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English translation
(18).3103. Az-Zuhri narrated: “From ‘Ubaid bin As-Sabbāq, that Zaid bin Thābit narrated to him, he said: ‘Abū Bakr Aṣ-Ṣiddīq sent for me – (regarding) those killed at Al-Yamāmah – and ‘Umar bin Al-Khaṭṭāb was with him.
He (Abū Bakr) said: “ ‘Umar came to me and said: ‘The fighting inflicted many casualties among the reciters of the Qur’an on the Day of Al-Yamāmah, and I fear that there will be more casualties among the
reciters in other parts of the land, such that much of the Qur'an may be lost. In my view, you should order that the Qur'an be collected."
Abū Bakr said to 'Umar: "How can I do something which was not done by the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ?" 'Umar said: 'By Allāh! It is something good.' 'Umar continued trying to convince me until Allāh opened up my chest to that which He had opened the chest of 'Umar, and I saw it as he saw it."
Zaid said: 'Abū Bakr said: "You are a young wise man, and we have no suspicions of you. You used to write down the Revelation for the Messenger of Allāh as the Qur'an was revealed." He (Zaid) said: 'By Allāh! If they had ordered me to move one of the mountains it would have been lighter on me than that.' He said: 'I said: "How will you do something which was not done by the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ?" Abū Bakr said: "By Allāh! It is something good." Abū Bakr and 'Umar continued trying to convince me, until Allāh opened up my chest for that, just as He had opened their chests, the chest of Abū Bakr and the chest of 'Umar. So I began searching for Qur'anic material from parchments, leaf stalks of date-palms and Al-Likhāf – meaning stones – and the chests of men. I found the end of Sūrah Barā'ah with Khuzaimah bin Thābit: Verily, there has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any
injury or difficulty. He is eager for you; for the believers (he is) full of pity, kind, and merciful. But if they turn away, say: "Allāh is sufficient for me. There is no god but He, in Him I put my trust, and He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne."[1]
(Saḥīḥ)
[Abū 'Eisā said:] This Hadīth is Ḥasan Saḥīḥ.
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Commentary
When the Prophet ﷺ had left the world, and the noble Companions had to fight on various fronts due to various reasons, many well-versed reciters of the Qur'an began to fall victims of various battles and were martyred. It was then realised that the Qur'an should be gathered in the form of a proper textual book. The Qur'an was already written on different things and also the people had memorised it. The noble Companions were strict followers of the Prophet ﷺ and they had the strongest enthusiastic passion of following the footsteps of the Messenger of Allāh, they would never approve of any kind of disobedience to the example of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. As the Prophet ﷺ did not gather the whole Qur'an in form of a proper textual book, so Abū Bakr was reluctant to do so. But when he became certain that the Prophet ﷺ did not do so because of a certain reason — as he would dictate to write various Revealed Verses at different places in different Sūrah, and there was also the possibility of abrogation of the Verses — after the demise of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ this reason had come to an end. So the current circumstances and the common benefits of the Ummah demanded the preparation of the Qur'an in the form of a proper textual book; finally Abū Bakr agreed to perform this duty.
