`Uthman's purpose and achievement was to unite the Muslims on the basis of a single agreed Qur'an reading. (p. 143, Ahmad b. `Ali b. Muhammad al `Asqalani, ibn Hajar, "Fath al Bari", 13 vols, Cairo, 1939/1348, vol. 9, p. 15)

Abu Bakr's aim had been to collect the Qur'an between two covers. `Uthman's was to collect those readings attested as coming from the Prophet and to reject all non-canonical readings. He aimed to unite the Muslims on the basis of a single text, containing no interpolations and no Qur'an provisions whose wording had been withdrawn but which still appeared in the written text with verses whose inclusion in the final version of the text had been endorsed and thus preserved as required to be publicly recited [at prayer]. (p. 161, Jalal al Din `Abdul Rahman b. abi Bakr al Suyuti, "al Itqan fi `ulum al Qur'an", Halabi, Cairo, 1935/1354, pt 1, p. 60)

By God! he did not act on the mushaf except in the fullest consultation with us, for he said, 'What is your view in this matter of reading? I have heard that some even say, "My reading is superior to yours." That is tantamount to heresy.' We asked him, 'What are you thinking to do?' He replied, 'My view is that we should unite the Muslims on the basis of a single mushaf. That way, there will be no disagreement, no segmentation.' We replied, 'An excellent idea!' Someone then asked, 'Whose is the purest Arabic? and whose the greatest acquaintance with the recitation [alt. Qur'an]?' They said that the purest Arabic was that of Sa`id b. al `As and that the one most acquainted with the recitation [Qur'an] was Zaid b. Thabit.

`Uthman said, 'Let the one write and the other dictate.' The two then set to work and in this way `Uthman united the Muslims on the basis of a single text.

`Ali concludes his report with the declaration, 'Had I been in power, I should have done just what `Uthman did.' (p. 144, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 22)

Hudaifa said to `Uthman, 'Whatever you would do if you heard someone talking of the reading of so-and-so, and reading of another, as the non-Muslims do, then do it now.' (p. 146, Anu `Amr `Uthman b. Sa`id al Dani, "K. al Muqni`", ed. O. Pretzl, Istanbul, 1932, p. 9)

`Uthman organised the suras in the order we are now familiar with. In addition, he restricted the reading to a single dialect -- that of Qurais in which it had been revealed. Hitherto, there had been a concession permitting the reciting of the Qur'an in dialects other than that of Mecca so that the burden of scruple imposed upon converts at the outset of the new revelation should be minimal. Those days were now recognised by `Uthman to be gone, not least since much danger was to be feared from the continuation of that freedom and especially since some overliteralness in the local attachment to a particular reading might give the impression of, or even lead to, the fragmentation of the Islamic unity. (pp. 155-156, Jalal al Din `Abdul Rahman b. abi Bakr al Suyuti, "al Itqan fi `ulum al Qur'an", Halabi, Cairo, 1935/1354, pt 1, p. 60)

... Ubayy stoutly refused to abandon any part of the Qur'an wording he had received direct from the Prophet. Ubayy, we are told, would have none of the doctrine of the withdrawal of any part of the Qur'an text. (p. 179, Bukhari, "K. al Tafsir", ad Q 2.106 and commentaries)

'The Prophet taught me [ie. ibn Mas`ud] to recite seventy suras which I had mastered before Zaid had even become a Muslims.' (p. 166, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 17)

'Am I [ie. ibn Mas`ud] to be debarred from copying the mushafs and the job given to a man who was an infidel in his father's reins when I first became a Muslim?' (p. 166, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 17)

ibn Mus`ud, the eponym of the Qur'an of the Kufans, is reported to have burst out,

'I recited from the very mouth of the Prophet some seventy suras while Zaid still had his ringlets and was playing with his companions.' (p. 166, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 14)

`Abdullah is supposed to have enjoined his followers,

'Lay up your Qur'an's! How can you order me to recite the reading of Zaid, when I recited from the very mouth of the Prophet some seventy suras?"

'Am I,' asks Abdullah, 'to abandon what I acquired from the very lips of the Prophet?' (pp. 166-167, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 15)

I went to Abu Musa's house and saw there `Abdullah and Hudaifa. I sat with them. They had a mushaf that `Uthman had sent ordering them to make their Qur'an conform with it. Abu Musa declared that anything in his mushaf and lacking in `Uthman's was not to be omitted. Anything in `Uthman's and lacking in his own was to be added. Hudaifa asked, 'What is the point of all our work? Nobody in this region will give up the reading of this saikh, meaning `Abdullah, and nobody of Yemeni origin will give up the reading of Abu Musa.' Hudaifa it was who had advised `Uthman to unite the mushafs on the basis of a single mushaf. (p. 167, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 35)

That his [ie. `Uthman's] initiative in this direction was a total failure is, however, admitted in further hadiths which show `Uthman either resignedly permitting, or himself using, readings at variance with those enshrined in the mushaf associated with his name. (p. 168, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 39)

`Uthman sent for `Ali for information on the grievances of the rebels. Among these was resentment at his having 'expunged the mushafs'. `Uthman replied,

'The Qur'an came from God. I prohibited the variant readings since I feared dissension. But now, read it as you please.' (p. 168-169, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 36)

It is said that when `Uthman received the completed mushaf, he noticed certain linguistic irregularities.

'Had he who dictated it been of Hudail and the scribe of Thaqif,' he said, 'this would never had happened.' (p. 169, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, "K. al Masahif", ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 33)

Note: `Abdullah was Hudail.

After Othman's death, Marwan the Governor of Medina sent to Hafsa and demanded it. She refused to give it up so it stayed with her until she died. But Marwan was so concerned to have it that as soon as he returned from her funeral, he immediately sent to get it. The story is recorded by Ibn Abi Dawud (died 316 AH) in his Kitab Al-Masahif. He gives the Isnad down to Salem ben Abdullah who said,

When Hafsa died and we returned from her funeral, Marwan sent with firm intention to Abdullah ben Omar (Hafsa's brother) that he must send him those pages, and Abdullah ben Omar sent them to him, and Marwan ordered it and they were torn up. And he said, I did this because whatever was in it was surely written and preserved in the (official) volume and I was afraid that after a time people will be suspicious of this copy or they will say there is something in it that wasn't written.

(William Campbell, "The Quran and the Bible in the Light of History and Science", Section Three, III.C)

The dialect problem had apparently not been overcome by the very work ascribed by `Uthman, as we have just seen. Nor had the reading problem been settled by his supposed provision of a uniform consonantal matrix. Goldziher has signaled a disputed vocalic reading for the very Tawba verse which Zaid is said to have reinstated: There has now come to you a prophet from amongst your own number (anfusikum); from amongst the most precious among you (anfasikum). The variant has been ascribed, not merely to Companions, but even to the Prophet himself! (p. 170, I. Goldziher, Die Richtungen de Islamischen Koranauslegung, Leiden, 1952, p. 35)

`Ali is said to have arranged his mushaf in the chronological order of the revelation and to have included his notes on the nasikh and the mansukh. (Jalal al Din `Abdul Rahman b. abi Bakr al Suyuti, "al Itqan fi `ulum al Qur'an", Halabi, Cairo, 1935/1354, pt 1, p. 58)

The importance of this work would have been immense, but all Muhammad b. Sirin's efforts to locate this work in Medina came to nothing. (p. 216)