Page:William Goldsack-The Qurān in Islām (1906).djvu/22

 Rh very Qurān which the apostle himself had taught men to follow, and in substituting another which differed seriously from it.

In spite of the drastic measures adopted by ʿUsmān for the suppression of all other copies of the Qurān except his own, the reading of Ibn-Masʿūd continued for many years to be preserved amongst his followers, the people of Iraq. Thus in the year 378 of the Hegira a copy of Ibn-Masʿūd’s Qurān was discovered at Bagdad, which proved, on examination, to differ materially from the editions then current. It was at once burnt midst the acclamations of the deluded people.

Not only, however, did ʿUsmān’s Qurān differ from the accurate copy of Ibn-Masʿūd, but it differed also from the previous recension which had been made by Abū-Bakr. In the traditions it is related that Abū-Bakr’s Qurān remained, at his death, in the custody of Hafsa, his daughter, but upon the death of the latter, Merwān, the Governor of Medīna, demanded the copy from her brother, Ibn-ʿUmr, and immediately burnt it, saying, ‘If it be published abroad, people finding differences will again begin to doubt.” Thus we see that the Qurān current all over the Muhammadan world to-day agrees neither with that of Abū-Bakr, nor with that of Ibn-Masʿ¥d, nor with that, now unfortunately lost, which was collected by ʿAli. The current Qurān is, in fact, mutilated and corrupted to such an extent, as we shall further prove in subsequent pages, that it is no longer worthy of faith and acceptance as the complete Qurān taught in the beginning by Muhammad himself.