Quran Preservation and Mutawatir Transmission

[Reader Questions]

Referenced Article:

How Do We Know that the Quran was Fully Preserved? - Is it Not the Ahadith That Informs Us?
http://quransmessage.com/articles/how%20do%20we%20know%20the%20quran%20was%20preserved%20if%20nor%20for%20ahadith%20FM3.htm

QM Forum Moderator


Dear Mr. Joseph,

I read in one of your article: preservation of Quran following:

"The Quran in contrast has not reached us by 'Ahad' witnesses, but rather, it has been transmitted in its entirety by a consensus of the community (mutawwatir) long before any Ahadith works were compiled or canonized"

To the best of understanding, Quran  is directly written by scribes at the time around Muhammad (pbuh) as dictated by Prophet as revealed to him Gabriel or  other version is that it is written by Prophet himself as revealed to him Gabriel.

I believe mutawatir means series of verbal tranmission like Hadith - transmitted by alleged transmitters.

Please can you clarify.

Regards.

[Joseph Islam]

Salamun Alaikum,

A mutawwatir transmission is one which is passed on by so many narrators directly from source that it is inconceivable that they could have come to be agreed upon a falsehood with regards the information they collected from the primary source. Therefore, the veracity of what is being narrated by them is unquestionable. The Quran calls itself a 'Hasan Hadith' (The best hadith) and its oral transmission remained 'mutawwatir'.

The Quran has reached us both by a rigorous oral transmission and a written form of transmission in tandem. So there was not only a written codex (book) from the time of the Prophet but also a powerful mutawwatir transmission in oral form. This is possibly why no major sect in Islam disagrees with the contents of the Quran whereas there is huge disagreement with the veracity of Hadith between the sects.

Some related articles:

THE BEST HADITH
http://quransmessage.com/articles/best%20hadith%20FM3.htm

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HADITH AND SUNNA
http://quransmessage.com/articles/hadith%20and%20sunna%20FM3.htm


I hope that helps, God willing.

Your brother,
Joseph.