ABSTRACT
Two centuries after the Hijra, the Qur'an and the hadith had become widely accepted – though not without tension and strife – as cornerstones of Islam. Today Sunnis and Shia do agree on the importance of these scriptural sources, but their conceptions of each of these sources are divergent. The official Sunni version of the Qur'an is the text people are familiar with today. According to Muslim tradition, this version was compiled under the third caliph, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan. According to convention, there are six collections of Sunni hadith, the "Six authentic Books". Nearly all the oldest collections of the traditions until the middle of the 4th/10th century included a certain number of Imami writings and sayings with quotations from the "original unabridged Qur'an". These, of course, are not found in the version in use today.
