History of the Quran

The history of the Quran refers to the oral revelation of the Quran to Islamic prophet Muhammad, and its subsequent written compilation into a manuscript. It spans several decades and forms an important part of early Islamic history. Muslim accounts say it began in the year 610 when Gabriel (Arabic: جبريل, Jibrīl or جبرائيل, Jibrāʾīl) appeared to Muhammad in the cave Hira near Mecca, reciting to him the first verses of Sura Iqra (al-`Alaq), thus beginning the revelation of the Quran. Throughout his life, Muhammad continued to have revelations until before his death in 632. Muslims agree that the manuscript of the Quran we see today was compiled by Uthman the third caliph (653-656).. Upon the canonization, Uthman ordered the burning of all personal copies of the Quran. The copy of the Quran kept with Muhammad's wife Hafsa was accepted. Until then, several copies of the Quran were available in different regions of Arabia with different dialects, so Uthman ordered only one version of the Quran to exist to prevent any misinterpretation of Quranic text.Due to varying historical documents, controversy exists amongst scholars as to whether the Uthmanic codex we have today is authentic and complete. Most Muslim scholars believe the Uthmanic Quran to be the authentic revelation to Muhammad, while some non-Muslim scholars believe verses were removed and other codices of the Quran are more absolute. Nevertheless, even according to secular scholars what was done to the Quran in the process seems to have been extremely conservative and the content was formed in a mechanical fashion as to avoid redactional bias.