Analysis of the Theory of Taṣrīf in the Field of Collecting the Qurʾan in the Era of the Caliphs

After the invention of the theory called the Taṣrīf, some authors have tried to link this theory to the history of collecting the Qurʾan. On the basis of the theory of taṣrīf, the Prophet (pbuh) was encouraging all his companions to alter the sentences structure and vocabulary of the Qurʾan and the Prophet (pbuh) was doing it himself too. The claim of linking this theory to the history of collecting the Qurʾan has been explained that the Prophet's act of expanding the companions' taṣrīf, led to the disagreement about the imagination of some taṣrīf as the Qurʾanic verses and after the death of the Prophet (pbuh), the second caliph offered Abu Bakr to collect the Prophet's taṣrīfs and prevent people from accessing those taṣrīfs and finally ʿUthmān destroyed all the taṣrīfs to make the text of all codices the same. With the aim of preventing the prevalence of false and baseless theories, the article criticizes the claim that the theory of taṣrīf is linked to the history of collecting the Qurʾan and shows that this claim, like the principle of the theory, is based on the Sunnis' foundations, weak narratives, false inferences, contradictory claims and distortion of the many traditions and historical reports.