Qira'at

*Rasm (in black) was the only script found in the earliest surviving fragments of the Quran. Most variations of the Quran that had different rasm were found in Ahruf variants.[12]
*I‘jām or nuqat al-I'jam (examples in red) was added in later Arabic (possibly around 700 CE)[13] so that consonants letters (such as these five letters ـبـ ـتـ ـثـ ـنـ ـيـ ) could be distinguished.
*Ḥarakāt or nuqaṭ ali'rab (examples in blue) indicate short vowels which have been used in the Quran but not in most written Arabic. Variations among Qira'at tend to involve only harakat.

Early manuscripts of the Qur’ān did not use diacritics either for vowels (Ḥarakāt) or to distinguish the different values of the rasm (I‘jām') [see the graphic to the right], -- or at least used them "only sporadically and insufficiently to create a completely unambigous text".[14] These early manuscripts included the "official" copy of the Quran created by ‘Uthman, according to the Saudi Salafi website IslamQA:

When ‘Uthmaan made copies of the Qur’aan, he did so according to one style (harf), but he omitted the dots and vowel points so that some other styles could also be accommodated. So the Mus'haf that was copied in his time could be read according to other styles, and whatever styles were accommodated by the Mus'haf of ‘Uthmaan remained in use, and the styles that could not be accommodated fell into disuse. The people had started to criticize one another for reciting differently, so ‘Uthmaan united them by giving them one style of the Qur’aan.[5]

Gradual steps were taken to improve the orthography of the Quran, in the first century with dots to distinguish similarly-shaped consonants (predicessors to i‘jām), followed by marks (to indicate different vowels, like ḥarakāt) and nunation in different-coloured ink from the text (Abu'l Aswad ad-Du'alî (d. 69 AH/688 CE). (Not related to the colours used in the graphic to the right.) Later the different colours were replaced with marks used in written Arabic today.

In the meantime, before the variations were finally committed entirely to writing, the Quran was preserved by recitation and recitations of the Quran were passed down from one or more prominent reciters of a style of narration who had memorized the Quran (known as hafiz) to the next generation. According to Csaba Okváth,

It was during the period of the Successors [successors of the companions of Muhammad, i.e. the generation of Muslims after them] and shortly thereafter that exceptional reciters became renowned as teachers of Qur'anic recitation in cities like Makkah, Madina, Kufa, Basra, and greater Syria (al-Sham). They attracted students from all over the expanding Muslim state and their modes of recitations were then attached to their names. It is therefore commonly said that [for example] he recites according to the reading of Ibn Kathir or Nafi'; this, however, does not mean that these reciters are the originators of these recitations, their names have been attached to the mode of recitation simply because their rendition of the Prophetic manner of recitation was acclaimed for authenticity and accuracy and their names became synonymous with these Qur'anic recitations. In fact, their own recitation goes back to the Prophetic mode of recitation through an unbroken chain.[15]

Each reciter had variations in their tajwid rules and occasional words in their recitation of the Qur'an are different or of a different morphology (form of the word) with the same root. The different words compliment other recitations and add to the meaning, and are a source of exegesis.[16] Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley gives an example of a line of transmission line "you are likely to find ... in the back of a Qur'an" from the Warsh harf, going backwards from Warsh to Allah: "'the riwaya of Imam Warsh from Nafi' al-Madini from Abu Ja'far Yazid ibn al-Qa'qa' from 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas from Ubayy ibn Ka'b from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, from Jibril, peace be upon him, from the Creator.'"[16]

The seven qira'at readings which are currently notable were selected in the fourth century by Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid (died 324 AH, 936 CE) from prominent reciters of his time, three from Kufa and one each from Mecca, Medina, and Basra and Damascus.[17] Later, the ten Qari of the recitations lived in the second and third century of Islam. (Their death dates span from 118 AH to 229 AH).

Each reciter recited to two narrators whose narrations are known as riwaya (transmissions) and named after its primary narrator (rawi, singular of riwaya). Each rawi has turuq (transmission lines) with more variants created by notable students of the master who recited them and named after the student of the master. Passed down from Turuq are wujuh: the wajh of so-and-so from the tariq of so-and-so. There are about twenty riwayat and eighty turuq.[2]

In the 1730s, Quran translator George Sale noted seven principal editions of the Quran, "two of which were published and used at Medina, a third at Mecca, a fourth at Cufa, a fifth at Basra, a sixth in Syria, and a seventh called the common edition " He states that "the chief disagreement between their several editions of the Koran, consists in the division and number of the verses."[18]

Abu Ubaid al-Qasim bin Salam (774 - 838 CE) was the first to develop a recorded science for tajwid (a set of rules for the correct pronunciation of the letters with all their qualities and applying the various traditional methods of recitation), giving the rules of tajwid names and putting it into writing in his book called al-Qiraat. He wrote about 25 reciters, including the 7 mutawatir reciters.[19] He made the reality, transmitted through reciters of every generation, a science with defined rules, terms, and enunciation.[20][21]

Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid (859 - 936 CE) wrote a book called Kitab al-Sab’ fil-qirā’āt. He is the first to limit the number of reciters to the seven known. Some scholars, such as Ibn al-Jazari, took this list of seven from Ibn Mujahid and added three other reciters (Abu Ja’far from Madinah, Ya’qub from Basrah, and Khalaf from Kufa) to form the canonical list of ten.[19][22]

Imam Al-Shatibi (1320 - 1388 CE) wrote a poem outlining the two most famous ways passed down from each of seven strong imams, known as ash-Shatibiyyah. In it, he documented the rules of recitation of Naafi’, Ibn Katheer, Abu ‘Amr, Ibn ‘Aamir, ‘Aasim, al-Kisaa’i, and Hamzah. It is 1173 lines long and a major reference for the seven qira’aat.[23]

Ibn al-Jazari (1350 - 1429 CE) wrote two large poems about Qira'at and tajwid. One was Durrat Al-Maa'nia (Arabic: الدرة المعنية‎) , in the readings of three major reciters, added to the seven in the Shatibiyyah, making it ten. The other is Tayyibat An-Nashr (Arabic: طيبة النشر‎), which is 1014 lines on the ten major reciters in great detail, of which he also wrote a commentary.

According to Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley and Quran eLearning, the seven qira’a are mutawatir ("a transmission which has independent chains of authorities so wide as to rule out the possibility of any error and on which there is consensus").[2][24]

Bewley notes a further three Mashhur ("these are slightly less wide in their transmission, but still so wide as to make error highly unlikely").[2][24]

The three Mashhur Qiraat added to the seven are:

In addition to the ten "recognized" or "canonical modes"[8][4] There are four other modes of recitation – Ibn Muhaysin, al-Yazeedi, al-Hasan and al-A‘mash—but at least according to one source (the Saudi Salafi site "Islam Question and Answer"), these last four recitations are "odd" (shaadhdh) -- in the judgement of "the correct, favoured view, which is what we learned from most of our shaykhs"—and so are not recognized.[4]

Pani patti is an alternate accent/style specific to India.

One qira'a that has reached overwhelming popularity is the Hafs ‘an ‘Asim, specifically the standard Egyptian edition of the Qur’an first published on 10 July 1924 in Cairo. Its publication has been called a "terrific success", and the edition has been described as one "now widely seen as the official text of the Qur’an", so popular among both Sunni and Shi'a that the common belief among less well-informed Muslims is "that the Qur’an has a single, unambiguous reading", namely the 1924 Cairo version.[25] Another source states that "for all practical purposes", it is the one Quranic version in "general use" in the Muslim world today.[10][Note 8]

Among the reasons given for the overwhelming popularity of Hafs an Asim is that it is easy to recite and that Allah has chosen it to be widespread (Qatari Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs).[28] Ingrid Mattson credits mass-produced printing press mushaf with increasing the availability of the written Quran, but also with making one version widespread (not specifically Hafs 'an 'Asim) at the expense of diversity of qira'at.[29]

Gabriel Said Reynolds emphasizes that the goal of the Egyptian government in publishing the edition was not to delegitimize the other qira’at, but to eliminate variations found in Qur’anic texts used in state schools, and to do this they chose to preserve one of the fourteen qira’at “readings”, namely that of Hafs (d. 180/796) ‘an ‘Asim (d. 127/745).

Although both Qira'at (recitations) and Ahruf (styles) refer to variants of the Quran, they are not the same. Ahruf variants were more significant (involving differences in the consonants of some words of the Quran) and Caliph 'Uthman is believed to have eliminated all but one,[13] so that the different qira'at come from just one of the seven Ahruf of the Quran.[5] The seven qira'at readings which are currently notable were selected by Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid (died 324 AH, 936 CE) from prominent reciters of his time, three from Kufa and one each from Mecca, Medina, and Basra and Damascus.[17] IslamQA website notes that while the number seven is associated with both qira'at and ahruf, the seven in the seven qira’at (al-qiraa’aat al-saba’) comes not from the Qur’an or Sunnah but from the "ijtihaad [independent reasoning] of Ibn Mujaahid", who may have been tempted to arrive at that number by the fact that were seven ahruf.[5]

Bilal Philips writes that Caliph 'Uthman eliminated six of the seven ahruf about half way through his reign, when confusion developed in the outlying provinces about the Quran's recitation. Some Arab tribes boasted about the superiority of their ahruf, and rivalries began; new Muslims also began combining the forms of recitation out of ignorance. Caliph 'Uthman decided to make official copies of the Quran according to the writing conventions of the Quraysh and send them with the Quranic reciters to the Islamic centres. His decision was approved by Sahaabah (companions), and all unofficial copies of the Quran were ordered destroyed; Uthman carried out the order, distributing official copies and destroying unofficial copies, so that the Quran began to be read in one harf, the same one in which it is written and recited throughout world today.[6]

Philips writes that Qira'at is primarily a method of pronunciation used in recitations of the Quran. These methods are different from the seven forms, or modes (ahruf), in which the Quran was revealed. The methods have been traced back to Muhammad through a number of Sahaabah who were noted for their Quranic recitations; they recited the Quran to Muhammad (or in his presence), and received his approval. The Sahaabah included:

• Ubayy ibn Ka'b
• Ali Ibn Abi Talib
• Zayd ibn Thabit
• Abdullah ibn Masud
• Abu Darda
• Abu Musa al-Ash'ari

Many of the other Sahaabah learned from them; master Quran commentator Ibn 'Abbaas learned from Ubayy and Zayd.[30]

According to Philips, in the next generation of Muslims (referred to as Tabi'in) were many scholars who learned the methods of recitation from the Sahaabah and taught them to others. Centres of Quranic recitation developed in al-Madeenah, Makkah, Kufa, Basrah and Syria, leading to the development of Quranic recitation as a science. By the mid-eighth century CE, a large number of scholars were considered specialists in the field of recitation. Most of their methods were authenticated by chains of reliable narrators, going back to Muhammad. The methods which were supported by a large number of reliable narrators on each level of their chain were called mutawaatir, and were considered the most accurate. Methods in which the number of narrators were few (or only one) on any level of the chain were known as shaadhdh. Some scholars of the following period began the practice of designating a set number of individual scholars from the previous period as the most noteworthy and accurate. The number seven became popular by the mid-10th century, since it coincided with the number of dialects in which the Quran was revealed.[31]

While different ahruf or variants of the Quran are not mentioned in the Quran, hadith do mention them. According to Bismika Allahuma, proof of the seven ahruf is found in many hadith, "so much so that it reaches the level of mutawaatir." One scholar, Jalaal ad-Deen as-Suyootee, claims that twenty-one traditions of Companions of the Prophet state "that the Qur’aan was revealed in seven ahruf".[32] One famous hadith (reported in the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas) has "Umar Ibn al-Khattab manhandling Hisham Ibn Hakim Ibn Hizam after what he (Umar) thinks is an incorrect reading of the Quran. When Umar hauls Hisham to the Prophet for chastisement, he is surprised to hear the Prophet pronouce "It was revealed thus", after both Hisham's and his (Umar's) reading. Muhammad ends by saying: "It was revealed thus; this Quran has been revealed in seven Ahruf. You can read it in any of them you find easy from among them."[33]

Javed Ahmad Ghamidi (and others) point out that Umar and Hisham belonged to the same tribe (the Quraysh), and members of the same tribe and would not have used different pronunciation. A simple response however, is that Hisham may have been taught the Quran by a Companion of the Prophet from a different tribe. Nevertheless, Ghamidi questions the hadith which claim "variant readings", on the basis of Quranic verses (^{[Quran 87:6-7]}, ^{[Quran 75:16-19]}), the Quran was compiled during Muhammad's lifetime and questions the hadith which report its compilation during Uthman's reign.[34] Since most of these narrations are reported by Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, Imam Layth Ibn Sa'd wrote to Imam Malik:[34][35]

And when we would meet Ibn Shihab, there would arise a difference of opinion in many issues. When any one of us would ask him in writing about some issue, he, in spite of being so learned, would give three very different answers, and he would not even be aware of what he had already said. It is because of this that I have left him – something which you did not like.

Abu 'Ubayd Qasim Ibn Sallam (died 224 AH) reportedly selected twenty-five readings in his book. The seven readings which are currently notable were selected by Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid (died 324 AH, 936 CE) at the end of the third century. It is generally accepted that although their number cannot be ascertained, every reading is Quran which has been reported through a chain of narration and is linguistically correct. Some readings are regarded as mutawatir, but their chains of narration indicate that they are ahad (isolate) and their narrators are suspect in the eyes of rijal authorities.[34]

Most of the differences between the various readings involve consonant/diacritical marks (I‘jām) and vowels marks (Ḥarakāt), but not in the rasm or "skeleton" of the writing. The examples below show differences between the Hafs Qari and two others—Al-Duri and Warsh. All have differences in the consonantal/diacritical marking (and vowel markings), but only one has a difference in the rasm: "then it is what" v. "it is what", where a "fa" consonant letter is added to the verse.

Al-Duri and Ḥafs

The "He" in Hafs is referring to God and the "We" in Al-Duri is also referring to God, this is due to the fact that God refers to Himself in both the singular form and plural form by using the royal "We".

Ḥafs and Warsh

Note the first difference in plurality in the first row, the "you" in Hafs refers to the actions of more than one person and the "They" in Warsh is also referring to the actions of more than one person. In the 2nd row "We" refers to God in Hafs and the "They" in Warsh refers to what is not being sent down by God (The Angels). In the last verse the "He" in Hafs is referring to God and the "We" in Warsh is also referring to God, this is due to the fact that God refers to Himself in both the singular form and plural form by using the royal "We".

• Qiraa'aat Warch & Hafs
• Islamic-Awareness.org
• The seven Qira'at
• ‘Alawi Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Bilfaqih, Al-Qirâ'ât al-cashr al-Mutawâtir, 1994, Dâr al-Muhâjir
• Adrian Brockett, "The Value of Hafs And Warsh Transmissions For The Textual History Of The Qur'an" in Andrew Rippin's (Ed.), Approaches of The History of Interpretation of The Qur'an, 1988, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 33.
• Samuel Green, " The different Arabic versions of the Quran Part 2: the current situation
• Böwering, Gerhard (2008). "Recent Research on the Construction of the Quran". In Reynolds, Gabriel Said (ed.). The Quran in its Historical Context. Routledge.
• Reynolds, Gabriel Said (2008). "Introduction, Quranic studies and its controversies". In Reynolds, Gabriel Said (ed.). The Quran in its Historical Context (PDF). Routledge. pp. 1–26.
• Cook, Michael (2000). The Koran : A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192853449. The Koran : A Very Short Introduction.