The Quran and Zayd ibn Thabit

The Prophet Muhammad and his followers have left Mecca to arrive here in the city of Yathrib. But who is this? This is Zayd ibn Thabit. He is eleven years old, and lives here. Zayd admires Muhammad who, right now is preparing for a battle against Mecca.

Please let me join the army. I want to fight for you. But Muhammad thinks that Zayd is far too young. Disappointed, but not disheartened Zayd instead listens closely to Muhammad’s recitations of the Quran. Two years later.

Muhammad is preparing another battle against Mecca. The army? Please? But no. Muhammad still thinks that Zayd is too young.

But now Muhammad starts to take notice of the boy. Zayd is able to recite long pieces of the Quran by heart. He can read and write, and is good with languages. Muhammad asks Zayd to learn Hebrew and Syriac. Zayd happily does so.

And soon he helps Muhammad in his correspondence with neighbouring people. Zayd becomes Muhammad's secretary. He follows Muhammad wherever he goes and listens closely to him. Soon Zayd becomes an expert on the Quran. Muhammad says that he received the Quran from God - Allah.

Muhammad doesn’t know how to read or write, but says that the angel Jibril has taught him to recite every word by heart. The word Quran means ‘reading’ or ‘recitation’ in Arabic. Muhammad now wants Zayd to write these words down. Zayd happily does so. At nineteen years old, finally Zayd joins the army.

But it’s not as a warrior that he is remembered throughout history. It’s because of what’s happening now: Muhammad has died and Abu Bakr has become Caliph. Zayd – like several others of Muhammad’s followers – has learned or taken notes of what Muhammad has narrated from the Quran. But there is no single collection of them. Abu Bakr wants Zayd to compile one.

Zayd hesitates. Scary! Sure, Zayd knows almost all of the Quran by heart, but this still seems like an impossible task to perform. Sections of the Quran have been written down on whatever was at hand: stones, pieces of parchment, pieces of bone, and leaves and bark from date palm trees. Hard to do...

but he’s happy to try. Zayd collects everything that has been written down, and talks to anyone who has memorised anything. To certify that everything is correct, there must be at least two witnesses to every quote. This material becomes 114 chapters - surahs. Zayd sorts the Surahs.

He starts with an introductory Surah - The Opening. The rest he sorts by length, from the longest to the shortest. So it’s the second surah in the Quran that is the longest, while the last one is the shortest - only a couple of lines. Every surah but one starts in the same way: In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The Quran deals with God’s will, and how people are supposed to live to be good.

And it’s also about the life after death. Finally Zayd succeeds in putting it all together. And is able to present it to Abu Bakr. Well done Zayd! Abu Bakr dies and there are new caliphs.

This Caliph - Uthman - is worried. There are great differences between dialects in different Arabic speaking areas. So when people are quoting the Quran, differences in choice of words appear. What if God’s words become misinterpreted? Uthman asks Zayd to write five copies of the Quran that he assembled for Abu Bakr.

These copies are distributed to other muslim main cities. Uthman demands that every other version is to be destroyed. Why is this so important? Well, if the Quran really is God’s own words as they have been recited, it means that every word is meaningful and should not be changed or translated. It’s better to keep to the right words think both Uthman and Zayd.

But now we’ll leave Zayd and let him do what he does best: not fight but write.