How was the Holy Qur’an compiled, and is today's text the original?

Yes. The text we hold in our hands today is the original. It was written down while it was being revealed, and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) himself fixed its order under divine guidance.

The Holy Qur’an was not pieced together from memory years later. Whenever a portion was revealed, scribes appointed for the task wrote it down on parchment and other materials. At the same time, many companions learned the text by heart. From the very beginning, writing and memory preserved it together.

Something else is striking. The verses were not revealed in the order in which they now stand in the book. Often a revelation came because a particular situation needed guidance at once. Its permanent place in the book, however, was elsewhere. Who decided this order? The Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) himself. Even while the revelation was still coming, he told the scribes where each verse or chapter belonged. This order, too, came from God.

Just imagine it. A man who could neither read nor write kept in mind, over twenty-three years, the exact place of every single verse. And he dictated this to scribes while new portions kept arriving. That alone is a strong sign that something more than human planning was at work.

Anyone who reads the Holy Qur’an attentively in its present order finds that each verse flows into the next and each chapter connects with the one before. From the first letter to the last it forms one continuous whole. For people who are sceptical about Islam, this connection is well worth examining for themselves.

In the Holy Qur’an, God promised to guard His word. History shows that this promise was kept. The text Muslims read all over the world today is the same text the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) dictated.