beginning from doing so. However, when that danger had passed away and people were sufficiently trained to distinguish the Qur'an from the Hadith, he allowed them to write down his Sayings. In fact, he himself got them written as, for instance, when he dictated the rules of Zakat, etc., to Ali. 

Among the Companions there were some who would pass their whole time, so to say, at the feet of the Holy Prophet. Close to the Holy Prophets residential room and the mosque, there is a raised platform which is called “Suffa”. A party of students used to occupy this platform permanently. Their work was to learn by heart whatever they heard from the Holy Prophet. One of these “people of Suffa” was Abu Huraira, who was endowed with a powerful memory and who remembered a large number of the Holy Prophets Traditions and reported them. 

This I have related with a view to make you understand that, just as arrangements were made to preserve the Holy Qur'an by means if writing and learning by heart, similarly did the Companions of the Holy Prophet exert themselves to preserve the Prophets Traditions. Their method consisted in learning them by heart and reporting them with all the care which the sacredness of the task and their devotion to the Holy Prophet and Islam demanded. One person reported to another, one generation reported to the other succeeding it. Thus a continuous chain or reporters was built – a continuous chain through which passed the most valuable treasure of the Holy Prophets Sayings and Actions. 

Now, the way in which this “chain of reporters” was built up and the extremely critical method which gave lustre to it, has made this chain one of the glories of Islamic history. The fact is, that the experts of historical science cannot produce another instance in world's history where those critical historical standards were observed which have gone to make the Hadith literature such an authentic record as it is. 

If, today, I am asked to narrate a Hadith to some scholar of that science, it will not be enough for me to recite its text. Rather, I will have to report my authority and I will have to prove that my chain of reporters is faultless and ends at the Holy Prophet (peace be with him!). 

Indeed, those who were responsible for the compilation of Hadith literature, observed a measure of care beyond which human endeavour could not go. In the case of each and every Hadith that reached them, they examined its authenticity thoroughly. They tested the chain of reporters through which it was transmitted. They enquired whether a certain reporter had seen and met the other reporter from whom he claimed to have received the Hadith. They saw whether the reporters were persons of good and reliable memory. They investigated piety and fear of God in the lives of the reporters. In short, they employed all conceivable standards for assessing the true worth of every Hadith reported and accepted it only after they had been thoroughly satisfied. 

This brings us to the fact that there were, and there are, Traditions (i.e. Ahadith) of different grades in accordance with their measure of authenticity. This grading was done on the basis of different factors. Variously, the considerations were: (1) the moral condition of the reporters and the level of their piety; (2) the powers of memory which the reporters were found to possess; (3) intelligence and capacity to grasp religious truths; (4) consideration of the fact whether the report had come through one channel only or different channels; so on and so forth. When the details of the Islamic law were deduced, these factors governing the worth of different Traditions were always kept in view. 

In connection with the extreme caution which the compilers of Hadith observed, I may mention here an incident of the life of Imam Mohammad Bin Ismail Al-Bukhari, the leader of all compilers. The compendium of Hadith which this great scholar has given to the world is the result of a most through sifting of Hadith literature. His sense of respect which he had for the work he had in hand, and his piety and Godliness, can be judged from the fact that when he was writing the Sahih-al-Bukhari, he made fresh ablution and offered two rak'ats of prayer before writing each individual Hadith. 

This great Imam once heard that at a long distance from his place there was some person who knew certain Sayings of the Holy Prophet (peace be with him!). The Imam undertook the arduous journey on foot in order to obtain from him the Sayings in question. When he at last arrived in the village where the man lived, he enquired his whereabouts. Someone pointed him out nearby. The man was busy calling his horse who had fled from him. He had a fodder can in his hand which he was showing to the horse from a distance in order to attract him. Imam Bukhari went towards the man and the first thing he did was to cast a glance at the fodder can, which he found to be empty. At once the Imam retraced his steps. The man noticed it and was bewildered. He left the chase of the horse, ran towards the Imam, and requested him to explain the incident to him. The Imam replied: “I had heard that you related Traditions of the Holy Prophet, and had therefore come after a long journey to meet you. But when I saw you calling the horse with an empty fodder can in your hand, I concluded that a person who can cheat a horse, is also capable of cheating men. I cannot accept any Hadith reported by such a person.”