Islam Rediscovered
15. Preservation, Updating, Da‘wah
~ 268 ~
therefore, engaged scholars of the Qur’an from
amongst the companions to prepare a single
volume of the Qur’an. By employing the double
checking system, that is, the Qur’an as memorized
was checked with the Qur’an in its written form
and the Qur’an in written form was checked with
the Qur’an preserved in human memory. Thus the
first Caliph prepared the first bound volume of the
Qur’an, which served as the standard copy. All the
later copies of the Qur’an were made from this
original volume.
Thus, the Qur’an was preserved by following the
double
method—writing
and
memorizing,
generation after generation, until it reached the age
of the printing press, whereupon any possibility of
human interpolation in the text was ruled out.
CONTRIBUTION OF MUHADDITHIN
(SCHOLARS OF HADITH)
In addition to this, a huge number of eminent
Muslim scholars arose among the first few
generations of Islam to prepare a totally authentic
and unparalleled historical record generally known
as
Hadith
,
Sirah
and
Maghazi
. Within a surprisingly
