Al-Ḥijr 15:9

The issue

Allah states in this verse, “Verily, we have sent down the Reminder, and, verily, we will guard it.” Al-Ţabarī explains that this verse means that Allah “verily will guard the Qur’ān from any false addition of what is not part of it or any omission of what is part of it”.

Question: Was the Qur’ān truly preserved from any additions or omissions?

Based on the authenticated reports through chains of succession, the Qur’ān underwent additions and deletions throughout its compilation. ‘Ā’isha, Muhammad’s third wife, admitted that grammatical mistakes exist in the Qur’ān. When asked about the reason for these deviations, she replied, “‘Son of my sister! This is the doing of the scribes. They erred in the book. She also admitted on another occasion the loss of 127 verses from Q 33. This sura used to contain two hundred verses, but only seventy-three verses remain today. ’Ubayy Ibn Ka‘b is also reported to have claimed that Q 33 once was as long as or longer than Q 2, the longest sura in the Qur’ān with 286 verses.

Ibn Mas‘ūd, the well-known Companion of Muhammad, refused to accept the codex by ‘Uthmān and questioned the credibility of the official committee that oversaw the compilation work.

There were also reports of tampering with the Qur’ān for personal benefit or gain. (See inset text “Manipulating the Verse,” Qur’ān Dilemma 1: 513.) It is not fully known how many verses were similarly manipulated. (See the article “Compilation of the Qur’ān”).