Answering Objections to Islam · Qur'anic Transmission

The Sana'a Palimpsest

Handle with care. Do not deny that the Sana'a lower text differs from the Uthmanic text. It does. The argument is about what kind of document it is.

In short

1.Sadeghi and Bergmann identify it as a Companion's personal copy, likely from before standardisation.
2.The differences are word order, synonyms and small wording — nothing about belief.
3.Muslim scholars had already written these Companion copies down centuries before the manuscript was found.

The claim being examined

A manuscript found in Sana'a in 1972 has an erased lower layer of writing that differs from the standard Qur'an. People present it as a suppressed rival Qur'an.

The Islamic position

That lower layer is a personal copy belonging to one of the Companions — exactly the kind of copy Islamic sources say existed before the text was standardised. Finding it confirms the traditional account rather than upsetting it.

Analysis

Behnam Sadeghi and Uwe Bergmann studied it (Arabica 57, 2010) and placed it in the family of Companion copies, close to what is reported from Ibn Mas'ud. Nicolai Sinai reaches a compatible conclusion. Here is the strong point. Ibn Abi Dawud (PBUH) catalogued the differences in these Companion copies in the ninth century, in his Kitab al-Masahif. So the tradition told us in advance what such a copy would look like, and then one turned up looking like that. A record that predicts a later discovery is doing well, not badly. What the manuscript does refute is the over-eager claim that no differing copy ever existed. It does not touch the transmission history as Muslim scholars actually recorded it. Never deny that the lower text differs from the standard one. It does. The argument is about what kind of document it is.

From the Qur'an

إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا ٱلذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَحَـٰفِظُونَ

innā naḥnu nazzalnā l-dhik'ra wa-innā lahu laḥāfiẓūna

Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its guardian.

From the Sunnah

Uthman (RA) had the Qur'an copied into one written standard and sent a copy to each province.

Sources

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