The Missing verses found with Abu Khuzaimah

Before closing our study on the collection of the Qur'an during the caliphate of Abu Bakr it is important to study the brief mention made by Zaid of the two verses which he said he found only with Abu Khuzaimah al-Ansari. The full text of the hadith on this subject reads as follows:

I found the last verse of Surat at-Tauba (Repentance) with Abi Khuzaima al-Ansari, and I did not find it with anybody other than him. The verse is: 'Verily there has come to you an Apostle from amongst yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty ... (till the end of Bara'a)'. [Sahib al-Bukhari, Vol.6, p.478).

Insofar as the text speaks for itself without further enquiry, we can see quite plainly that, in his search for the Qur'an, Zaid was dependent on one source alone for the last two verses of Surat at-Tauba. At face value this evidence suggests that no one else knew these verses and that, had they not been found with Abu Khuzaimah, they would have been omitted from the Qur'an text. The incident suggests immediately that, far from there being numerous huffaz who knew the whole Qur'an off by heart to the last letter, it was, in fact, so widely spread that some passages were only known to a few of the companions - in this case, only one.

This ex facie interpretation of the narrative naturally undermines the popular sentiment among Muslims of later generations that the Qur'an was preserved intact because its contents were all known perfectly by all the sahaba of Muhammad who had undertaken to memorise it. A more convenient explanation for the hadith had to be found and we find it expressed in the following quotation from Desai's booklet:

The meaning of the above statement of Hadhrat Zaid should now be very clear that among those who had written the verses under the direct command and supervision of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wa-sallam), Khuz aimah was the only person from whom he (Zaid) found the last two verses of Surah Baqraah written, (Desai, The Quraan Unimpeachable, p.20).

Although the hadith as recorded by al-Bukhari makes no mention of this, Desai claims that the statement that Abu Khuzaima alone had the last two verses of Surat at-Tauba (Bara'a) means that he was in fact the only one who had them in writing under Muhammad's direct supervision. He goes on to say: It was known beyond the slightest shadow of doubt that these two verses were part of the Qur'an. Hundreds of Sahaabah knew the verses from memory.

Furthermore, those Sahaabah who had in their possession the complete recording of the Qur'an in writing also had these particular verses in their written records. But, as far as having written them under the direct supervision of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) was concerned; only Abu Khuzaimah (radhiallahu anhu) had these verses. (Desai, The Quran Unimpeachable, p.21).

The maulana gives no evidences whatsoever in support of these statements. Nowhere in the earliest records of the Hadith literature is there any suggestion that hundreds of Muhammad's companions knew these verses and that others had them in writing, and that what Zaid intended to say was that Abu Khuzaima alone had them in writing directly from Muhammad. Desai's omission of any documentation for his statement is, in the circumstances, most significant.

Siddique, in his article in Al-Balaagh (p.2), also claims that when Zaid said "I could not find a verse" he actually meant he could not find it in writing. As said before, there is nothing in the hadith text itself to yield such an interpretation. From what source, then, do these learned authors obtain this view? It is derived from the following extract which is taken from the Fath al-Baari fii Sharh al-Bukhari of Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Asqalani ibn Hajar, the translation appearing in Burton's The Collection of the Qur'an on pages 127 and 128:

It does not follow from Zaid's saying that he had failed to find the aya from Surat at Tauba in the possession of anyone else, that at that time it was not mutawatira among those who had learnt their Qur'an from the Companions, but had not heard it direct from the Prophet. What Zaid was seeking was the evidence of those who had their Qur'an texts direct from the Prophet. ... The correct interpretation of Zaid's remark that he had failed to find the aya with anyone else is that he had failed to find it in writing, not that he had failed to find those who bore it in their memories. [Fath al-Baari, Vol.9, p.12).

The source from which Desai and Siddique derive their opinions is not from the earliest records of the compilation of the Qur'an but a much later commentary on the Sahih al-Bukhari done by the famous Muslim author al-Asqalani ibn Hajar who was born in 773 A.H. (1372 A.D.) and died in 852 A.H. The earliest source for the interpretation that Zaid was looking for the verses only in authorised written sources thus dates no less than eight centuries after Muhammad's death by which time, as is the case to this day, it had become fashionable to hold the view that the Qur'an had been widely known to perfection by all the companions of Mohammad who had memorised it. It is, therefore, a convenient interpretation read into the text of the hadith to sustain a more recent supposition. There is nothing in the text of the hadith itself, however, to support this interpretation. The extract continues with some very interesting comments:

Besides, it is probable that when Zaid found it with Abu Khuzaima the other companions recalled having heard it. Zaid himself certainly recalled that he had heard it. (Fath al-Baari, op.cit.).

While Desai boldly states that it was known "beyond the slightest shadow of doubt" that the last two verses of Surat at-Tauba were part of the Qur'an and that they were known by "hundreds of Sahaabah" in their memories and by others who had recorded them in writing, his source only goes so far as to suggest that it is "probable" that when Zaid produced them from Abu Khuzaima, the other companions recalled having heard them. A cautious suggestion that the others may have recalled having heard the verses has been transformed by Desai into a bold declaration that they were known by hundreds of them without the aid of recollection "beyond the slightest shadow of doubt".

Here is clear evidence that modern Muslim writers are out to establish a cherished hypothesis - the unquestionable perfection of the Qur'an text - instead of objectively assessing the factual evidences as they stand. Desai's source is only a comparatively recent work of interpretation and yet, even here, he cannot resist the temptation to expand it into wholesale allegations of fact.

Ibn Hajar goes on, on the same page, to say "al-Da'udi commented that Abu Khuzaima was not the sole witness. Zaid knew the verse. It was thus attested by two men", an indication that it was believed by other Muslim scholars that Zaid's statement was not to be manipulated into a claim that the verses were not found in writing but should rather be given its obvious meaning, namely, that no one else knew these verses at all.

What makes the convenient claims of Ibn Hajar, as repeated by Desai and Siddique, even less acceptable is the fact that there is a record in one of the very earliest works of tradition showing in greater detail what Zaid's statement really meant. The narrative reads:

Khuzaimah ibn Thabit said: "I see you have overlooked (two) verses and have not written them". They said "And which are they?" He replied "I had it directly (tilqiyya - 'automatically, spontaneously') from the messenger of Allah (saw) (Surah 9, ayah 128): 'There has come to you a messenger from yourselves. It grieves him that you should perish, he is very concerned about you: to the believers he is kind and merciful', to the end of the surah". Uthman said "I bear witness that these verses are from Allah". (Ibn Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Masahif, p.11).

This narrative implies that the incident took place during Uthman's reign and not at the time of the collection of the Qur'an under Abu Bakr, but it is clearly the same event that is under consideration. (Siddique in fact states that the records showing that Zaid also missed a verse at the time of the recension of the Qur'an under Uthman actually apply to the last two verses of Surat at-Tauba. We shall say more on this when discussing Uthman's recension shortly).

The significant feature of this narrative is that Zaid and the others are said to have missed these verses completely when transcribing the Qur'an. In fact the statement that Zaid only found them with Abu Khu zaima is here stated to mean that it was only on the latter’s initiative that the verses were recorded at all. He found it necessary to draw the compiler's attention to them - it was not Zaid's search for two verses he already knew