Page 79 - Seekers Guide Book

The Seeker’s Guide
his lifetime. When the Prophet died in 632 AD, at the
age of 63, the Quran existed in two forms: first, in the
memory of these companions, who had learned it by rote
in what is now its present order; second, in writing —
on pieces of paper and other materials, preserved by the
companions. What must be noted here is that the order
existed in memory, not in writing, though all the parts
existed at that time in written form.

After the death of the Prophet, Abu Bakr became the first
caliph. In his time, the Quran not only existed in written
form on the bark of date palms, stones, leather, etc., but
was also preserved in the memory of the companions.
The Qur’an, when made into a book, was arranged in
the order memorized by the companions, and the verses
have been preserved in that same order right up to the
present day. Zayd ibn Thabit’s work was more a process
of collection than of compilation. That is, the scattered
bits and pieces of the Quran in written form were
collected by him, not just to be assembled and bound in
one volume, but to be used to verify the authenticity of
the Quran as memorized and passed on in oral tradition
by countless individuals. Once this exact correspondence
between the oral and written forms of the Quran had
been established beyond any reasonable doubt, Zayd
proceeded to put the verses of the Quran down on paper
in their correct order.

In former times, when the accepted way of disseminating
the subject matter of a book was to memorize it, then
recite it, it was quite exceptional that the Qur’an should
have been preserved in writing as well as memorized.
This was like having a ‘double checking’ system, whereby

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