"How do we know the Quran was not changed?"

Maybe someone told you: "Every holy book got changed over time. Why would the Quran be different?" Maybe you saw a video about an old page of the Quran that looks strange. Or maybe you just wondered: the Quran came 1,400 years ago, so how can anyone be sure it is still the same?

This is a fair question. Asking it is not a sin. And the answer is one of the strongest reasons Muslims have for trusting the Quran.

The short answer

Most old books were kept in one way only: on paper. If the paper changed, the book changed. The Quran was kept in two ways at the same time:

• In writing. It was written down while Nabi ﷺ was alive, gathered into one book soon after he died, and copied with great care.
• In people's hearts. From the first day, Muslims learned it by heart and recited it out loud in every prayer. This has never stopped, not for one day, in 1,400 years.

Each way checked the other. If a copy had a mistake, people who knew it by heart caught it. If someone forgot a word, the written copy was there. And above all this, Allah promised: We sent down the Reminder, and We will surely protect it¹.

How was it kept while Nabi ﷺ was alive?

The Quran did not come down all at once. It came in parts, over about 23 years. Each time, four things happened.

• Nabi ﷺ learned it by heart. At first he moved his lips quickly while Jibril recited, afraid to forget. Allah told him: do not move your tongue with it to hurry. It is on Us to gather it and to make you recite it². After that, he listened, then recited it just as Jibril had³.
• It was written down. When an ayah (verse) came, Nabi ﷺ would call a writer, like Zayd ibn Thabit, and say: bring the board and the ink⁴. They wrote on palm stalks, flat white stones, leather and bone.
• The Companions learned it by heart. They recited it in every salah (prayer). Nabi ﷺ named teachers: learn the Quran from four: Abdullah ibn Masud, Salim, Muadh and Ubayy ibn Ka'b⁵. Anas named four men of Madinah who had gathered the whole Quran in his lifetime⁶. Many more knew large parts.
• It was checked every year. Every Ramadan, Jibril went over the Quran with Nabi ﷺ. In the year Nabi ﷺ died, they went over it twice⁷.

What did Abu Bakr do?

After Nabi ﷺ died, many Companions who knew the Quran by heart were killed in the Battle of Yamamah. Umar was worried that a large part of the Quran could be lost. So Abu Bakr asked Zayd ibn Thabit, one of Nabi ﷺ's writers, to gather the whole Quran into one book⁸.

• He used writing and memory together. Zayd knew the Quran by heart himself. Still, he gathered it from what was written on palm stalks and flat stones, and from the hearts of the men who knew it⁹.
• He was very careful. Zayd said he found the last ayat of Surah at-Tawbah only with Abu Khuzaymah al-Ansari¹⁰. Scholars explain that many people, Zayd too, knew these ayat by heart. What he was looking for was a written copy made in front of Nabi ﷺ.
• The book was kept safe. It stayed with Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Hafsah, Umar's daughter and a wife of Nabi ﷺ¹¹.

What did Uthman do, and why did he burn the other pages?

Islam spread fast, to Syria, Iraq and beyond. People had learned from different teachers, and some began to argue about how to recite. The Companion Hudhayfah was worried. He told Uthman, the leader at the time: save this ummah before they argue about the Book as the Jews and Christians did¹³.

• Uthman asked Hafsah for Abu Bakr's book.
• He chose Zayd again, with three other men, to copy it carefully. If they disagreed with Zayd on how to write a word, they were to write it in the way of Quraysh, because the Quran came down in their language.
• He gave the original back to Hafsah and sent one copy to each region. Then he told people to burn the other pages and personal copies¹⁴.

Was something hidden?

Some people say: if Uthman burned other copies, maybe he was hiding something. Think about it fairly:

• Fire cannot reach the heart. Thousands of Muslims knew the Quran by heart. If Uthman had removed or added anything, people all over the Muslim world would have known.
• His copies came from Abu Bakr's book, which was made in front of many Companions.
• The burned pages were personal notes. Some people had written parts for themselves, in their own order, sometimes with their own notes. Later, pages like these could confuse people.
• The goal was unity. The copies made sure every Muslim had one agreed book.

The mushaf (printed Arabic Quran) in your home today goes back to these copies.

Are the different readings different Qurans?

There is more than one way to recite the Quran. In most of the world, people read the way called Hafs. In much of North and West Africa, many read the way called Warsh. There are others too. They are called the qiraat (readings).

Does this mean the Quran changed? No. People did not make these readings later. Nabi ﷺ himself taught the Quran in more than one way.

What do the differences look like?

They are small: a vowel, a letter, or how a sound is said. They never clash in meaning. A famous example is in Surah al-Fatihah¹⁹:

• Hafs reads Maaliki yawmid-deen: Allah is the Owner of the Day of Judgement.
• Warsh reads Maliki yawmid-deen: Allah is the King of the Day of Judgement.

Both are true, and together they give a fuller meaning. Scholars kept careful records of who taught each reading to whom, teacher by teacher, back to Nabi ﷺ. Even today, a student who masters a reading gets an ijazah (a teacher's written permission) with that chain of names.

What do the oldest copies show?

Old handwritten copies of the Quran are kept in libraries and museums around the world. Some go back to the first century of Islam. Researchers, Muslim and non-Muslim, have studied them closely.

• Very early copies exist. In 2015, a university in England had two old pages of the Quran tested in a lab. The test dated them to around the time of Nabi ﷺ and his Companions.
• They match the Quran we read. The surahs, the ayat and the words are the Quran in your hands today.
• The writing looks different. Early Arabic was written with few dots and no vowel marks. Readers knew the words by heart, so they did not need them. Marks were added later to help people who did not speak Arabic. The words stayed the same. Only the writing got easier to read.
• There are small spelling differences. Some old copies spell a word in an older way. Some have a slip by the person copying, like any handwritten book. That is why Muslims never trusted one copy alone. Copies were always checked against what many people knew by heart.

Kept in hearts, not only on paper

In a long hadith, Nabi ﷺ told us that Allah said to him: I sent down to you a Book that water cannot wash away. You recite it asleep and awake²⁰. Paper can be washed away. Words in the heart cannot.

• Millions of Muslims today know the whole Quran by heart. They are called huffaz. Many are children. Many do not speak Arabic.
• They all recite the same words. A hafiz from Indonesia and a hafiz from Nigeria who have never met can recite together, word for word.
• Mistakes get caught at once. In Ramadan, if the imam slips on a word in Taraweeh, someone behind him corrects him straight away.
• Allah made it easy to learn: We have made the Quran easy to remember. So is there anyone who will remember?²¹.

Allah calls the Quran clear signs in the hearts of those given knowledge²². Even if every printed copy disappeared, Muslims could write the whole Quran again from memory.

Why did earlier books change, but not the Quran?

Allah sent earlier books too, like the Tawrat (Torah) and the Injil (Gospel). They were true when Allah sent them, but over time people changed parts of them. About the Tawrat, Allah says the rabbis and scholars were given the duty to protect Allah's Book²³. So those books were left in people's care.

The Quran is different. Allah took the job on Himself:

• We sent down the Reminder, and We will surely protect it²⁴.
• Nothing false can come to it, from in front of it or from behind it²⁵.

This makes sense. Earlier messengers were sent to one people for one time. Nabi ﷺ is the last messenger, for all people until the end of time. So his book had to last that long too.

What we do not know

• We do not know for sure where Uthman's own copies are today, or if any still exist.
• We do not know every detail of how each page was written in those early years. History does not keep every detail of anything.
• Research on old copies goes on. Scholars still study old pages and discuss how to explain small differences.

None of this touches the main point. The Quran was not kept by one page or one person. It was kept by a whole ummah, in writing and in hearts, checking each other every day. Not knowing a small detail does not cancel a very strong case.

What to do with this doubt

• Check the source. If a video makes a big claim about an old copy, ask: who is saying this? Do they show the whole page? Do they explain the difference? See How to look for answers.
• Ask someone who knows. A Quran teacher or an imam can often explain a question like this in a few minutes.
• See it for yourself. Listen to the Quran recited from memory in Taraweeh. Or play a reciter on our Quran page and follow the words.
• Learn some by heart. Even a few short surahs. Then you are part of the chain that has carried the Quran for 1,400 years.
• Read it with meaning. Often the best answer to doubts about the Quran is the Quran itself. See also Could a person have written the Quran?

If a doubt keeps coming back and makes you very anxious or sad, talk to someone you trust today: family, an imam, a doctor or a counselor. See Is it normal to have doubts?

Common questions

I read that some verses were "lost". Is that true?

Some ayat were taken back by Allah Himself while Nabi ﷺ was alive. Allah says: whatever ayah We cancel or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it²⁶. And: We will make you recite, so you will not forget, except what Allah wills²⁷. Umar used this ayah to explain why some words a Companion still recited were left out²⁸. This was Allah's choice, in Nabi ﷺ's lifetime. It is not people losing part of the Quran.

Did a Companion say the last two surahs are not Quran?

Reports say Abdullah ibn Masud did not write Surah al-Falaq and Surah an-Nas in his own copy. Ubayy ibn Ka'b was asked about this. He said Nabi ﷺ told him they were revealed to him and he recited them as Quran²⁹. Nabi ﷺ also called them wonderful ayat, sent down tonight, like nothing seen before³⁰. Scholars explain that Ibn Masud may have seen them mainly as duas for protection. The whole ummah, including Ibn Masud's own students, has always recited them as Quran.

My friend's Quran app reads some words differently from mine. Is one wrong?

Most likely one uses Hafs and the other Warsh, or another reading. Both are correct, and both come from Nabi ﷺ³¹. Recite the way your teacher taught you.

Is an English translation the Quran?

A translation gives the meaning, and you should read one. But it is a person's best effort to explain. The Quran itself is the Arabic words, and those are the words that were kept.

I found a mistake in a printed copy. Does that mean the Quran changed?

No. It means a printer made a mistake, and someone who knows the Quran spotted it. That is the system working. Tell the publisher or your masjid so they can fix it.

I am not Muslim. How can I check this myself?

Ask a hafiz to recite any page while you follow in a printed copy. Compare a Quran printed in one country with one printed in another. Visit a masjid in Ramadan and listen. Muslims should be happy to help with your questions.