The Qur’an was not perfectly preserved: Islam’s own sources record an early standardization that burned variant copies, and early manuscripts and the canonical readings preserve real differences.

Muslims traditionally hold that the Qur’an has been preserved perfectly and unchanged. The Islamic sources themselves complicate this. They report that the caliph Uthman, within about twenty years of Muhammad’s death, had a standard text produced and ordered competing copies burned because Muslims were disputing the readings. Early manuscripts show variant readings, and the recognized system of canonical readings, the qira’at, preserves real differences. The Sana’a palimpsest, found in Yemen, has an earlier text partly erased and written over that differs from the standard. None of this is a Christian invention. It means the honest claim is careful transmission with an early standardization, not untouched perfection.