Preservation and authenticity of Qur'an (2)

Question:
Thank you very much for your precious time for me Sir. We have heard this ability of Arabs to remember poems and poetry and also memorizing the text of Quran before. But does it not look to good and explain everything?

I mean with no offence, there are hadiths in which Prophet Muhammad telling us that He forgot part of Quran and somebody reminded him

Volume 6, Book 61, Number 558:
Narrated Aisha:
Allah’s Apostle heard a man reciting the Qur’an at night, and said, "May Allah bestow His Mercy on him, as he has reminded me of such-and-such Verses of such-and-such Suras, which I was caused to forget."

And indeed in Quran we find that Allah mentioned He will forget some part of Quran, if this is the case, then what credence should we give to the Quran which was apparently standardize after his sad demise from the world?
“By degrees shall we teach thee (Muhammad) to declare (the message), so thou shalt not forget, except as God wills ... (Sura 87:6-7, Yusuf Ali).”

So should it mean there will be a part of Quran which is not with us today?

I understand when you said that preservation of Quran was done mostly by memorizing the Qur’anic text during the time of Prophet Muhammad itself, however if you notice that there is a difference here. Quran was revealed in parts and different Suras came down in different time. The sequence of memorizing must be different as it was the case much later, when Uthman the third Khalifa, put these verses in the current order. If Some of the verses indeed forgotten by Prophet Muhammad and if some of these verses which are reported were not found by Uthamanic team in order to put in Quran, then should we consider that part of Quran indeed not with us today ? (One good example of Umar saying about Rajam verses not in Qur’an)

Please if you take time and explain these follow up questions, it will be highly appreciated.

Response:
The Qur’an mentions in surah al-Qiyamah, “It is upon us to gather it (the Qur’an) and read it out; so when we will read it out, you follow (us) in reading it; then it will also be upon us to explain it.” (75: 17-19) This passage explains the Almighty’s scheme of preserving Qur’an through the prophet, alaihissalaam, after its revelation was completed. The angel recited the Qur’an and the prophet followed him in repeating what was recited. This process happened in Madinah in all the years of the prophet’s stay there, especially in the last year, when it happened twice. The process was necessary because of the fact that the sequence of revelation was different from the sequence in which the Qur’an was to be preserved as a book. When this arrangement was done every year in Ramadan, the problem of sequencing was completely dealt with.

The fact that the prophet could forget was mentioned in the Qur’an itself. It says: “We’ll read it (Qur’an) out to you such that you will not forget, except for what God willed.” (87: 6-7) So if the prophet forgot, it wasn’t something that was not anticipated. In fact, God Himself caused him to forget some verses which were not desired to be a part of the permanent Qur’an. I am not commenting on the fact whether what Umar had alluded to was also one of those verses.

The above explanation clarifies that the fact Uthman arranged the sequence of Qur’an during his caliphate was a fiction. Why would anyone have accepted that arrangement? It wasn’t an administrative decision; it was a very serious religious decision, and that to have been settled by a companion during his caliphate in a manner that the prophet himself had not done, was simply unthinkable. The Muslim ummah would have been divided on the issue, to say the least. But that isn’t the case. The fact of the matter is that the prophet himself gave the sequence to the Qur’an under the guidance of the angel as was promised by the verses of surah al-Qiyamah. The Muslims therefore unanimously followed that sequence.

The fact that the Qur’an cannot be forgotten by Muslims is a common place experience. We experience it all throughout the year during the prayers, especially in Ramadan. How can one imagine that the foolproof process of today wasn’t quite as foolproof fourteen hundred years ago? In fact it was the same process, the practical demonstration of which we see every year as if to feel confident that the book we recite is the same very book that was given to us fourteen hundred years ago.

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