The Methodology of Zaid Ibn Thabit in writing the Holy Qur’an:

Zaid Ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) followed an accurate flawless method in writing down the Holy Qur’an. The method was suggested to him by Abu Bakr and ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with both of them). The method of collecting the Holy Qur’an depended on two sources:

1)     What was written in the presence of the Messenger (peace be upon him)

2)     What was memorized by the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). Zaid was not satisfied by what he had written and memorized by himself, but traced and investigated what others had. He would not accept anything written unless two just upright men bore witness that it had been written in the presence of Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him). So, he did not rely on memory only but he depended on both what was written as well as what was memorized for better documentation. In this way the Qur’an was collected in a book under the supervision of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and many prominent Companions, and it secured the consensus of the Ummah. 

The rewriting of the Qur’an from the copy of Abu Bakr during the time of ‘Uthman Ibn ‘Affan (may Allah be pleased with both of them):

 Narrated al-Bukhari on the authority of Anas that Hudhaifah Ibn Al-Yaman came to ‘Uthman at the time when he (Hudhaifah) was leading the people of Sham and Iraq in a war against Armenia and Azerbaijan. Hudhaifah was scared by their (the people of Sham and Iraq’s) differences in the recitation of the Qur’an, so he said to ‘Uthman: ‘O Commander of the Faithful! Protect this Ummah before they differ about the Book (Qur’an) as Jews and Christians did before.’ So ‘Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying: ‘Send us the manuscripts of the Qur’an so that we may compile the Qur’anic materials in complete copies and return the manuscripts to you.’ Hafsa sent them to ‘Uthman, whereupon he ordered Zaid Ibn Thabit, ‘Abdullah Ibn al-Zubair, Sa‘id Ibn al-‘As and ‘Abdul-Rahman Ibn al-Harith Ibn Hisham (may Allah be pleased with all of hem) and they rewrote the manuscripts in complete copies…”[1] ‘Uthman Ibn ‘Affan then sent a copy to every province: to Mecca, kufa, Basrah and Damascus and kept one in Medinah. These copies were transmitted to the following generations and the Holy Qur’an spread in the form of the original copies, and there are numerous manuscripts that bear witness to this fact.