When was the Qur'an given to Mohammed? If so, then on what day and in what year was it given to Mohammed? If the Qur'an was not given to Mohammed in one go, then on what day and in what year was it finalized? Thanks, Michael
"sometime between 650 and 656 CE" Was when it was "compiled" The writings aparently came from his reciting them to his ppls... According to Islamic scholars Muhammad, according to tradition, could neither read nor write, but would simply recite what was revealed to him for his companions to write down and memorize. Adherents to Islam hold that the wording of the Qur'anic text available today corresponds exactly to that revealed to Muhammad himself: words of God delivered to Muhammad through the angel Jibril (Gabriel). According to Muslim traditions, the companions of Muhammad began recording suras in writing before Muhammad died in 632; written copies of various suras during his lifetime are frequently alluded to in the traditions. For instance, in the story of the conversion of Umar ibn al-Khattab (when Muhammad was still at Mecca), his sister is said to have been reading a text of sura Ta-Ha. At Medina, about sixty-five companions are said to have acted as scribes for him at one time or another; the prophet would regularly call upon them to write down revelations immediately after they came. One tradition has it that the first complete compilation of the Qur'an was made during the rule of the first caliph, Abu Bakr. Zayd ibn Thabit, who had been one of Muhammad's secretaries, "gathered the Qur'an from various parchments and pieces of bone, and from the chests (i.e. the memories) of men." This compilation was kept by Hafsa bint Umar, one of Muhammad's widows, as well as the daughter of Umar, the second caliph. During the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan, there were disputes about the recitation of the Qur'an. In response, Uthman decided to codify, standardize, and write down the text. Uthman is said to have commissioned a committee (including Zayd and several prominent members of Quraysh) to produce a standard copy of the text. Some accounts say that this compilation was based on the text kept by Hafsa. Other stories say that Uthman made his compilation independently, Hafsa's text was brought forward, and the two texts were found to coincide perfectly. Still other accounts omit any reference to Hafsa. Some Muslim scholars say that if the Qur'an had been collected by the order of a caliph, it would never have been relegated to the status of a keepsake for one of the prophet's widows. Possibly the story was invented to move the time of collection closer to Muhammad's death. When the compilation was finished, sometime between 650 and 656 CE, Uthman sent out copies of it to the various corners of the Islamic empire. He ordered the destruction of all copies that differed from it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran
The Prophet was born 570 c.E and in 610 c.E. he started to hear voices - almost like a schizophrenic - and he was convinced is was the voice from Allah (God as christians call him)... He heard the voice untill he died in 632 c.E ......... in all 23 years - so it took 23 years to make the Quran.... Muhammed could not read and write - so he let his daughter Fatima write part of the Quran, dictated to him by the voice - of course he could not check what she had written , but he trusted her .... later on other writers joined in .... The hand of Fatima is considered holy and a jewelry of that hand in silver - protects against all evil - known before the time of Muhammed as the hamsa symbol .... hamsa meaning 5 ( 5 fingers ).
So the Qur'an was or wasn't compiled during Mohammed's life time? No one knows the date it was finished?
They also don't know what ol' Umar did to it, either. I heard a rumour (oooh - internet rumour!) that a German archaeology team was supposed to have dug up some very old versions (old copies of the Quran, being the word of God to muslims, cannot be merely thrown away but must be either buried as a human or burned, depending on the sect, the speaker and, presumably, the time of day) and found massive sections that were not translated. Apparently (there go them rumours agin) they were afraid to publish their work and, so to speak, "covered it up" again. (I could almost believe this - a prof in Germany did in fact get thrown from a 2nd story window for, apparently, "insulting" Mohammed, and now lives in hiding under police protection...take note too of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to say nothing of Salman Rushdie). There also was something, as I recall, about some of his sayings not being included by Umar or someone because they would be "embarassing to his memory" or some bloody such, wish I could remember. That might be in the biographies of Mohammed. Anyway, best of luck, for ye that seek or find. Geoff
Well this is interesting:Yemeni Koran Fragments Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! OK, I have my answer and I suppose it makes sense, no one can tell me when and on what day the Qu'ran was finished because, similar to the Bible, it went through a few transitions and then a few more and then was codified and then that was lost and at some time someone said, OK that's it, this is it. But, as always happens when those pesky Archeologist get to digging, they dig something up that suggests the book you have in your hand today ain't the one they had 1400 years ago. Since the early 1980s more than 15,000 sheets of the Yemeni Korans have painstakingly been flattened, cleaned, treated, sorted, and assembled; they now sit ("preserved for another thousand years," Puin says) in Yemen's House of Manuscripts, awaiting detailed examination. That is something the Yemeni authorities have seemed reluctant to allow, however. "They want to keep this thing low-profile, as we do too, although for different reasons," Puin explains. "They don't want attention drawn to the fact that there are Germans and others working on the Korans. They don't want it made public that there is work being done at all, since the Muslim position is that everything that needs to be said about the Koran's history was said a thousand years ago." To date just two scholars have been granted extensive access to the Yemeni fragments: Puin and his colleague H.-C. Graf von Bothmer, an Islamic-art historian also based at Saarland University. Puin and Von Bothmer have published only a few tantalizingly brief articles in scholarly publications on what they have discovered in the Yemeni fragments. They have been reluctant to publish partly because until recently they were more concerned with sorting and classifying the fragments than with systematically examining them, and partly because they felt that the Yemeni authorities, if they realized the possible implications of the discovery, might refuse them further access. Von Bothmer, however, in 1997 finished taking more than 35,000 microfilm pictures of the fragments, and has recently brought the pictures back to Germany. This means that soon Von Bothmer, Puin, and other scholars will finally have a chance to scrutinize the texts and to publish their findings freely -- a prospect that thrills Puin. "So many Muslims have this belief that everything between the two covers of the Koran is just God's unaltered word," he says. "They like to quote the textual work that shows that the Bible has a history and did not fall straight out of the sky, but until now the Koran has been out of this discussion. The only way to break through this wall is to prove that the Koran has a history too. The Sana'a fragments will help us to do this." Muslim Apologist (well sort of) Letters to the Yemen Times ASSALAMUALAIKUM. I do not know whether this would be read by any Member of Parliament. I hope it is. I would like to draw your attention to an article that appeared in Jan 1999 in The Atlantic Monthly published from USA titled “What is the Koran” The article refers to the manuscripts of the Koran discovered in 1972 during the restoration of The Great Mosque in 1972. These manuscripts are now with The House of Manuscripts, Yemen. It is surprising that only two scholars till date (both non-Muslims and both Germans) have been allowed to look at these manuscripts. They have already taken 35,000 microfilms which they have taken to Germany. The whole aim is to prove that the Koran has not been retained in its original form. They have already published articles to this effect in several journals. I quote from the article: see above Please ensure that these scholars are not given further access to the documents. Also please rebury them or if they are not exact reproductions, please burn them. Allah help us against our enemies Abul Kasim fbap0241@nus.edu.sg :bugeye: Well here's the fuss: Palimpsest of Codex Sanaa 01-27.1, Dâr al-MakhTûTât al-Yamanîya, Sanaa, (Photo: Gerd-Ruediger Puin; 1) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! It's obvious there is writting on top of writting. Here's a couple of books if you read German: 1. Hans-Caspar Graf von Bothmer, Karl-Heinz Ohlig, Gerd-Ruediger Puin: "Neue Wege der Koranforschung". magazin forschung (Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken) 1/1999, p. 33-46; courtesy of Dr. Gerd-Ruediger Puin. 2. Gerd-Ruediger Puin: "Observations on Early Qur'an Manuscripts in San'a'". - Stefan Wild (ed.), The Qur'an As Text, Leiden/New York/Koeln (E. J. Brill) 1996, p. 107-111
I'm not like a muslim or whatever but-- the article says "pages of Arabic text, fused together by centuries of rain and dampness, gnawed into over the years by rats and insects." This could possibly be the reason that it appears there is text written OVER text. Perhaps the writings seeped or leaked over. I guess logically anyone would take that in to account and compare the writings from the other close pages to see if they are transposed over the writings -- etc. It seems strange that one would deliberately write over another writing, that would just be confusing and hard to read. But; at any rate, that person Abul Kasim saying "Please ensure that these scholars are not given further access to the documents. Also please rebury them or if they are not exact reproductions, please burn them." sounds pretty wack.
Agreed on that, Nisus. Very very wack. "Please ensure that these scholars are not given further access to the documents. Also please rebury them or if they are not exact reproductions, please burn them. Allah help us against our enemies" translated: Abul Kasim: "Please don't let these documents fall into the hands of our enemies - eep! I mean filthy kufr - eep! I mean...can I blame the Jews?" What madness. Geoff
