WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.220 So now that we have seen how different regional 00:00:02.220 --> 00:00:04.620 codices of the Qur 'an were competing with each 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:07.620 other, let us zoom in on one of the most important 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:10.619 figures in that story, Abdullah ibn Mas 'ud, 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:13.980 because once you see his role, the tension with 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:17.120 the modern narrative becomes even clearer. Let 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:19.660 me start with this question. If Muhammad himself 00:00:19.660 --> 00:00:22.600 told his followers who to learn the Qur 'an from, 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:25.699 would that not be a big deal for how we think 00:00:25.699 --> 00:00:29.359 about authority and expertise in the text? In 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.840 Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, in the section titled 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:35.420 The Virtues of the Qur 'an, there is a report 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:37.859 at the beginning of Chapter 8 that speaks directly 00:00:37.859 --> 00:00:41.979 to this. In Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 00:00:41.979 --> 00:00:48.079 61, Hadith 521, it says, Narrated Masrook Abdullah 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:51.079 ibn Amr mentioned Abdullah ibn Masud and said, 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:54.340 I shall always love that man. For I heard the 00:00:54.340 --> 00:00:57.399 Prophet saying, Take, that is, learn the Qur 00:00:57.399 --> 00:01:00.500 'an from four. From Abdullah ibn Masud, from 00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:04.980 Salim, from Mu 'adh, and from Ubay ibn Kab. That 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:09.939 is Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith 00:01:09.939 --> 00:01:14.239 521. So according to this hadith, when Muhammad 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:16.719 listed the four main people his followers should 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:19.680 learn the Quran from, he began with Abdullah 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.439 ibn Masud. Notice also that Zayd ibn Thabit, 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:26.459 the man whose codex eventually became the basis 00:01:26.459 --> 00:01:29.560 of the standard Quran, is not mentioned in this 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:32.640 list at all. Sahih Muslim reinforces the same 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:36.239 emphasis. In Sahih Muslim, Book 31, which is 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:40.379 the Book of Virtues, Hadith 6024, there is a 00:01:40.379 --> 00:01:44.480 similar report. It says, Masrook reported, We 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:47.299 used to go to Abdullah ibn Amr and talk to him. 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:50.780 One day we mentioned Abdullah ibn Masud. Abdullah 00:01:50.780 --> 00:01:53.920 ibn Amr said, You have mentioned a man whom I 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.250 love. I heard the Messenger of Allah say, Learn 00:01:57.250 --> 00:02:00.310 the Qur 'an from four people. From Ibn Umm Abd, 00:02:00.549 --> 00:02:03.329 that is another name for Abdullah ibn Masud. 00:02:03.469 --> 00:02:06.849 Then from Mu 'adh ibn Jabal. Then from Ubay ibn 00:02:06.849 --> 00:02:09.949 Kab. Then from Salim, the freed slave and ally 00:02:09.949 --> 00:02:13.689 of Abu Hudayfa. That is Sahih Muslim, Book 31, 00:02:14.069 --> 00:02:19.169 Hadith 6024. Again in this list, Abdullah ibn 00:02:19.169 --> 00:02:22.750 Masud comes first. And once more, Zayd ibn Thabit 00:02:22.750 --> 00:02:26.020 is not included at all. That tells us that in 00:02:26.020 --> 00:02:28.379 the Prophet's own lifetime, at least according 00:02:28.379 --> 00:02:31.060 to these respected hadith collections, Abdullah 00:02:31.060 --> 00:02:34.360 ibn Masud stood at the top of the list as a Qur 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:37.780 'an expert and teacher. Abdullah ibn Masud himself 00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:40.699 speaks with tremendous confidence about his knowledge 00:02:40.699 --> 00:02:43.580 of the Qur 'an. In Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 00:02:43.580 --> 00:02:49.960 6, Book 65, Hadith 524, we read this. Narrated 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:53.719 Abdullah, meaning Abdullah ibn Masud. By Allah. 00:02:54.330 --> 00:02:57.169 other than whom none has the right to be worshipped, 00:02:57.349 --> 00:03:00.330 there is no surah revealed in the Book of Allah, 00:03:00.530 --> 00:03:04.590 but that I know where it was revealed. And there 00:03:04.590 --> 00:03:07.210 is no verse revealed in the Book of Allah, but 00:03:07.210 --> 00:03:10.430 that I know about whom it was revealed. And if 00:03:10.430 --> 00:03:12.729 I knew that there was someone who knows the Book 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:15.550 of Allah better than I do, and that his dwelling 00:03:15.550 --> 00:03:18.729 place could be reached by camels, I would travel 00:03:18.729 --> 00:03:28.539 to him. Hadith 524 So here is a man who Muhammad 00:03:28.539 --> 00:03:31.620 himself singled out as a primary teacher of the 00:03:31.620 --> 00:03:34.659 Quran, and who claims to know the context of 00:03:34.659 --> 00:03:38.460 every surah and every verse. Naturally, he kept 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:41.979 his own codex of the Quran, and as we saw in 00:03:41.979 --> 00:03:45.180 the previous section, his codex became the standard 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:48.919 text for the region of Kufa before Uthman imposed 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:51.979 a single official version. Christian scholar 00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:55.599 John Gilchrist in his book Jam al -Qur 'an, spends 00:03:55.599 --> 00:04:00.539 a whole section comparing the codex of Abdullah 00:04:00.539 --> 00:04:04.139 ibn Masud with the codex of Zayd ibn Thabit. 00:04:04.259 --> 00:04:07.460 He draws especially on two early Muslim works, 00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:11.560 Ibn Abi Dawud's Kitab al -Masahif and Ibn Sa'd's 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:15.319 Kitab al -Tabaqat al -Kabir. These sources preserve 00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:18.000 Ibn Masud's reaction when Caliph Uthman ordered 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.050 that his codex be rejected. and Zaid's Codex 00:04:21.050 --> 00:04:24.189 be adopted as the official version, let me cite 00:04:24.189 --> 00:04:26.730 some of those statements clearly. In Ibn Abi 00:04:26.730 --> 00:04:30.269 Dawud's Kitab al -Masahif, page 17, there is 00:04:30.269 --> 00:04:33.629 a report in which Abdullah ibn Masud says, I 00:04:33.629 --> 00:04:36.810 recited from the Messenger of Allah 70 surahs 00:04:36.810 --> 00:04:39.730 which I had perfected before Zaid ibn Thabit 00:04:39.730 --> 00:04:43.649 had even accepted Islam. That is Ibn Abi Dawud, 00:04:43.689 --> 00:04:48.310 Kitab al -Masahif, page 17. On page 15 of the 00:04:48.310 --> 00:04:51.500 same book, Ibn Abi Dawud records Abdullah ibn 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:54.699 Masud saying, I acquired directly from the Messenger 00:04:54.699 --> 00:04:58.600 of Allah 70 surahs when Zaid was still a young 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:02.060 boy. Must I now abandon what I acquired directly 00:05:02.060 --> 00:05:04.959 from the Messenger of Allah? That is Ibn Abi 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:08.379 Dawud, Kitab al -Masahif, page 15. In another 00:05:08.379 --> 00:05:12.420 source, Ibn Sad's Kitab al -Tabaqat al -Kabir, 00:05:12.519 --> 00:05:15.120 which is a major early biographical dictionary, 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:18.750 we find an even stronger statement. In Kitab 00:05:18.750 --> 00:05:24.009 al -Tabaqat al -Kabir, Volume 2, page 444, Abdullah 00:05:24.009 --> 00:05:27.649 ibn Masud is recorded as saying, The people have 00:05:27.649 --> 00:05:29.790 been guilty of deceit in the reading of the Qur 00:05:29.790 --> 00:05:33.230 'an. I prefer to recite according to the recitation 00:05:33.230 --> 00:05:35.970 of the one whom I love, meaning the Prophet, 00:05:36.209 --> 00:05:39.689 rather than that of Zayd ibn Thabit, by the one 00:05:39.689 --> 00:05:43.420 besides whom there is no God. I learned more 00:05:43.420 --> 00:05:46.540 than 70 surahs directly from the lips of the 00:05:46.540 --> 00:05:50.480 Messenger of Allah, while Zayd ibn Thabit was 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:53.560 a youth with two locks of hair playing with other 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:57.420 youths. That is Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al -Tabaqat al 00:05:57.420 --> 00:06:02.660 -Kabir, Volume 2, page 444. In the edited Arabic 00:06:02.660 --> 00:06:06.100 edition of Kitab al -Masahif by Abu Bakr Abdullah 00:06:06.100 --> 00:06:09.959 ibn Abi Dawud, prepared by Arthur Jeffrey, and 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:13.379 published in Cairo in the year 1355 of the Hijra, 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:20.220 on pages 166 and 167, there is another paraphrase 00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:23.379 of Ibn Masud's protest. There he is reported 00:06:23.379 --> 00:06:27.100 as asking, Am I to abandon what I acquired from 00:06:27.100 --> 00:06:30.439 the very lips of the Prophet? That is Ibn Abi 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:34.600 Dawud, Kitab al -Masahif, edited by Arthur Jeffrey, 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:43.399 Cairo, 1936. So put yourself in his shoes for 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:45.959 a moment. You have been publicly affirmed by 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:48.399 Muhammad as one of the four primary teachers 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:51.040 of the Qur 'an. You have memorized and written 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:54.519 down at least 70 surahs directly from his mouth. 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:57.100 You have taught your recitation to an entire 00:06:57.100 --> 00:07:00.800 region like Kufa. Then, years later, a younger 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:03.100 man who was still a child when you were already 00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:06.339 learning surahs from the Prophet has his codex 00:07:06.339 --> 00:07:09.579 chosen as the official version, and your codex 00:07:09.579 --> 00:07:12.639 is ordered to be burned. Is it any wonder that 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:16.199 Abdullah ibn Masud resisted? His words show that 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:18.860 he did not regard Zayd's codex as automatically 00:07:18.860 --> 00:07:22.319 superior. On the contrary, he believed that he 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:24.879 himself had closer and more extensive access 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:27.920 to the Prophet's recitation than Zayd ever did. 00:07:28.379 --> 00:07:31.959 John Gilchrist, in Jam al -Qur 'an, uses these 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:34.480 statements to argue that the choice of Zayd's 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:37.850 codex under Uthman was not a simple recognition 00:07:37.850 --> 00:07:41.129 of one perfectly preserved text over obviously 00:07:41.129 --> 00:07:45.189 flawed ones. Rather, it was a political and practical 00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:48.490 decision to impose one reading in the face of 00:07:48.490 --> 00:07:51.269 serious and sincere disagreement among leading 00:07:51.269 --> 00:07:54.970 companions, including the very man Muhammad had 00:07:54.970 --> 00:07:58.470 put first on his list of Quran teachers. So here 00:07:58.470 --> 00:08:01.009 is the question we are left with. If Muhammad 00:08:01.009 --> 00:08:04.899 said, learn the Quran from four, and he put Abdullah 00:08:04.899 --> 00:08:08.459 ibn Masud first in both Sahih al -Bukhari and 00:08:08.459 --> 00:08:11.660 Sahih Muslim, and if that same Abdullah loudly 00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:15.439 protested when his codex was set aside and his 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:18.339 reading was suppressed, what does that do to 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:21.420 the modern claim that the Uthmanic text we have 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:24.800 today is the only legitimate and perfectly preserved 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:27.699 version of the Quran that ever existed?