Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 4882 — At the time of the slaughter

Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: At the time of the slaughter of the people at Yamamah, Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) sent for me. I went, and Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was with him. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Umar came to me and said: On the day of Yamamah very heavy losses fell upon the reciters (qurra') of the Muslims, and I fear that if the reciters are killed like this in other places too, much of the Qur'an will be lost, never to be preserved. So my view is that you should order the Qur'an to be compiled. I said to Umar: How can I do something that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do? Umar said: By Allah, it is good. Umar kept speaking to me about it again and again until Allah opened my heart to it as well, and I came to hold the same view as Umar. Then Abu Bakr said to Zayd bin Thabit, while Umar sat with him in silence: You are a young man; we have no suspicion about you, and you used to write down the revelation for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So search out the Qur'an and compile it. Zayd said: By Allah, had they ordered me to move one of the mountains, it would not have been heavier upon me than the order to compile the Qur'an. I said: How can you people do something that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do? Abu Bakr said: By Allah, it is good. Abu Bakr kept saying this to me again and again until Allah opened my heart to that for which He had opened the hearts of Abu Bakr and Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both). So I set about compiling the Qur'an from pieces of leather, shoulder bones, saddle boards, palm stalks and the breasts of men, until I found the last verse of Surah al-Tawbah with Sayyiduna Khuzaymah bin Thabit al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him); I did not find it with anyone else: "There has certainly come to you a Messenger from among yourselves" [Surah al-Tawbah: 128]. These sheets remained with Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) throughout his life until Allah, Mighty and Majestic, took him in death; then they remained with Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) until Allah took him in death; then they remained with Hafsah bint Umar (may Allah be pleased with her), until Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) took the Qur'an from them and had it written into the volumes (masahif).