16:15

Airmano: Let me rephrase it: What (or who) gave Uthman the authority to define his version as the only true on ? The Saint: He had the authority by virtue of being a Khalifa. A companion of the Prophet PBUH. Absolutely the right man, in the right place to do the right thing. To remove all possible confusion as to what constituted the true and original Quran.

Still I don't see what gave Uthman the authority. In case of Mohamed things look clear (to you): He got the authority from God.
Since he was supposedly the last prophet, absolutely nobody - including Uthman- had the right to change or even decide on anything regarding the Quran.

Describing Uthman as an important person doesn't take this conflict away.

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Airmano: None of the existing Qurans come from Uthman times. How do you know that the "official" (Cairo) version is 100% Uthmanic, especially knowing that all historical ones differ from each other ? The Saint: Please note that the Arab society contemporary to the prophet was an oral one. Therefore, there was great emphasis in memorizing long texts and poems. Thus as the Quran was revealed to prophet Muhammad PBUH it was being written down on available materials and also being memorized by companions. Thus oral preservation continued down ages. The Quran was handed down to successors orally as well. Besides there was a system of Isnad developed by scholars. Any claim of a verse/s not included in the Uthmanic Mushaf was verified by the Mushaf itself and also what was the chain of the claim.

...but this oral transmission did not prevent deviations to develop. Obviously the transmission was not perfect and already after a very short time after Mohamed the Sanaa scriptures showed deviations. I have absolutely no reasons to assume that this "evolution" has/had stopped with Uthman.



Airmano

Edited by airmano - 04 September 2016 at 2:25pm

But this does not answer my question !

It should have.

Let me rephrase it: What (or who) gave Uthman the authority to define his version as the only true on ?

He had the authority by virtue of being a Khalifa. A companion of the Prophet PBUH. Absolutely the right man, in the right place to do the right thing. To remove all possible confusion as to what constituted the true and original Quran.

None of the existing Qurans come from Uthman times. How do you know that the "official" (Cairo) version is 100% Uthmanic, especially knowing that all historical ones differ from each other ?

Please note that the Arab society contemporary to the prophet was an oral one. Therefore, there was great emphasis in memorizing long texts and poems. Thus as the Quran was revealed to prophet Muhammad PBUH it was being written down on available materials and also being memorized by companions. Thus oral preservation continued down ages. The Quran was handed down to successors orally as well. Besides there was a system of Isnad developed by scholars. Any claim of a verse/s not included in the Uthmanic Mushaf was verified by the Mushaf itself and also what was the chain of the claim.

Based on which logic/surah/hadith can you claim which of the two (or any other) is the "true" one ?

You have been stressing yourself about such a simple issue! This question was actually answered hundreds of years back! The Uthmanic Mushaf, of course!

Don't play the fool !

Presumably, you are not a fool and you do not play either, so why don't you reveal your wisdom here?