Zaid was assisted by Anas bin Malik and others and the work whilst in progress was superintended by 'Umar, who it is said accepted nothing as part of the Qur'an which had not been written down and which was not testified to by two persons. A case in point is the stoning verse, 'The married man and the married woman when they commit adultery then stone them without doubt.'² 'Umar, said he could not vouch for this, but that he would have inserted it had he not feared that he might be charged with having added something to the Qur'an. He himself knew the verse, but could not find corroborative testimony.³ The punishment decreed in the Qur'an for adultery is one hundred stripes,⁴ but as a matter of fact stoning is the Muhammadan legal punishment for adultery and no other basis for it is known except this verse which 'Umar withdrew. This seems to show that he had good authority for his statement. Anyhow its omission shows the care taken with this recension.

In the arrangement of the Qur'an, Zaid seems to have had original passages before him and to have put them together without much regard to the sense. Thus we have

It is said by the German critic, Weil, that Abu Bakr altered some passages. Thus Weil adduces the tradition that 'Umar would not believe that the Prophet was dead and vehemently expressed his doubts, until Abu Bakr recited some passages from the Qur'an on the subject of the death of Muhammad. Weil considers that 'Umar and other Muslims did not know of these passages and that Abu Bakr invented them. But Noldeke,¹ Muir, and other competent critics think that this is a gratuitous assumption without the least foundation in fact.

The circumstances are these: 'Umar, on seeing the placid countenance of the Prophet, said: 'He is not dead, he hath only swooned away.' To one who tried to convince him he replied, 'Thou liest, the Apostle of God is not dead . . . . the Prophet of the Lord shall not die, until he has rooted out every hypocrite and unbeliever.'² In words similar to these he addressed the crowd which had now gathered together. Then Abu Bakr said: 'Silence! 'Umar, sit thee down, be quiet. Hath not the Almighty revealed this verse to the Prophet, saying, "Verily thou shalt die and they shall die."' ³ And again, after the battle of Uhud, the revelation came, 'Muhammad is no more than an Apostle: other Apostles have already passed away before him. If he die, therefore, or be killed, will ye turn⁴ upon your heels? ⁵ Let him then know, whosoever worshippeth Muhammad, that Muhammad is dead.' Then 'Umar was satisfied. There are also other passages which speak of death, such as: 'Have we granted to man before thee a life that