Write about the preservation of the Qur'an in the form of the mushaf held by Hafsa.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2015). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [10] (a) Candidates should give mention of the way in which the Qur'an was collected, and how the Qur'an ended up as a manuscript in the possession of Hafsa. During the time of the Prophet the Qur'an was written on pieces of animal skin and on parts of bone but mainly was memorised by the companions; during Abu Bakr's caliphate, many companions who had memorised the Qur'an died at the Battle of Yamama; ‘Umar suggested to Abu Bakr that the Qur'an should therefore be compiled into one book; Abu Bakr hesitated saying he could not do something the Prophet had not done; he eventually agreed and called Zayd bin Thabit to collect all the verses that had been written; Zayd was a hafiz himself, yet he only included a verse into the master copy once he had verified its authenticity; he did this by testing it against his own memory, then the memory of ‘Umar, then by two witnesses declaring the verse was written in the presence of the Prophet, then by checking it against the few collections the companions had as personal copies; the verses were written in the order that the Prophet had given, but the suras were written on separate sheets and not kept in order; this copy was kept with Abu Bakr during his lifetime, after which it passed to ‘Umar, and then to 'Umar's daughter Hafsa.
2. [4] (b) Candidates can offer an opinion that they agree or disagree with the statement, but have to provide reasons for their answer. They could say for example, that it is no longer important to memorise it because having a book means that you can have reference to it any time, and there are now so many books printed or available online that it is unlikely that there will be any mistakes in the printed copies. Or they could say for example, that it is still necessary to memorise the Qur'an as this was the traditional way of ensuring that there are no inaccuracies in the Qur'an, whereas it is possible that some printed copies could contain errors.