9:128-129 Is Not Mutawatir

Tawātur (Arabic:تواتر) is the methodology for gathering information. It refers to collecting information from multiple sources and corroborating it to determine whether something should be accepted as true. While this term is utilized heavily for Hadith, it was also utilized in the compilation of the Quran by Zaid bin Thabit.

This standard was used throughout the Quran's compilation. Every verse had numerous witnesses who memorized and could vouch for its authenticity, as well as parchments with the verse. This is true for every single verse of the Quran except the two verses added to the end of Sura 9, Bara’a, where the only witness was Abu Khuzaima.

We read the following excerpt on page 84 of M.M. Al-Azami's History of the Qur'anic Text under the Heder "vi. Authentication of the Qur'an: The Case of the Last Two Verses from Sura Bara'a."

While no scholarly consensus exists on the number of channels or individuals needed to attain tawātur, the gist is to achieve absolute certainty and prerequisites for this may differ based on time, place, and the circumstances at hand. Scholars generally insist on at least half a dozen channels while preferring that this figure be much higher, since greater numbers make falsification less likely and more difficult. \ So we return to Sūra Barā’a, where the two concluding verses were verified and entered into the Suhuf based solely on Abū Khuzaima’s parchment (and the obligatory witnesses), backed by the memories of Zaid and some other huffāz. But in a matter as weighty as the Qur’ān how can we accept one scrap of parchment and a few Companions’ memories as sufficient grounds for tawātur? Suppose that in a small class of two or three students a professor recites a short, memorable poem and we, directly after the lecture, individually quiz every student about it; if they all recite the same thing then we have our absolute certainty that this is what the professor taught. The same can be extended to the written word or any combination of written and oral sources, provided of course that no collusion has occurred between the players, and this is a concept that I myself have demonstrated in classrooms empirically. Such was the case with Sūra Barā’a in that the unanimity of the sources on hand, relatively meagre though they were, provided enough grounds for certainty. And to counter any fears of collusion there is a logical argument: these two verses do not hold anything new theologically, do not speak praise of a particular tribe or family, do not provide information that is not available elsewhere within the Qur’ān. A conspiracy to invent such verses is irrational because no conceivable benefit could have arisen from fabricating them. Under these circumstances and given that Allah personally vouches for the Companions’ honesty in His Book, we can infer that there was indeed sufficient tawātur to sanction these verses.