So now that we have spent some time looking at
Abdullah ibn Masud and his codex, it makes sense
to ask, what about the other giant of Quran recitation
in early Islam? What about Ubay ibn Kab? How
did he fit into this whole picture of competing
texts and readings? Remember those hadith we
looked at earlier, where the Prophet named four
people you should learn the Quran from. In Sahih
al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith 521, it
says, Narrated Masruk, Abdullah ibn Amr mentioned
Abdullah ibn Masud and said, I shall always love
that man, for I heard the Prophet saying, Take
the Qur 'an from four, from Abdullah ibn Masud,
from Salim, from Mu 'adh, and from Ubay ibn Kab.
You hear that? Ubay ibn Kab is one of the four
names mentioned by Muhammad himself as a primary
source for learning the Qur 'an. We saw the same
list in Sahih Muslim, Book 31. Hadith 6024 In
that report it says, Masrook said, We used to
go to Abdullah ibn Amr and talk to him. One day
we mentioned Abdullah ibn Masud. Abdullah ibn
Amr said, You have mentioned a man whom I love.
I heard the messenger of Allah say, Learn the
Quran from four persons. From Ibn Umm Abd, meaning
Abdullah ibn Masud. Second, Umar says that abrogated
or forgotten revelations are replaced by something
similar or better from Allah. But how can that
replacement process work after the prophet has
died? If new revelation is needed to replace
an older abrogated verse, and if revelation ceased
with Muhammad's death, then on what basis could
verses be removed or left out after that point?
Again, Ubay ibn Kab is in that inner circle of
top -level Quran teachers. Now, beyond being
named in those lists, Ubay had a special reputation
as a reciter. Christian scholar John Gilchrist,
in his book Jam al -Qur 'an, points out several
traditions that show just how highly regarded
Ubay was. He refers to the early Muslim historian
Ibn Sa'd and his work Kitab al -Tabaqat al -Kabir,
which is a large biographical collection. In
Kitab al -Tabaqat al -Kabir, Volume 2, page 441,
Ibn Sa'd preserves a hadith in which Anas ibn
Malik reports a statement about Ubay. The chain
goes like this. Afan ibn Muslim narrated to us,
from a chain back to Anas ibn Malik. Anas says
that the Prophet said, The best reader of the
Quran among my people is Ubay ibn Kab. That is
Ibn Sad, Kitab al -Tabaqat al -Kabir, Volume
2, page 441. Because of this, Ubay became known
by the title Sayyid al -Qurra. meaning the master
of the readers. Gilchrist also notes that Umar
ibn al -Khattab, the second caliph, is reported
to have confirmed Ubay's excellence in recitation.
In Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, on page 489 in
some Arabic printings, Umar is reported as saying
that Ubay was the best among them in the recitation
of the Qur 'an, even though Umar did not follow
everything that Ubay recited. We will come back
to that tension in a moment. Another very interesting
tradition shows a personal connection between
Ubay and specific Quranic revelation. In Sahih
Muslim, Volume 4, page 1313, there is a report
from Anas ibn Malik. He says that the Messenger
of Allah said to Ubay ibn Kab, I have been commanded
to recite to you the Surah Al -Bayyinah, the
chapter that begins with the words, لَمْ يَكُنْ
إِلَّا دِينَ كَفَارُ Meaning, those who disbelieved
from among the people of the book. When Ubay
heard this, he asked, Has my name been mentioned
to you? The Prophet answered that yes, he had
been named. Anas reports that Ubay then wept
out of joy. That is Sahih Muslim, Volume 4, page
1313. We are not told exactly why Ubay was singled
out in that way. But these traditions together
show that he was considered a foremost authority
on the Qur 'an, both as a reciter and as someone
to whom specific revelation was recited by command.
Now you might ask, if Ubay was that important,
did his codex agree completely with the codex
of Zayd ibn Thabit that eventually became the
standard? The answer is no. There were real differences.
We have already seen one example of disagreement.
and it comes in Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6,
Book 61, Hadith 547. In this hadith, Zir ibn
Hubaysh says that he asked Ubay ibn Kab about
something he had heard from Abdullah ibn Masud.
Let me read it to you. In Sahih al -Bukhari,
Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith 547, it says, Narrated
Zir ibn Hubaysh. I said to Ubay ibn Kab, O Abu
al -Mundhir, your brother Abdullah ibn Masud
says such and such. That is, that the two Surahs
al -Mu 'awwidhat, meaning Surah 113 al -Falaq
and Surah 114 an -Nas, do not belong to the Qur
'an. Ubay replied, I asked the Messenger of Allah
about them. He said, They have been revealed
to me, and I have recited them as part of the
Qur 'an. So Ubay concluded, Therefore, we say,
as the messenger of Allah has said. In this case,
Ubay sides with the text that includes the two
Mu 'awidah surahs, agreeing with the codex of
Zayd that we have today, and disagreeing with
Abdullah ibn Masud, who regarded them as prayers
but not Quranic surahs. So here you see an example
where Ubay and Zayd are together on one side,
and ibn Masud is on the other. But the picture
does not stop there. John Gilchrist, in Jam al
-Qur 'an, notes that Ubay's codex also contained
material that is not found in Zayd's codex, including
two extra surahs that later Muslim scholars refer
to as Surah al -Khal and Surah al -Hafd. In the
classic Muslim work Al -Itqan Fi Ulum al -Qur
'an by Jalal al -Din al -Suyuti, on pages 152
and 153, Suyuti reports that while Abdullah ibn
Masud omitted the two so -called charm surahs
from his codex, Ubay ibn Kab included two additional
surahs of supplication in his codex. Suyuti names
them as Al -Khal, which means the separation,
and Al -Haft, which means the haste. That is
Jalal al -Din al -Suyuti, Al -Itqan fi Ulum al
-Quran, pages 152, to 153. Suyuti then cites
the early scholar Abu Ubaid al -Qasim ibn Salam.
Abu Ubaid says the following, In the text of
Ubay ibn Kab were written the Fatiha al -Kitab,
that is Surah al -Fatiha, the opening chapter,
and the two Mu 'awidat, meaning the two charm
surahs, as well as the surah that begins with
the words, Allahumma inna nasta 'eenuka, which
means, O Allah, we seek your help. This is known
as the opening of Surah Al -Khal, and the surah
that begins with the words, اللَّهُمَّ إِيَّا
كَنَعْبُدُ Which means, O Allah, we worship You.
This is known as the opening of Surah Al -Hafd.
That is Al -Itqan fi Ulum Al -Qur 'an, page 153.
On page 154 of Al -Itqan, Suyuti goes on to give
the full texts of these two extra surahs and
notes that they were also found in the Codex
of Ibn Abbas. following the reading of Ubay and
Abu Musa, who also recorded them in their copies.
These two surahs are similar in style to Surah
al -Fatiha, consisting of prayers to God for
help, forgiveness, guidance, and mercy. That
is Jalal al -Din al -Suyuti, Al -Itqan fi Ulum
al -Qur 'an, page 154. So what does that tell
us? On the one hand, Ubay's codex affirmed the
two Muawidah surahs that Abdullah ibn Masud rejected.
On the other hand, Ubay's codex also contained
two extra surahs that are not part of the Qur
'an as standardized under Uthman. Now, Umar ibn
al -Khattab, the second caliph, was fully aware
that Ubay's recitation included material that
was not accepted into Zayd's codex. We see this
in another hadith from Sahih al -Bukhari. In
Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61, often cited
as Hadith 501, Ibn Abbas reports a statement
from Umar. Let me introduce it properly. In Sahih
al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith around
501, it says, Narrated Ibn Abbas, Umar said,
Ubay was the best of us in the recitation of
the Quran, yet we leave some of what he recites.
Ubay says, I have taken it from the mouth of
the Messenger of Allah, and I will not leave
it for anything. But Allah says, None of our
revelations do we abrogate or cause to be forgotten,
but we bring something better than it or similar
to it. That is a quotation of Quran chapter 2
verse 106. So Umar admits two things here. First,
that Ubay was the best among them in recitation.
Second, that there were things in Ubay's recitation
that the community was not following and was
effectively leaving aside. When challenged on
this, Umar appeals to Quran, chapter 2, verse
106. Let me quote that Quran verse clearly. In
Quran, chapter 2, verse 106, often translated
by Pickthall, it says, Nothing of our revelation
do we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but
we bring in place of it one better or the like
thereof. Do you not know that Allah is able to
do all things? That is the Arabic Quran, Surah
Al -Baqarah. Chapter 2, verse 106. Umar appears
to be saying that if Ubay had verses that the
others were not following, those verses must
have been abrogated or caused to be forgotten
by Allah, and therefore replaced by something
equal or better. That is his theological explanation
for why parts of Ubay's recitation were left
out of the standard text. But this answer raises
several serious questions. First, How can you
call a verse or a surah forgotten when men like
Ubay, Umar, and others clearly still knew it
and recited it? The word forgotten usually means
that no one remembers it anymore. Yet in these
cases, the extra material in Ubay's codex was
very much remembered and even defended by him.
Second, Umar says that abrogated or forgotten
revelations are replaced by something similar
or better from Allah. But how can that replacement
process work after the Prophet has died? If new
revelation is needed to replace an older abrogated
verse, and if revelation ceased with Muhammad's
death, then on what basis could verses be removed
or left out after that point? Third, the hadith
about Zayd's collection shows that verses found
with only one person, like Abu Huzaima al -Ansari,
were accepted and added to the Standard Codex.
We saw this in Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book
61, Hadith 509 and 510. In those hadith, Zayd
says he found the last verses of Surah 9 with
Abu Huzaima alone and a missing verse of Surah
33 with Huzaima ibn Thabit alone and he added
them in. So here, solitary reports from one companion
were considered sufficient to include verses.
Yet when it comes to the extra surahs and readings
in Ubay's codex, which were shared by notable
companions like Ibn Abbas and Abu Musa according
to Suyuti, those were excluded. So here is the
puzzle. Why does a verse found only with Abu
Khuzaymah get included, while whole surahs attested
in the codices of Ubay and others are left out?
So let me ask you, if Ubay ibn Kab was called
the master of the readers, If the Prophet singled
him out as one of the top four to learn the Qur
'an from, if he had two additional surahs that
some early scholars and codices preserved, and
if Umar himself acknowledged that they were leaving
some of what he recited, is it really accurate
to say that the Qur 'an's contents and boundaries
were fixed and universally agreed upon from the
very beginning? Or does the evidence point instead
to a much more complex process of selection inclusion,
and exclusion, based on later decisions by the
community and its leaders, rather than a clear,
unbroken, divinely controlled transmission of
a single, unchanging text.