Who wrote the Quran?

What does the Quran say about its own source?

These verses are quoted as they stand. An-Najm 53:3 to 4 say of the Prophet:

Al-Haqqah 69:41 to 43 say:

Ash-Shu'ara 26:192 to 195 say:

Muslims take these verses to mean that the Quran came to the Prophet from Allah and was not his own composition. For commentary, see how to understand the Quran. Q

When was the Quran revealed?

The Quran names the month: "The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Quran, a guidance for mankind" (Al-Baqarah 2:185). Al-Qadr 97:1 says: "Indeed, We revealed it on the Night of Predestination."

'Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, told how revelation began, in a hadith (a report from the Prophet's time). It came first as true dreams, then the Prophet worshipped alone in the cave of Hira. There the angel came and said "Read". He answered that he was not a reader. The angel pressed him three times, then recited the opening of Al-Alaq (Sahih al-Bukhari 3, graded sahih). He returned with his heart trembling to his wife Khadijah, may Allah be pleased with her.

1AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3

The rest came in instalments. Al-Isra 17:106 says: "a Quran that We have divided, that you may recite it to mankind at intervals". Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said revelation came to the Prophet at forty, that he stayed thirteen years before the order to emigrate, then ten in Madinah, and died (Sahih al-Bukhari 3851, graded sahih). Thirteen and ten make 23; that sum is ours.

2AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3851

In Fath al-Bari, his commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, Ibn Hajar reports Ibn Abbas's statement that the Quran was sent down as a whole to the lowest heaven in the Night of Power, then revealed over about twenty years. He prefers this account to others he mentions, one reported by a weak and broken route and one he calls gharib (unusual). He says Jibril (the angel Gabriel, peace be upon him) would review with the Prophet in Ramadan what had come down through the year (vol. 9, pp. 4 to 5, 3). See angels in Islam.

When was the Quran written down?

The whole Quran was written down in the Prophet's lifetime, says Ibn Hajar, though not gathered in one place or with its surahs in order (Fath al-Bari, vol. 9, pp. 12 to 13, 4). He names Zayd ibn Thabit, who wrote most of what came down in Madinah, and Ubayy ibn Ka'b, who wrote there before Zayd, may Allah be pleased with them. Zayd became Muslim after the hijrah (the move to Madinah), so others wrote what came down in Makkah. Ibn Hajar also reports 'Uthman's narration that the Prophet, when verses came down, called one of his scribes and told him which surah to put them in (vol. 9, p. 22, 5).

How was the Quran collected into one volume?

The Bukhari reports below are given as Ibn Hajar quotes them and are not graded here.

Under Abu Bakr

Ibn Hajar quotes al-Bukhari's chapter on the collection of the Quran. Zayd says Abu Bakr sent for him after the battle of al-Yamama. 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, feared much of the Quran would be lost if its reciters kept falling in battle, and Abu Bakr told Zayd, who had written the revelation for the Prophet, to collect it. Zayd gathered it from palm stalks, thin stones and the memories of men. The sheets stayed with Abu Bakr, then 'Umar, then 'Umar's daughter Hafsa, may Allah be pleased with her (vol. 9, pp. 10 to 11, 6).

Under 'Uthman

In the next report, as Ibn Hajar quotes it (vol. 9, p. 11, 7):

1. Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman, may Allah be pleased with him, was fighting in Armenia and Azerbaijan when differences in recitation among the troops alarmed him. He told 'Uthman to act.
2. 'Uthman asked Hafsa for the sheets. Zayd, 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, Sa'id ibn al-'As and 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham, may Allah be pleased with them, copied them into volumes, writing in the tongue of Quraysh wherever the three Qurashi men and Zayd differed.
3. 'Uthman returned the sheets to Hafsa, sent a volume to each region and ordered the other material destroyed.

Fath al-Bari dates this to 25 AH (years counted from the hijrah, about 645 to 646 CE); the academic survey below, following al-Tabari, gives the campaign as apparently 30 AH (vol. 9, p. 17, 8; 13).

Where do the sources differ?

What does one academic survey say about when the text was fixed?

This page does not report historians on authorship; the article concerns when the written text was fixed, not where the Quran came from.

Nicolai Sinai, then at the University of Oxford, surveys modern scholarship in a 2014 article in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (13). Sinai reports that the Islamic tradition credits 'Uthman (reigned 644 to 656 CE) with the uniform written text, and that Casanova and Mingana argued it was fixed under the caliph 'Abd al-Malik (685 to 705 CE).

Sinai writes that:

• Schwally's 1919 revision of Noldeke accepted 'Uthman's role, which became the default view of most later scholarship.
• Crone and Cook, and Wansbrough, argued in 1977 for eighth-century dates, and Wansbrough's very late dating has increasingly been seen as untenable.
• Several recent scholars favour 'Abd al-Malik's time, or a text open to revision until about 700 CE.
• Harald Motzki traced the reports of Abu Bakr's collection and 'Uthman's dissemination back to at least al-Zuhri.

On manuscripts, Sinai reports a radiocarbon test of a folio of the Sana'a palimpsest (a manuscript whose lower text was written over) giving a 95 per cent probability that the parchment dates from between 578 and 669 CE. If the parchment was used relatively quickly after the animal died, he writes, a date before 660 CE "would currently seem to be the most defensible assessment". He adds that radiocarbon dating of codices of known date has been known to give dates too early by several decades. He says its lower text is recognisably the Quran but differs from the standard text in places.

In his conclusion, Sinai says the data he examined are compatible with the conventional dating of the codification. It must be modified, he writes, to allow several rival recensions in circulation even after 650 CE and selective, mostly liturgical use of the Quran until the end of the seventh century. He says the "emergent canon model", a text recognisable by about 660 CE but reworked until about 700 CE, "remains in the race". Part I announces Part II, which will discuss arguments for a mid-seventh-century or earlier date (not read here).