Quran Inscribed in Law Al Mahfuz (The Heavenly Preserved Book)

What is Law Al Mahfuz?

Law Al Mahfuz i.e. The Preserved Tablet of Allah ﷻ lies on His Arsh (Throne) and all that is going to happen, from the point of creation was penned in to it including the Quran. Since this tablet existed before creation therefore Quran existed before creation. Quran is also the speech of Allah ﷻ and His speech is one of His Attributes like His Knowledge (99 names) which is Pre-eternal. The original Quran is inscribed in the preserved tablet which is on the Arsh (Throne) of Allah ﷻ: “This is truly a glorious Quran. (Recorded) in the Preserved Tablet (Law Al Mahfuz).”[1]

How Allah ﷻ preserves the Quran?

From the Heavenly Tablet, the Quran was inscribed on the heart of the Prophet ﷺ who then transmitted to his companions on whose hearts it got inscribed. They in turn transmitted and inscribed it on the hearts of their students who then inscribed on the hearts of their students and so from generation to generation each word of the Quran has been transmitted and inscribed on the hearts of the millions up till our times. There are millions of Islamic students on whose hearts these verses are inscribed today even though a majority of them are non-Arabs and many do not even understand the Arabic meanings yet they carry this Quran in their hearts! For instance if we can assume that not a single copy of the Quran in a book form was left on earth even then it can be transmitted on papers immediately by those millions who carry it in their hearts. And all of this takes place simply due to the fact that it is “(Recorded) in the Preserved Tablet (Al Quran 85:22)”. Hence it is because of this divine order of its preservation is why the Quran remains unchanged even after the passage of almost 15 centuries.

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Some people may ask "where is the original or first copy of the Quran?" If one can understand this miraculous fact about the Quran then the question of "where" being the first copy becomes meaningless! The Quran was revealed to a people who were ummi meaning "unlettered": “He it is who has sent to the unlettered (ummi) people a messenger from among themselves, to convey to them His messages, and to cause them to grow in purity…”[2] The reading and writing was not very common in the pre-Islamic Arabian society that heavily depended on memorization method to learn and transmit knowledge. Thus, after Islam came, memorization became part of the Islamic tradition. Due to this tradition Quran is continuously being memorized and transmitted from generation to generation till our times and that is what keeps its original form preserved in addition to the fact that copies of the original text also exist from the time of the Prophet ﷺ.

References:

[1] Al Quran 85:21–22

[2] Al Quran 62:2

[Courtesy of  Zaid Shah | Rizqan Kareem | Most Excellent Sustenance]