Perfect Preservation of the Quran Doesn't Hold Up

3. Perfect Preservation of the Quran Doesn't Hold Up

Uthman's burning of variant Qurans

Credible hadiths show there were originally multiple variants of the Quran but caliph Uthman burned the other ones:

Ubayy and Ibn Mas'ud (Muhammad's Trusted Reciters) Couldn't Agree on What Goes in the Quran
"I shall ever love that man, for I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, 'Take (learn) the Qur'an from four: Abdullah bin Mas'ud, Salim, Mu'adh and Ubai bin Ka'b.'" Sahih Bukhari 4999
"I asked Ubai bin Ka'b, 'O Abu Al-Mundhir! Your brother, Ibn Mas'ud said so-and-so (i.e., the two Mu'awwidh-at [Surah 113 and 114] do not belong to the Qur'an).' Ubai said, 'I asked Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) about them, and he said, They have been revealed to me, and I have recited them (as a part of the Qur'an),' So Ubai added, 'So we say as Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) has said.'" Sahih Bukhari 4977
Ibn Mas'ud Told People to Hide Their Copies from Uthman's Burning
"Once Abdullah bin Mas'ud delivered a sermon before us and said, 'By Allah, I learnt over seventy Suras direct from Allah's Messenger (ﷺ). By Allah, the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) came to know that I am one of those who know Allah's Book best of all of them, yet I am not the best of them.' Shaqiq added: I sat in his religious gathering and I did not hear anybody opposing him (in his speech)." Sahih Bukhari 5000
"Abdullah bin Mas'ud said: 'O people of Al-'Iraq! Keep the Musahif that are with you, and conceal them. For indeed Allah said: And whoever conceals something, he shall come with what he concealed on the Day of Judgement Quran 3:161. So meet Allah with the Musahif.'" Az-Zuhri said: "It was conveyed to me that some men amongst the most virtuous of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) disliked that view of Ibn Mas'ud." Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3104
Marwan Destroyed the Original Used for Uthman's Quran

Marwan destroyed the original, Hafsa's manuscript, because he was afraid of us checking it, eliminating verification of preservation:

"So Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, 'Send us the manuscripts of the Qur'an so that we may compile the Qur'anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.' Hafsa sent it to Uthman." Sahih Bukhari 4987
"Marwan used to send to Hafsa asking her about the scrolls from which the Qur'an was written, but Hafsa refused to give them to him. Salim said: When Hafsa died and we returned from burying her, Marwan sent a firm message to Abdullah bin Umar, ordering him to send those scrolls to him. Abdullah bin Umar sent them to him, and Marwan ordered them to be torn up. Marwan said: I only did this because what was in them had already been written down and preserved in the Quran, and I feared that if time passed, someone might doubt the authenticity of these scrolls, or say that some of them were not written down. Its chain of narration is authentic." Ibn Kathir, The Virtues of the Qur'an, p. 85

The Hafsa codex audit: If Hafsa's manuscript perfectly matched Uthman's standardized version, why destroy the source material? You don't burn the audit trail unless the audit trail can become a problem.

Sanaa manuscript

The Sanaa manuscript is a parchment with two different versions of the Quran found in Yemen in 1972 and radiocarbon dated to 578-669 CE. The first version was scraped off and a second (the modern Quran) was written over it. Under ultraviolet light, both are visible.

Compare verse Quran 9:18 in the Sanaa vs. Quran for example:

Lines 4–6 pg. 55 Folio 6A
Sadeghi & Goudarzi, Folio 6A (Quran 9:17-9:26), page 55: Arabic transcription of the Sanaa lower text with consonant-distinguishing footnotes 162, 163, 164. Enlarge
Sadeghi et al. “Ṣan’ā’ 1 and the Origins of the Qur’ān” (Harvard/Stanford)

Verse Quran 9:18 in the Quran has two independent substitutions in the same direction from Sanaa 1:

  1. jihad (Sanaa 9:18) → establish prayer and give zakah (Quran 9:18)
  2. successful (Sanaa 9:18) → rightly guided (Quran 9:18)

The Sanaa 1 variants also match the surrounding verses and Surah 9 which are about jihad and fighting disbelievers.

Original Harvard/Stanford Study: “Parallel Textual Tradition”
"As the only known extant copy from a textual tradition beside the standard 'Uthmanic one, it has the greatest potential of any known manuscript to shed light on the early history of the scripture. Comparing it with parallel textual traditions provides a unique window onto the initial state of the text from which the different traditions emerged." Sadeghi et al. "Ṣan'ā' 1 and the Origins of the Qur'ān." (Harvard/Stanford)
Scanned abstract of Sadeghi and Goudarzi, 'San'a' 1 and the Origins of the Qur'an' (Stanford / Harvard), with the key passage highlighted: 'As the only known extant copy from a textual tradition beside the standard Uthmanic one, it has the greatest potential of any known manuscript to shed light on the early history of the scripture. Comparing it with parallel textual traditions provides a unique window onto the initial state of the text from which the different traditions emerged.'
Sadeghi & Goudarzi (Stanford / Harvard), abstract
Enlarge
Oxford Study: Not Scribal Exercise but Complete Scriptural Codex
"It seems, then, that the lower layer of the palimpsest, whether or not it included the full text of the Quran as presently known, contained a run of entire suras arranged in a way that was commonly applied in quranic codices. Such a sequential succession of verses and suras is not what one would expect of a disparate selection of quranic material copied out as a scribal exercise, but is entirely consonant with the process of producing a complete scriptural codex (muṣḥaf). ... It seems preponderantly likely, hence, that the scribe or scribes who produced both layers of the palimpsest were engaged in the project of copying out an entire Quran." Nicolai Sinai, "Beyond the Cairo Edition," JAOS 140.1, p. 204
Scanned passage from Nicolai Sinai (Oxford), 'Beyond the Cairo Edition,' JAOS 140.1 (2020), p. 204, fully highlighted: the lower layer of the Sanaa palimpsest 'contained a run of entire suras arranged in a way that was commonly applied in quranic codices', is 'entirely consonant with the process of producing a complete scriptural codex (mushaf)', and 'it seems preponderantly likely... the scribe or scribes who produced both layers of the palimpsest were engaged in the project of copying out an entire Quran.'
Nicolai Sinai (Oxford), p. 204
Enlarge
Printed Qurans Still Differ

Two mass-printed Qurans, Hafs (most of the Muslim world) and Warsh (North and West Africa), differ at Quran 3:146 for example:

  1. Hafs: "many a prophet fought" (qātala).
  2. Warsh: "many a prophet were killed" (qutila).
Quran 3:146 + 50 more Hafs vs. Warsh differences (Muslim source)

The modern Quran is a product of Uthmanic state-enforced standardization. Viable and meaningful pre-Uthmanic variants survive in Sanaa. This eliminates knowledge of perfect preservation: it's just the variant that survived the fire.

Sheep Ate Verses

In a hasan (good) hadith, Aisha narrates a sheep ate a page of revealed verses.

"The Verse of stoning and of breastfeeding an adult ten times was revealed, and the paper was with me under my pillow. When the Messenger of Allah died, we were preoccupied with his death, and a tame sheep came in and ate it." Sunan Ibn Majah 1944
Independent Authentic Hadiths Confirm the Issue
"A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that it had been revealed in the Holy Qur'an that ten clear sucklings make the marriage unlawful, then it was abrogated (and substituted) by five sucklings and Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) died and it was before that time (found) in the Holy Qur'an (and recited by the Muslims)." Sahih Muslim 1452a
Umar said, "I am afraid that after a long time has passed, people may say, 'We do not find the Verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Holy Book,' and consequently they may go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. Lo! I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who commits illegal sexual intercourse, if he is already married and the crime is proved by witnesses or pregnancy or confession." Sufyan added, "I have memorized this narration in this way." Umar added, "Surely Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him." Sahih Bukhari 6829
Forgotten Surahs No Longer in Quran
"We used to recite a surah which resembled in length and severity to (Surah) Bara'at. I have, however, forgotten it with the exception of this which I remember out of it: 'If there were two valleys full of riches, for the son of Adam, he would long for a third valley, and nothing would fill the stomach of the son of Adam but dust.' And we used to recite a surah which resembled one of the surahs of Musabbihat, and I have forgotten it, but remember (this much) out of it: 'Oh people who believe, why do you say that which you do not practise.'" Sahih Muslim 1050
Even Muhammad Used To Forget Verses
"Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) heard a man reciting the Qur'an at night, and said, 'May Allah bestow His Mercy on him, as he has reminded me of such-and-such Verses of such-and-such Suras, which I was caused to forget.'" Sahih Bukhari 5038
Yasir Qadhi: "The standard narrative has holes in it"

Yasir Qadhi, Yale-trained Muslim scholar, openly conceded that the standard narrative of perfect preservation has holes in it and that this caused him "crises at Yale":

"I've mentioned the crises that happened to me at Yale. This was the issue ... it's very clear to you and to every single very advanced student and specialist that the standard narrative has holes in it." Yasir Qadhi video interview
One-Liners
  • The Palimpsest Logic: If you write something in pencil, erase it, and write over it in pen, the erased text underneath is older than the text written over it.
  • The Hafsa Codex Audit: If Hafsa's manuscript was a perfect match to Uthman's standardized version, why destroy it? You don't burn the source material unless the source material can become a problem.