The question rise in many of ignorant people that how Sunnah was preserved three hundred years after the Prophet when Muslim Muhaddith start collecting Ahadith. Many goes in doubt that how can it possible to collect the sayings of a person who was 300 years back from their age. So we try to clarify this issue in this article so that the doubt due to ignorance with Islam could be destroyed.
 
We are starting our discussion with the verse of the Holy Quran on that Muslims do not have any dispute as Allah SWT says,
 

"Verily, it is We who have sent down the Dhikr, (i.e. the Qu'ran) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption)." (Al-Hijr 15: 9)

In this verse, Allah SWT is assuring us the preservation of the Holy Quran.  This implies that the Quran will remain pure and that it will always be transferred from one generation to the other with purity in its real and original form, undistorted by any foreign element.

But the question what is exactly meant by Quran is preserved, whether protection is restricted to the words and text of the Quran or does it extend to its meanings as well. If the Prophetic explanation is necessary to understand the Qur'an correctly, then the preservation of the text of Quran alone cannot serve the purpose of aforementioned verse unless the Prophetic explanations are also preserved. Allah SWT says in the Holy Quran,
 

"And We have also sent down unto you the Reminder and the Advice (Zikr- the Qur'an) that you may explain clearly to the people what has been sent down for them"  [An-Nahl 16: 44]

The word 'Zikr' in that verse has been used here to mean the Quran according the famous Islamic jurist in history i.e. Imam Shafai in his book ‘Risala’ and it has been made clear that the people can only benefit from its guidance when they are led by the explanations of the Prophet Muhammad SAWW.

If everyone in every age is in need of the Prophetic explanation, without which they cannot fully comprehend and understand the Quran, how would it be possible for them to preserve the Quranic text and leave its Prophetic explanation?

Therefore, once the necessity of the Prophetic explanations of the Quran is accepted, it will be self-contradictory to claim that these explanations are unavailable today.  It is same as you’re negating the protection of Quran. Such a deficiency cannot be attributed to Allah SWT.

Thus when anyone says Quran is preserve, it mean Quran is preserve with its all objectives, whether it is the text of Quran, meanings of Quran or explanation of the Quran. And Sunnah of the Prophet SAWW resultantly considered as preserved. Allah SWT says in the Holy Quran,
 

“… so that you (Prophet Muhammad SAWW) may explain clearly to the people what has been sent down for them" [An-Nahl 16: 44]

Last Updated: 21/7/2015