Why Does Islamic Tradition Emphasize Oral Preservation While Acknowledging That Some Memorized Verses Were Forgotten or Lost?

April 15, 2025

Muslims take immense pride in the oral preservation of the Qur’an. It is often presented as a miraculous achievement: that from the time of Prophet Muhammad until today, the Qur’an has been preserved word-for-word by generations of huffaz (memorizers) — without a single syllable lost.

Apologists claim this is unique in religious history. No other scripture, they say, has been as perfectly and faithfully maintained through oral tradition.

But there’s a deep problem with this narrative.

Islamic sources themselves admit that several verses of the Qur’an were forgotten, lost, or abrogated — even though they had been memorized by the companions of Muhammad.

This contradiction — between the claim of perfect oral preservation and the reality of forgotten verses — exposes a serious flaw in the Islamic doctrine of a miraculously preserved Qur’an.

Let’s examine this problem with honesty and depth.

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1. The Claim: Perfect Oral Preservation

The standard Islamic belief can be summarized like this:

• The Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad over 23 years.

• He had it memorized, and his companions memorized it as well.

• These memorizations were transmitted through a continuous, unbroken chain (tawatur).

• The Qur’an was thus preserved orally — exactly as revealed.

Muslim apologists go further, claiming that oral transmission is superior to written preservation. They argue that the Qur’an’s survival is a divine miracle, unique among religious texts.

And yet…

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2. The Reality: Forgotten, Missing, and Abrogated Verses

Islamic hadith literature contains numerous reports that flatly contradict this narrative of perfect oral preservation.

❖ Verses Forgotten by the Prophet or Companions

“I used to recite a surah which resembled in length and severity to Surah Bara’ah (9), but I have forgotten it.”
— Sahih Muslim 1050a, narrated by Abu Harb ibn Abu al-Aswad

A surah the length of Surah 9 — one of the longest in the Qur’an — was supposedly revealed and memorized, and then… completely forgotten?

Even the Prophet himself reportedly forgot verses:

“Allah’s Messenger heard a man reciting in the mosque and said: May Allah have mercy on him! He reminded me of a verse I was made to forget.”
— Sahih Bukhari 5038

If the Prophet — the recipient of the revelation — could forget verses, what confidence is there in perfect oral transmission?

❖ The Verse of Stoning

One of the most controversial examples is the so-called “Verse of Stoning” (rajm). According to multiple hadiths, a Qur’anic verse once mandated stoning for adultery:

“The verse of stoning was revealed and recited by the Prophet, but we no longer find it in the Book of Allah.”
— Sahih Muslim 1691a, narrated by Umar ibn al-Khattab

The second caliph, Umar, explicitly stated that this verse was revealed, memorized, acted upon, and then… lost.

This verse is still cited in Islamic law — even though it is not in the Qur’an.

So much for perfect oral preservation.

❖ The Suckling Verse

Another example comes from Aisha, Muhammad’s wife:

“The verse of ten sucklings was revealed, and then it was abrogated to five sucklings, and the Messenger of Allah died while it was still being recited as part of the Qur’an.”
— Sunan Ibn Majah 1944

A verse about breastfeeding to establish family ties? Memorized, then abrogated, then reportedly still recited after Muhammad's death?

How is this evidence of perfect preservation?

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3. Theological Inconsistency: Is the Qur’an Protected or Not?

Muslims are taught to believe:

“Indeed, We have sent down the Reminder, and We will surely guard it.”
— Qur’an 15:9

This verse is cited as a divine guarantee that the Qur’an can never be altered, lost, or forgotten.

But what does that promise mean in light of the hadiths above?

• If entire verses were forgotten or lost, how can the text be "guarded"?

• If verses can disappear because the people who memorized them died (as in the Battle of Yamama), how is that divine protection?

• If abrogated verses were still memorized but later removed from the Qur’an, how is that not a form of human editing?

Muslim scholars often respond that these missing verses were “intentionally removed by God through abrogation.”

But this creates another problem:

If God can remove verses from His “eternal” and “complete” book, then the Qur’an is not truly eternal or complete.

It becomes a mutable book — one that changes over time. Which contradicts the very claim of its divine perfection.

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4. Oral Transmission Is Not Infallible

Let’s be clear: oral tradition is powerful — but not flawless.

Even the most rigorous systems of memorization are subject to:

• Human error

• Memory decay

• Death of key transmitters

• Miscommunication

• Confusion over what was abrogated vs. forgotten

This is precisely why all major religions have emphasized written preservation of their scriptures — even if oral tradition existed alongside it.

In the early Islamic period, however, there was no single “Qur’an.” Different companions had different versions (mushafs) based on what they personally heard or memorized — including Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, and others.

It wasn’t until Caliph Uthman standardized a written text — and burned the others — that a single version took dominance.

So the actual historical record shows:

The oral tradition was fragmented, incomplete, and subject to human limitations — until a political standardization process imposed one official version.

That’s not divine preservation. That’s political consolidation.

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5. Conclusion: The Myth of Perfect Oral Preservation

The Islamic narrative of perfect oral preservation collapses under the weight of its own sources.

The same traditions that celebrate memorization also admit:

• Verses were forgotten

• Surahs disappeared

• Abrogated verses were once recited

• Some verses survived in memory but not in the mushaf

• Political decisions determined the final canon

This leads to a stark conclusion:

Oral preservation was never sufficient to preserve the Qur’an in its entirety.

The claim that the Qur’an has remained unchanged and perfectly memorized since the time of Muhammad is a theological myth — not a historical reality.

If divine revelation is truly perfect and protected, it should not rely on the fragile memory of fallible humans — especially when those humans themselves report forgetting, omitting, and losing parts of the supposed “final word of God.”