Hafsa's Qur`an Folios

Question:

I was wondering if you know if Hafsah's Qur'an is still in existence?

Answer:

Regarding Hafsa's Suhuf (RA), they did survive until the time of Muʿawiya (RA) but were then destroyed by Muʿawiya's Amir over Madina, Marwan ibn al-Hakam. It seems she did, indeed, disobey ʿUthman's (RA) categorical order to burn all but his codex:

Imam al-Bukhari narrates in his Sahih (6:183-184) from Anas ibn Malik (RA) that Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman came to ʿUthman at the time the people of Sham were battling for the conquest of Armenia and Azerbaijan [~year 25H] with the people of Iraq.

Their divergences in Qur'anic reading had alarmed Hudhayfa, so he said to ʿUthman: "O Commander of the Believers! Rescue (adrik) this Umma before they differ over the Book the way the Jews and Christians differed." Whereupon ʿUthman wrote to Hafsah: "Send us the folios (suhuf) so that we copy them then we shall return them to you." Hafsa then sent them to ʿUthman who ordered Zayd ibn Thabit, ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿid ibn al-ʿAs, and ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham who copied those folios into the volumes (masahif). ʿUthman said to the group - the three Qurayshis: "If you find yourselves differing, [the three of] you and Zayd ibn Thabit in anything of the Qur'an, write it in the tongue of the Quraysh. For it was not revealed but in their tongue."

They did [as instructed] and when they finished copying the folios into the volumes, ʿUthman returned the folios to Hafsa, sent one mushaf to each region from those they had copied, then ordered that all other [copies] of the Qur'an in each and every folio or volume be burnt.

In his commentary on the above hadith in Fath al-Bari, at the line "when they finished copying the folios into the volumes, ʿUthman returned the folios to Hafsa," Ibn Hajar says:

"Abu ʿUbayd [a tashif for Abu ʿUbayda al-Qasim ibn Sallam as proven below] and Ibn Abi Dawud [in Kitab al-Masahif] added: with a chain from Shuʿayb, from Ibn Shihab who said: Salim ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar told me:

"Marwan used to send courier to Hafsa - meaning, when he was governor of al-Madina on behalf of Muʿawiya - asking her for the folios from which the Qur'an had been copied [kutiba minha] but she would refuse to give them to him.' Salim continued: 'When Hafsa died and we returned from her burial, Marwan sent an imperative request to ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar for those folios to be sent to him, whereupon ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar sent them to him. Then Marwan gave an order so they were ripped up (fashuqqiqat). He said: 'I only did this because I feared that after the passing of time, some doubter might foster doubt with regard to those folios.'

"The wording in Abu ʿUbayda's narration has: 'so they were torn up' (famuzziqat). Abu ʿUbayd [sic] said: 'It is unheard of that Marwan tore up the folios except in this narration.' I say: Ibn Abi Dawud narrated it with a chain from Yunus ibn Yazid, from Ibn Shihab, in a similar wording which has:

"When Marwan was governor of Madina he sent courier to Hafsa asking her for the folios but she refused him access to them.' He [Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri] said: 'Salim ibn ʿAbd Allah [ibn ʿUmar] narrated to me saying: "When Hafsa died..." and he narrated it [as above] and said in it: 'So he had them ripped up and burnt' (fashaqqaqaha wa harraqaha).

"And this addition also came up in the narration of ʿUmara ibn Ghuzayya, also an abridged one, but he, also made it part of the narration of Zayd ibn Thabit who said in it: 'So he had it washed out thoroughly (faghassalaha ghaslan)'.... And all this can be reconciled by saying that this was done with all the folios - renting, them washing out, then burning - and it is possible that the word [harraqaha] be read 'kharraqaha' (he had them rent) so that he has them first torn up then washed out, and Allah knows best."

These Suhuf were of course the Mushaf of Abu Bakr (RA) kept by ʿUmar, then kept by his daughter Hafsa the Mother of the Believers, wAllahu aʿlam.

Hajj Gibril

Hafsa's Qur`an Folios

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