Quora Answer: Is There a Difference between the Qur’an Revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) & the Qur’an Today?
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is my answer to a Quora question: “ Is there a difference between the Qur’an Revealed by Allah ( s.w.t. ) to the Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w. ), versus the Qur’an of today? ” I assume you are asking about the text of the Qur’an Itself. The Qur’an was not simply written down. At each instance of Revelation, the Prophet ( s.a.w. ), and the swahabah , memorised the verses. They were from a culture that prized good memory skills, so feats such as this were not uncommon. The number of huffazh , memorisers of the Qur’an, and the manner of recitation, preserved that authenticity. They also wrote it down, and these writings were eventually compiled into seven copies during the Sayyidina Abu ‘Amr ‘Utsman ibn ‘Affan ( r.a. ). However, this compilation was not for authentication. The authentication was based on the mutawatir , mass-transmitted, narrations of the huffazh . That tradit...