Zayd ibn Thabit

After the death of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the task fell on this fortunate \r\nyoung man who specialized in the Quran to authenticate the first and most important reference for the \r\nummah of Muhammad. This became an urgent task after the wars of apostasy and the Battle of \r\nYamamah in particular in which a large number of those who had committed the Quran to memory \r\nperished. \r\n \r\nUmar convinced the Khalifah Abu Bakr that unless the Quran was collected in one manuscript, a large \r\npart of it was in danger of being lost. Abu Bakr summoned Zayd ibn Thabit and said to him: "You are an \r\nintelligent young man and we do not suspect you (of telling lies or of forgetfulness) and you used to \r\nwrite the Divine revelation for Allah's Messenger. Therefore look for (all parts of) the Quran and collect \r\nit in one manuscript." \r\n \r\nZayd was immediately aware of the weighty responsibility. He later said: "By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) \r\nhad ordered me to shift one of the mountains from its place, it would not have been harder for me than \r\nwhat he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Quran." \r\n \r\nZayd finally accepted the task and, according to him, "started locating the Quranic material and \r\ncollecting it from parchments, scapula, leafstalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who \r\nknew it by heart)". \r\n \r\n\r\nIt was a painstaking task and Zayd was careful that not a single error, however slight or unintentional, \r\nshould creep into the work. When Zayd had completed his task, he left the prepared suhuf or sheets with \r\nAbu Bakr. Before he died, Abu Bakr left the suhuf with Umar who in turn left it with his daughter \r\nHafsah. Hafsah, Umm Salamah and Aishah were wives of the Prophet, may Allah be pleased with them, \r\nwho memorized the Quran. \r\n \r\nDuring the time of Uthman, by which time Islam had spread far and wide, differences in reading the \r\nQuran became obvious. A group of companions of the Prophet, headed by Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, \r\nwho was then stationed in Iraq, came to Uthman and urged him to "save the Muslim ummah before they \r\ndiffer about the Quran". \r\n \r\nUthman obtained the manuscript of the Quran from Hafsah and again summoned the leading authority, \r\nZayd ibn Thabit, and some other competent companions to make accurate copies of it. Zayd was put in \r\ncharge of the operation. He completed the task with the same meticulousness with which he compiled \r\nthe original suhuf during the time of Abu Bakr. \r\n \r\nZayd and his assistants wrote many copies. One of these Uthman sent to every Muslim province with \r\nthe order that all other Quranic materials whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies be \r\nburnt. This was important in order to eliminate any variations or differences from the standard text of the \r\nQuran. Uthman kept a copy for himself and returned the original manuscript to Hafsah. \r\n \r\nZayd ibn Thabit thus became one of the foremost authorities on the Quran. Umar ibn al-Khattab once \r\naddressed the Muslims and said: "O people, whoever wants to ask about the Quran, let him go to Zayd \r\nibn Thabit." \r\n \r\nAnd so it was that seekers of knowledge from among the companions of the Prophet and the generation \r\nwho succeeded them, known as the "Tabiun", came from far and wide to benefit from his knowledge. \r\nWhen Zayd died, Abu Hurayrah said: "Today, the scholar of this ummah has died." \r\n \r\nWhen a Muslim holds the Quran and reads it or hears it being recited, surah after surah, ayah after ayah, \r\nhe should know that he owes a tremendous debt of gratitude and recognition to a truly great companion \r\nof the Prophet, Zayd ibn Thabit, for helping to preserve for all time to come the Book of Eternal \r\nWisdom. Truly did Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, say: "Surely We have revealed the Book of \r\nRemembrance and We shall certainly preserve it." (The Quran, Surah al-Hijr, 15:9)