Evidence that all that the copies of the Quran of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) collected is Quran, and that "Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim" at the start of the surahs other than Surat Bara'ah is part of it

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: At the time of the killing of the people of Yamamah, Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) sent for me. I came to him and saw that Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was also seated there. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) has come to me and told me that the reciters of the Qur'an have been martyred in the battle of Yamamah. I fear that if the reciters of the Qur'an continue to be martyred like this on various fronts, much of the Qur'an (which is only in people's hearts) will be lost. My advice is that you order the Qur'an to be compiled." (Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) further said:) I said to Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him): "How can I do something that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do?" Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "By Allah, this is a good thing." He kept urging me about it until Allah Almighty opened my heart to that for which He had opened the heart of Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), and I came to hold the same view that Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) held.
Sayyiduna Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) said that Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "You are a young and intelligent man, we trust you, and you used to write down the revelation for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So search out the Qur'an and gather it together." Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) said: By Allah, had they ordered me to move a mountain from one place to another, it would not have been as heavy and hard on me as this task (of compiling the Qur'an) seemed. I said: "Why would you do something that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do?" Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "(Even though he did not do it,) by Allah, this is a good thing." He kept urging me about it, until, just as Allah Almighty had placed this in the hearts of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), He placed it in my heart too, and my view became like theirs. So I began searching for the Qur'an, and I started gathering it from palm-leaf stalks, thin stones and the hearts of men, until I found the last verses of Surah al-Tawbah, "There has certainly come to you a Messenger from among yourselves" [Surah al-Tawbah: 128] to the end of the surah, with Sayyiduna Khuzaymah or Sayyiduna Abu Khuzaymah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), and I attached them to Surah al-Tawbah. Then this mushaf remained with Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) during his lifetime, then after him with Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) until he passed away, then it passed to Sayyidah Hafsah bint Umar (may Allah be pleased with her).

(a) A similar narration is reported from Sayyiduna Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) through another chain.
(b) Ibn Shihab (may Allah have mercy on him) added: Kharijah bin Zayd (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated to me from Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) that Sayyiduna Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I could not find that verse of Surah al-Ahzab which I had heard from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); he (peace and blessings be upon him) used to recite it. So I searched for it, and I found it only with Sayyiduna Khuzaymah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), whose testimony the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had made equal to the testimony of two men." That is, the statement of Allah Almighty: "Among the believers are men who have been true to what they pledged to Allah" [Surah al-Ahzab: 23].

Through this same chain it is narrated from al-Zuhri that he said: Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) informed me that Sayyiduna Hudhayfah bin al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him) came to Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) during his caliphate, while he had been taking part in jihad alongside the people of Iraq towards Armenia and Azerbaijan. They were fighting at the frontier of the people of Iraq and the people of Syria, and there the people of Iraq and the people of Syria disagreed about the recitation of the Qur'an, until Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) learned of their disagreement. He was alarmed and immediately set out for Madinah, came to Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) and said: O Commander of the Believers, (for Allah's sake) take care of this Ummah before they begin to differ about the Qur'an as the Jews and Christians did.
Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) was astonished by this, and he sent a message to the Mother of the Believers, Sayyidah Hafsah bint Umar (may Allah be pleased with her), asking her to send the mushaf in which the Qur'an had been compiled. Sayyidah Hafsah (may Allah be pleased with her) sent that mushaf to Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) ordered Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit, Sayyiduna Sa'id bin al-As, Sayyiduna Abdullah bin al-Zubayr and Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman bin al-Harith bin Hisham (may Allah be pleased with them) to prepare copies of this Qur'an. Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) told them: When you differ with Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) concerning the Arabic of the Qur'an, write it in the language of Quraysh, for the Qur'an was revealed in their language and idiom. They did so until the copies were prepared. Then Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) returned the mushaf of Sayyidah Hafsah (may Allah be pleased with her) to her, sent one copy to each of the armies of the Muslims, and ordered them that any mushaf differing from the one sent to them should be burned; and in that period copies of the Qur'an were burned.
A similar narration is reported from Ibrahim bin Sa'd (may Allah have mercy on him), but it does not mention the returning of the mushaf to Sayyidah Hafsah (may Allah be pleased with her).
In the narration of Ibn Hamzah it is that they wrote the sheets into copies, then he sent one copy to every land, and concerning the recitation in every other sheet besides them, he ordered that it be either erased or burned.
Imam al-Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated it in his Sahih from Abu al-Yaman, and he also narrated it from Musa bin Isma'il and Ibrahim bin Sa'd (may Allah have mercy on them). In it is: "Among the believers are men who have been true to what they pledged to Allah" [Surah al-Ahzab: 23].

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: During the caliphate of Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), people differed about the Qur'an, so much so that one man would say to another: My recitation is better than your recitation. When news of this reached Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), he gathered all of us Companions and said: Today people have differed in recitation while you are present among them; I think that I should unite them upon a single recitation. Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Our view also agreed with the view of Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him). And he said: Had I been faced with the kind of matter that Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) faced, I would certainly have done just as Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) did.

(a) It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: I said to Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him): "What prompted you to take Surah al-Tawbah, which is among the surahs of about a hundred verses (al-mi'in), and Surah al-Anfal, which is among the surahs of fewer than a hundred verses (al-mathani), and join them together, without leaving between them a line in which 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' [Surah al-Fatihah: 1] is written, and you placed it among the seven long surahs?" Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Surahs would be revealed to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in which such and such things were mentioned. When verses were revealed to him (peace and blessings be upon him), he would say: 'Place these verses in such and such a place,' and when a (complete) surah was revealed to him (peace and blessings be upon him), he would say: 'Place (write) this surah in such and such a place.' Surah al-Anfal was among the first surahs revealed in Madinah, and Surah al-Tawbah was among the last in order of revelation, and its subject also resembles that of al-Anfal. (That is, the content of the two surahs is similar; but when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) passed away without having made their matter clear, I thought that perhaps this (al-Tawbah) was part of that (al-Anfal). For that reason I placed the two next to each other and did not leave a line between them in which I would write 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful', and I placed it too among the seven long surahs.)"
(b) In this hadith there is evidence that the Bismillah which was written in the copies of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) was written on the basis of direct observation.
(c) We have also mentioned the narration reported from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that it (the Bismillah) is written at the beginnings of the surahs because of its revelation, and at the time of its revelation it would become known that one surah had ended and another had begun.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would not recognise the end of a surah until "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" was revealed to him.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Muslims would not know of the end of a surah until "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Ever-Merciful" was revealed, and when "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" was revealed, they understood that the surah was complete.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that once the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was sitting among us in the mosque when suddenly a light drowsiness (a swoon) came over him. (After the drowsiness) he raised his blessed head and recited: "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Indeed, We have granted you al-Kawthar. So pray to your Lord and sacrifice. Indeed, it is your enemy who will be left without name or trace" [Surah al-Kawthar: 1-3]. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do you know what al-Kawthar is?" We said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is a river in Paradise which my Lord has promised me. Its vessels (cups and the like) are more than the number of the stars. My Ummah will come to it, and some of them will be held back, so I will say: O Allah, he is from my Ummah. It will be said in reply: You do not know what innovations he introduced into the religion after you."

(a) It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that once the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was present among us when suddenly drowsiness came over him. Then (after a while) he raised his blessed head smiling, and we said: O Messenger of Allah, what made you laugh? He said: "Just now a surah has been revealed to me." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) began to recite: "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Indeed, We have granted you al-Kawthar" [Surah al-Kawthar: 1] to the end of it. Then he mentioned the complete hadith.
(b) Several other narrators have also transmitted it with these same words, and some narrators did not mention the word 'anifan' (just now). The well-known view on this among the scholars of tafsir and maghazi is that this surah is Makkan, and the wording of the hadith of Ali bin Hujr does not contradict them; perhaps it is the better one.

It is reported from the Mother of the Believers, Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), concerning the incident of the slander (al-ifk), that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was sitting; he removed the covering from his face and recited this verse: "'A'udhu billahi al-sami'i al-'alimi min al-shaytani al-rajim' (I seek refuge with Allah, who hears everything and knows everything, from Satan the accursed). 'Indeed, those who came with the slander' [Surah al-Nur: 11]."
(b) Abu Dawud said: I fear that the addition of the isti'adhah may be the words of Humayd.
(c) The Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) recited "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Ever-Merciful" before beginning a surah, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) did not recite the Bismillah before verses which were not at the beginning of a surah. In this there is also confirmation of what we have reported from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), that the Bismillah was written in the copies of the Qur'an only where it was revealed. And Allah knows best.

It is reported from Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that when he began the prayer, he would say the takbir, then recite: "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds" [Surah al-Fatihah: 1-2], and when he had finished Surah al-Fatihah, he recited "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" [Surah al-Fatihah: 1]. Nafi' said that Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) used to say: If it is not to be recited, then why was it written in the Qur'an?