No religion has ever placed as much emphasis on the importance of knowledge as the religion of Islam. The first word revealed to the Beloved Messenger ﷺ was “Read”. He ﷺ knew that the Sacred Islamic Knowledge would be passed on through various means, including reading and writing. Below we see one of the ways in which the Prophet ﷺ ensured the skill of writing spread amongst his Companions in the blessed city of Madinah.
What follows is a translation of a passage from the book al-Fikr as-Sami by Sheikh Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Hajawi al-Th’alabi .1
The entirety of the Quran was written down during the life of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with the utmost precision, and there was not a single ayah except that it was written and put in its correct place in its respective Surah and there is no dispute about this. And the Prophet ﷺ had scribes whose number reached forty-four as per what is mentioned in Sabil al-Huda wal-Rashad of Imam al-Shami and he named them one by one. Imam al-Iraqi put some of their names in his Alfiyyah and the author of Subh al-A’sha and others also detailed out their names. Amongst them were likes of Zayd bin Thabit, Ubay ibn Ka’b, Muawiyah bin Abu Sufyan, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and others.
Those who knew how to write in Madinah at the time were few. However when the leaders of Makkah were taken captive after the battle of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ made their ransom a sum of money. But those who were unable to find ransom money were allowed to free themselves by teaching ten of the children of Madinah how to write. So due to this, writing spread and the number of those who could write multiplied. And it was due to their large number that the gathering (majlis) of the Prophet ﷺ was never devoid of someone who could take on this important task (of writing the Quran).
One of the most important and consistent scribes of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was Zayd bin Thabit. Whenever the Quran would be revealed upon the Prophet ﷺ, Zayd would be brought and the Prophet ﷺ would dictate (the Revelation) to him and he would write it down on stone, tanned skin, palm tree leaves, tablets made of bones and other materials, as they did not have paper at that time.
Everything that was written of the Quran remained in the house of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the scribes would make copies for themselves using it. This was so that the Quran could be firmly established amongst the Sahaba and the Huffaz could memorise it; i.e. those who gathered the Quran (by memory) during the life of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
1] al-Fikr al-Sami Fi Tarikh al-Fiqh al-Islami, Volume 1, page 88 (DKI)
Orthodox Muslim 