Malamai sun sha bamban game da adadin sahabbai da suka haddace dukkan Alƙur'ani kuma suka karanta shi ga Manzon Allah ﷺ kafin rasuwarsa. Imam Al-Bukhari ya tattara a cikin Sahihinsa maganar Anas ibn Malik cewa mutum hudu ne kawai suka tattara dukkan Alƙur'ani a lokacin rayuwar Manzon Allah ﷺ: Abu Ad-Darda', Mu'az ibn Jabal, Zaid ibn Thabit da Abu Zaid.92 Malamai sun yarda cewa ma'anar iyakancewar da ke cikin maganar Anas ba ita ce abin da ya nufa ba, ko kuma idan ya nufa, to ba ta da gaskiya. Ga alama ya yi wannan magana ne a cikin wata muhawara ta abokantaka tsakanin mambobin kabilu biyu na Ansar game da falalar kowace kabila. Mutanen da Anas ya ambata duk daga kabilar Khazraj suke, wadda shi kansa yake ciki, kuma abin da ya nufa shi ne babu wanda daga kabilar Aws ya haddace dukkan Alƙur'ani.93 Akwai nau'o'i biyu na wannan magana. Sigar ta biyu kawai tana cewa mutum hudu ne suka haddace dukkan Alƙur'ani, ba tare da cewa su ne kawai ba, kuma tana ambaton Ubayy ibn Ka'b a maimakon Abu Ad-Darda'.94

Scholars differ on the total number of sahaabah who had memorized all of the Qur’aan and read it back to the Prophet (ﷺ) before his death. Imaam AlBukhaaree collected in his Saheeh a statement of Anas ibn Maalik that only four people had gathered the whole Qur’aan in the Prophet’s lifetime: Aboo adDardaa’, Mu‘aath ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Thaabit and Aboo Zayd.92 Scholars agree that the apparent limitation in Anas’s statement is either not what he intended or, if he did intend it, that it was not accurate. It seems he made this statement in the course of a friendly argument between members of the two tribes of the Ansaar about the virtues of each tribe. The individuals Anas named were all from the Khazraj tribe to which he belonged, and he meant to say that no one from the Aws tribe had memorized all of it.93 There are two versions of this statement. The other version simply states that four people memorized the whole Qur’aan, without saying they were the only ones, and it mentions Ubayy ibn Ka‘b in place of Aboo ad-Dardaa’.94

A wata riwaya da al-Bukhaaree ya tattara, Annabi (r) ya umurci sahabbansa su koyi Alqur'ani daga wajen Ibn Mas'ood, Saalim, bawan da aka 'yanta na Abu Huthaifah, Mu'aath da Ubayy. 95 Sauran hujjoji ingantattu sun nuna cewa Abu Bakr da Abdullaah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas sun haddace dukkan Alqur'ani.96 Duk da haka, akwai hadisai guda biyu da al-Bukhaaree ya ruwaito wadanda ke nuna cewa adadin ya fi haka yawa. A lamarin Bi'r Ma'oonah, sahabbai saba'in, dukansu qurraa', an yi musu kwantan bauna aka kashe su.97 Kalmar qurraa' ita ce jam'in qaaree', wanda ake amfani da shi ga wanda ya haddace Alqur'ani kuma ya iya karatunsa sosai, kodayake sahabbai sun kuma yi amfani da kalmar ga wanda ya san ma'anoninsa. Sahabbai saba'in wadanda suka haddace dukan Alqur'ani, yawancinsu daga Ansaar, sun mutu suna yaki a yakin Yamaamah shekara biyu kacal bayan rasuwar Annabi (r).98 Idan ba su kammala haddacewarsa ba kafin rasuwarsa, to lallai sun yi haka ga wani babban sashi nasa.

In another report collected by al-Bukhaaree, the Prophet (r) instructed his companions to learn the Qur’aan from Ibn Mas‘ood, Saalim, the freed slave of Aboo Huthayfah, Mu‘aath and Ubayy. 95 Other authentic evidence indicates that Aboo Bakr and ‘Abdullaah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas had memorized all of it.96 However, there are two hadeeths reported by al-Bukhaaree to indicate that the number was higher than that. In the incident of Bi’r Ma‘oonah, seventy sahaabah, all of them qurraa’, were ambushed and killed.97 The word qurraa’ is the plural of qaaree’, which is used for a memorizer of the Qur’aan who is proficient in reciting it, although the sahaabah seem to have also used the term for one who is knowledgeable about its meanings. Seventy of the sahaabah who had memorized the whole Qur’aan, most of them from the Ansaar, died fighting in the battle of Yamaamah only two years after the death of the Prophet (r).98 If they had not completed their memorization of it before his death, they must have done so for a substantial portion of it.

Wasu mutane sun yi ƙoƙarin yin jayayya bisa maganar Anas da al-Bukhaaree ya rawaito, cewa adadin mutanen da suka haddace Alƙur'ani a lokacin rayuwar Annabi ﷺ ya yi kaɗan, don haka bai goyi bayan da'awar Musulmai cewa Alƙur'ani ya isa gare mu ta hanyar tawaatur ba. Ko da mun karɓi wannan rahoto kamar yadda yake, amfani da shi wajen goyon bayan wannan jayayya ba shi da ƙarfi, domin, ko da yake adadin mutanen da suka haddace dukan Alƙur'ani a lokacin rayuwar Annabi ﷺ na iya kasancewa kaɗan, mutane da yawa sun haddace sassa masu yawa, waɗanda suka haɗu da juna. Don haka a lokacin rayuwarsa adadin masu haddace kowane sashe na Alƙur'ani ya yi yawa. Yawancin waɗannan sun kammala haddacewarsu bayan rasuwarsa ﷺ.

Some people have tried to argue on the basis of Anas’s statement collected by al-Bukhaaree that the number of people who memorized the Qur’aan during the lifetime of the Prophet (r) was too small to support the Muslim claim that the Qur’aan was conveyed to us by tawaatur.99 Even if we accept this report at face value, its use to support that argument is not strong, because, although the number of people who had memorized the whole Qur’aan in the Prophet’s lifetime may have been limited, many others had memorized substantial, overlapping portions. So during his lifetime the number of memorizers was great for any given portion of the Qur’aan. Many of these completed their memorization of it after his death.

A haƙiƙa, tare da kowane zamani na Musulmi da ya biyo baya, adadin waɗanda suka haddace dukkan Alƙur'ani ya ƙaru. A yau akwai zahiri ɗaruruwan dubban Musulmi a duniya baki ɗaya waɗanda suka yi haka.

In fact, with every succeeding generation of Muslims, the numbers of those who memorized all of the Qur’aan has increased. Today there are literally hundreds of thousands of Muslims throughout the world who have done so.

Babu wani littafi, na addini ko wanin addini, da aka haddace shi a irin wannan girma a tarihin da aka rubuta. Al-Qur'ani ya kai kusan kashi huɗu bisa biyar na tsawon Sabon Alkawari na Kiristoci, amma ba a taɓa samun labari a tarihin da aka rubuta cewa wani mutum ya haddace Sabon Alkawari gaba ɗaya ba. Ma fi haka, idan dukkan littattafan duniya aka hallaka su ta wata hanya, littafin da za a iya sake rubuta shi kalma da kalma ba tare da kuskure ko ɗaya ba shi ne Alkur'ani mai girma.

There is no other book, religious or otherwise, which has been memorized on this scale in recorded history. The Qur’aan is about four-fifths the length of the New Testament of the Christians, yet not a single person in recorded history is known to have memorized the New Testament completely. In fact, if all of the books in the world were somehow destroyed, the only book which could be rewritten, word for word, without a single mistake is the Glorious Qur’aan.

Wani shahararren masanin ilimin gabas (orientalist), Kenneth Cragg, ya ce game da haddacewa da kiyaye rubutun Alqur'ani: "Wannan al'amari na karatun Alqur'ani yana nufin cewa rubutun ya ratsa ta karnoni cikin wani jerin rayayyu marasa katsewa na ibada. Saboda haka, ba za a iya kula da shi kamar abin tsohon zamani ba, ko kuma a matsayin takardar tarihi daga wani nesanen baya ba."100 Wani masanin ilimin gabas, William Graham, ya rubuta: "Ga miliyoyin Musulmai sama da shekaru dubu goma sha huɗu na tarihin Musulunci, 'littafi', al-kitab, an koye shi, an karanta shi, an kuma mika shi ta hanyar maimaitawa da haddacewa da baki. Alqur'ani da aka rubuta na iya 'gyara' a fili ingantaccen rubutun Kalmar Ubangiji ta hanyar da ba a taba sani ba a tarihi, amma ikon ingancin littafin Alqur'ani ba ya tabbata cikakke kuma a cikin kamala sai dai idan an karanta shi daidai."101 Wani kuma, John Burton, ya bayyana: "Hanyar isar da Alqur'ani daga wani zamani zuwa wani ta hanyar sa matasa su haddace al'adar baka ta dattawansu ta rage, tun daga farko, mafi munin hadarurrukan dogaro kawai da bayanan rubutu..."102 A karshen wani babban aiki kan tattara Alqur'ani, Burton ya ce rubutun Alqur'ani da ke hannunmu a yau shi ne "rubutun da ya sauka zuwa gare mu a yadda Annabi ya tsara shi kuma ya amince da shi....Abin da muke da shi a hannunmu a yau shi ne mushafin103 Muhammadu."104

One of the leading orientalists, Kenneth Cragg, said the following regarding the memorization and preservation of the Qur’aanic text, “This phenomenon of Qur’anic recital means that the text has traversed the centuries in an unbroken living sequence of devotion. It cannot, therefore, be handled as an antiquarian thing, nor as a historical document out of a distant past.” 100 Another orientalist scholar, William Graham, wrote: “For countless millions of Muslims over more than fourteen centuries of Islamic history, ‘scripture’, al-kitab, has been a book learned, read and passed on by vocal repetition and memorisation. The written Qur’an may ‘fix’ visibly the authori-tative text of the Divine Word in a way unknown in history, but the authoritativeness of the Qur’anic book is only realised in its fullness and perfection when it is correctly recited.” 101 Yet another, John Burton, stated: “The method of transmitting the Qur’an from one generation to the next by having the young memorise the oral tradition of their elders had mitigated somewhat from the beginning the worst perils of relying solely on written records...” 102 At the end of a voluminous work on the Qur’aan’s collection, Burton stated that the text of the Qur’aan available today is “the text which has come down to us in the form in which it was organised and approved by the Prophet....What we have today in our hands is the mus-haf 103 of Muhammad.”104