Tafsir at-Tabari: Jami' al-Bayan - Dar al-Tarbiyah wa al-Turath Edition

63- Saʿīd ibn al-Rabīʿ narrated to me, he said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī, he said: The Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, passed away while the Qurʾān had not yet been gathered; rather, it was only on palm-stalk bases (karānīf) and palm branches (ʿusub) (1).

64- Saʿīd ibn al-Rabīʿ narrated to us, he said: Sufyān narrated to us, from Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, from Ṣaʿṣaʿa that Abū Bakr was the first who gave inheritance to kalāla (one leaving no parent or child) and gathered the codex (2).

Abū Jaʿfar said: And other such reports—the full inclusion of which would lengthen the book—and traditions indicating that the Imam of the Muslims and the Commander of the Faithful, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, may Allah have mercy on him, gathered the Muslims together—out of consideration for them, compassion for them, and mercy toward them, guarding against apostasy occurring among some of them after Islam and entering into disbelief after faith, when there appeared from some of them in his presence and in his era the denial of some of the seven modes (aḥruf) upon which the Qurʾān was revealed, despite the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of God be upon him, having heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of God be upon him, the prohibition of denying any of them, and his informing them that disputation concerning it is disbelief—so, may Allah have mercy on him, when he saw that appearing openly among them in his era, given their recent experience with the revelation of the Qurʾān and their recent parting with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of God be upon him, he brought them—in a manner that rendered them safe from great affliction in religion regarding the recitation of the Qurʾān—to a single mode (3).

And he unified them upon a single codex and a single mode, and tore up whatever was other than the codex that

(1) Hadith 63: Ibn Ḥajar mentioned in al-Fatḥ (9: 9) the narration of Sufyān from al-Zuhrī from ʿUbayd from Zayd ibn Thābit, and completed it on p. 11 with a difference in wording. Al-Karānīf is the plural of karnāfa: which are the thick, broad bases of palm branches that, when dried, become like shoulder blades. They used to write on them before paper.
(2) Report 64: Ṣaʿṣaʿa: He is Ibn Ṣūḥān, with a ḍamma on the ṣād. He is an early Successor (Tabi'i) who was a Muslim during the time of the Messenger of Allah Peace and blessings of God be upon him and did not see him. This report we have not found anywhere else. As for "al-kalāla", there is a difference of opinion regarding its Tafsir, and the majority hold that it refers to one who dies leaving neither child nor parent, as al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Fatḥ (12: 21). This is what al-Ṭabarī chose, in what will come in the Tafsir of verse 12 of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ and verse 176 thereof, vol. 4, pp. 191–194, and vol. 6, pp. 28–31 of the Būlāq edition.
(3) His statement, "upon one mode", is connected to his earlier statement: "so he united them, May Allah have mercy on him," and his statement "so he united them" is conjunctional to his first statement: "collecting the Muslims."

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