Mus'haf of Ali
Mus'haf of Ali or Ali Quran is a codex of Quran that was collected by Ali ibn Abi Taleb. Ali was one of the first collectors of Quran and had arranged the verses according to their revelation order. Shia sources state that after Muhammad's death, Ali offered his codex to the governmental team in charge of collection of Quran, but was not welcomed.[1]
Although, the historical existence of this codex is certain, it is not available anymore unlike the other Sahabi's Mus'hafs.[2] While some groups of Shias believed in differences of this codex with Quran, a great many of Shia clerics and Quranic scholars disagreed with them.[3][4]
Historical discussion
The Imams and the Shiite scholars of the 2nd/8th century AH rejected the idea of alteration of the text of the Quran. The evidence for this is that in their many complaints against the first three caliphs they never accused them of changing the text; instead they stated that the caliphs and their followers "preserved the text of Scripture but distorted its message". There are many narrations from the Imams that shows their belief in the authenticity of the text of the Qur'an as preserved in the Uthmanic codex. The only point of disagreement with the Uthmanic codex was on the arrangement of suras 93, 94, 105 and 106. They declared that suras 105 and 106 are a single Sura as it appears in the codex of Ubayy. Similarly they regarded suras 93 and 94 as a single sura. The latter was also supported by early Muslim authorities such as Umar b. Abd al-Aziz and the tabi'i Tawus b. Kaysan.[5]
References
- Modarressi, Hossein. Tradition and Survival. vol. 1. pp. 2-4, Oxford: Oneworld, 2003. 1. ISBN 978-1-85168-331-4.
- Mahmoud Ramiar, History of Quran, Amirkabir publications, Tehran 1369, p. 373
- Modarressi, Hossein. “Early Debates on the Integrity of the Qur'ān: A Brief Survey”. Studia Islamica (Maisonneuve & Larose), no. 77 (1993): 5-39 .
- Bar-Asher, Meir. “Shīʿism and the Qurʾān”. Jane Dammen McAuliffe. In Encyclopedia of Quran. First ed. Brill Online, 2004.
- Modarressi, Hossein. “Early Debates on the Integrity of the Qur'ān: A Brief Survey”. Studia Islamica (Maisonneuve & Larose), no. 77 (1993): 28-30 .