History of the Holy Quran

 Summary of the book History of the Holy Qur’an by Sheikh Abdul Fattah Al-Qadi

Writing the Qur’an
in the era of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) and those who were famous for it
The Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet (PBUH ) so he would memorize it and convey it to the people, and he would order the scribes of revelation to write it down. And he would guide them to the place where it was written in his surah, so he would tell them to put this surah next to that surah, put this verse in the place where such and such is mentioned .
And some of the companions were satisfied with receiving it from him (PBUH), and some of them wrote the surah or verses or surahs, and some of them wrote it all down or memorized it .
And they would write on ‘asab (plural of ‘asib), which is a palm frond. They would scrape the palm fronds and write on the wide end, and ‘lakhaf (plural of lakhafa) with a fatha on the lam and a sukoon on the kha, which are stones and thin papers, and ‘riqa’ (plural of raq’ah), which is made of leather or paper or something else, and pieces of ‘adim (skin), and shoulder bones (ta’ma’ kaft), which is a wide bone in the shoulder of an animal. They would write on it due to the scarcity of paper they had, and ‘ribs (plural of rib), which is the bone of a fetus .

Those who were famous for writing the Qur’an in the presence of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) were :
Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan, ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, Mu’awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, Abaan ibn Sa’eed, Khalid ibn al-Walid, Ubayy ibn Ka’b, Zayd ibn Thabit, Thabit ibn Qays, and other prominent companions, may Allaah be pleased with them all .

His covenant (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not end until the entire Qur’an was written . However, it was not collected in one place, nor were the surahs arranged. The Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not order the Qur’an to be collected in one mushaf because the concern of the companions was only to memorise and recite it .
Also, because he was anticipating the arrival of an addition or abrogating some of its rulings or its recitation, so when its revelation ended with his death (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and the possibility of abrogation was removed , Allaah inspired the Rightly-Guided Caliphs to collect it in one place, fulfilling His true promise to guarantee its preservation for this ummah. This began at the hands of al-Siddiq with the advice of ‘Umar, as will come .

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to review the Qur’an with Gabriel once in the month of Ramadan every year. In the year in which he died, he reviewed it with him twice . Al-Bukhari narrated on the authority of Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her) that she said: “The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) confided in me that Gabriel used to review the Qur’an with me once every year, and this year he reviewed it with me twice. I think that my time has come .”

In short, the entire Qur’an was written during the Prophet’s era , but it was not collected in one book, nor was the surahs arranged in order. Rather, it was scattered on palm leaves, scraps of paper, and other things, as mentioned above. It was preserved in the chests of the collection of the Qur’an during the era of Abu Bakr. The reason for this is :

The collection of the Qur’an:
This word has two meanings: the first is its preservation in the chest, and the second is its writing and recording. Both meanings were achieved during the era of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) .

Al-Bukhari narrated on the authority of Zaid ibn Thabit that he said: Abu Bakr sent for me after the killing of the people of Yamamah .Then Umar ibn al-Khattab was with him. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Umar came to me and said: The killing of the reciters of the Qur’an has become widespread on the day of Yamamah, and I fear that the killing of the reciters will continue in other places and much of the Qur’an will be lost. I think that you should order the collection of the Qur’an. I said to Umar: How can we do what the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) did not do? Umar said: This, by Allah, is good. Umar kept on urging me on until Allah opened my heart to it, and I saw in it what Umar saw. Zaid said: Abu Bakr said: You are a young, intelligent man whom we do not suspect, and you used to write the revelation for the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), so follow the Qur’an and collect it. By Allah, if they had ordered me to move a mountain, it would not have been heavier on me than what he ordered me to do to collect the Qur’an. I said: How do you do something that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) did not do? He said, " By Allah, it is good." Abu Bakr kept on asking me until Allah opened my chest to that which Allah opened the chests of Abu Bakr and Umar to. So I searched for the Qur'an and collected it from palm-leaf stalks and the chests of men until I found the end of Surat At-Tawbah with Abu Khuzaymah Al-Ansari. I did not find it with anyone else. "There has certainly come to you a Messenger from among yourselves " [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] and the two verses. So the scrolls were with Abu Bakr until Allah took him, then with Umar during his lifetime, then with Hafsah bint Umar .

So you can see from this hadith that the first time the Qur'an was collected in one place was during the era of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). Before that, it was scattered among palm-leaf stalks and other things that they used to write on. It was preserved in the chests of men. Abu Bakr appointed Zayd ibn Thabit to collect it because he combined virtues that required him to be given precedence over others and to be singled out for this great matter, as mentioned above .
When Zaid began to collect it, he relied on two sources :
the first was what was written during the era of the Great Messenger
, and the second was what was preserved in the hearts of the memorizers.
He was very sure in taking what was written until he was certain that it was what was written in the presence of the Messenger, peace be upon him, and that it was what was confirmed in the final presentation and its recitation was not abrogated .
Therefore, he did not accept anything written until two just witnesses testified that it was written in the presence of the Messenger, peace be upon him.
Evidence for this is what Ibn Abi Dawud narrated on the authority of Yahya bin Abd al-Rahman bin Hatib, who said: Umar came and said: Whoever received something from the Qur’an from the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, should bring it. They used to write that on the Mushaf, tablets, and palm leaves. He did not accept anything from anyone until two witnesses testified .

Al-Sakhawi said: What is meant is that they testify that what was written was written in the presence of the Messenger of God, peace be upon him. Zaid did not rely on memorization alone, and therefore he said at the end of Surat Bara’ah that he did not find it except with Abu Khuzaymah, meaning he did not find it written except with him, even though he had memorized it. Many of the Companions memorized it , but he wanted to combine memorization and writing to increase authenticity and exaggerate caution .

Zayd took care in writing these pages to include what was proven to be Qur’anic in a continuous chain of transmission, and was settled in the final presentation, and its recitation was not abrogated .And that it be devoid of what was narrated by individuals and what is not the Qur’an in terms of explanation or interpretation. And that the verses and surahs be arranged in order .

These pages in which the Qur’an was collected remained in the care of the first Caliph Abu Bakr during his caliphate. Then after him it was transferred to the care of the second Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab during his caliphate. Then it was with Hafsa bint Omar after the death of her father and remained with her until Marwan took over Medina and asked her for it but she refused. When she died, he attended her funeral and asked her brother Abdullah for it. He sent it to him and ordered it to be burned and said, “I only did this because I feared that if time passed, people would doubt the matter of these pages .
” Marwan did not order these pages to be burned until after Uthman, may God be pleased with him, ordered the Uthmanic copies of the Qur’ans to be copied and sent to the provinces, and ordered him to burn all other Qur’ans and pages as will come .

The collection and writing of the Qur’an during the reign of Uthman and its cause

During the caliphate of Uthman, may God be pleased with him, the conquests expanded and the Muslims dispersed to the countries and regions. The people of each region of Islam adopted the reading of the most famous of the Companions among them. The people of Ash-Sham read according to the reading of Ubayy ibn Ka’b, the people of Kufa read according to the reading of Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, and others read according to the reading of Abu Musa al-Ash’ari. There was a difference between them in the aspects of reading,
and the origin of this difference was the revelation of the Qur’an in seven letters, as was proven from the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, by way of continuous transmission.
And whoever heard this difference from the people of those countries, if they were gathered in gatherings or met to fight their enemies, would be extremely amazed by that. This difference was a reason for opening the door to discord and dispute in the reading of the Noble Qur’an, because each group claimed that it was the one on the truth. And that others were on falsehood, and some of them would boast to others about their reading, believing that it was the only correct reading, so some of them would say to each other, “ My reading is better than your reading,” and the other would respond in kind, and so on until this led them to accuse each other of sin and deny each other .
In the second or third year - according to the different accounts - of the caliphate of Uthman, may God be pleased with him, in the year twenty-five after the Hijra, the people of Ash-Sham and the people of Iraq gathered for a raid on Armenia and Azerbaijan. Among those who raided with the people of Iraq was Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman. He saw the great difference of opinion among the Muslims regarding the aspects of recitation, and he heard the words of disparagement and blame that they were uttering on their tongues, which they would throw at each other when they differed regarding the aspects of recitation. Hudhayfah was greatly amazed by this and he rushed to Uthman and told him what he had seen and said to him: Save the people before they differ regarding their book, which is the origin of the Sharia, as the Jews and Christians differed. So Uthman ibn Affan gathered the leading figures among the Companions and those with opinions among them and they began to search for a solution to this tribulation and to put an end to this difference. They agreed on their opinion to copy copies of the Qur’an and send a copy to each of the cities, which would be a reference for the people in the event of difference and a refuge in the event of dispute, and to burn everything except these copies of the Qur’an. In this way, the word would be united, the ranks would be unified, and the root of the difference would be eradicated .

Then Uthman began to implement what they had agreed upon, and he appointed four of the most eminent companions and trustworthy memorizers to carry out this dangerous task,
namely Zaid ibn Thabit - whom Abu Bakr had chosen to collect the Qur’an because of his previous virtues -
Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr,
Saeed ibn al-Aas,
and Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham.
These three were Quraysh. Uthman sent to Hafsa, saying, “Send us the manuscripts you have.” So she sent them to them, and they began to copy them .
It was mentioned in some narrations that those who were appointed to copy the Qur’ans were twelve men from the Muhajireen and Ansar, including Ubayy ibn Ka’b . Uthman's

law in writing the Qur'an :
The copying of these Qur'ans was under the supervision of Caliph Uthman and the prominent companions from the Muhajireen and Ansar. They did not write anything in these Qur'ans until it was presented to all the companions and they were certain that it was the Qur'an, and that its recitation had not been abrogated, and that it had been settled in the final presentation. They did not write what had been abrogated and was not in the final presentation, nor what was narrated by individuals, nor what was not the Qur'an like what some of the companions used to write in their own Qur'ans to explain a meaning, or to clarify what was abrogated or what was abrogated or something like that .

They wrote multiple Qur'ans because Uthman intended to send what the consensus of the companions had agreed upon to the Islamic countries, and they were also multiple. They wrote in the Qur'ans varying in deletion and confirmation, omission and addition , and other things because he intended for them to include the seven letters in which the Noble Qur'an was revealed, and they were made free of dots and diacritics to achieve this purpose as well .

The words that include more than one reading, and their lack of dots and diacritics makes them possible for what they include of readings, are written with one script in all copies of the Qur’an, such as “fatabayyunu” (be aware of it), “nanshuruha” (we spread it out), “ hayt laka” (we will be pleased with you), “af” (we will be pleased with you), and so on.

As for the words that include two or more readings, and their lack of dots and diacritics does not make them possible for what they include of readings, they are not written with one script in all copies of the Qur’an, but in some copies of the Qur’an they are written with a script that indicates one reading, and in some of them with another script that indicates the other reading, such as “wasaa biha Ibrahim” (and Abraham was commanded to do it) in Al-Baqarah - it was written in some copies of the Qur’an with two waws before the sad without an alif between them, and in some of them with an alif between the two waws. And such as “ wasaaru ila maghfirat min Rabbakum” ( and hasten to forgiveness from your Lord) in Al-Imran, it was written in some copies of the Qur’an with a waw before the seen, and in some of them with the deletion of the waw, and such as “tajari thahtahu al-anhar” (the rivers flow beneath it) in At-Tawbah, in the last position in it was written in the Meccan Qur’an with the addition of (min) before the subjunctive, and in the rest of the Qur’an it was deleted, and so on .

They did not write this type of word with two scripts together in one copy of the Qur’an for fear that it would be thought that the word was revealed repeatedly in one reading, but that is not the case. Rather, they are two readings, the word was revealed in one of them in one way and in the second in another way without repetition in either of them. Likewise, they did not write these words with two scripts, one in the original and the second in the margin, lest it be thought that the second was a correction. For the first, and that the first is wrong, since writing one of them in the original and the other in the margin is a ruling of preference without preference .

What prompted the Companions to follow this method in writing the copies of the Qur’an is that they received the Qur’an from the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, with all the aspects of its readings and the letters in which it was revealed. So this method was closer to encompassing the aspects in which the Noble Qur’an is based, so it cannot be said that they omitted anything from its readings because they were all transmitted by continuous transmission from the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace .

Hence, it becomes clear that the difference in the readers that frightened Hudhayfah and Uthman and was the reason for writing the copies of the Qur’an was in readings and letters that their readers received before the final presentation, then they were abrogated by this presentation, but their abrogation did not reach these readers. Otherwise, if Uthman’s aim was to unite the people on one letter and abolish the remaining letters in which the Qur’an was revealed, he would not have made the copies of the Qur’an different in deletion and confirmation, etc.

When they completed copying the pages into the copies of the Qur’an, Uthman returned the pages to Hafsah and sent to every Islamic horizon a copy of what they had copied, and he ordered that everything else from the Qur’an in every page or copy be burned to block the door of evil and discord .
How many times was the Holy Qur’an collected?

From the above, you know that the Holy Qur’an was collected – meaning written – three times .

The first was during the era of the Prophet, the second was during the era of Abu Bakr, and the third was during the era of Uthman.

You can differentiate between its collection during his three eras.
Collection during the era of the Prophet was about writing the verses, arranging them , and placing them in their specific place in the surahs, but with the writing scattered and dispersed between palm leaves, bones, and others, as mentioned above. The purpose of this collection - meaning writing - was to increase the accuracy in controlling its words and preserving its words, in addition to what it contained of sanctifying the Qur’an and paying attention to the high status of it, as is the case in recording precious things, even though what was relied upon at that time was merely memorization in the chests .

Collection during the era of Abu Bakr was about transmitting the entire Qur’an and writing it in one place by continuous transmission. The purpose of it was to be cautious and to exaggerate in preserving this book for fear of it, or some of it being lost due to the death of its bearers and preservers .

As for the collection during the era of Uthman , it was a matter of transferring what was in the previous pages into copies of the Qur’an and sending these copies of the Qur’an to the countries of Islam. The purpose of collecting the Qur’an and writing it in those copies of the Qur’an was to eliminate the strife that had appeared in the ranks of the Muslims and to unify their word, and to force them to follow what those copies of the Qur’an contained of the established and transmitted readings without what was not like that from the aspects that were first revealed for ease, then abrogated by the final presentation .
Judge Abu Bakr al-Baqillani said, “Uthman did not intend what Abu Bakr intended in the same way of collecting the Qur’an between two tablets, but rather he intended to collect them on the established readings known from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and to abolish what was not like that, and to take them with a copy of the Qur’an in which there was no advancement or delay, which was proven.”With the download, and not abrogated, its recitation was written with a fixed script and its reading and memorization is required for fear of corruption and doubt entering upon those who come after "Ah,

the Ottoman copies of the Qur'an,

their number, their condition, how they were sent to the regions and the position of the Muslims towards them .

The number of the Qur'an : The scholars
differed regarding the number of the Qur'an that Uthman, may God be pleased with him, sent to the horizons in many sayings , and the most correct of them in that and the most worthy of acceptance is that they are six :
the Basran, the Kufi, the Shami, the Meccan , the general Madani for the people of Madinah, the specific Madani, which is what Uthman kept for himself and which is called the Imam's Qur'an, and perhaps this name was given to each of them because the people of the regions followed its example .

The condition of the Qur'an :
You know from what preceded what the Ottoman copies of the Qur'an included in terms of advantages and characteristics, and in this research we want to stop you on this fact, did these copies of the Qur'an include the seven letters in which the Holy Qur'an was revealed, or were they written on one letter of these letters ?

A group of scholars went to the fact that the Ottoman copies of the Qur'an only contain one letter of the seven letters, which is the letter of Quraysh, arguing that This is because the remaining letters were revealed at the beginning of Islam to make things easier for the nation and to remove hardship and difficulty from it. When Uthman saw that reading with the seven letters had become a source of discord and division among the Muslims and that they were revealed initially to make things easier and more convenient because obligating all the Arab tribes to adhere to one language that their tongues were not accustomed to would cause them hardship and difficulty, and when the need for these languages ​​and letters had ended, he restricted the writing of the Qur’an from these letters and languages ​​to one, which was the language of Quraysh, and he ordered the scribes of the Qur’an to restrict their writing to it, arguing that the Qur’an was revealed in it. Therefore, he said to these scribes : If you and Zayd ibn Thabit differ about something in the Qur’an, then write it in the language of Quraysh, for it was revealed in their language .

The majority of scholars from the early and later generations held that the copies of the Qur’an include what their script allows of the seven letters, including what was established from the transmitted readings in the last presentation, because as you know they were free of dots and diacritics, so they were capable of the seven letters, not in the sense that every copy of the Qur’an includes all seven letters, but in the sense that every copy of the Qur’an includes what its script allows of these letters, and that their total is not devoid of the seven letters .

This is the doctrine that the heart is reassured by, and the view is guided to, and the evidence indicates it, and here is its explanation :

First : That these Uthmanic copies of the Qur’an were copied from the pages that Abu Bakr ordered to be collected, and the scholars agreed that what was transmitted from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) of the seven letters was recorded in these pages, and it was established in the last presentation, and its recitation was not abrogated, so the copies of Abu Bakr were the origin and source of the copy of Uthman’s copy . 

Second : It was not narrated in a saheeh report nor inIt is weak that Uthman ordered the scribes to limit themselves to one letter and to abolish the remaining six .

Third : No believer who knows the Companions’ status in terms of the strength of their religion and their reverence for the Book of their Lord – and they were twelve thousand or more at that time – would believe that they would approve of Uthman’s abolishing of what was transmitted in the Qur’an from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, no matter what the motives for that were .

Fourth : If what the proponents of the first opinion claim was true, that Uthman ordered the scribes to limit themselves to the language of Quraysh and to leave everything else, then the Qur’an would be devoid of all languages ​​except the language of Quraysh. This is false in reality, because the Qur’an contains words other than the language of Quraysh that are beyond counting. The existence of these words in the Qur’an is one of the clearest proofs that the copies of the Qur’an were not limited to the language of Quraysh, but rather that what was transmitted in the seven letters was written in them and was confirmed in the final presentation .
Here are some examples of these words :
Abu Ubaid narrated on the authority of Al-Hasan, who said to us: We did not know what the couches were until we met the people of Yemen, who informed us that the couch, according to them, is the chamber on the bed. Ad-
Dahhak, regarding the Almighty’s statement, “ No, no burden,” said, “No tricks,” which is also in the language of the people of Yemen.
Abu Bakr Al-Anbari narrated on the authority of Ibn Abbas, regarding the Almighty’s statement, “Have those who believe not despaired?” Ibn Abbas said, “Have they not known?” This is the language of Hawazin.
It was reported that the Almighty’s statement, “He will not deprive you of anything of your deeds,” “He will not diminish you” is the language of Abasa, ... and so on.

Fifthly : The evidence has supported each other, and the proofs have become clear that there are differences between the Uthmanic copies of the Qur’an in many places. The Almighty’s statement , “ And put your trust in the Almighty, the Merciful,” in Ash-Shu’ara’ was written with a waw in some, and with a fa’ instead in others .
The Almighty’s statement, “And in it is whatever the souls desire,” in Az-Zukhruf, was written in some of them with a ha’, and in some of them without a ha’, like this, “desire. ” The Almighty’s statement, “
And whoever turns away, then indeed, Allah is He. ” Al-Ghani Al-Hamid: “In Al-Hadid, some of them wrote with the word ‘huwa’ (he), and some of them with its deletion, and other numerous examples . If the copies of the Qur’an were written in one language, which is the language of Quraysh, there would have been no reason for this difference. It may be said that the saying of Uthman to the three Quraysh men , “ If you and Zaid bin Thabit differ about something in the Qur’an, then write it in the language of Quraysh, for it was revealed in their language, so they did so,” indicates to the proponents of the first opinion. The answer to that is that Uthman did not want behind this statement anything but a difference in terms of the script and writing, not in terms of the essence of the words and phrases, combining the evidence and reconciling the proofs. However, it has not reached us that they differed except in one word, which is ‘the ark’ in the Almighty’s saying: “The sign of his kingship is that the ark will come to you.” Is it written with a ta’ or a ha’?
So they returned to Uthman, and he ordered them to write it with a ta’ because it is written in the language of Quraysh. The proponents of the first opinion may also cling to Uthman’s saying, “Then I swear by Allah that I will write it in the language of Quraysh.”It was revealed in their language. And the truth is that they have no basis for this because the Qur’an was revealed in the language of Quraysh because they were the ones intended first, then Allah expanded the nation by revealing it in other languages ​​to make it easy for them to recite it without any difficulty that would distract them from contemplating it .

How were these copies of the Qur’an sent to the regions?
The transmission of the Noble Qur’an depends on receiving it from the mouths of the elders , successors to predecessors, trustworthy people to trustworthy people, and imams to imams until they reach the Prophet’s presence.
Therefore, when Uthman wanted to broadcast the copies of the Qur’an and send them to the regions, he did not send them alone to be the only reference, but rather he sent with each copy a just and precise imam whose recitation would be in agreement with what was in this copy of the Qur’an, most of the time . So
he ordered Zaid bin Thabit to recite in the Madani language, and
he sent Abdullah bin al- Sa’ib with the Makkan copy,
and al-Mughirah bin Shihab with the Shami, and
he sent Abd al-Rahman al -Sulami with the Kufi,
and Aamer bin Abd al-Qays with the Basri. Then the followers transferred the position of the Companions in that , then a group devoted themselves to reading and teaching, and teaching and dictation, until they became imams. They were followed, and taken from, and the people of their country agreed to receive their reading and rely on their narration .
Hence, the reading was attributed to them and the nation agreed, and it is infallible from error, in its consensus on what is in these copies of the Qur’an, and on leaving what is other than it of additions and omissions and advancement and delay and other than that because it was not proven to them with continuous proof that it was from the Qur’an .

The position of the Muslims towards those copies of the Qur’an:

When Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) ordered the copies of the Qur’an to be copied and written according to what was proven in the final presentation and leaving what was other than that, all the Companions stood in support and encouragement of him, and responded to his call and burned their copies of the Qur’an and gathered around the Uthmanic copies of the Qur’an until it was reported that Abdullah bin Masoud initially denounced Uthman because he preferred Zaid bin Thabit in writing the Qur’an over Abdullah, due to the previous descriptions that justified that , but he soon returned and approved what Uthman had done, and the Companions agreed upon it .

Ibn Abi Dawud narrated with a saheeh chain of narration on the authority of Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: Do not say anything about Uthman except good, for by Allah, he did not do what he did with the copies of the Qur’an except upon the advice of a group of us. He said: What do you say about this recitation ? It has reached me that some of them say that my recitation is better than your recitation, and this is almost kufr. We said: What do you think? He said: I think that the people should be united on one Qur’an so that there will be no division or disagreement. We said: What you think is good. End

quote. Copies of the Qur’an during the era of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs and what was introduced in them of dots, vowels and division. We explained


in the discussion of the collection of the Holy Qur’an during the era of Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) that he wrote the Qur’an and sent it to the Islamic countries. We mentioned that these Qur’ans included what their script could bear of the seven letters, but were devoid of dots and vowels so that they would bear what was transmitted in the Qur’an from these seven letters . They were devoid of dots and vowels so that they would bear what was transmitted in the Qur’an from these letters, and they were settled in the final presentation, and their recitation was not abrogated
.
These Qur’ans remained like this for a period of time.Until the Islamic conquests increased, the foreign language mixed with the Arabic language, and incorrect pronunciation spread on tongues, and foreignness almost overshadowed the classical language, and it was difficult for these foreigners to distinguish between the letters and words of the Qur’an because, as you know, they are not dotted or vocalized. So the leaders of the faithful and their governors feared that this would lead to incorrect pronunciation in the Book of God Almighty, so they worked to avoid this and remove its causes and created means that would guarantee the protection of the Noble Book from incorrect pronunciation and its preservation from mispronunciation. Here is an explanation of them :

Dots and vowels:

Dots
have two meanings: The first is what indicates what is exposed to the letter from movement or stillness or emphasis or extension or other than that, and some of them call this dot the dots of grammar.

The second meaning: What indicates the letters themselves, and distinguishes between their voiced and unvoiced , such as the one placed on the ba’, the ta’, the tha’, the jim, and the dhal, and they are in the genitive case. So
the dot on the ba’ distinguished it from what shares it in writing from the ta’ and the tha’, and the dot on the jim distinguished it from The letter Haa and so on, and some of them call this dot I'jam dots .

The shape:
its meaning indicates what happens to the letter of movement or stillness or emphasis or extension or the like, synonymous with diacritics, and on this the first meaning of dots is equal to the meaning of shape and diacritics .

Scholars have differed greatly in identifying the first person to introduce dots in both their meanings, and what the investigators of scholars have tended towards is that the first inventor of dots in its first meaning , which is the dots of I'rab, was Abu Al-Aswad Al-Du'ali, so Abu Al-Aswad chose a man from Abd Al-Qais and said to him, take the Qur'an and a dye whose color is different from the color of the ink of the Qur'an, so if you open your lips, dot one above the letter , and if you close them, make the dot next to the letter - i.e. in front of it - and if you break them, make the dot at the bottom, and if you follow any of these movements with a nasalization - i.e. a vowel - then dot two dots, so he started from the beginning of the Qur'an until he came to its end .

As for the dots in its second meaning, which is the dots of diacritics, the most likely opinion is that they were Nasr bin Asim and Yahya bin Ya`mar, and that was by order of the Commander of the Faithful, Abdul Malik bin Marwan, who ordered Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf to work hard to remove the causes of distortion from the Quran, so he chose them. They put this type of dots to distinguish letters from each other to ensure the safety of the Quran from mistakes and mispronunciations. These dots were the same color as the ink of the Quran so that they could be distinguished from the dots that Abu Al-Aswad put .

Then in the era of the Abbasid state, the Imam of grammar, Al-Khalil bin Ahmad Al-Basri, appeared. He took the dots of Abu Al-Aswad and drew pictures in it and made it in this style used now. He made the damma a small waw written above the letter, the fatha a small flat alif , and the kasra a ya. Then he put a mark for the shadda at the head of the sheen, and for the sukun at the head of the kha, and a mark for the madd and another for the rum and the ishmām and so on. Then these marks were subjected to some abbreviation and improvement until they reached what they are now .
Division of the Quran:

Just as the Ottoman Qurans were free of dots and diacritics, they were free of The division also, then a group rose up and divided the Qur’an into thirty sections, and called each section a part and divided this part into two parties, and divided the party into four parts, and called each part a quarter, and all of that is well-known and hardly anyone is ignorant of it .

And among the writers of the Qur’an in the early era, there were those who put three dots at the end of each comma of the verses to indicate the end of the verse, and wrote the word five when five verses of the surah had ended, and the word ten when ten verses had ended, so if another five had ended, he would rewrite the word five, and if it became ten, he would rewrite the word ten, and this continued until the end of the surah.
Among them were those who wrote the name of the surah and whether it was Meccan or Medinan , and wrote the number of its verses at the end of it, and the scholars differed on that, so some permitted it with dislike and others without dislike, and this is the most correct .

What is required of the writer and publisher of the Qur’an

Introduction :
Is it necessary to adhere to the Uthmanic script in writing the Noble Qur’an, or is it permissible to write according to the general rules of spelling?
Scholars differed on this issue into three opinions: The first

opinion :
It is not necessary to adhere to the Uthmanic script, but rather it is permissible to write the Qur’an according to the general spelling rules... Among those who supported and championed this opinion were Ibn Khaldun, Judge Abu Bakr al-Baqillani, and others .

The second opinion :
It is necessary to write the Qur’an for the general public according to the spelling rules known to them, and it is not permissible to write it for them in the Uthmanic script. Among those who leaned towards this was the author of al-Burhan and Sheikh al-Islam al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Salam .

The third statement :
It is necessary to adhere to the Uthmanic script in writing the Qur’an. This is what the majority of scholars, both early and later, have adopted.

Evidence for the first statement :
The proponents of this statement have provided evidence with three pieces of evidence :
1- That these lines and scripts are nothing but signs and indications, so every script that indicates the word and provides the way to read it is a correct script and its writer is correct.
2- That writing the Qur’an in the Uthmanic script may cause people confusion and ambiguity, hardship and embarrassment, and prevent them from reading correctly and properly , so they are deprived of obtaining the promised reward for reciting the Noble Qur’an, and they may be exposed to punishment, but there is no sin if they read incorrectly. Therefore, the Qur’an should be written according to modern spelling rules to make things easier for people, to remove hardship and embarrassment from them, and to enable them to read correctly .
3- There is nothing in the Noble Book, nor in the consensus of the nation, nor in the legal analogy, that requires whoever wants to write the Qur’an to write it in a specific script, or in a specific manner. Therefore, it was not narrated from the Great Messenger that he ordered any of the scribes of the revelation when writing it to write it in a specific script, nor did he forbid anyone from writing in a specific manner.

Evidence for the second statement :
The proponents of this statement provided evidence that writing the Qur’an in the Uthmanic script causes people to… In hardship and difficulty and it leads them to change the Book of Allah the Most High by adding to it or subtracting from it.
They said: And with this, it is necessary to preserve the Uthmanic script because it is from the effects of our predecessors, so we do not completely overlook it out of consideration for the ignorance of the ignorant, but rather it remains in the hands of the knowledgeable ones who are present in every era .

Evidence for the third opinion : The proponents of this opinion
provided evidence that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had scribes who wrote the revelation, and they wrote the entire Qur’an in this script, and the Messenger approved of their writing, and the Messenger passed away to the highest companion and the Qur’an was written in this specific manner, no change or alteration occurred in it, then Abu Bakr took over the caliphate after him and wrote the entire Qur’an in the pages in this manner, then Uthman came and copied the many copies of the Qur’an from the pages of Abu Bakr and wrote them all in this script as well , and distributed them to the regions to be an imam for the Muslims. None of the companions denied Abu Bakr or Uthman, rather each of them achieved the approval of all the companions for their actions. Then came the era of the followers, the imams and the followers of the followers, and the imams who exerted effort, and it was not proven that any of them thought of changing the script of the Qur’an and writing it in another script that kept pace with the new script. Rather, this script was viewed with an eye of sanctification and respect in all different eras and times .
If this script had gained the approval of the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, and the consensus of the companions and the agreement of the followers and their followers and the imams who exerted effort on it, then it is not permissible to deviate from it to another, especially since it is one of the pillars upon which the correctness of the recitation is built

. Here are the texts of the imams of religion and the scholars of Islam on this:
Al-Sakhawi narrated that Malik bin Anas, the imam of Dar al-Hijrah, was asked: “What do you think of someone who has a copy of the Qur’an written? Do you think of writing it according to what people have innovated in it, the spelling of today?” He said: I do not see that, but it should be written on the first scribes.

Al-Sakhawi said : What Malik went to is the truth, because the first state remains until the next generation learns it after the other. There is no doubt that this is the other, because otherwise people would be made ignorant of the priority of what is in the first generation .

Abu Amr al-Dani said: There is no scholar of this nation who disagrees with Malik . Al-Dani also said: Malik was asked about the letters in the Qur’an, such as the waw, the ya’, and the alif. Do you think that it should be changed in the Mushaf if something like that is found in it? He said: No - Abu Amr said: He means the waw, yaa and alif that are extra in the script and are counted in the pronunciation, such as (adhbahnahu, bayyad, ulwa) and so on.

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: There is a difference in the script of Uthman’s Mushaf in a waw, alif, yaa or other than that. The author of Al-Madkhal said: It is obligatory for the writer of the Mushaf to leave what some people have innovated in this era of copying the Mushaf in a way other than the script that the nation has agreed upon.

Al-Naysaburi said: A group of Imams said that it is obligatory for the readers, scholars and people of writing to follow this script in the script of the Mushaf, because it is the script of Zayd ibn Thabit, who was the trustee of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the writer of his revelation .

Al-Bayhaqi said in Shu’ab Al-Iman: Whoever writes A Mushaf that should preserve the spelling in which they wrote those Mushafs and not contradict them in it or change anything of what they wrote, for they were more knowledgeable and more honest in heart and tongue than us, so we should not think of ourselves as a challenge to it.
Imam al-Ja’bari and others have reported the consensus of the four Imams on the necessity of following the Uthmanic Mushaf’s script

, which the soul is reassured by, the religion inspires , and the evidence guides to is the third opinion for a number of reasons :
First : What the proponents of this opinion have cited from the texts of the scholars of Islam is clear in the necessity of adhering to the Uthmanic script in writing the Mushafs.

Second : The modern rules of spelling and spelling are subject to change and revision in every age and every generation, and our protection of the Noble Book and our sanctification of it compels us to keep it safe from these changes in its script and writing.

Third : Changing the Uthmanic script may be a reason for changing the essence of the Qur’anic words and phrases, and in that there is what it contains of great temptation and widespread evil, and blocking of means, and the position of the Imams regarding the Uthmanic script was only motivated by this great principle Exaggeration in preserving the Holy Quran, and protecting it from tampering .

Fourth : This script has many characteristics and advantages, and scholars of script have undertaken to explain them, so refer to them if you wish .
As for what the proponents of the first two opinions claim, that writing copies of the Qur’an according to the Uthmanic script causes confusion and bewilderment among people… what they said is refuted by the fact that the copies of the Qur’an in this era , especially the government copy, have been perfectly formatted and people have become familiar with them and have been trained to read them without difficulty or hardship.
The state of the copies of the Qur’an in the printing houses

When printing presses were established in Egypt and other eastern countries, most of their attention was given to the Noble Qur’an, and they competed to present it in the best form, most honorable appearance, and most beautiful arrangement. However, these printing presses did not observe in printing the rules of the Uthmanic script that were written during the reign of Uthman, may God be pleased with him. Rather, they relied in writing it on the rules of modern spelling, except for a few words that they wrote according to the rules of the Uthmanic script.

The Qur’ans remained like this for a period of time that was not short until God provided for them a scholar of the Qur’an who returned them to the rules of the Uthmanic script, and he is the distinguished professor (Ridwan bin Muhammad, known as al-Mukhallati), the author of useful and comprehensive works . He wrote a copy of the Qur’an in which he was concerned with writing the words according to the rules of the Uthmanic script, just as he was concerned with stating the number of verses in a surah in The first is the doctrines of the famous numerologists. He placed at the head of his disputed divisions the name of the one who counts them, then he showed the places of stopping, and divided the stopping into six sections: sufficient, good, permissible, valid, understood, and complete, indicating the sufficient with the letter kaf, the good with the letter ha, the permissible with the letter jim, the valid with the letter sad, the understood with the letter mim, and the complete with the letter ta .

This Mushaf was preceded by a noble introduction in which he explained that this Mushaf was written and punctuated according to what is in the book al-Muqni` by Imam al-Dani, and the book al-Tanzil by Abu Dawud, and he summarized the history of Writing the Qur’an in the Prophetic Era. And collecting it in the eras of Abu Bakr and Uthman . He also summarized the discussions of script and punctuation in brief and useful sentences. Then he moved on to explaining the famous scholars of numbers and defining the meaning of the surah and the verse, all of that in easy expression and beautiful composition .

This Mushaf was printed in the Bahiya Press owned by Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zaid in the year one thousand three hundred and eight AH 1308 AH. This Mushaf was the one circulated among scholars and reciters.. and they relied on it as the preferred one over all other Mushafs because of the previous advantages it contained. However, it did not appear in a beautiful form that would please the viewer and stimulate the reader due to the poor quality of its paper and bad printing, as it was printed in a stone press .
Then, among the good deeds and praiseworthy deeds of King Fuad I was that he ordered the printing of the Qur’an at his own expense, and with great care, so a committee of the masters of knowledge was formed, headed by the scholar Sheikh Muhammad Ali Khalaf al- Husayni al-Haddad, the former Sheikh of the Egyptian Recitations, to undertake this dangerous and arduous task . They wrote the entire Qur’an according to the rules of the Ottoman script and they perfectly controlled it according to what the scholars who investigated it had gone to, and they indicated in the translation of each surah the number of its verses and whether it was Meccan or Medinan, and that it was revealed after such-and-such surah... and they assigned each verse its own number. They also placed marks for stopping, parts, sections, quarters, and prostrations .
Then they divided the pause into five parts : The

first is that which must be paused upon and it is not correct to connect it to what comes after it, and they put for it a sign which is the single meem like this (m ).

The second is that which it is correct to pause upon and begin with what comes after it, just as it is correct to connect it to what comes after it, except that pausing upon it is preferable to connect it to what comes after it, and they put for this section this sign (qala), which is a coined word and its origin is: stopping is better.

The third is like the second, except that connecting it is preferable to stopping upon it, and they put for it this sign (salli ) , which is also a coined word and its origin is: connecting is better.

The fourth is that in which stopping and connecting are permissible equally without giving preference to one over the other, and they put for this section this sign (j ).

The fifth is that which it is not correct to pause upon and begin with what comes after it, so if he pauses upon it due to a pause, or a rest or something like that, he must return and connect it to what comes after it, and they put for this section this sign (la ) . The one who looks at the aforementioned Qur’an will know the many examples of these five sections .

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