Muhammad, the Qur'an and Islam
codex was given to Abu Bakr then `Umar and then Hafsa seems to indicate
that it was considered to be private, rather than public property.^9
Islamic traditions also maintain that at least two witnesses were required for
Zayd to add any verse to this collection. `Umar is said to have^10 brought
Zayd the famous verse about stoning for adulterers, but this verse appears
to have been rejected because he did not have a second witness for it.^11
Strangely enough, at the time of Muhammad's death the only Muslims who
are said to have possessed the entire Qur'an were all Ansars, and not of the
Quraysh. Muhammad is reported to have said that the Qur'an b^12 e learned
from four people, who are generally given as: Ibn Masud, Ubayy b. Kab,
Salim, and Mu'adh b. Jabal.^13
It appears that a number of personal codices of the Qur'an came into public
use rather early on, even though practically nothing is kno^14 wn of either
their origins, or of how well they corresponded with the alleged codex that
Zayd compiled and edited for Abu Bakr. Two of the Qur'an codic^15 es,
which appear to have become fairly well known were those of Ibn Masud^16 and Ubayy b. Kab. With respect to Uthman's edition of the Qur^17 'an, the codex of Ibn Masud is said to have had quite a few variants, and^18 the suras
1, 113 and 114 are said to have been missing from it. The Qur'an^19
manuscript of Ubayy b. Kab also seems to have varied from both the Uthmanic text and Ibn Mas`ud's, and it is known to have contai^20 ned two
extra suras.^21
The next collection of the Qur'an is said to have taken place during the
caliphate of Uthman in about 30 AH. The Muslims of Damascus a^22 nd Iraq are said to have recited the Qur'an differently from each other when they were fighting to conquer Armenia and Azerbaijan. Hudhayfa b. al-Yaman is said to have noticed this and askedUthman to take action to correct the
problem. Uthman is then said to have sent for the codex of Hafsa, and appointed Zayd b. Thabit,Abdullah b. al-Zubayr, Said b. al-As and
`Abdulrahman b. Harith to copy the codex. In case of differences of opinion
on the text, it was to be written in the dialect of the Quraysh. It is said that
Zayd was only able to find Qur'an 33:23 with Khuzayma. Hafsa's
manuscript was then reportedly returned to her,