Gathering the Qur'an

Al-Yamamah cost many lives, among them a great number of those who carried the Qur'an by heart. 'Umar came to Abu Bakr alarmed: if reciters kept falling in battle, much of the Qur'an could be lost; the caliph should order it gathered. Abu Bakr hesitated: "How can I do something the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not do?" 'Umar kept returning — "By Allah, it is good" — until Abu Bakr's heart was opened to it.

He summoned Zayd ibn Thabit, who had written down revelation for the Prophet ﷺ, and told him: "You are a young man of sound mind, and we have no doubts about you." Zayd later said that if they had ordered him to move a mountain, it would not have weighed on him more. He too asked how they could do what the Prophet ﷺ had not done, and he too came round.

Zayd gathered the Qur'an from palm stalks, flat stones and the hearts of men. He found the closing verses of Surat al-Tawbah — ﴿لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ﴾ (“There has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves...”) (9:128) — written with no one but Abu Khuzaymah al-Ansari. The sheets stayed with Abu Bakr until his death, then with 'Umar, then with 'Umar's daughter Hafsah (Sahih al-Bukhari 4986). From them, years later, 'Uthman had the standard copies made.