wise it is inconceivable that the Khalif should have taken the trouble to collect and burn them in the manner recorded by Bukhārī. The result is that Muslims to-day are shut up to the arbitrary edition circulated by ʿUsmān, and are quite unable by critical study to arrive at any satisfactory decision as to how farʿ‘Usmān’s recension agreed with that compiled under the direction of Abū-Bakr, or with the various Qurānic readings current in Arabia. This at least we know, that the Shiahs have constantly charged ʿUsmān with suppressing and altering various passages of the Qurān favourable to ʿAli and his family. Thus in the book 'Faniki-kitāb-Debistān' it is written, "ʿUsmān burnt the Qurān, and excised from it all those passages in which was related the greatness of ʿAli and his family.” Shiah books quote numerous passages which haye been altered in this way, but for which this little book contains no room. The reader may find them in the writings of Ali-ibn-Ibrāhīm-ul-Qūmī, Muhammad-Yaʿquh-ul-Kulaini, Shaikh-Ahmad-ibn-ʿAli-Lālit-ul-Tabrāsi and Shaikh-Abū-Ali-ul-Tabrāsi. This two-fold witness of the Shiahs on the one hand, and of Bukhārī on the other, leaves no room for doubt that the Qurān which we possess to-day is far indeed from being free from corruptions and omissions.
Further, from the significant fact that ʿUsmān burnt all the copies of the Qurān which he could find, and circulated only the one copy compiled by himself, we learn that he, at any rate, did not accept the story of the ‘seven readings,’ nor credit the prophet with having called seven mutually conflicting readings of the Qurān equally correct. The fact is, any unbiassed study of the whole story makes it clear that, not Muhammad, but his immediate followers circulated the story which attributed to him such a foolish statement in order that Muslims should not stumble at the astounding sight of a Qurān, sent down from God, appearing in different contradictory texts.
