Uthman and One Quran for All

At a glance

Era 1

Uthman, the third caliph, led the Muslims through twelve years of growth, had the Quran copied in one standard text for the major cities, and was killed in 656 CE after a time of unrest.

When: 644-656 CE (23-35 AH)
Where: Madinah, the northern frontier, Cyprus, North Africa and the cities of the provinces
Known as: The standard copies of Uthman
Key people: Uthman ibn Affan, Zayd ibn Thabit, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, Hafsah, Muawiyah
Key places: Madinah, Kufah, Basrah, Damascus, Makkah
Read time: 5 minutes

Part oneThe third caliph

For days after Umar was buried, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) went from house to house in Madinah asking one question: whom did the people want to lead them? He was one of the six Companions Umar had named to choose among themselves. He asked men and women, and he asked those passing through the city. In Muharram of 24 AH (late 644 CE) Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) was chosen, and Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) pledged to him.

Uthman was a wealthy merchant of Quraysh, gentle and known for his modesty. He had accepted Islam in the early years and had migrated twice, first to Abyssinia and then to Madinah. He was also one of the scribes who wrote down revelation for the Prophet ﷺ. He bought a well in Madinah, the Well of Rumah, and made it a gift to all Muslims. He also paid for much of the army that marched to Tabuk. He is called Dhun-Nurayn, the one with two lights, because he married two daughters of the Prophet ﷺ, Ruqayyah and later Umm Kulthum (may Allah be pleased with them). At Hudaybiyyah the Prophet ﷺ sent him as envoy to Makkah, and when the Companions pledged themselves there, the Prophet ﷺ placed one of his own hands over the other as the pledge for Uthman.

The early years of his reign were years of growth. Muslim armies pushed on across Persia to the edge of Central Asia, and in Armenia and North Africa they advanced further. A fleet from Syria under its governor Muawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) took Cyprus in 649 CE. In 655 CE a Muslim fleet, largely raised in Egypt under its governor Abdullah ibn Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him), met a Byzantine fleet off the southern coast of Anatolia in a sea battle known as the Battle of the Masts. In Madinah, the Prophet's Masjid was enlarged.

Part twoOne Quran for all

By now the Muslims lived in many provinces, and people had learned the Quran from different Companions. All the recitations went back to the Prophet ﷺ, and some differences in reading were allowed. But in the camps on the Armenian front, soldiers from Syria and Iraq began to quarrel over whose reading was right. Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him), who was there, was alarmed. He rode to Madinah and urged Uthman to act before the Muslims divided over their Book, as earlier communities had divided over theirs.

From the hadith

Narrated Anas bin Malik:

Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman came to `Uthman at the time when the people of Sham and the people of Iraq were Waging war to conquer Arminya and Adharbijan. Hudhaifa was afraid of their (the people of Sham and Iraq) differences in the recitation of the Qur'an, so he said to `Uthman, "O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur'an) as Jews and the Christians did before." So `Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, "Send us the manuscripts of the Qur'an so that we may compile the Qur'anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you." Hafsa sent it to `Uthman. `Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit, `Abdullah bin AzZubair, Sa`id bin Al-As and `AbdurRahman bin Harith bin Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. `Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, "In case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point in the Qur'an, then write it in the dialect of Quraish, the Qur'an was revealed in their tongue." They did so, and when they had written many copies, `Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. `Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur'anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt.

Sahih al-Bukhari 4987 · Book 66, Hadith 9English translation from sunnah.com

Uthman asked Hafsah (may Allah be pleased with her) for the sheets that Abu Bakr had gathered, which had passed to her. He formed a committee led by Zayd ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him), with three men of Quraysh to assist. Where the committee differed over how a word should be written, they were to follow the dialect of Quraysh, since the Quran had come down in it.

The committee wrote out several copies in the plain script of the time, before dots and vowel marks were added to Arabic writing. Uthman sent them to the major cities and kept one in Madinah. The cities most often named are Makkah, Damascus, Kufah and Basrah. The sheets were returned to Hafsah. Other personal copies and fragments that differed from the standard were collected and burned, so that no argument could start from them.

Some Companions disliked giving up their own copies, and the matter was discussed openly. In the end the standard text was accepted by the Companions, and it is the text that Muslims everywhere have read since.

Part threeThe final year

The calm did not last. In his last years Uthman faced complaints. Some were about the governors he had appointed, who were often relatives, and some were about how public funds were spent. Many in the provinces were frustrated, and groups travelled from Egypt, Kufah and Basrah to Madinah in 35 AH (655-656 CE). Uthman answered them in public and agreed to remove some officials. Other Companions in Madinah tried to mediate. Hasan and Husayn, the grandsons of the Prophet ﷺ (may Allah be pleased with them), stood at his door with others, and he asked them to put down their weapons.

Uthman refused to call an army from Syria to Madinah. He said he would not be the first successor of the Prophet ﷺ to spill blood in the Prophet's city. His house was surrounded for weeks. In Dhu al-Hijjah of 35 AH (June 656 CE), in his eighties, he was killed in his home while reading the Quran. All Muslims honour him as one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

Accounts differ on the details of those last weeks, and Muslims have told them with care. A time of trial for the whole community had begun.

Uthman had the Quran copied once and sent it to the great cities, so that the same words would reach every one of them.

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The mapWhere it happened

Madinah
Makkah
Damascus
Kufah
Basrah
the Armenian frontier

The cities that received a standard copy of the Quran, with Madinah at the centre and the northern frontier where the disagreement began.Sketch map, not to scale.

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

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