Sahobalar orasida Payg'ambar (ﷺ) vafotidan oldin butun Qur'onni yod olgan va uni Payg'ambarga (ﷺ) takror o'qib bergan kishilar soni haqida olimlar turlicha fikrda. Imom al-Buxoriy o'zining "Sahih" kitobida Anas ibn Molik rivoyat qilgan bir gapni keltirgan: Payg'ambar (ﷺ) hayotligida butun Qur'onni to'plagan kishilar faqat to'rt kishi bo'lgan – Abu ad-Dardo', Mu'oz ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Sobit va Abu Zayd.92 Olimlar Anasning gapidagi bu cheklov ya'ni, uning niyati emas yoki agar niyat qilgan bo'lsa, unda aniq emas, degan xulosaga kelishga kelishadi. Ko'rinishidan, bu gapni u Ansor qabilalarining ikki guruhi o'rtasidagi har bir qabilaning fazilatlari haqidagi do'stona bahs paytida aytgan. Anas nomini tilga olgan kishilarning barchasi o'zi mansub bo'lgan Xazraj qabilasidan edi va u Avs qabilasidan hech kim butun Qur'onni yod olmaganini nazarda tutgan.93 Bu gapning ikki xil rivoyati bor. Boshqa rivoyatda faqat to'rt kishi butun Qur'onni yod olgani aytiladi, lekin ular yagona ekanligi aytilmaydi va Abu ad-Dardo' o'rniga Ubayy ibn Ka'b tilga olinadi.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

Boshqa bir rivoyatda, al-Buxoriy tomonidan keltirilganicha, Payg‘ambar (r) sahobalariga Qur’onni Ibn Mas‘uddan, Solim — Abu Huzayfaning ozod qilingan qulidan, Mu‘oz va Ubayydan o‘rganishni buyurgan.95 Boshqa ishonchli dalillar Abu Bakr va Abdulloh ibn Amr ibn al-Os Qur’onning hammasini yod olganligini ko‘rsatadi.96 Biroq al-Buxoriy keltirgan ikkita hadis bu sonning undan ham ko‘p ekanligini bildiradi. Bi’r Ma‘una voqeasida qori bo‘lgan yetmish sahobiy kutilmaganda hujumga uchrab, o‘ldirilgan.97 “Qurro’” so‘zi “qori” so‘zining ko‘plik shakli bo‘lib, Qur’onni yod olgan va uni ravon tilovat qila oladigan kishilarga nisbatan ishlatiladi, garchi sahobalar bu atamani uning ma’nolarini bilgan kishilarga nisbatan ham qo‘llagan ko‘rinadi. Qur’onni to‘liq yod olgan yetmish sahobiy, ko‘pchiligi Ansordan, Payg‘ambar ﷺ vafotidan atigi ikki yil o‘tib, Yamomah jangida halok bo‘lgan.98 Agar ular Payg‘ambar ﷺ vafotidan oldin uni yod olishni tugatmagan bo‘lsalar, ular Qur’onning katta qismini yod olgan bo‘lishlari kerak.

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.

Ba'zi odamlar al-Bukhoriy rivoyat qilgan Anasning so'zlariga tayanib bahs yuritishga uringanlar: Payg'ambar (r) hayotligida Qur'onni yod olgan kishilar soni shunchalik oz ediki, bu Qur'onning tavotur yo'li bilan bizga yetib kelgani haqidagi musulmonlar da'vosini qo'llab-quvvatlay olmaydi, deb. Ushbu rivoyatni zohiriy ma'noda qabul qilganda ham, uni bunday bahsda dalil qilib keltirish kuchli emas, chunki Payg'ambar hayotligida butun Qur'onni yod olgan kishilar soni cheklangan bo'lishi mumkin bo'lsa-da, boshqa ko'p odamlar Qur'onning katta va bir-biriga kesishadigan qismlarini yod olgan edi. Shunday qilib, Payg'ambar hayotligida Qur'onning har bir muayyan qismini yod oluvchilar soni ko'p edi. Ularning ko'pchiligi yodlashni Payg'ambar vafotidan keyin tugatgan.

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.

Aslida, har bir keyingi musulmonlar avlodida butun Qur’onni yod olgan kishilar soni ortib bormoqda. Bugungi kunda dunyo bo‘ylab so‘zma-so‘z yuz minglab musulmonlar buni amalga oshirgan.

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.

Tarixda boshqa hech qanday kitob, diniy yoki dunyoviy, bunday ko‘lamda yodlanmagan. Qur’on Yangi Ahd (Injil)dan taxminan besh ulushning to‘rt ulushi uzunlikda, ammo tarixda Yangi Ahdni to‘liq yod olgan biror kishi ma’lum emas. Hatto dunyodagi barcha kitoblar qandaydir tarzda yo‘q bo‘lib ketganda ham, so‘zma-so‘z, bitta xatosiz qayta yozilishi mumkin bo‘lgan yagona kitob sharafli Qur’ondir.

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.

Kenneth Cragg, bir yetakchi orientalist, Qur’on matnini yodlash va saqlash haqida shunday degan: “Qur’on tilovatining bu hodisasi shuni anglatadiki, matn asrlar davomida ibodatning uzluksiz, tirik zanjiri orqali o‘tib kelgan. Shu sababli uni antikvar narsa sifatida, yoki uzoq o‘tmishdan qolgan tarixiy hujjat sifatida ko‘rib bo‘lmaydi.” 100 Yana bir orientalist olim, William Graham yozadi: “Islom tarixining bir necha asrlik davrida o‘n to‘rt asrdan ortiq vaqt davomida sanoqsiz million musulmonlar uchun ‘Muqaddas kitob’, al-kitob, og‘zaki takrorlash va yodlash orqali o‘rganilgan, o‘qilgan va keyingi avlodlarga yetkazilgan kitob bo‘lib kelgan. Yozma Qur’on Ilohiy So‘zning vakolatli matnini tarixda aslo ma’lum bo‘lmagan tarzda ko‘rinadigan qilib ‘mustahkamlashi’ mumkin, ammo Qur’on kitobining vakolati faqat to‘g‘ri tilovat qilinganda o‘z to‘liqligi va kamolotida namoyon bo‘ladi.” 101 Yana biri, John Burton shunday degan: “Qur’onni bir avloddan ikkinchisiga yetkazishning usuli, yoshlarning oqsoqollari og‘zaki an’anasini yodlashi orqali, boshidanoq yozma yozuvlarga faqat tayanishning eng katta xavflarini bir oz yumshatgan edi...” 102 Qur’on to‘planishi haqidagi hajmli asarining oxirida Burton Qur’onning bugungi kunda mavjud matni “bizga Payg‘ambar tomonidan tashkil etilgan va tasdiqlangan shaklda yetib kelgan matn... Bizning qo‘limizdagi narsa Muhammadning musxafi 103 dir”, deb ta’kidlagan.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