Why Did They Become Muslims

word in the Qur’ân al-kerîm, they were permitted to use another
word with the same meaning. For instance, there was a villager
who always mispronounced the word ‘taâm-ul-esîm’ and said
‘tâmmul-yetîm,’ instead. Abdullah ibni Mes’ûd ‘radiy-Allâhu
ta’âlâ ’anh’ said to him, ‘If you cannot pronounce this word, say
‘taâm-ul-fâjir,’ which is its synonym.’ However, this variety of
choice in reciting the Qur’ân al-kerîm in different dialects and the
option to use synonymous substitutes gave birth to disputes on the
superiority of the dialects to one another. Consequently, the time’s
Khalîfa, ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’ convened a
commission under the presidency of, again, Zayd bin Thâbit
‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’, and commanded them to re-write and
re-arrange the Qur’ân al-kerîm, this time only in the Qoureishi
dialect. The sûras (chapters) were chosen from the pages written
in the Qoureishi dialect. Seven copies of the Qur’ân al-kerîm were
written in the same way and they were sent to different provinces.
Thereby the Qur’ân al-kerîm which the Messenger of Allah ‘sall-
Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ and Jebrâîl (Gabriel) ‘alaihis-salâm’ had
recited together twice in the year coinciding with the Prophet’s
passing away, was written down. The copies in other dialects were
annihilated. The copies of the Qur’ân al-kerîm existing in the
Muslim countries all over the world are exactly concordant with
the Mushaf-i ’Uthmânî (the copy of the Qur’ân al-kerîm written
upon the command of Hadrat ’Uthmân), both in arrangement and
in phraseology. Not a single letter of it has been changed ever
since.”
It is written in the Persian book entitled Riyâd-un-nâsihîn:
“When ’Uthmân ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anh’ was the Khalîfa, he
convened the As-hâb-i-kirâm ‘ridwânullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim
ajma’în’. They decided in consensus that that was the same Qur’ân
al-kerîm which Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’ had
recited during the year of his passing away. It was not wâjib for the
Ummat (Muslims) to make a choice among the seven dialects; it
was only permissible.”
The Islamic religion has four sources: The Qur’ân al-kerîm, the
hadîth-i-sherîfs (utterances of the Messenger of Allah), the ijmâ’-
i-ummat, and the qiyâs-i-fuqahâ. Ijmâ’ means consensus,
unanimity. The unanimity of the As-hâb-i-kirâm, as well as the
unanimity of the leaders of the four madh-habs, is a documentary
source for Muslims. For Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’
stated, “My Ummat (Muslims) never reach a consensus on
something wrong.” This hadîth-i-sherîf, too, foretells that the
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