WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.160
Have you ever thought about how the Quran actually

00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:04.599
came together into the form Muslims have today?

00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:07.900
Was it fully complete and organized long before

00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:10.939
Muhammad died? Or was it still being revealed

00:00:10.939 --> 00:00:14.220
right up to his final days? There is a well -known

00:00:14.220 --> 00:00:17.179
report in Sahih al -Bukhari that some Muslims

00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:20.019
use to suggest that the Quran was already complete

00:00:20.019 --> 00:00:23.079
and regularly reviewed before Muhammad's death.

00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.600
In Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Often cited in

00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.320
the chapters on the virtues of the Quran, there

00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:33.000
is a narration in which Fatima, the daughter

00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.780
of Muhammad, reports something her father told

00:00:35.780 --> 00:00:38.600
her in private. She says that the prophet told

00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:40.920
her that the angel Gabriel used to review the

00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:43.740
Quran with him once every year. But in the last

00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.000
year of his life, Gabriel reviewed the whole

00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:49.179
Quran with him twice. Muhammad then said that

00:00:49.179 --> 00:00:51.619
he did not think anything about this except that

00:00:51.619 --> 00:00:54.159
his death was drawing near. The full reference

00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:59.420
is Sahih al -Bukhari. Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith

00:00:59.420 --> 00:01:03.679
number 523. In some editions it appears under

00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:07.319
Hadith number 520. If you only read this one

00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:09.819
report, you might get the impression that the

00:01:09.819 --> 00:01:12.920
entire Quran as we know it had already been revealed

00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:16.000
and fixed in form some time before Muhammad died.

00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:18.799
But is that really what the broader Islamic sources

00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:22.959
teach? When we turn to the Sirat, the early biographies

00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:26.540
of Muhammad, such as Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasulallah

00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:30.599
as edited by Ibn Hisham, and to the historical

00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:33.879
chronicle of Al -Tabari, we find many episodes

00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:37.079
in which specific passages of the Qur 'an are

00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:39.780
said to have been revealed at particular moments

00:01:39.780 --> 00:01:43.019
in Muhammad's life. These episodes stretch all

00:01:43.019 --> 00:01:45.879
the way from his early Meccan ministry to his

00:01:45.879 --> 00:01:48.780
last years in Medina. The Hadith collections

00:01:48.780 --> 00:01:51.040
support this picture of continuing revelation.

00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:55.230
In Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Hadith number

00:01:55.230 --> 00:01:59.810
505, narrated by Anas ibn Malik. We are told

00:01:59.810 --> 00:02:02.870
that Allah sent down his divine inspiration to

00:02:02.870 --> 00:02:06.530
his apostle continuously and abundantly in the

00:02:06.530 --> 00:02:09.750
period just before his death, until Allah took

00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:13.030
him to himself. The narration explains that this

00:02:13.030 --> 00:02:15.830
time near the end of his life was when the greatest

00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:18.909
part of revelation came down, and that Allah's

00:02:18.909 --> 00:02:22.590
apostle died after that. The full citation is

00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:27.969
Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith

00:02:27.969 --> 00:02:32.530
505. Sahih Muslim confirms the same idea. In

00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:39.550
Sahih Muslim, Book 43, Hadith number 7152, Anas

00:02:39.550 --> 00:02:43.469
ibn Malik again reports that Allah, the Exalted

00:02:43.469 --> 00:02:46.430
and Glorious, sent revelation to the Messenger

00:02:46.430 --> 00:02:49.909
of Allah just before his death in quick succession

00:02:50.539 --> 00:02:53.680
until he departed this world, and that on the

00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:57.759
very day he died, he received revelation profusely.

00:02:57.900 --> 00:03:01.680
The full reference is Sahih Muslim, Book 43,

00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:08.060
Kitab al -Fada 'il, Hadith 7152. So put those

00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:11.219
two strands together and ask yourself, if revelation

00:03:11.219 --> 00:03:13.979
was still coming down in great quantity right

00:03:13.979 --> 00:03:17.650
up to the day Muhammad died, how could any complete

00:03:17.650 --> 00:03:20.930
and final written collection of all his revelations

00:03:20.930 --> 00:03:24.590
have been finished during his lifetime? By definition,

00:03:24.810 --> 00:03:28.090
if revelation was ongoing, the full set of verses

00:03:28.090 --> 00:03:30.870
could only be gathered after his death. Muslims

00:03:30.870 --> 00:03:33.889
who accept Sahih al -Bukhari and Sahih Muslim

00:03:33.889 --> 00:03:37.370
as reliable often try to reconcile these reports.

00:03:37.909 --> 00:03:40.650
One common attempt is to say that when Gabriel

00:03:40.650 --> 00:03:43.550
reviewed the Quran with Muhammad once each year,

00:03:43.669 --> 00:03:47.219
and twice in the last year, He was only reviewing

00:03:47.219 --> 00:03:49.699
the material that had already been revealed up

00:03:49.699 --> 00:03:52.759
to that point in time. In that view, the yearly

00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:55.439
reviews did not require the Quran to be complete.

00:03:55.699 --> 00:03:58.800
They were simply periodic checks of what had

00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:02.020
already come down so far. But does that explanation

00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:05.020
solve all the tensions? Christian researcher

00:04:05.020 --> 00:04:08.800
John Gilchrist, in his book Jam al -Quran, The

00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:12.139
Muslim View of the Quranic Text, examines several

00:04:12.139 --> 00:04:14.659
traditions about Gabriel's role in reviewing

00:04:14.659 --> 00:04:18.079
the Quran. He notes that some reports say Zayd

00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:21.100
ibn Thabit attended the final review with Gabriel

00:04:21.100 --> 00:04:24.139
and Muhammad. Other reports say that Abdullah

00:04:24.139 --> 00:04:27.819
ibn Masud took part in the yearly reviews. These

00:04:27.819 --> 00:04:30.699
differing claims create confusion about who actually

00:04:30.699 --> 00:04:33.959
witnessed what. Gilchrist's full reference would

00:04:33.959 --> 00:04:37.779
be John Gilchrist, Jamal Quran, Mertz Esa, or

00:04:37.779 --> 00:04:40.560
similar publisher, especially the chapters on

00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:43.079
the final recension and the Gabrielic review.

00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:46.759
There is another difficulty. In Sahih al -Bukhari,

00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:52.480
Volume 6, Book 60, Hadith number 378, Muhammad

00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:55.519
is reported to have said that he only saw the

00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:58.800
angel Gabriel in his true angelic form twice.

00:04:59.220 --> 00:05:02.199
If Gabriel only appeared in his full form two

00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:05.540
times, how are we to picture these multiple yearly

00:05:05.540 --> 00:05:09.160
review sessions described in other hadith? Were

00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:12.060
they visionary experiences? Physical encounters?

00:05:12.699 --> 00:05:15.480
or remembered recitations without a visible form.

00:05:15.779 --> 00:05:18.819
The sources are not always clear, and the differences

00:05:18.819 --> 00:05:21.939
between them can be hard to harmonize. So let

00:05:21.939 --> 00:05:24.980
us step back and ask the big question. If revelation

00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:27.860
was still coming in rapid succession right up

00:05:27.860 --> 00:05:31.360
to the day Muhammad died, as Anas ibn Malik reports

00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:35.480
in both Sahih al -Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, and

00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:37.920
if the final collection of the Quranic text was

00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.569
only completed under later caliphs, through the

00:05:40.569 --> 00:05:43.769
work of companions like Zayd ibn Thabit. Then,

00:05:43.910 --> 00:05:46.509
can we really say that the Quran in its present

00:05:46.509 --> 00:05:49.290
form was fully fixed and reviewed cover to cover

00:05:49.290 --> 00:05:52.689
by Gabriel and Muhammad as a finished book during

00:05:52.689 --> 00:05:55.670
his lifetime? The hadith about the annual and

00:05:55.670 --> 00:05:58.610
final double review suggest care and seriousness

00:05:58.610 --> 00:06:02.110
in preserving what had already come down. But

00:06:02.110 --> 00:06:04.750
the other hadith in the Sirat remind us that

00:06:04.750 --> 00:06:07.149
the process of revelation and collection was

00:06:07.149 --> 00:06:11.930
ongoing, complex, and only finalized after Muhammad's

00:06:11.930 --> 00:06:14.949
death. For anyone examining the formation of

00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:18.310
the Quran, these tensions need to be faced honestly,

00:06:18.610 --> 00:06:22.170
not smoothed over by simple statements that everything

00:06:22.170 --> 00:06:26.490
was neat, complete, and perfectly organized long

00:06:26.490 --> 00:06:28.629
before the Prophet's final breath.