History of Khulafah Rashideen by Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti - translated by Abdassamad Clarke

Al-Bukhari narrated that Zaid ibn Thabit said: Abu Bakr sent for me at the time of the slaughter of people of al-Yamamah and cUmar was with him. Abu Bakr said, ‘cUmar came to me and said, “The slaughter of people was very extensive on the Day of al-Yamamah and I fear the killing will extend to the reciters in these engagements, so that a lot of Qur’an will disappear unless they gather it together. I believe that the Qur’an should be gathered.’” Abu Bakr said, ‘I said to cUmar, “How can I do something that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not do?” cUmar said, “It, by Allah! is good,” and cUmar did not give up returning to the matter until Allah expanded my breast to that, and I came to hold the view that cUmar held.’ Zaid said: cUmar was sitting with him, not talking. Abu Bakr said, ‘You are an intelligent young man and we liave no doubts of you. You used to write the revelation for the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; (search out the Qur’an and collect it together.’ By Allah, if he had Imposed on me the responsibility of removing one of the mountains 11 would not have been heavier for me than what they ordered me to do of collecting the Qur’an. I said, ‘How can the two of you do something which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not do?’ So Abu Bakr said, ‘It, by Allah! is good,’ and he continued insisting on it until Allah expanded my breast to that which he had expanded the breasts of Abu Bakr and cUmar.

I searched out the Qur’an to collect it all together, from scraps (of paper), shoulder blade bones, palm branches and from the breasts of men, until I found two ay at from Surah at-Tawbah (The Surah of Repentance) along with Khuzaymah ibn Thabit which I found with no-one else, 1 There has come to you a messenger from among yourselves ...’ (Qur’an 9: 128-129) to the end of the surah.

The pages upon which the Qur’an was collected were with Abu Bakr until Allah took him, then they were with cUmar until Allah took him, then they were with Hafsah the daughter of cUmar, may Allah be pleased with her.

Abu Yacla narrated that cAli said: The one with the greatest reward for the written copies of the Qur’an is Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr was the first to gather the Qur’an between two boards.