Podcast episode

May 2, 2025

Episode 205: Introducing the Qur’an Part III: Qur’ānic Texts vs. the Qur’ān

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary:

The ḥadith on the different aḥruf: al-Bukharī, Ṣaḥīḥ VI, Book 66, Kitāb faḍā’il al-Qur’ān, numbers 4991, 4992, and 5062.

Ḥadith transmitted by ‘Ā’isha about the Prophet remembering certain ayāt: Bukharī, Ṣaḥīḥ VI, Book 66, Kitāb faḍā’il al-Qur’ān, Cap 25, ḥadith 5037. Cf. 5037b, 5042. Online here, and scroll down.

Umar on the loss of parts of the Qur’ān: transmitted by al-Suyūti, Itqān fi ‘ulūm al-Qur’ān (Cairo: Ḥalabī, 1354/1935) pt. 2, p. 25.

Narration by ‘Abdullah about: Bukharī, Ṣaḥīḥ VI, Book 66, Kitāb faḍā’il al-Qur’ān, Cap. 37, ḥadith 5062. Online here, scroll right to the bottom.

Muḥammad b. Isḥāq al Nadı̄m. See Bayard Dodge. trans. The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture. Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1970, pp. 68 and ff.

Qur’ān:

• ‘Recite, in the name of your lord who created man from a clot of clay …’: Q. 6:1-2.
• ‘We shall make you recite, so that you do not forget unless Allah wills it’: Q. 97: 6-7.
• ‘By the clear book!’: Q. 43:1-4.

Secondary:

Mohammed Arkoun. Rethinking Islam: Common Questions, Uncommon Answers. Routledge, London/New York, NY, 1994.

Thomas Bauer. A Culture of Ambiguity: An Alternative History of Islam. Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 2021.pp.

R. Blachère. Introduction au Coran. Maissonneuve & Larose, Paris, 1959; we cite p. 124.

Asma Hilali. The Sanaa Palimpsest: The Transmission of the Qur’an in the First Centuries AH. The University Press in Association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, Oxford, 2017.

Behnam Sadeghi and Uwe Bergmann. The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qur’ān of the Prophet. Arabica, 57:343–436, 2010.

Nicolai Sinai. Beyond the Cairo Edition: On the Study of Early Quranic Codices. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 140(1):180–204, 2020; we quote pp. 191-2.

SHWEP Episode 205 Recommended Reading

Themes

Islam, Qur'ān