01-16-2005, 11:36 AM
Bismillah
Part 4.
Suhuf and Mushaf
Both words are derived from the same root Sahafa 'to write'. The word suhuf also occurs in the Qur'an (87:19) meaning scripture or written sheets.
Suhuf (sg. sahifa) means loose pieces of writing material, such as paper, skin, papyrus, etc.
Mushaf (pl. masahif) means the collected suhuf, brought together into a fixed order, such as between two covers, into a volume.
In the history of the written text of the Qur'an, suhuf stands for the sheets on which the Qur'an was collected in the time of Abu Bakr. In these suhuf the order of the ayat within each sura was fixed, but the sheets with the suras on them were still in a loose arrangement, i.e. not bound into a volume.
Mushaf in the present context means the sheets on which the Qur'an was collected in the time of 'Uthman. Here both the order of the ayat within each sura as well as the order of the sheets were fixed.
Today we also call any copy of the Qur'an, which has both order of ayat and suras fixed, a mushaf.
How the suhuf were made
The following is the account in the Sahih Bukhari
Narrated Zaid bin Thabit Al-Ansari, one of the scribes of the Revelation: Abu Bakr sent for me after the casualties among the warriors (of the battle) of Yamama (where a great number of Qurra were killed). 'Umar was present with Abu Bakr who said: "Umar has come to me and said, the People have suffered heavy casualties on the day of (the battle of) Yamama, and I am afraid that there will be some casualties among the Qurra (those who know the Qur'an by heart) at other places, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost, unless you collect it. And I am of the opinion that you should collect the Qur'an.' Abu Bakr added, 'I said to 'Umar, "How can I do something which Allah's Apostle has not done?" 'Umar said (to me) "By Allah, it is (really) a good thing". So 'Umar kept on pressing trying to persuade me to accept his proposal, till Allah opened my bosom for it and I had the same opinion as 'Umar'. (Zaid bin Thabit added:) 'Umar was sitting with him (Abu Bakr) and was not speaking. Abu Bakr said (to me), 'You are a wise
young man and we do not suspect you (of telling lies or of forgetfulness); and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle. Therefore, look for the Qur'an and collect it (in one manuscript)'. By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) had ordered me to shift one of the mountains (from its place) it would not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Qur'an. I said to both of them, 'How dare you do a thing which the Prophet has not done?' Abu Bakr said, 'By Allah, it is (really) a good thing. So I kept on arguing with him about it till Allah opened my bosom for that which He had opened the bosoms of Abu Bakr and
'Umar. So I started locating the Quranic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leafstalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who knew it by heart). I found with Khuzaima two verses of Suras at-Tauba which I had not found with anybody else (and they were):
'Verily there has come to you an Apostle (Muhammad) from among yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty. He (Muhammad) is ardently anxious over you (to be rightly guided)'
(9:128).
The manuscript on which the Qur'an was collected, remained with Abu Bakr till Allah, SWT took him unto Him, and then with 'Umar till Allah took him unto Him, and finally it remained with Hafsa, 'Umar's daughter.
(Suyuti. Itqan, I, p 62)
Here we can distinguish the following steps, which led to the preparation of the suhuf:
- Zaid was instructed by Abu Bakr to collect the Qur'an.
- Zaid collected it from various written materials and the memories of people.
- The sheets thus prepared were kept with Abu Bakr, then'Umar, then Hafsa.
THE MASAHIF OF THE COMPANIONS
There are numerous indications in the literature of hadith that several of the Companions of the Prophet had prepared their own written collections of the revelations. (Suyuti. Itqan, I, p 62)
Some example of the private or personal copies.
The Mushaf of Ibn Mas'ud (d. 33/653), Surah al-Fatiha seems to be missing. Assuming that all these are reliable reports, the copy of Ibn Mas'ud would then have been prepared for his personal use and written before all 114 suras were revealed. And if written BEFORE it means INCOMPLETE.
The Mushaf of Ubay bin Ka'b (d. 29 H/649), He wrote a mushaf, in which two 'additional suras and another 'additional aya' were reportedly found.
(I will exclude the explanation to this, since it is very long, and the one that is interested can read it at http://www.sunnah.org/sources/ulumquran/ul...20Quran%202.htm under point 41).
The order of the suras is again different from 'Uthman as well as Ibn Masud.
The Mushaf of Ibn 'Abbas (d. 68H/687), Ibn 'Abbas also wrote a mushaf, which according to the Itqan also included the two additional suras which Ubay
had. Again his arrangement of the suras differed from the other copies.
And others, if there is interest to read about them, they can be found on the same reference as above www.sunnah/org....
As long as the sahaba wrote their own copies for personal use only, there was nothing wrong, if they did not strictly adhere to the order of suras which was the order of the Qur'an. Later on, when 'Uthman's copy became the standard version, the Companions adopted the order of this copy including Ibn Mas'ud who perhaps differed most. (Ibn Abi Dawud, p. 12; Salih, S.: Mabahith fi 'ulum al-qura'n, Beirut, 1964)
There were also, as indicated, some variant readings in these copies, when some words were pronounced and spelt in slightly different ways, etc. However, it should be noted that variant readings are usually reported by a single person
only, and occasionally by perhaps two or three while the version called the 'Uthmanic text is mutawatir, i.e. transmitted by numerous people and is without doubt authentic.
To be continued...