Transmission of the Message From the Prophet to the First Muslims

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ died in 632. He left behind a revealed Qur'an over 23 years and a Sunna transmitted orally to his companions. But the Qur'an was not yet a bound book. The Sunna was not yet compiled into collections. How does one move from a living message to a fixed, authenticated corpus?

This is one of the most important questions in Islamic history, and the answer reveals a methodical process spanning several decades.

Fundamental distinction: Qur'an vs. ḥadīth

First, one must understand that the Qur'an and the Sunna are two distinct corpora, transmitted differently and with different statuses.

Oral transmission: the original mode

Seventh-century Arabia was an oral civilization. Arabs memorized poems of thousands of verses, genealogies over dozens of generations, entire speeches. Memory was their primary storage technology.

When the Prophet received a Qur'anic revelation, he recited it to his companions, who memorized it immediately. Some transcribed it on makeshift supports:

• Flat bones (camel shoulder blades)
• Tanned hides
• Flat stones
• Palm leaves
• Pottery shards

The Prophet had official scribes (kuttāb al-waḥy), the best known being Zayd ibn Thābit. But there was no unified “book”—fragments were scattered on different supports and with different people.

The Companions (ṣaḥāba): vectors of transmission

The ṣaḥāba (صحابة) are the companions of the Prophet—those who saw him, believed in him, and died as Muslims. They are the first link in every Islamic chain of transmission.

Their role is threefold:

1. Direct witnesses of revelation and the Prophet's life
2. Transmitters of the Qur'an and Sunna to the next generation
3. Practitioners who embodied Islam as they learned it from the Prophet

Among the most important companions for transmission:

Compilation of the Qur'an: a three-stage process

Stage 1: During the Prophet's lifetime (~610–632)

The Qur'an was memorized by many companions (ḥuffāẓ, memorizers) and partially written by scribes. But it did not exist as a unified book. The Prophet indicated the order of verses within sūras and the placement of each revelation.

Stage 2: Under Abū Bakr (~633)

After the battle of Yamāma (633), many Qur'an memorizers were killed. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, concerned about potential loss of the text, persuaded Caliph Abū Bakr to order a complete written compilation.

Zayd ibn Thābit was entrusted with the task. His method was rigorous:

• Each verse had to be attested by at least two written witnesses (physical supports) in addition to memorization
• Comparison with living memorizers
• Compilation into a single muṣḥaf (codex)

This muṣḥaf was first kept by Abū Bakr, then by ʿUmar, then by his daughter Ḥafṣa.

Stage 3: Standardization under ʿUthmān (~650)

With the expansion of the Islamic empire, recitation divergences (dialectal readings) appeared between provinces. Caliph ʿUthmān ordered standardization:

• A commission led by Zayd ibn Thābit produced official copies based on Ḥafṣa's muṣḥaf
• The text was written in the dialect of Quraysh (the Prophet's dialect)
• Copies were sent to major cities (Kufa, Basra, Damascus, Mecca)
• Divergent personal codices were destroyed to avoid confusion

Transmission of the Sunna: a longer path

Unlike the Qur'an, the Sunna was not subject to early official compilation. Several reasons explain this:

1. Priority of the Qur'an: the Prophet is reported to have asked that Qur'anic writings not be mixed with his own words
2. Trust in memory: oral culture made transmission reliable within a restricted circle
3. Considerable volume: the Prophet's words, deeds, and situations far exceed the Qur'anic text

The tābiʿūn: the relay generation

The tābiʿūn (تابعون, “successors”) are the generation that learned directly from companions without having seen the Prophet. They form the second link in the chain of transmission.

Among famous tābiʿūn:

• Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab (Medina)—student of Abū Hurayra
• al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (Basra)—major ascetic and scholar
• ʿIkrima (Mecca)—student of Ibn ʿAbbās
• Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī (Kufa)—founder of the Iraqi legal school

The tābiʿūn play a crucial role: they transmit the Sunna to the third generation (atbāʿ al-tābiʿīn), which would produce the first systematic written compilations of ḥadīths.

Early written compilations

From the late 7th century and especially the 8th, writing of the Sunna accelerated. Notable early compilations include:

Why this process matters

Understanding how the message was transmitted is as important as knowing what it says. This process reveals:

• An early awareness of the importance of textual preservation
• A verification methodology (multiple witnesses, comparison with memory)
• A gradual shift from oral to written, adapted to cultural context
• The birth of a science of transmission that would become the science of ḥadīth

Summary

1. The Qur'an and Sunna are two distinct corpora transmitted differently.
2. The Qur'an was compiled under Abū Bakr (~633) and standardized under ʿUthmān (~650).
3. The Companions (ṣaḥāba) are the first link of transmission.
4. The tābiʿūn (successors) transmit to the next generation.
5. The Sunna remained oral for ~200 years before major compilations (Bukhārī, Muslim).
6. This was not random accumulation—it was a methodical process of preservation.

The next article details this methodology: the science of ḥadīth. How did al-Bukhārī and other scholars verify the Prophet's words? What criteria distinguish an authentic ḥadīth from a false one?