Compilation of Quran:

The holy Quran was not revealed on the Holy Prophet in a book form but it was revealed in a span of 23 years.
Whenever the Holy Prophet received any revelation he used to get imprinted in his memory. Then he used to recite it in
front of his companions and many of them were able to memorize it but he always made arrangement to write it. His
literate companions who wrote revelation on his dictation were known as scribes or secretaries of the prophet. They
used to write it on shoulder blades of camel, bark of trees, sheets of leather, parchment, paper etc.

Holy Prophet also informed his companions about the place of the new revelation, in which surah and after verse it has
to be recited. So, the present order of Quran is given to it by the Holy Prophet himself under the divine guidance. At the
time of his death the Quran was present in the memory of hundreds of companions and was present in the written form
but not compiled in a book form.

During Hazrat Abu Baker’s Caliphate

The Quran was preserved in partial volumes in writing, but primarily was in the hearts of thousands of the companions.
But when a large number of huffaz (those who had committed the entire Quran to their memory) were killed in the
battle of yaamama, Hazrat Umar realizing the imminent danger of a similar future tragedy, persuaded Abu Bakr to take
urgent steps to put the Quran together in the form of a single a book. So soon after the battle, Abu Bakr instructed Zayd
bin sabith to collect the Quran.

Abu Bakr appointed a team of seventy-five companions to assist Zayd bin Sabith in the noble task. Zaid used extremely
cautious and meticulous techniques in compiling the Quran. When a written verse was brought to him, he would verify
it’s authenticity by putting it through rigorous tests: he tested its reliability against his own memory and that of other
high ranking huffaz, no written verse was accepted until two trustworthy witnesses (companions) had testified to the
fact that the particular verse had been written in the presence of the Prophet PBUH and the written verses were
matched with the collection that different companions had prepared for themselves.

Each surah was written in separate folios and so the copy comprised of many folios. The first fair copy is called “umm”
(‘the mother’ meaning ‘the original’). The ‘umm’ remained with Hazrat Abu Baker and after his death with Hazrat Umar
and after his death it went to in the custody of Hazrat Hafasa (his daughter and wife of the Holy Prophet) and thus
known as Mus’haf-i-Hafsa.

During Hazrat Usman’s Caliphate

By the time of Hazrat Uman’s Caliphate, Islamic empire was expanded. The newly converts learnt Quran by different
companions of the Holy Prophet PBUH with different accents as the Quran revealed incorporating seven different
dialects. A noted companion Hudaifa bin Yaman who was busy in Jihad in Armenia Azerbaijan front noticed that such
differences were leading to disputes. He approached Caliph and said “Oh Chief of the believers! Save this nation before
they differ about the book (Quran) as Jews and Christians did.” and told him the possible danger of the division of
ummah.

Hazrat Usaman took immediate action and after taking the learned companions inti confidence he declared that the
believers shiuld unite on a uniform way of recitation. He got the mushaf al Hafsa, the original copy and gave it to team of
four companions that consisted of Zaid, Abdullah bin Zaubair, saeed bin al asra and Abd al Rehman bin harith. This group
once again painstakenly prepared several copies of Quran from Umm and made sure that surahs too, were arranged in
order. Later other ccompanions also joined them. The group wrote all surahs in proper sequence since in umm these
had been written separately.

Moreover, instead of one the group prepared several copies, which were sent to different parts of Islamic empire. After
this Uman got all other copies burnt to ensure perfect uniformity. Usman, for performing this great job earned the title
“Jami-ul-Quran”. At least two of these original exist today, and are matched word for word with any copy in the world.