The Qur'an is a unique book. It is the words of Allah :swt: Himself. It was revealed on the heart of the Prophet :saws:.
It is one of the miracles of the Qur'an that it wasn't sent down as written book. Written scriptures can be tampered with, as have happened with all previous scriptures. But Allah :swt: preserved the Qur'an by a unique method, memorization and oral recitation.
Allah SubHanahu wa Ta'ala says:
وَإِنَّهُ لَتَنزِيلُ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ﴿١٩٢﴾ نَزَلَ بِهِ الرُّوحُ الْأَمِينُ ﴿١٩٣﴾ عَلَىٰ قَلْبِكَ لِتَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُنذِرِينَ ﴿١٩٤﴾ بِلِسَانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُّبِينٍ ﴿١٩٥﴾ـ
And indeed, the Qur'an is the revelation of the Lord of the worlds.
The Trustworthy Spirit has brought it down
Upon your heart, [O Muhammad] - that you may be of the warners -
In a clear Arabic language. [26:192-195]
Previous scriptures were in written from yet they were corrupted. The miracle of the Qur'an is that it is revealed on the heart of our Prophet :saws1: and it passes on from a heart to millions of hearts until Allah wills for it to be lifted near the last Day.
To preserve the complete Qur'an, Jibra'eel :as: used to recite the Qur'an to the Prophet :saws: every year during Ramadhan.
Narrated Abu-Huraira :ra:
Gabriel used to repeat the recitation of the Qur'an with the Prophet :saws: once a year, but he repeated it twice with him in the year he died. The Prophet :saws: used to stay in I'tikaf for ten days every year (in the month of Ramadan), but in the year of his death, he stayed in I'tikaf for twenty days. [
Bukhari]
As we can see from the above Hadith, the Qur'an was completely finalized as we have it now during the last year of the Prophet :saws:. Since then, there has been no additions or subtractions.
The Qur'an was completely memorized by heart by several companions of the Prophet :saws: during his lifetime. It was also written down completely during his lifetime itself but the written parchments were scattered among the companions.
During the time of first Khalifah, Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq :ra:, the written parchments were compiled together in a book form, commonly known as
مصحف MusHaf. During the compilation, each written verse was confirmed by at least two companions who had it memorized and written during the Prophet's :saws: lifetime.
Then again, during the time of the third Khalifah, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan :ra:, Islam became widespread and people began reciting the Qur'an with a slight tint of their own dialects. In order to preserve the original dialect in which Qur'an was revealed, he :ra: ordered copies of the Qur'an in the original Quraish dialect to be made and distributed to all provinces, and asked other various dialects to be discarded.
It is important to note that we have several un-broken
mutawatir chains of narration of the Qur'an present even until now.
Difference between Qur'an and MusHaf
Most people do not know the difference between these two terms. They may not have even come across the words
mushaf (pronounced as
mos-Haf) before. This is the reason why they confuse between the two and automatically assume that the
MusHaf is itself the Qur'an.
The Qur'an is the actual words of Allah revealed on the prophet :saws:. It is the recitation, the actual recited words and
Ayaat and
Suwar (pl. of
Surah), consisting of 114 Surah in total.
Whereas, the
musHaf is the “compiled, written pages of the Qur’an.” In other words, the term “Qur'an” refers to the specific “revelation that was read to Prophet Muhammad” whereas the term “
mushaf” denotes the “written form” of that revelation.
Each
mushaf follows a particular “Qira’a (reading)” of the Qur’an. A “reading” is a way of writing or pronouncing the Qur’anic text. There are seven readings of the Qur’an that are considered authoritative.
A
mushaf may be written using any of a number of different Arabic scripts. For instance, one
mushaf may be written using the
Kufi script and another using
Thulth.
Furthermore, Arabic scripts developed over time, which means older
mushafs that were written using the same script look different from new ones. For instance, the use of diacritical marks (dots above or under letters), which is known as “
i’jam,” and the use of voweling marks (signs representing vowels), which is known as “
tashkil,” were both introduced later into Arabic scripts, so early
mushafs did not have them. The availability of a number of readings and scripts means that different
mushafs may look differently.
All
mushafs have the same organization of chapters and the verses within each chapter. For instance, every
mushaf starts with the chapter of “al-Fatiha (Opening)” and ends with the chapter of “an-Nas (people).” However, chapters and verses are not listed in the
mushaf in the chronological order of their revelation. For instance, the first verses of the Qur’an that were revealed to the Prophet are from chapter 96 in the mushaf.
This is why there is only one Qur’an but different
mushafs. But the differences between those
mushafs are minimal, as they are written, compiled records of the one and same Qur’an.
In conclusion, the Qur'an was complete as an orally recited book during the lifetime of the prophet :saws:, and was written down on several parchments and their copies with several different companions, but it wasn't compiled in a
mushaf form that we see today. The first
mushaf was prepared during the time of Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq :ra:.
Definitions and explanation taken from http://www.quranicstudies.com/quran/the-difference-between-quran-and-mushaf/
saws1
