Outline the tasks performed by the Prophet's scribes during his lifetime.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2017). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [10] (a) Outline the tasks performed by the Prophet's scribes during his lifetime.
2. The Qur'an was written in its entirety during the Prophet's time even though it was not compiled in one text. There were various scribes who had different roles as companions, who wrote the verses down on a number of materials. They wrote on parchments, bone, dried leaves, amongst other things.
3. Some of them were official scribes who wrote letters for him (for example Ubayy ibn Ka'ab) whilst some became scribes because they kept their own personal copies of the revelations for example ‘Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As. He sought the Messenger's specific permission asking, 'May I write down everything I hear from you in the states of contentment and anger?' He replied, 'Yes, for I speak nothing but the truth.' A number of companions had their own personal copies of the words of the revelations, which were later used to verify the one copy in the time of Abu Bakr. Companions who kept a private record of the text of the Qur'an satisfied themselves as to the purity of their record by reading it out to the Prophet.
4. Some of the tasks of the scribes were writing letters and treaties, for example Abdullah ibn Masud was his regular scribe in charge of writing and responding to letters. He was one of the scribes who wrote down all the Revelation as well as Zayd bin Thabit, who the Messenger commanded to learn how to write Hebrew so that he could respond on his behalf to those who wrote to him in that language. 'Ali was also an important scribe and wrote treaties for the Prophet.
5. The Prophet used to instruct the scribes about the sequence in which a revealed message was to be placed in a particular Sura (chapter). In this manner, the Prophet arranged the text of the Qur'an in a systematic order till the end of the chain of revelations. Zayd ibn Thabit reported, “We used to record the Qur'an from parchments in the presence of the Messenger of God. "Some companions, who did not write down the revelations, had memorized them instead and their versions were used to verify the written copies after the Prophet's death.
6. [4] (b) The scribes had the Prophet as a source of information. How useful is the internet as a source of information about Islam?
7. Candidates could say it is a useful source of information because e.g. there is a lot of information easily available on the internet so it is possible to do a few searches and find a lot of sources available for you to read on a subject. The Qur'an and most hadith books are all online now, so people can easily access the information they need. People who may not have access to books about Islam can learn about it online, and would be useful for those interested / new to Islam.
8. They could say it is not useful because e.g., the internet has a lot of information about Islam that is questionable, and it would be difficult to know which sites are presenting the material in the correct way / giving the correct information about an issue. Better answers may say that the Prophet said, “go to those who know”, meaning that people should learn from scholars who have studied in a traditional way, as they would provide an understanding that a person would not necessarily get from the internet. Those interested in Islam may be put off by the sites that present Islam inaccurately, and it can also lead to people hating Islam / Muslims because they have read information that is not true.