Outline the tasks performed by the prophet’s scribes during his lifetime
Answers
Explanation:
the tasks performed by prophet were writing letters and treaties, for example Abdullah ibn Masud was his regular scribe in charge of writing and responding to letters.
The Prophet had many scribes, 40 exactly, all of them did a great service to Islam. They wrote down treaties, letters, passages of Quran and Hadith. The most remarkable are: Zayd bin Thabit, Abu-Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and Muawiyah.
The Holy Prophet used to memorise every passage of the Quran which was revealed, and all the companions did too. After that, the scribes wrote down the passages on flat material like: skin, bone, and stone slabs. There was no single complete copy of the Quran until the time of Abu-Bakr, and even though scribes wrote many passages down, more people had memorised the passages than the number of written copies. Later, after a single complete copy had been made many of these fragments were burned to avoid corruption. However the copies confirmed to be correct were used to verify and compile to create the Mushaf-e-Hafsa.
The scribes not only wrote passages of Quran but treaties and letters as well. Abdullah ibn Masud was the main scribe of the Prophet. He used to write all letters and often treaties. Ali also often wrote treaties for e.g the Treaty of Hudabiyah.
The Prophet also used to instruct the scribes on the order of Surahs. The scribes used to record the Quran in the presence of the Prophet and others memorised it.