What Does It Mean That the Quran Was Transmitted through Tawatur (Mass Transmission)? – Shaykh Anas al-Musa
Answered by Shaykh Anas al-Musa
Question
What does it mean that the Quran was transmitted through tawatur (mass transmission)?
Answer
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger sent as a mercy to the worlds, our Master and Prophet, Muhammad, and his Family and Companions.
The tawatur (mass transmission) of the Quran means that it has been transmitted in a continuous and unbroken chain by a large number of people in every generation, such that it is impossible for them all to agree upon a lie or for an error to occur by chance. This large group of people transmits the Quran from another similarly large group, and so on, all the way back to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace).
This method of transmission provides definitive and certain knowledge that this Quran is indeed the word of Allah (Most High) revealed to His Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). [‘Itr, ‘Ulum al-Quran]
Detailed Answer
The Quran was transmitted to us through oral narration. After the Quran was revealed to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), he recited it and conveyed it to his Companions (Allah be pleased with them).
The Companions then conveyed it to the Successors (the tabi‘in), who in turn conveyed it to those after them, and so on, until it has reached us today exactly as it was revealed to the heart of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace).
When we say the Quran is mutawatir, it means that the way the Quran was transmitted is through tawatur (mass transmission). This indicates that the Quran is definitively and certainly established as having been revealed to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace).
Tawatur is a method of transmitting reports, meaning a continuous chain of narrators in which each one reports from another, such that each person in the chain is followed by another without interruption.
When the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) recited the Quran to the people, it was not carried by one individual alone but by the entire community at that time. This community then transmitted what they had learned to subsequent generations until it reached us.
Tawatur in the transmission of the Quran means that it is transmitted by those who heard it to those who did not, in a way that provides certain and definitive knowledge of its authenticity and removes any doubt. This means that the Quran is definitively established as being from the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), and it was transmitted with the same certainty to the general body of companions after the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace).
This transmission was done with meticulous care in its recitation, performance, and narration. People continued to copy manuscripts from the originals of the companions, reciting with the exactitude of the proficient transmitters in all regions. Generations received it from previous generations, with no individual adding to or subtracting from what was in the manuscript. Centuries have passed without any change or alteration.
Finally, the tawatur of the Quran’s transmission assures us that not a single letter has been added or removed, and that it remains as fresh and intact as it was when the companions received it from the mouth of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace).
They memorized it and wrote it down, and there is no better evidence than the vast number of ancient manuscripts in Islamic countries and beyond, all of which, regardless of the time and place they were written, do not differ from each other in any way.
Similarly, every Muslim household contains a Quran, and whether you look to the East or the West, you will not find any differences among them. [al-Muqaddimat al-Asasiyya fi ‘Ulum al-Quran]
May Allah bless the Prophet Muhammad and give him peace, and his Family and Companions.
And Allah knows best.
[Shaykh] Anas al-Musa
Shaykh Anas al-Musa, born in Hama, Syria, in 1974, is an erudite scholar of notable repute. He graduated from the Engineering Institute in Damascus, where he specialized in General Construction, and Al-Azhar University, Faculty of Usul al-Din, where he specialized in Hadith.
He studied under prominent scholars in Damascus, including Shaykh Abdul Rahman al-Shaghouri and Shaykh Adib al-Kallas, among others. Shaykh Anas has memorized the Quran and is proficient in the ten Mutawatir recitations, having studied under Shaykh Bakri al-Tarabishi and Shaykh Mowfaq ‘Ayun. He also graduated from the Iraqi Hadith School.
He has taught numerous Islamic subjects at Shari‘a institutes in Syria and Turkey. Shaykh Anas has served as an Imam and preacher for over 15 years and is a teacher of the Quran in its various readings and narrations.
Currently, he works as a teacher at SeekersGuidance and is responsible for academic guidance there. He has completed his Master’s degree in Hadith and is now pursuing his Ph.D. in the same field. Shaykh Anas al-Musa is married and resides in Istanbul.
