Muslims understand the Qur'an to be the speech of Allah revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through Gabriel, recited in Arabic, and sent as guidance.

• It is the central scripture of Islam and the primary textual foundation for Muslim belief, worship, law, and ethics.
• Its name is connected to recitation, so its preservation has always included both oral recitation and written mushafs.
• It is divided into surahs and ayat; verse counts can differ slightly by counting tradition, while the recited text remains the same.

The Qur'an was not presented as one public book at the start of the mission. It was revealed gradually during the Prophet's life.

• Traditional Muslim accounts place the first revelation in 610 CE, with the opening verses of Surah al-'Alaq.
• The revelation continued through Makkan and Madinan periods until the Prophet's death in 632 CE.
• Gradual revelation taught creed, worship, moral formation, community discipline, and law in lived historical contexts.

The earliest transmission was not only memory and not only manuscript. The community used both recitation and writing.

• The Prophet recited the revealed passages to companions, who memorized and taught them.
• Reports identify Zayd ibn Thabit as one of those who wrote revelation for the Prophet.
• Written materials existed before the first caliphal collection; the later collection gathered and verified existing transmission.

The first major collection reported in Sunni hadith literature took place under Abu Bakr after concern for preserving the Qur'an during military losses.

• Umar urged Abu Bakr to order a collected copy after heavy casualties among Qur'an reciters at Yamamah.
• Zayd ibn Thabit gathered the Qur'an from written fragments and from those who had memorized it.
• The collected suhuf were kept by Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Hafsah, according to the report.

As Islam spread, Uthman standardized public written copies to protect the community from disputes over recitation and written forms.

• Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman warned Uthman after seeing regional disputes in recitation.
• Uthman borrowed the suhuf kept with Hafsah and appointed a committee including Zayd ibn Thabit.
• Standard copies were sent to major provinces, while other personal or fragmentary materials were withdrawn to prevent public confusion.

Qur'anic preservation is presented in Islamic sources as divine protection carried through concrete human means: recitation, memorization, teaching, and written copies.

• The Qur'an explicitly states that Allah revealed and will preserve the Reminder.
• The oral and written channels checked one another: public recitation, memorized learning, teacher-student transmission, and copied mushafs.
• Early manuscript witnesses, such as the Birmingham Qur'an folios, support the existence of very early written Qur'anic material.