(c) Process of dawah

The goal of the first process is to keep the book brought by the Prophet intact in its original form, generation after generation. There must be no human interpolations and none of its parts should be destroyed.

The first major step in the process of preservation was undertaken, after the passing away of the Prophet, during the life of the first Caliph, Abu Bakr Siddiq. At that time tens of thousands of the companions of the Prophet had learnt the complete Quran by heart. It was thus completely preserved in human memory.

But as far as the writing of the Quran was concerned, it existed only in fragments on different kinds of writing materials. The first Caliphs, therefore, engaged scholars of the Quran from amongst the companions to prepare a single volume of the Quran. By employing the double-checking system, that is, the Quran as memorized was checked with the Quran in its written form and the Quran in written form was checked with the Quran preserved in human memory. Thus, the first Caliph prepared the first bound volume of the Quran, which served as the standard copy. All the later copies of the Quran were made from this original volume.

Thus, the Quran was preserved by following the double method—writing and memorizing, generation after generation, until it reached the age of the printing press, whereupon any possibility of human interpolation in the text was ruled out.