How did the copies of the Qur’an that show the miracle of tawafuq come to exist?
This started when the page order called “Ayat Barkanar” in the Qur’an was discovered. This page order accepted by the entire Islamic world – which has today’s aspect ratio of “15-line-pages” and “604 pages in total”, was first applied by the well-known last period Ottoman calligrapher Kayışzade Hafiz Osman Efendi (d.1895).
This person handwrote a new copy of the Qur’an by taking its measure from the Qur’an itself, thus opening a door to a miracle of the Qur’an pertaining to eyes. This miracle is that every page of the Qur’an always starts and ends with a complete verse.
This feature is called “Ayat Barkanar”. It does not exist in the copies written until that day. The measure which Hafiz Osman Efendi took from the Qur’an is as follows: 282nd verse of Surah Baqarah, the longest verse of the Qur’an, as page measure; and the shortest surah, Surah Ikhlas, as the line measure. When he wrote the entire Qur’an with this measure, he saw that every page started and ended with a complete verse. This composition, which Imam Said Nursi described as “Divine inspiration and the Quran’s own measure”, gained great popularity in the Islamic world and the copies mostly started to be written based on this measure.
| Width measure The shortest chapter Ikhlas | Height measure The longest verse 282nd verse of Baqarah |
After so many centuries the appearance of such a beauty in the Qur’an, which was revealed 1400 years ago, is evidence for that the tawafuq is not a product of human work, in the contrary, this copy was written with inspiration from Allah and that the real page order of the Qur’an in the Preserved Tablet was bestowed. This is because the revelation order of the verses are various; they have different lengths. So the fact that every page ends with a complete verse can be explained neither with coincidence nor with human will.
The second phase of this miracle was seen almost 40 years after Hafiz Osman’s death, in 1930s, when the mujaddid of the age Imam Bediuzzaman realized the partly tawafuq of the words “Allah” in his copy of Qur’an written by Hafiz Osman. Upon this, examining all the pages and the words “Allah” in the pages Imam Bediuzzaman saw that a good part of them were in tawafuq; and some of them seemed not in tawafuq although they were meant to be in.
He decided to have a new copy of the Qur’an handwritten in a style that would show the eyes this tawafuq miracle which was understood that it existed in the composition of the word “Allah” in the Qur’an. He appointed ten of his students and gave each of them three parts (juz’) from the Holy Qur’an to handwrite and reveal the tawafuq. He asked them not to let their wills interfere while writing. He had also asked these tawafuq to be written in red to be seen clearly. After a short time, the tawafuq was seen in the juzes that Ahmed Husrev Efendi wrote, whom Imam Nursi called the hero of the Risale-i Nur and one of his students whom he gave value most. Tawafuq did not appear in the juzes of other students. Imam Bediuzzaman declared the success of Hüsrev Efendi by saying “Tawafuq is in Husrev’s style.” (Barla Appendix)
Now Husrev Efendi became, in Imam Bediuzzaman’s words, the calligrapher of the miraculous copy of the Qur’an. He completed all the juzes in the shortest time and presented them to Imam Bediuzzaman. Imam congratulated Husrev Efendi in one of his letters to him and gave glad tidings of great rewards:
“Oh, Husrev! Think of the supplications of the people of Islam, asking Allah to shower His Mercy and Compassion upon your spirit once the miraculous “the Qur’an in Tawafuq” you wrote becomes published by the will of Allah. Think and thank Allah in gratitude!” (Kastamonu Letters)
In the following 40 years Husrev Efendi wrote the Qur’an in Tawafuq nine times and gave its final form. Today the Qur’an in Tawafuq is printed and presented to the benefit of Muslims by Hayrat Publishing of Hayrat Foundation, founded by Husrev Efendi.