Missing books of The Quran

TheProphet Muhammad received Quranic revelations orally from the angel Gabriel until the time nearing his demise in 632AD. Following his death, a number of his companions began to record the revelatio ns in written form.

The first Caliph (civil and religious ruler) Abu Bakr decided to preserve the Quranic text by compiling the revelations into a single volume. Zayd ibn Thabit, with a group of scribes, were tasked with the painstaking duty of gathering the Quranic verses from parchments, palm-leaf stalks, stone engravings, and from men who had committed the religious material to memory. The result was a hand written manuscript of the complete Holy Quran. The book remained with Caliph Abu Bakr until his death.

As Islam spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula, into Persia, and across North Africa, the 3rd Caliph, Uthman (in 650), observed minor variances in the pronunciation of the Quran. To preserve the consistency of the sacred text, Uthman sanction the use Abu Bakr’s copy to prepare a standard version of the Quran.

Within 20 years of Prophet Muhammad’s death, the Quran was penned, compiled, and presented as a complete book, with a single standard version (canon). This version became the prototypical model from which all other Quran copies originated.

Uthman ordered the burning of all other versions of the Holy Quran; along with the segments recorded unto animal hides, bones, and tree bark. Even the hand written collections owned by actual followers of Prophet Muhammad, who Muhammad had vouched for, were destroyed.

* The only version to escape the burning was a personal copy held by Muhammad’s widow Hafsa (known as the Hafsa codex). The widow refused to surrender the copy during her lifetime. It was ultimately destroyed after hear death.