Section: Some of His Virtues

Among his outstanding merits and magnificent deeds is that he united the Muslims upon a single recension of the Qur’an. He had the mushaf written according to the final review (al-ʿarḍah al-ākhirah) in which Gabriel rehearsed the Qur’an with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during the last years of the Prophet’s life.

The reason for this initiative was that Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān took part in a campaign in which large numbers of troops from Syria—who read according to the recension of al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad, Abū al-Dardāʾ, and others—and men from Iraq—who read according to the recension of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, Abū Mūsā, and others—were all present. Those who were unaware that the Qur’an may be recited on seven aḥruf began to prefer their own reading over that of everyone else; some even declared others mistaken or impious. This led to severe discord and ugly speech spreading among the people.

Ḥudhayfah thereupon rode straight to ʿUthmān and said, “Commander of the Faithful, save this community before it disagrees over its Book the way the Jews and Christians disagreed over theirs.” He then described to him the scenes of dispute he had witnessed.

ʿUthmān gathered the Companions, consulted them, and resolved to write the mushaf upon a single ḥarf and to require the people in every province to recite by it alone, seeing in that the benefit of quelling argument and removing dissension. He therefore sent for the folios that the Truthful One, Abū Bakr, had ordered Zayd ibn Thābit to compile. Those folios had remained with Abū Bakr during his lifetime, then with ʿUmar, and when ʿUmar died they passed to Ḥafṣah, Mother of the Believers. ʿUthmān requested them from her and instructed Zayd ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī to write, while Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ al-Umawī dictated to him in the presence of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr al-Asadī and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām al-Makhzūmī. He ordered them that, if they disagreed over anything, they should record it in the dialect of Quraysh.

He prepared a mushaf for the people of Syria and another for the people of Egypt; he sent one copy to Basrah and another to Kufah; he dispatched a copy to Mecca and another to Yemen, and he left one in Medina. These (1) manuscripts are called al-maṣāḥif al-aʾimmah, the master copies. None of them, however, was written in ʿUthmān’s own hand—not even a single one; they were penned by Zayd ibn Thābit. They are nonetheless called the ʿUthmānic codices because they were produced by his command, in his era and under his caliphate—just as one speaks of a Heraclean dinar, meaning that it was minted during his reign.

Al-Wāqidī (2) said: Ibn Abī Sabrah narrated to us, from Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah. Others have transmitted it through a different chain from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

“When ʿUthmān had finished copying the muṣḥafs, Abū Hurayrah entered and said, ‘You have acted correctly and have been divinely aided. I testify that I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

“The people of my ummah who will love me most intensely are those who will come after me; they will believe in me without having seen me and will practice what is in the suspended pages.” (3)

I asked, ‘What pages?’—until I saw the muṣḥafs.’

ʿUthmān was delighted at this and ordered that Abū Hurayrah be given ten thousand. He then said, ‘By Allah, I did not know that you were withholding from us a ḥadīth of our Prophet ﷺ.’"