An Analysis and Criticism of John Burton's Views about the Compilation of the Quran

John Burton, a British Qur’an researcher, maintains that the currently available Qur’an has been compiled by the Prophet (p.b.u.h) himself. The issue of abrogation of verses and codices of the Qur’an compiled by Companions are factors that have contributed to the elimination of the role of the Prophet (s) in compilation of the Qur’an. Issues such as Naskh al- tilawa wa al – Hukm, Naskh al- tilawa dun al – Hukm and variations in the Companions’ recitations of the Qur’an are false accounts. He maintains that these are fabrications of jurists, used as evidence to support their juristic decrees using the Qur’an where there was no evidence for them in the present Qur’anic text. Had the holy Prophet (s) compiled the verses of the Qur’an in the form of a book, the aforementioned jurists would not have been able to talk about the existence of various recitations in the codices of the Qur’an compiled by the Companions and elimination of verses from the present Qur’an in the form of the two types of abrogation mentioned above. They had no choice but to eliminate the role of the Prophet (s) in the compilation of the Qur’an, postulating that the Qur’an was compiled after his demise. Although there are positive points in Burton’s theory, it suffers from certain fatal flaws.