Recordings › Dr. Shehzad Saleem | the Preservation of the Quran & the Problem of Qira'at | MindTrap with Mufti#26 · 19 Jun 2020 › Segment 4 of 25
How was the Quran preserved: by memory or in writing?
salat salaah namaz prayer salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat muftis mutawatir mutawaatir mass-transmitted koran quraan al-quran tilawah tilawat tilaawah hifz hafiz hafidh haafiz hifdh huffaz hafiza sahabah sahabi sahabiyyah sahabiyat ulama ulema ulamaaPreserved primarily by memory: thousands of companions, tawatur as a pyramid, writing following recitation
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This segment17:05 to 21:00 · 3 min 55 sA view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenThe Quran was preserved primarily by thousands of companions memorising it and passing it on generation to generation, which is what tawatur means; writing was secondary and always needed a hafiz's testimony.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth traces the legacy from Farahi through Islahi to Ghamidi and asks the guest to state in a paragraph what he means by saying the Quran is preserved. The guest says it was preserved primarily orally, through memorisation by thousands of companions, and only secondarily in writing, since diacritical and vowel marks were sparingly used and everything written followed the oral recitation. A very large number of people memorised the Quran in whole or in part and passed it to the next generation, generation to generation rather than a few to a few, which is what tawatur means historically as well as religiously: so many transmit something that collusion on falsehood is impossible, like a pyramid whose base keeps expanding. Writing followed recitation and always needed a hafiz's testimony that it was correct, a method he calls novel for a book but natural in a culture of orality in which Arabs kept genealogies by heart, Abu Bakr himself being a genealogist. Mufti adds that Keith Small, who works on Quran manuscripts, has said the early manuscripts make a strong oral tradition self-evident, the writing serving as a code to nudge the memory.
Position stated
This segment presents a view in order to discuss or respond to it. It is recorded as quoted, never as held, and no position is attributed from it.
Kind: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held Speakers: host and guest; guest speech is labelled and excluded from positionsTranscript
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A guest speaks in this segment. Guest speech is labelled and is excluded from the positions layer.
This segment states a view in order to discuss it. It is recorded as a quoted view, not as a position held.
it's like presenting the works of Ferraris llahi and vomity and then elaborating some more details and incorporating some more contemporary details in the words of these three scholars that's that's amazingly poop so there is this legacy of coming right down from you know a llama for our hisab right down through is llahi saab and then hamid Issa right now in a in a paragraph before we begin expanding what is the view that you espouse about the quran so as opposed to the objections and the counter theories just your theory or humbly subs theory what is
this when you say the quran' is preserved how would you put yours just to be clear on it and then we'll expand on the other problems and objections that people may have so the quran was primarily preserved were batam through the oral law i would say and orderly through memorization the quran was committed to memory and thousands of the Sahaba they committed it to memory the so for secondary because you see in those times the diacritical marks and the vowel marks although they were present but they were sparingly used and everything that was written followed
that oral recitation so the primary mode of recitation if we if you take talk about in very secular terms is that a very large number of people memorized various parts of the Quran some of them whole part some of them partially and then they transmitted that oral recitation to the next generation so it it was like a generation to generation transfers it was not like a few people transmitting to a few people and precisely this is what we call the watt or in our you know in our I would say a religious terms although the terms of author is not just religious its historical which means that such a vast
number of people transmit something that their collusion on falsehood is virtually rendered illogical and impossible so it was like saying that thousands of Sahaba committed the Quran to memory and passed it on to the next generation and the next generation and this is like a pyramid which is continuously coming down and expanding its base and the topmost tremor I was at the topmost section of the premon tournament itself consisted of such a large number of people as you can say that it was safely and securely transmitted to the next generation and since then this process has been continuing on and on and this is something very unique to the Quran
because do not find any other book being committed to memory in such a large number and then being transmitted and the written recitation was actually which followed the oral recitation so whatever you were was speaking or whatever you were reciting was put to the pen and the paper or of various various instruments of those times and it always needed the testa fication or the testimony of a half is to say that whatever has been written is correctly written so you see it was basically a novel way of transmitting something yeah the Quran I would say which was of course not very novel in the culture in which the Quran originated you would be
knowing that the Arabs basically there were people in whom orality was a very very common thing so they would have these genealogies learnt by heart Abu Bakr himself Ilan who was a was the genealogist who had all these genealogies in his head and they used to rely on this memory on this digis memory you know even some people today like I was listening to professor Keith small who's also somebody very involved in Quran kind of manuscripts and he was saying as well that it's very clear from how the early manuscripts are that it's very clear and evident self-evident that they
was a very strong oral tradition and this was simply like a kind of code to help people to nudge them along it wasn't actually something like people trying to I mean I just thought that's a very it just goes in with what you think so ok so the oral tradition was there this part okay I think very few people would doubt that the Prophet Salla Salem in his lifetime the Quran is complete and it's being taught to the companions he passes away Salah a live Saddam what
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Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-06-19-S04, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f2bcgwatu5g/s/4/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, June 19). How was the Quran preserved: by memory or in writing? [Video, segment 2020-06-19-S04, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f2bcgwatu5g/s/4/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "How was the Quran preserved: by memory or in writing?" Video, segment 2020-06-19-S04, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded June 19, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f2bcgwatu5g/s/4/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2020-06-19-S04, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{How was the Quran preserved: by memory or in writing?}}, year = {2020}, month = {6}, date = {2020-06-19}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f2bcgwatu5g/s/4/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f2bcgwatu5g/s/4/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2020-06-19-S04, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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