View source for Qira'at

{{short description|Method of recitation of the Quran}}
{{about|the traditional schools of recitation|rules governing pronunciation|Tajwid|hymnody|Tarteel}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=July 2020}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=July 2020}}
{{Quran|expanded=reading}}
In [[Islam]], '''''qirā{{hamza}}a''''' (pl. '''''qirā{{hamza}}āt'''''; {{langx|ar| قراءات |lit= recitations or readings}}) refers to the ways or fashions that the [[Quran]], the holy book of [[Islam]], is [[Recitation|recited]].{{Sfn|Deroche|2022|p=74}} More technically, the term designates the different [[Linguistics|linguistic]], lexical, [[Phonetics|phonetic]], [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] and syntactical forms permitted with reciting the Quran.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_m14NlQQMYC&dq=Qira%CA%BCat+quran&pg=PA271 |title=Islamic Beliefs, Practices, and Cultures |date=2010 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=978-0-7614-7926-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Kahteran-2006-233">{{cite book |last1=Kahteran |first1=Nevad |editor1-last=Leaman |editor1-first=Oliver |title=The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |page=233 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=isDgI0-0Ip4C&dq=Qira%27at&pg=PA233 |access-date=4 July 2020 |chapter=Hafiz/Tahfiz/Hifz/Muhaffiz|isbn=9780415326391 }}</ref> Differences between ''qira{{hamza}}at'' include varying rules regarding the prolongation, intonation, and pronunciation of words,<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019">{{cite web |last1=Khatib |first1=Ammar |last2=Khan |first2=Nazir |title=The Origins of the Variant Readings of the Qur'an |url=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/ammar-khatib/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-quran/ |website=Yaqueen Institute |accessdate=21 July 2020 |date=23 August 2019}}</ref> but also differences in stops,{{#tag:ref|for example, in Surat al-Baqara (1): "''Dhalika'l-Kitabu la rayb''" or "''Dhalika'l-Kitabu la rayba fih''"<ref name=Bewley>{{Cite web|url=https://bewley.virtualave.net/qira.html|title=Seven Qira'at (Page 1)|website=bewley.virtualave.net}}</ref>|group=Note}} vowels,{{#tag:ref|an example being "''suddan''" or "''saddan''"<ref name=Bewley/>|group=Note}} consonants{{#tag:ref|(due to different diacritical marks, for example, ''ya{{hamza}}'' or ''ta{{hamza}}'' (''turja{{hamza}}una'' or ''yurja{{hamza}}una'')  or a word having a long consonant or not (a consonant will have a [[shadda]] making it long, or not have one).<ref name=Bewley/>|group=Note}} (leading to different pronouns and verb forms), entire words{{#tag:ref|For example "''fa-tabayyanu''" (فتبينوا) or "''fa-tathabbatu''" (فتثبتوا) in Q4.94 (which originally written in Uthmanic script as " ڡىىىىـوا"), both of words means "clarify" or "confirm".<ref name="Younes">{{cite book |last1=Younes |first1=Munther |title=Charging Steeds or Maidens Performing Good Deeds: In Search of the Original Qur'an |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge. |page=3 |isbn=9781351055000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQuWDwAAQBAJ |access-date=2 July 2020}}</ref>
However, the variations don't change the overall message or doctrinal meanings of the Qur'an, as the differences are often subtle and contextually equivalent. These two words, while having different roots, convey similar meanings: "fa-tabayyanu" means "verify" or "clarify," while "fa-tathabbatu" means "be sure" or "confirm."
The Uthmanic script, which lacked full vowel markings and diacritical dots, allowed for slight differences in pronunciation and reading that were passed down through different Qirāʾāt traditions. Both "fa-tabayyanu" and "fa-tathabbatu" are accepted readings in the different canonical Qirāʾāt.
In this case, the overall instruction is the same: believers are told to ensure clarity or confirmation before making decisions, particularly regarding news they receive.|group=Note}} and even different meanings.{{#tag:ref|For example in the beginning of 12:90 for Qunbul (‎قَالُوا إِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ يُوسُفُ) or “They said “You are Joseph”” and in Hafs (‎قَالُوٓا۟ أَءِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ يُوسُفُ) or “They said “Are you Joseph?”“ <ref name=“nquran.com”>{{cite web |url= https://www.nquran.com/ar/ayacompare/Julg4-uUl-aijL%C3%A4o?sora=12&aya=90 |title= Comparing verses to narrations |website= nquran.com}}</ref>
In Qunbul's recitation:
قَالُوا إِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ يُوسُفُ translates as, "They said, 'You are indeed Joseph!'" This version indicates certainty and recognition of Joseph's identity.
In Hafs' recitation:
قَالُوا أَءِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ يُوسُفُ translates as, "They said, 'Is it really you, Joseph?'" This version suggests a sense of surprise or questioning, as though they are confirming their amazement.
Although the two readings differ in tone and emphasis, the overall message of the verse remains consistent: Joseph’s brothers are either recognizing or confirming his identity. These subtle variations reflect the richness of the Arabic language and how meaning can be conveyed differently without altering the core message of the Qur'an.
Thus, while different Qirāʾāt can produce different nuances or shades of meaning, they do not fundamentally change the theological or historical narrative of the Qur'an.|group=Note}}. However, the variations don't change the overall message or doctrinal meanings of the Qur'an, as the differences are often subtle and contextually equivalent.{{#tag:ref|Surah Yusuf (12:90) highlights how different Qirāʾāt can lead to slightly different meanings in a verse.
In Qunbul's recitation:
قَالُوا إِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ يُوسُفُ translates as, "They said, 'You are indeed Joseph!'" This version indicates certainty and recognition of Joseph's identity.
In Hafs' recitation:
قَالُوا أَءِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ يُوسُفُ translates as, "They said, 'Is it really you, Joseph?'" This version suggests a sense of surprise or questioning, as though they are confirming their amazement.
Although the two readings differ in tone and emphasis, the overall message of the verse remains consistent: Joseph’s brothers are either recognizing or confirming his identity. These subtle variations reflect the richness of the Arabic language and how meaning can be conveyed differently without altering the core message of the Qur'an. <ref name=“nquran.com”>{{cite web |url= https://www.nquran.com/ar/ayacompare/Julg4-uUl-aijL%C3%A4o?sora=12&aya=90 |title= Comparing verses to narrations |website= nquran.com}}</ref>|group=Note}}Qiraʼat also refers to the branch of [[Islamic studies]] that deals with these modes of recitation.<ref name="Salahi-AN-16-7-2001"/>
There are ten recognised schools of qira{{hamza}}at, each one deriving its name from a noted Quran reciter or "reader" (''[[qāriʾ]]'' pl. ''qāriʾūn'' or ''qurrāʿ''), such as [[Nafi‘ al-Madani]], [[Ibn Kathir al-Makki]], [[Abu Amr of Basra]], [[Ibn Amir ad-Dimashqi]], [[Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud]], [[Hamzah az-Zaiyyat]], and [[Al-Kisa'i]].
While these readers lived in the second and third century of Islam, the scholar who approved the first seven qira'at ([[Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid]]) lived a century later, and the readings themselves have a chain of transmission (like [[hadith]]) going back to the time of Muhammad.<ref name="Salahi-AN-16-7-2001">{{cite news |last1=Salahi |first1=Adil |title=Scholar Of Renown: Ibn Mujahid |url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/213868 |access-date=26 March 2021 |agency=Arab News |date=16 July 2001}}</ref> Consequently,  the readers (''qurrāʿ'') who give their name to qira'at are part of a chain of transmission called a ''riwāya''.{{#tag:ref|Thus it is more accurate to identify a ''qirā{{hamza}}ah'' of  the Quran by saying "this is the ''riwaya'' of [insert name of reciter]", rather than "this is [insert name of reciter]". An example being, "this is the ''riwaya'' of Hafs", and not "this is Hafs" -- Hafs being the reading used by most of the Muslim world.<ref name=Bewley/>|group=Note}} The lines of transmission passed down from a ''riwāya'' are called ''turuq'', and those passed down from a ''turuq'' are called ''wujuh'' or ''awjuh (sing. wajh; {{langx|ar| وجه |lit= face}}'').<ref name=Bewley/>
Qira{{hamza}}at should not be confused with ''[[tajwid]]''—the rules of [[pronunciation]], [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]], and [[caesura]]s of the Quran. Each ''qira'a'' has its own ''tajwid''.<ref name="basic">{{cite web |title=Basic Introduction to the 10 Recitations and 7 Ahruf |url=https://idealmuslimah.com/rss-feed-news/141-tajweed-correct-recitation/introduction-to-the-10-recitations-7-ahruf/543-basic-introduction-to-the-10-recitations-and-7-ahruf.html |website=Ideal Muslimah |access-date=15 March 2021}}</ref> Qira{{hamza}}at are called readings or recitations because the Quran was originally spread and passed down orally, and though there was a written text, it did not include most vowels or distinguish between many consonants, allowing for much variation.<ref name="Bursi-2018-JIQSA"/> (Qira{{hamza}}at now each have their own text in modern Arabic script.){{#tag:ref|most of the varieties are not commonly used but can be found on pdf with English translation at quranflash.com -- https://app.quranflash.com/?en|group=Note}}
Qira'at are also sometimes confused with ''[[ahruf]]''—both being readings of the Quran with "unbroken chain(s) of transmission going back to the Prophet".<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/> There are multiple views on the nature of the ''ahruf'' and how they relate to the ''qira'at'', the general view being that [[caliph]] [[Uthman]] eliminated all of the ''ahruf'' except one during the 7th century CE.<ref name="ri-28-29">Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, Tafseer Soorah Al-Hujuraat, 1990, Tawheed Publications, Riyadh, pp.&nbsp;28-29.</ref> The ten ''qira'at'' were canonized by Islamic scholars in early centuries of Islam.<ref name=shady129/>
Even after centuries of Islamic scholarship, the variants of the qira'at have been said to continue "to astound and puzzle" researchers into Islam (by Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan),<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/> and along with ''ahruf'' make up "the most difficult topics" in Quranic studies (according to [[Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi]]).<ref name="every single">{{cite interview |interviewer=[[Muḥammad Hijāb]] |title=In the Hot Seat: Muḥammad Hijāb Interviews Dr. Yasir Qadhi |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dc1HJ8Uif4#t=81m45s |date=8 June 2020 |quote=every single student of knowledge knows who studies ulm of Quran that the most difficult topics are ahruf and qira’at and the concept of ahruf and the reality of ahruf and the relationship of …… mushaf and the ahruf and the preservation of ahruf, is it one? is it three? is it seven? and the relationship of the qira’at to the ahruf ... |accessdate=19 July 2020 |subject=Yasir Qadhi |time=1h21m45s}}</ref> The qira'at include differences in consonantal diacritics (''[[Arabic diacritics#I'jam|i‘jām]]''), vowel marks (''[[ḥarakāt]]''), and the consonantal skeleton (''[[rasm]]''),<ref name="Melchert2008"/> resulting in materially different readings (see [[#Examples of differences between readings|examples]]).<ref>[[#MCKaVSI2000|Cook, ''The Koran'', 2000]]: pp.&nbsp;72.</ref>
The ''[[Mushaf|muṣḥaf]]'' Quran that is in "general use" throughout almost all the Muslim world today{{#tag:ref|about 95% according to Muslimprophets website.<ref name="Muslimprophets">{{cite web |title=Quran - Comparing Hafs & Warsh for 51 textual variants |url=http://muslimprophets.com/article.php?aid=64 |website=Muslim prophets |access-date=29 October 2020}}</ref> |group=Note}} is a [[1924 Egyptian edition]] based on the ''qira'a'' (reading) of Ḥafṣ on the authority of `Āsim (Ḥafṣ being the ''rāwī'', or "transmitter", and `Āsim being the ''qārī'' or "reader").<ref name=GBRRCQ2008:74/>
==History==
According to Islamic belief, the Quran is recorded in the [[Predestination in Islam|preserved tablet]] in heaven ({{langx|ar|اللوح المحفوظ|translit=al-lawh al-mahfooz}}),<ref>{{cite web |title=Lawh Mahfuz |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1336 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150413031711/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1336 |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 April 2015 |website=Oxford Islamic Studies |access-date=30 March 2020}}</ref> and was revealed to [[Muhammad]] by the angel [[Gabriel]].
===Quranic orthography===
[[File:Elements_of_Arabic_script_improved.png|thumb|upright=2.5|*'''''Rasm''''' -- also called "consonantal skeleton" -- (example 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.<ref name=MCKaVSI2000:72-3>[[#MCKaVSI2000|Cook, ''The Koran'', 2000]]: pp.&nbsp;72-73.</ref><br>*'''''I‘jām''''' or ''nuqat al-I'jam'' (examples in red) was added in later Arabic (possibly around 700 CE)<ref name=FMDQiRS2008:35-6>[[#FMDQiRS2008|Donner, "Quran in Recent Scholarship", 2008]]: pp.&nbsp;35-36.</ref> so that  letters (mostly consonants, such as these five letters ـبـ ـتـ ـثـ ـنـ ـيـ ; y, n, th, t, b) could be distinguished.<br>*'''''Ḥarakāt''''' or ''nuqaṭ ali'rab'' (examples in blue) indicate other vocalizations—short vowels, nunization, glottal stops, long consonants. Variations among ''Qira'at'' mostly involve ''harakat''.]]
Early manuscripts of the Quran did not use [[Arabic diacritics|diacritics]] either for vowels (''[[Arabic_diacritics#harakat|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 unambiguous text".<ref name="Bursi-2018-JIQSA">{{cite journal |last1=Bursi |first1=Adam |title=Connecting the Dots: Diacritics Scribal Culture, and the Quran |journal=Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association |date=2018 |volume=3 |page=111 |doi=10.5913/jiqsa.3.2018.a005 |jstor=10.5913/jiqsa.3.2018.a005 |hdl=1874/389663 |s2cid=216776083 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/3989900 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
Gradual steps were taken to improve the [[orthography]] of the Quran, in the first century with  dots to distinguish similarly-shaped consonants (predecessors 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.
Adam Bursi has cautioned that details of reports that diacritics were added at the direction of al-Hajjaj under Caliph [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan]] are a "relatively late development" and that "While ʿAbd al-Malik and/or al-Ḥajjāj do appear to have played a role in the evolution of the qurʾānic text, the initial introduction of diacritics into the text was not part of this process and it is unclear what development in the usage of  diacritics took place at their instigation." Manuscripts already used consonantal pointing sparingly, but at this time contain "no evidence of the imposition of the kind of fully dotted scriptio plena that the historical sources suggest was al-Ḥajjāj’s intended goal", although "There  is  some  manuscript evidence  for the introduction of vowel markers into the Qurʾān in this period."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bursi |first1=Adam |title=Connecting the Dots: Diacritics Scribal Culture, and the Quran |journal=Journal of the International Qur'anic Studies Association |date=2018 |volume=3 |pages=124–126 |doi=10.5913/jiqsa.3.2018.a005 |jstor=10.5913/jiqsa.3.2018.a005 |hdl=1874/389663 |s2cid=216776083 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5913/jiqsa.3.2018.a005|hdl-access=free }}</ref>
===Recitations===
In the meantime, before the variations were finally committed entirely to writing, the Quran was preserved by recitation from one generation to the next. Doing the reciting were prominent reciters of a style of narration who had memorized the Quran (known as [[Hafiz (Quran)|hafiz]]). According to Csaba Okváth,
<blockquote>It was during the period of [[Tabi'un|the Successors]] [i.e. the generation of Muslims succeeding the [[companions of Muhammad]] ] 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 [Ibn Kathir or Nafi] 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.<ref name="Okvath-2014">{{cite journal |last1=Okváth |first1=Csaba |title=Ibn Mujahid and Canonical Recitations |journal=Islamic Sciences |date=Winter 2014 |volume=12 |issue=2 |url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-397006772/ibn-mujahid-and-canonical-recitations |access-date=22 July 2020}}</ref><ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/></blockquote>
Each reciter had variations in their [[tajwid]] rules and occasional words in their recitation of the Quran are different or of a different morphology (form of the word) with the same root. Scholars differ on why there are different recitations (see below). [[Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley]] gives an example of a line of transmission of recitation "you are likely to find ... in the back of a Qur'an" from the Warsh ''harf'', going backwards from Warsh all the way to Allah himself:"[T]he 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."<ref name="IIUM">{{cite web |last1=Bewley |first1=Aisha |title=The Seven Qira'at of the Qur'an |url=http://www.iium.edu.my/deed/articles/qiraat.html |website=International Islamic University of Malaysia |access-date=30 March 2020}}</ref>
After Muhammad's death there were many qira'at, from which 25 were described by Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam two centuries after Muhammad's death.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}  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]].<ref name=MCKaVSI2000:73>[[#MCKaVSI2000|Cook, ''The Koran'', 2000]]: p.&nbsp;73</ref> Later, three more recitations were canonized for ten. (The first seven readers named for a qiraa recitation died un/readers 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''). {{#tag:ref|There were two ''riwaya'' for each ''qira'a'', but many more  narrators who transmitted narrations from the ''qira'at''. This twitter link <ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/PhDniX/status/1265724937119170571/photo/1 |website=Twitter |title=Replying to @PhDniX | author=Marijn "i before j" van Putten |date=27 May 2020 |access-date=6 April 2021}}</ref> gives a tree of fifteen narrators from one ''qira'a'' (Nafi‘ al-Madani, shown as "Nāfiʕ" at the top center). The two  ''riwaya''—Warsh (or Warš) and Qālūn—are on the left side mixed in with the other fifteen. Ibn Mujāhidat is at the bottom center of the tree, indicating he was aware of all the transmitters but picked Warsh and Qālūn as the ''riwaya''. |group=Note}}
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''.<ref name=Bewley/>
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 Kufa, 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."<ref>{{cite book | date = 1891 | title = The Koran, Commonly Called the Alkoran of Mohammed | publisher = Alden | page = 45 | oclc = 123305441 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-GwwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA45}}</ref>
===Reciting===
Some of the prominent reciters and scholars in [[History of Islam|Islamic history]] who worked with qiraʼat as an [[Islamic studies|Ilm al-Din]] (Islamic science) are:<ref name="Salahi-AN-16-7-2001"/>
[[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 seven mutawatir reciters.<ref name="ajaja">{{cite web |last1=Ajaja |first1=Abdurrazzak |title=القراءات : The readings |url=https://scientificsentence.net/newArabic/tajweed/index.php?key=yes&Integer=the_10_readings}}</ref> He made the recitation, transmitted through reciters of every generation, a science with defined rules, terms, and enunciation.<ref name="shadee">{{cite book |last1=el-Masry |first1=Shadee |title=The Science of Tajwid |publisher=Safina Society |page=8 |url=https://myarkview.org/courses/322185/lectures/5481431 |access-date=30 March 2020 |ref=shadee}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=What is Tajweed? |url=https://www.onlinequranteachers.com/what-is-tajweed/ |website=Online Quran Teachers |access-date=30 March 2020}}</ref>
[[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.<ref name="ajaja"/><ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/>
Imam [[Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi]] (1320 - 1388 CE) wrote a poem outlining the two most famous ways passed down from each of seven strong imams, known as ''al-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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ijazah in Ash-Shatibiyyah |url=https://www.onlinequranteachers.com/course/ijazah-in-ash-shatibiyyah/ |website=Online Quran Teachers}}</ref>
[[Ibn al-Jazari]] (1350 - 1429 CE) wrote two large poems about qira'at and tajwid. One was Durrat Al-Maʿniyah ({{lang|ar|الدرة المعنية}}), in the readings of three major reciters, added to the seven in the Shatibiyyah, making it ten. The other is Tayyibat al-Nashr ({{lang|ar|طيبة النشر}}), which is 1014 lines on the ten major reciters in great detail, of which he also wrote a commentary.
==The readings==
===Criteria for canonical status===
All accepted qira'at according to [[ibn al-Jazari]] follow three basic rules:<ref>{{Cite web|title=ص32 - كتاب متن طيبة النشر في القراءات العشر - المقدمة - المكتبة الشاملة الحديثة|url=https://al-maktaba.org/book/7795/3|access-date=2021-10-28|website=al-maktaba.org}}</ref>
# Conformity to the consonantal skeleton of the [[History of the Quran#Uthman ibn Affan and the canonization|Uthmānic codex]].
# Consistency with Arabic grammar.
# Authentic chain of transmission.
The qira'at that do not meet these conditions are called ''shādh'' (anomalous/irregular/odd). The other recitations reported from companions that differ from the Uthmānic codex may represent an abrogated or abandoned ''ḥarf'', or a recitation containing word alterations for commentary or for facilitation for a learner. By contemporary [[Ijma|consensus]], it is not permissible to recite the ''shādh'' narrations in prayer, but they can be studied academically.<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/> The most well documented companion reading was that of [[Abdullah ibn Masud|'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud]]. Dr. Ramon Harvey notes that Ibn Mas'ud's reading continued in use and was even taught as the dominant reading in Kufa for at least a century after his death and has shown that some of his distinctive readings continued to play a role in Hanafi fiqh.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harvey |first1=Ramon |date=2017 |title=The Legal Epistemology of Qur'anic Variants: The Readings of Ibn Masʿūd in Kufan fiqh and the Ḥanafī madhhab |url=https://ramonharvey.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/readings-of-ibn-masud-ramon-harvey.pdf |journal=Journal of Qur'anic Studies |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=72–101 |doi=10.3366/jqs.2017.0268 |access-date=13 October 2021}}</ref> In 1937, Arthur Jeffery produced a compilation of variants attested in Islamic literature for a number of companion readings.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jeffery |first1=Arthur |year=1937|title=Materials for the History of the Text of the Quran: The Old Codices| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=17kUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP5|location=Leiden |publisher=Brill}}</ref> More recently, Dr. Abd al-Latif al-Khatib made a much more comprehensive compilation of qira'at variants called Mu'jam al-Qira'at. This work is widely cited by academic scholars and includes ten large volumes listing variants attested in Islamic literature for the canonical readings and their transmissions, the companions, and other non-canonical reciters, mainly of the first two centuries.<ref>{{cite book |last=al-Khatib |first=Abd al-Latif |date=2002 |title=Mu'jam al-Qira'at (معجم القراءات) |location=Damascus |publisher=Dār Sa'd-al-Din}}</ref> The process by which certain readings became canonical and others regarded as shaadhdh has been extensively studied by Dr. Shady Nasser.<ref name=SHNTotVRotQ2012>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān'', 2012]]</ref>
===The seven canonical qira'at===
{{main|Seven readers}}
According to [[Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley]], seven qira’at of ibn Mujahid 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").<ref name=Bewley/><ref name="Qiraat-elearning"/>
{| class="wikitable"
|+The seven readers and their transmitters
|-
! colspan="5" Style="background:#efefef;"|''Qari'' (reader)
! colspan="6" style="background:#ffdead;" |''Rawi'' (transmitter)
|-
! Name
! Born
! Died
! Full name
! Details
! Name
! Born
! Died
! Full name
! Details
! Current region
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|[[Nafi‘ al-Madani]]
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|70 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|169 AH (785 CE)<ref name=shady129>Shady Hekmat Nasser, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Kx7i2Y56WuYC&dq=aasim+qira%27ah&pg=PA57 Ibn Mujahid and the Canonization of the Seven Readings], p. 129. Taken from ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the  Qur'an: The Problem of Tawaatur and the Emergence of Shawaadhdh''. [[Leiden]]: [[Brill Publishers]], 2012. {{ISBN|9789004240810}}</ref>
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Abi Na'im, Abu Ruwaym al-Laythi
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Persian with roots from [[Isfahan]].
|[[Qalun]]
|120 AH
|220 AH (835 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
|Abu Musa, 'Isa Ibn Mina al-Zarqi
|Roman, Client of Bani Zuhrah
|[[Libya]] and most of [[Tunisia]]
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |[[Warsh]]
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |110 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |197 AH (812 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |'Uthman Ibn Sa'id al-Qubti
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Egyptian; client of Quraysh
| [[Morocco]], [[Algeria]], [[Mauritania]], the [[Sahel]], [[West Africa]], and some parts of [[Tunisia]]
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|[[Ibn Kathir al-Makki]]
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|45 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|120 AH (738 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|'Abdullah, Abu Ma'bad al-'Attar al-Dari
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Persian
|[[Al-Bazzi]]
|170 AH
|250 AH (864 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
|Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn 'Abdillah, Abu al-Hasan al-Buzzi
|Persian
|Not commonly recited
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |[[Qunbul]]
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |195 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |291 AH (904 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Muhammad Ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman, al-Makhzumi, Abu 'Amr
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Meccan and Makhzumi (by loyalty)
|Not commonly recited
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|[[Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala'|Abu 'Amr Ibn al-'Ala']]
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|68 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|154 AH (770 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Zuban Ibn al-'Ala' at-Tamimi al-Mazini, al-Basri
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|
|[[Al-Duri]]
|150 AH
|246 AH (860 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
|Abu 'Umar, Hafs Ibn 'Umar Ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Baghdadi
|Grammarian, blind
|[[Sudan]], [[Chad]], [[Central Africa]], [[East Africa]], and parts of [[Yemen]]
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |[[Abu Shu'ayb al-Soussi|Al-Susi]]
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |173
AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |261 AH (874 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Abu Shu'ayb, Salih Ibn Ziyad Ibn 'Abdillah Ibn Isma'il Ibn al-Jarud ar-Riqqi
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |
|Not commonly recited
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|[[Ibn Amir ad-Dimashqi]]
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|8 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|118 AH (736 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|'Abdullah Ibn 'Amir Ibn Yazid Ibn Tamim Ibn Rabi'ah al-Yahsibi
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|
|Hisham
|153 AH
|245 AH (859 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
|Abu al-Walid, Hisham ibn 'Ammar Ibn Nusayr Ibn Maysarah al-Salami al-Dimashqi
|
|Parts of [[Yemen]]
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |[[Ibn Dhakwan]]
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |173 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |242 AH (856 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Abu 'Amr, 'Abdullah Ibn Ahmad al-Qurayshi al-Dimashqi
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |
|Not commonly recited
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|[[Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud]]
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|?
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|127 AH (745 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Abu Bakr, 'Aasim Ibn Abi al-Najud al-'Asadi
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Persian ('Asadi by loyalty)
| [[Shu'bah]]
| 95 AH
| 193 AH (809 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| Abu Bakr, Shu'bah Ibn 'Ayyash Ibn Salim al-Kufi an-Nahshali
| Nahshali (by loyalty)
|Not commonly recited
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |[[Hafs]]
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |90 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |180 AH (796 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Abu 'Amr, Hafs Ibn Sulayman Ibn al-Mughirah Ibn Abi Dawud al-Asadi al-Kufi
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |
|style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |[[Middle East]], [[South Asia]], [[Southeast Asia]], and [[Central Asia]]
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|[[Hamzah az-Zaiyyat]]
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|80 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|156 AH (773 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Abu 'Imarah, Hamzah Ibn Habib al-Zayyat al-Taymi
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Persian (Taymi by loyalty)
| [[Khalaf al-Bazzar|Khalaf]]
| 150 AH
| 229 AH (844 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| Abu Muhammad al-Asadi al-Bazzar al-Baghdadi
|
|Not commonly recited
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |[[Khallad]]
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |?
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |220 AH (835 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Abu 'Isa, Khallad Ibn Khalid al-Baghdadi
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Quraishi
|Not commonly recited
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|[[Al-Kisa'i]]
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|119 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|189 AH (804 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Abu al-Hasan, 'Ali Ibn Hamzah al-Asadi
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Persian (Asadi by loyalty)
| [[Al-Layth]]
| ?
| 240 AH (854 CE)<ref name=shady129/>
| Abu al-Harith, al-Layth Ibn Khalid al-Baghdadi
|
|Not commonly recited
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |[[Al-Duri]]
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |150 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |246 AH (860 CE)
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Abu 'Umar, Hafs Ibn 'Umar Ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Baghdadi
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Transmitter of Abu 'Amr (see above)
|Not commonly recited
|}
==={{anchor|The Ten Readers and their Transmitters}} "The Three after the Seven" ===
{{main|Ten recitations}}
Bewley notes a further three qira'at, (sometimes known as "the three after the seven"), that provide additional variants.<ref name=[92]>See for example 19:25, 82:9, and 21:104 on corpuscoranicum.de Quran database</ref>   These three—named after Abu Jafar, Ya'qub and Khalaf—were added to the canonical seven centuries later by ibn al-Jazari (d.1429 CE) though they were popular since the time of the seven.<ref name=[91]>Various sized selections of qira'at were published over the centuries. Ibn Mihran (d. 991) was the first to choose the same set of ten. Christopher Melchert (2008) The Relation of the Ten Readings to One Another Journal of Qur'anic Studies Vol.10 (2) pp.73-87</ref> They are ''mashhur'' (literally "famous", "well-known". "these are slightly less wide in their transmission, but still so wide as to make error highly unlikely").<ref name=Bewley/><ref name="Qiraat-elearning">{{cite web |title=Qiraat |url=http://quranelearning.com/qiraat/ |website=Quran eLearning |access-date=15 July 2020}}</ref>
The three ''mashhur'' qira'at added to the seven are:
{| class="wikitable"
|+The three readers and their transmitters
|-
! colspan="5" Style="background:#efefef;"|''Qari'' (reader)
! colspan="5" style="background:#ffdead;" |''Rawi'' (transmitter)
|-
! Name
! Born
! Died
! Full name
! Details
! Name
! Born
! Died
! Full name
! Details
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Abu Ja'far
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|?
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|130 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Yazid Ibn al-Qa'qa' al-Makhzumi al-Madani
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|
|'Isa Ibn Wardan
|?
|160 AH
|Abu al-Harith al-Madani
|Madani by style
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Ibn Jummaz
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |?
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |170 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Abu ar-Rabi', Sulayman Ibn Muslim Ibn Jummaz al-Madani
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Ya'qub al-Yamani
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|117 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|205 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Abu Muhammad, Ya'qub Ibn Ishaq Ibn Zayd Ibn 'Abdillah Ibn Abi Ishaq al-Hadrami al-Basri
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Client of the Hadramis
|Ruways
|?
|238 AH
|Abu 'Abdillah, Muhammad Ibn al-Mutawakkil al-Basri
|
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Rawh
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |?
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |234 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Abu al-Hasan, Rawh Ibn 'Abd al-Mu'min, al-Basri al-Hudhali
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Hudhali by loyalty
|-
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|[[Khalaf al-Bazzar|Khalaf]]
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|150 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|229 AH
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Abu Muhammad al-Asadi al-Bazzar al-Baghdadi
| rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;"|Transmitter of Hamza (see above)
|Ishaq
|?
|286 AH
|Abu Ya'qub, Ishaq Ibn Ibrahim Ibn 'Uthman al-Maruzi al-Baghdadi
|
|-
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Idris
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |189 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |292 AH
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |Abu al-Hasan, Idris Ibn 'Abd al-Karim al-Haddad al-Baghdadi
| style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;" |
|}
===Other modes of recitation===
In addition to the ten "recognized" or "canonical modes"<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/> there are four other modes of recitation: Ibn Muhaysin, al-Yazidi, [[Hasan al-Basri|al-Hasan]] and [[Sulaiman al-Aʽmash|al-A‘mash]]. These qira'at became unpopular over time as they all forgo one or more of ibn al-Jazari's criteria (mentioned above) and are now considered ''shadh'' (irregular/odd).
===Hafs ‘an ‘Asim===
{{Main|Hafs}}
One qira'a that has reached overwhelming popularity is the [[Hafs ‘an ‘Asim]] (i.e., the mode of ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd (d. 127 AH) according to his student Ḥafs ibn Sulaymān (d. 180 AH)),<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/> specifically the [[Cairo Edition|standard Egyptian edition of the Quran]] 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.<ref name=GSRQSaIC2008:2>[[#GSRQSaIC2008|Reynolds, "Quranic studies and its controversies", 2008]]: p.&nbsp;2</ref> (A belief held, or at least suggested, even such scholars as the  famous revivalist [[Abul A'la Maududi]] -- "not even the most sceptical person has any reason to doubt that the Qur’än as we know it today is identical with the Qur’än which Muhammad set before the world"—and the Orientalist [[A.J. Arberry]] -- "the Koran as printed in the twentieth century is identical with the Koran as authorized by ‘Uthmän more than 1300 years ago"—both of whom make no mention of Qira'at and use the singular form in describing the Quran.)<ref name="Maududi-Towards-109">Abul A`la Maududi, ''Towards Understanding Islam''. International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations  Gary, Indiana, 1970. p.109</ref>
Another source states that "for all practical purposes", it is the one Quranic version in "general use" in the Muslim world today.<ref name=GBRRCQ2008:74>[[#GBRRCQ2008|Böwering, "Recent Research on the Construction of the Quran", 2008]]: p.74</ref>{{#tag:ref|Some other versions with minor divergences, namely those of Warsh (d.197/812) ....circulate in the northwestern regions of African.<ref>QA. Welch, ''Kuran'', EI2 5, 409</ref><ref name=GBRRCQ2008:84>[[#GBRRCQ2008|Böwering, "Recent Research on the Construction of the Quran", 2008]]: p.84</ref>|group=Note}}
Among the reasons given for the overwhelming popularity of Hafs an Asim is that it is easy to recite and that God has chosen it to be widespread (Qatari Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs).<ref>{{cite web |title=Popularity of the recitation of Hafs from 'Aasim. Fatwa No: 118960 |url=https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/118960/popularity-of-the-recitation-of-hafs-from-aasim |website=Islamweb |access-date=11 April 2020 |date=9 March 2009}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Mattson-2013-129">{{cite book |last1=Mattson |first1=Ingrid |title=The Story of the Qur'an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life |date=2013 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons. |page=129 |isbn=9780470673492 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_-eUnDh_OWgC&q=recitation+of+Hafs+now+became+dominant&pg=PA129 |access-date=11 April 2020}}</ref>
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 Quranic 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).
==={{anchor|Variations between readings}}Variations among readings===
====Examples of differences between readings====
Most of the differences between the various readings involve consonant/diacritical marks (''I‘jām'') and marks (''[[Ḥarakāt]]'') indicating other vocalizations -- short vowels, nunization, glottal stops, long consonants. Differences in the ''[[rasm]]'' or "skeleton" of the writing are more scarce, since canonical readings were required to comply with at least one of the regional Uthmanic copies<ref name="Melchert2008">{{cite journal |last1=Melchert |first1=Christopher |date=2008 |title=The Relation of the Ten Readings to One Another |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25728289 |journal= Journal of Qur'anic Studies |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=73–87 |doi= 10.3366/E1465359109000424|jstor=25728289 |access-date=11 February 2021}}</ref> (which had a small number of differences).
According to one study (by [[Christopher Melchert]]) based on a sample of the ten qira'at/readings, the most common variants (ignoring certain extremely common pronunciation issues) are non-dialectal vowel differences (31%), dialectal vowel differences (24%), and consonantal dotting differences (16%).<ref name="Melchert2008" /> (Other academic works in English have become available that list and categorise the variants in the main seven canonical readings. Two notable and open access works are those of Nasser<ref>[https://brill.com/downloadpdf/book/9789004412903/back-1.xml Appendix Comprehensive Table of Quranic Variants] in {{cite book |last=Nasser |first=Shady, H. |date=2020 |title=The Second Canonization of the Qurʾān (324/936) |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004401976}}</ref> and Abu Fayyad.)<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Abu Fayyad |first=Fawzi Ibrahim |date=1989 |title=The Seven Readings of the Qur'an: A Critical Study of Their Linguistic Differences  |type=PhD |publisher=University of Glasgow |url=http://theses.gla.ac.uk/78058/ |access-date=11 February 2021}}</ref>
The first set of examples below compares the most widespread reading today of Hafs from Asim with that of Warsh from Nafi, which is widely read in North Africa.  All have differences in the consonantal/diacritical marking (and vowel markings), but only one adds a consonant/word to the ''rasm'': "''then'' it is what" v. "it is what", where a "fa" consonant letter is added to the verse.
;Ḥafs ʿan ʿĀṣim and Warš ʿan Nāfiʿ
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!(Warsh) رواية ورش عن نافع !! رواية حفص عن عاصم (Hafs)!! Ḥafs !! Warsh !! verse
|-
| يَعْمَلُونَ || تَعْمَلُونَ || ''you'' do || ''they'' do || Al-Baqara 2:85
|-
| مَا تَنَزَّلُ || مَا نُنَزِّلُ || ''We'' do not send down... || ''they'' do not come down... || Al-Ḥijr 15:8
|-
| لِيَهَبَ || لِأَهَبَ || that ''I'' may bestow || that ''He'' may bestow || Maryam 19:19<ref name="Q1919">While the difference cannot always be rendered with screen fonts, in order to comply with the Uthmanic rasm, the readings of Warsh an Nafi and of Abu 'Amr were written using a superscript ya over the alif, or by a red line between the lam-alif and ha to indicate that hamza should not be pronounced, or by writing a ya in coloured ink. See the discussions in {{cite book |last=Puin |first=Gerd, R. |editor-last=Reynolds |editor-first=Gabriel Said |title=New Perspectives on the Qur'an: The Qur'an in Its Historical Context 2 |publisher=Routledge |date=2011 |pages=176 |chapter=Vowel letters and orth-epic writing in the Qur'an |isbn=9781136700781 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6dqoAgAAQBAJ&dq=ahaba+%22yahaba%22+19+19&pg=PA176 }} and p.15 in {{cite journal |last1=Dutton |first1=Yasin |date=2000 |title=Red Dots, Green Dots, Yellow Dots and Blue: Some Reflections on the Vocalisation of Early Qur'anic Manuscripts (Part II) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25727969 |journal=Journal of Qur'anic Studies |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |doi=10.3366/jqs.2000.2.1.1 |jstor=25727969 |access-date=11 February 2021}}</ref>
|-
| قُل || قَالَ || ''he said'' || ''Say!'' || Al-Anbiyā' 21:4
|-
| كَثِيرًا || كَبِيرًا || ''mighty'' || ''multitudinous'' || Al-Aḥzāb 33:68
|-
| بِمَا  || فَبِمَا || ''then'' it is what || it is what || Al-Shura 42:30
|-
| نُدْخِلْهُ || يُدْخِلْهُ  || ''He'' makes him enter || ''We'' make him enter || Al-Fatḥ 48:17<ref>رواية ورش عن نافع - دار المعرفة - دمشق  Warsh Reading, Dar Al Maarifah Damascus</ref><ref>رواية حفص عن عاصم - مجمع الملك فهد - المدينة  Ḥafs Reading, King Fahd Complex Madinah</ref>
|-
| عِندَ  || عِبَٰدُ ||  who are the ''slaves'' of the Beneficent ||  who are ''with'' the Beneficent || al-Zukhruf 43:19
|}
While the change of voice or pronouns in these verse may seem confusing, it is very common in the Quran<ref name=Bell_Watt_1977_66>{{cite book | last1=Bell |first1=R. |last2=Watt |first2=W. M. |title=Introduction to the Quran |location=Edinburgh |year=1977 |page=66 |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/60357048/Bell-s-Introduction-to-the-Quran-Revised-by-Montgomery-Watt}}</ref><ref name=ADFotA2003:45-46>[[#ADFotA2003|Dundes, ''Fables of the Ancients?'', 2003]]: p.45-46</ref> and found even in the same verse.<ref name=MCKaVSI2000:135>[[#MCKaVSI2000|Cook, ''The Koran'', 2000]]: p.135</ref> (It is known as '' iltifāt''.)
*Q.2:85 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.
*Q.15:8  "We" refers to God in Hafs and the "They" in Warsh refers to what is not being sent down by God (The Angels).
*Q.19:19 (li-ʾahaba v. li-yahaba) is a well known difference, both for the theological interest in the alternative pronouns said to have been uttered by the angel, and for requiring unusual orthography.<ref name="Q1919" />
*Q.48:17, 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".
*Q.43:19 shows an example of a consonantal dotting difference that gives a different root word, in this case ʿibādu v. ʿinda.
The second set of examples below compares the other canonical readings with that of Ḥafs ʿan ʿĀṣim. These are not nearly as widely read today, though all are available in print and studied for recitation.
;Ḥafs ʿan ʿĀṣim and several other canonical readings
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Ḥafs !! Other reading !! Ḥafs !! Other readings !! verse
|-
|  وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ || [Abū ʿAmr] وَأَرْجُلِكُمْ || and (wash) ''your feet [accusative]''|| and (rub with wet hands) ''your feet''|| Al-Māʾidah 5:6
|-
| عَلِمْتَ || [al-Kisāʾī] عَلِمْتُ || [Moses] said, "''You'' have already known || [Moses] said, "''I'' have already known || al-Isrāʼ 17:102
|-
| تُسَٰقِطْ || [Yaʿqūb] يَسَّٰقَطْ|| ''[the tree]'' will drop || ''[the trunk]'' will drop || Maryam 19:25
|-
| يَبْصُرُوا۟ || [Ḥamza] تَبْصُرُوا۟ || He said, "I saw what ''they'' did not see || He said, "I saw what ''you'' did not see || Ṭā Hā 20:96
|-
| فُتِحَتْ || [Ibn ʿĀmir] فُتِّحَتْ] || ''has been opened'' || ''has been opened wide'' || Al-Anbiyā' 21:96
|-
| نَطْوِى ٱلسَّمَآءَ|| [Abū Ǧaʿfar] تُطْوَى ٱلسَّمَآءُ  || ''We will fold'' the heaven || ''will be folded'' the heaven || Al-Anbiyā' 21:104
|-
| جُدُرٍۭ || [Ibn Kaṯīr] جِدَارٍۭ || from behind ''walls''||from behind ''a wall'' || Al-Hashr 59:14
|}
* Q.5:6 The variant grammatical cases (wa-arjulakum and wa-arjulikum) were adopted for different exegetical views by Sunni and Shīʿi scholars, such that in wudu the feet were either to be washed or rubbed, respectively.<ref>{{cite book
| last=Abdul-Raof
| first=Hussein
| title=Theological approaches to Qur'anic exergesis
| publisher=Routledge
| year=2012
| page=101}}</ref> The reading of Abū ʿAmr was shared by Ibn Kaṯīr, Šuʿba ʿan ʿĀṣim and Ḥamza.
* Q.17:102 and Q20:96 are examples of verbal prefix or suffix variants (the latter also read by al-Kisāʾī).
* Q.19:25 has a notably large number of readings for this word (four canonical readings with different subject or verb form, and several non-canonical).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://corpuscoranicum.de/lesarten/index/sure/19/vers/25 |title=Corpus Coranicum |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Corpus Coranicum.de |publisher=Corpus Coranicum |access-date=12 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
| last=Lane
| first=William Edward
| title=An Arabic-English Lexicon
| publisher=Librairie du Liban
| year=1968
| orig-year=orig. pub. 1877
| page=1379
| url=http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume4/00000103.pdf
| access-date=12 April 2021}}</ref>
* Q.21:104 is an example of active-passive variants.
* Q.21.96 is an example of a verb form variant, with Ibn ʿĀmir reading the more intensive verb form II.
* Q59.14 is an example of singular-plural variants (also read by Abū ʿAmr).
==''Qira'at'' and ''Ahruf'' ==
=== Difference between them ===
Although both ''Qira'at'' (recitations) and ''Ahruf'' (styles) refer to readings of the Quran, they are not the same. Ahmad 'Ali al Imam (and Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan) notes three general explanations, described by [[Ibn al-Jazari]], of what happened to the ''Ahruf''.<ref name=al-Imam-2006-42-3>{{cite book |last=al Imam |first=Ahmad 'Ali |date=2006 |title=Variant Readings of the Quran: A critical study of their historical and linguistic origins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R2iYf0bvYGwC |location=Virginia, USA |publisher=Institute of Islamic Thought |pages=42–43 |isbn=9781565644205}}</ref> One group of scholars, exemplified by [[Ibn Hazm]], held that Uthman preserved all seven ahruf. Another group, exemplified by [[Al-Tabari]], held that Uthman preserved only one of the seven, unifying the ummah under it.{{#tag:ref|According to Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan, "The opinion that the ʿUthmānic muṣḥaf selected one ḥarf was also the view of al-Naḥḥās (d. 338 AH),<ref name=[72]>al-Naḥḥās, al-Nāsikh wa-al-mansūkh, 2:405. Fa-arāda ʿUthmān an yakhtār min al-sabʿah ḥarfan wāḥid wa huwa afṣaḥuhā.</ref>  Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH),<ref name=[73]>Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istidhkār (Damascus: Dar Qutaibah, 1993), 8:45.</ref> al-Abyārī (d. 616 AH),<ref name=[74]>ʿAlī ibn Ismaʿīl al-Abyārī, al-Taḥqīq wa-al-bayān fī sharḥ al-burhān fī uṣūl al-fiqh (Doha: Wizārat al-Awqāf wa al-Shuʾūn al-Islāmīyah Qatar, 2013), 2:792.</ref> Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH),<ref name=[75]>Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Ṭuruq al-ḥukmīyah fī al-siyāsah al-sharʿīyah, (Mecca: Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid, 1428 AH), 1:47–48; Ibn al-Qayyim, Iʿlām al-muwaqqiʿīn (Dammam: Dār ibn al-Jawzī, 2002), 5:65.</ref> and many other scholars".<ref name=[76]>See also Mannāʿ al-Qaṭṭān, Mabāḥith fī ʿulūm al-Qur’ān (Cairo: Maktabah Wahbah, 1995), 158.</ref>  |group=Note}}  Finally, [[Ibn al-Jazari]] held what he said was the majority view, which is that the orthography of the Uthmanic copies accommodated a number of ahruf --  "some of the differences of the aḥruf, not all of them".<ref name=[79]>Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī (Riyadh: Dār al-Ṭaybah, 2005), 11:195–96. He further explains that this was a reason for the textual variants between ʿUthmānic codices, to increase the number of readings that could be accommodated.</ref>{{#tag:ref|According to Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan, "Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 437 AH),<ref name=[77]>Makkī ibn Abī Ṭālib, al-Ibānah ʿan maʿānī al-qirāʾāt (Cairo: Dār Nahdah Misr, 1977), 34.</ref> Ibn al-Jazarī (d. 833 AH),<ref name=[78]>Ibn al-Jazarī, al-Nashr, 1:31. He writes, “As for whether ʿUthmānic codices encompass all the seven aḥruf then this is a major topic . . . the position taken by the majority of the scholars from the earlier and later generations and the Imams of the Muslims is that these codices encompass that which the text can accommodate from the seven aḥruf.”</ref> Ibn Ḥajar (d. 852 AH) and other scholars explained that what remained after the ʿUthmānic compilation were the differences from the other aḥruf that could still be accommodated by the skeletal text of the ʿUthmānic codices;Ibn Ḥajar cites Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAmmār al-Mahdawī (d. 430 AH) who states, 'The most correct position which is upheld by the experts is that what is recited now are some of [the differences] of the seven ḥurūf which were permitted to be recited and not all of them.'<ref name=[80]>Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAmmār al-Mahdawī, Sharḥ al-hidāyah (Riyadh: Maktabah Rushd, 1995), 5.</ref>|group=Note}}
Taking the second version of the history of the ''ahruf'' described above, [[Bilal Philips]] writes that Caliph 'Uthman eliminated six of the seven ''ahruf'' about halfway 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 the [[Companions of Muhammad]], 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.<ref name="ri-28-29"/>
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 Companions  who were noted for their Quranic recitations; they recited the Quran to Muhammad (or in his presence), and received his approval. These Companions 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 Companions learned from them; master Quran commentator Ibn 'Abbaas learned from Ubayy and Zayd.<ref name="ri-29-30">Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, Tafseer Soorah Al-Hujuraat, 1990, Tawheed Publications, Riyadh, pp.&nbsp;29–30.</ref>
According to Philips, among the Successor (aka ''[[Tabi'in]]'') generation of Muslims were many scholars who learned the methods of recitation from the Companions 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 (i.e. readers or ''qāriʾūn'') 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<ref name="ri-30">Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, Tafseer Soorah Al-Hujuraat, 1990, Tawheed Publications, Riyadh, pp.&nbsp;30.</ref> (a reference to Ahruf).
Another (more vague) differentiation between ''Qira'at'' (recitations) and ''Ahruf'' (styles) offered by Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan is "...  the seven aḥruf are all the categories of variation to which the differences found within qirāʾāt correspond. In other words, they represent a menu of ingredients from which each qirāʾah selects its profile."<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/>
==={{anchor|Revelation of the Quran in seven Ahrûf}}Scriptural basis for seven Ahruf===
{{further|Ahruf#Scriptural basis}}
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, said that twenty-one traditions of companions of Muhammad state "that the Qur’aan was revealed in seven ahruf".<ref name="BISMIKA ALLAHUMA">{{cite web |last1=BISMIKA ALLAHUMA TEAM |title=The Ahruf Of The Qur'aan |url=https://www.bismikaallahuma.org/quran/the-ahruf-of-the-quraan/ |website=BISMIKA ALLAHUMA Muslim Responses to Anti-Islam Polemics |access-date=6 July 2020 |date=9 October 2005}}</ref> One hadith (reported in the ''[[Muwatta Imam Malik|Muwatta]]'' of [[Malik ibn Anas]]) has "[[Umar|Umar Ibn al-Khattab]] manhandling Hisham Ibn Hakim Ibn Hizam after what he (Umar) thinks is an incorrect reading of the Quran by Hisham. When Umar hauls Hisham to Muhammad for chastisement," where Hisham and Umar each recite for Muhammad, Umar is surprised to hear Muhammad say, "It was revealed thus", after each 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."<ref name="muw">[[Malik Ibn Anas]], [[Muwatta Imam Malik|Muwatta]], vol. 1 (Egypt: Dar Ahya al-Turath, n.d.), p.&nbsp;201, (no. 473).</ref>
===Disagreement===
[[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.
Supporters of the theory reply that Hisham may have been taught the Quran by a companion of Muhammad from a different tribe. Nevertheless, Ghamidi questions the hadith which claim "variant readings", on the basis of Quranic verses ({{qref|87|6-7}}, {{qref|75|16-19}}), the Quran was compiled during Muhammad's lifetime and questions the hadith which report its compilation during [[Uthman]]'s reign.<ref name="jav"/> Since most of these narrations are reported by [[Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri]], Imam Layth Ibn Sa'd wrote to [[Imam Malik]]:<ref name="jav"/><ref>[[Ibn Qayyim]], I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, vol. 3 (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.), p.&nbsp;96.</ref>
{{blockquote|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 [[Hijri year|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 from prominent reciters of his time, three from [[Kufa]] and one each from [[Mecca]], [[Medina]], and [[Basra]] and [[Damascus]].<ref name=MCKaVSI2000:73/> 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 [[Arabic|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 ''[[Biographical evaluation|rijal]]'' authorities.<ref name="jav">[[Javed Ahmad Ghamidi]]. [[Mizan]], ''[http://renaissance.com.pk/JanQur2y7.htm Principles of Understanding the Qu'ran] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927210102/http://renaissance.com.pk/JanQur2y7.htm |date=27 September 2007 }}'', [[Al-Mawrid]]</ref>
==Questions and difficulties==
===Developing view of full authenticity===
Professor Shady Nasser of Harvard University is the author of books and papers on the canonization process of the Quran. Nasser has explored examples of prominent early scholars and grammarians who regarded some variants that were later considered canonical to be wrong (not just wrongly transmitted) or preferred some variants over others. In particular, he gives examples of such views from the time shortly before canonization expressed by [[Al-Tabari]],<ref name="SHNTotVRotQ2012:39–47">[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān'', 2012]]: pp.39–47</ref> the grammarian [[Al-Farraʼ]],<ref name=SHNTotVRotQ2012:167>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān'', 2012]]: p.167</ref> and Ibn Mujahid in the very work in which he selected the 7 readings (''Kitab al-Sab’a fil-qirā’āt'',<ref name=SHNTotVRotQ2012:59-61>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān'', 2012]]: pp.59-61</ref> particularly his "critical remarks [...] against Ibn ʿĀmir, Ḥamza, and some canonical Rāwīs such as Qunbul".<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:89>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: p.89</ref> In one summary he states in reference to certain critics and examples (elaborated in earlier chapters) that "The early Muslim community did not unconditionally accept all these Readings; the Readings of Ḥamza, al-Kisāʾī, and Ibn ʿĀmir were always disparaged, criticized, and sometimes ridiculed."<ref name=SHNTotVRotQ2012:111>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān'', 2012]]: p.111</ref>
Contrasting with the view of early scholars that the readings included human interpretation and errors, Nasser writes, "This position changed drastically in the later periods, especially after the 5th/11th century where the canonical Readings started to be treated as divine revelation, i.e. every single variant reading in the seven and ten eponymous Readings was revealed by God to Muhammad."<ref name=SHNTotVRotQ2012:77>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān'', 2012]]: p.77</ref>
=== Disagreement on mutawatir transmission from Muhammad ===
Doctrine holds that the readings that make up each of the canonical Qira'at can be traced by a chain of transmission (like hadith) back to Muhammad, and even that they were transmitted by chains so numerous that their authenticity is beyond doubt (mutawatir). In theory, evidence of the canonical Qira'at should be found among the oldest Quranic manuscripts.
However, according to Morteza Karimi-Nia of the [[Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation]]:
{{blockquote|the seven variant readings attributed to the Seven Readers, which have been prevalent since the fourth/tenth century, are only rarely evident in the Qurʾānic manuscripts of the first two Islamic centuries. In these manuscripts, instead, one can find either the above-mentioned regional differences (as between Mecca, Medina, Kufa, Basra, or Damascus) or differences in lettering and dotting, which do not necessarily reflect the canonical variants of the Seven Readers but can be traced back to the readings of one of the Prophet’s Companions or Followers."<ref>
Morteza Karimi-Nia, A new document in the early history of the Qurʾān: Codex Mashhad, an ʿUthmānic text of the Qurʾān in Ibn Masʿūd’s arrangement of Sūras, Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, Volume  10 (2019) 3, pp. 292-326</ref>}}
The view of some scholars that the differences, not just the agreement, between the canonical qira'at were transmitted mutawatir was a topic of disagreement among scholars. Shady Nasser notes that "all the Eponymous Readings were transmitted via single strands of transmissions (āḥād) between the Prophet and the seven Readers, which rendered the tawātur of these Readings questionable and problematic." He observes that qira'at manuals were often silent on the isnad (chain of transmission) between the eponymous reader and the Prophet, documenting instead the formal isnads from the manual author to the eponymous reader. Like Ibn Mujahid, often they separately included various biographical accounts connecting the reading back to the Prophet, while later manuals developed more sophisticated isnads.<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:110-116>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: p.110-116</ref> Nasser concludes that "the dominant and strongest opinion among the Muslim scholars holds to the non-tawātur of the canonical Readings".<ref name=SHNTotVRotQ2012:116>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān'', 2012]]: p.116</ref> Marijn van Putten has noted similarly that "The view that the transmission of the Quran is tawātur seems to develop some significant time after the canonization of the readers".<ref name=MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022:52-55/>
===Struggles of the Qurrāʾ===
The writings of Ibn Mujahid give a great deal of insight into the community of the Qurrāʾ (Arabic: "reciters"). In his book on Ibn Mujahid's ''Kitab al-Sab’a'', Shady Nasser cites specific examples to make many observations on the difficulties that the eponymous readers and their transmitters are therein reported to have experienced, while emphasising that they were "driven by sincere piety and admiration for the Qurʾānic revelation" and "went to extreme measures to preserve, perform and stabilize the text".<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:182>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: p.182</ref> For example, when precise information was missing on part of a reading, "the Qurrāʾ resorted to qiyās (analogy)", as did Ibn Mujahid himself in documenting the readings transmitted to him.<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:178>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: p.178</ref> In other cases, canonical transmitters such as Shu'ba said he "did not memorize" how his teacher 'Asim read certain words, or Ibn Mujahid had conflicting or missing information.<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:178-180>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: pp.178-180</ref> Accounts report what Nasser describes as incidents of "ambivalence and indecisiveness" by readers themselves such as Abu 'Amr, 'Asim and Nafi.,<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:173>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: p.173</ref> while Ibn Mujahid often lacked certain information on Ibn Amir's reading.<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:174>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: p.174</ref> Nasser also notes examples recorded by Ibn Mujahid of readers such as Abu 'Amr, al Kisa'i, Nafi, and the transmitters of 'Asim, Hafs and Shu'ba, in certain cases "retracting a reading and adopting a new one", or Shu'ba recounting that he "became skeptical" of his teacher 'Asim's reading of a certain word and adopted instead that of a non-canonical Kufan reader (al-A'mash).<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:175-176>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: pp.175-176</ref> He notes the case of Ibn Dhakwan finding one reading for a word in his book/notebook, and recalling something different in his memory.<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:159>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: p.159</ref> Nasser observes that "when in doubt, the Qurrāʾ often referred to written records and personal copies of the Qurʾān", sometimes requesting to see the copy belonging to someone else.<ref name=SHN2CofQ2020:172>[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: p.172</ref>
In his book on Quranic Arabic and the reading traditions (open access in pdf format), Marijn van Putten puts forth a number of arguments such that the qira'at are not purely oral recitations, but also to an extent are readings dependent on the rasm, the ambiguities of which they interpreted in different ways, and that the readings accommodated the standardized rasm rather than the other way around.<ref name=MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022:52-55>[[#MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022|van Putten, ''Quranic Arabic'', 2022]]: p.52-55</ref>
===Arabic dialect of the Quran===
Contrary to popular conceptions, the Quran was not originally codified in Classical Arabic, instead originating in the [[Old Hijazi Arabic|Old Hijazi]] dialect of Arabic. Linguist and Quranic manuscript expert Dr. Marijn van Putten has written a number of papers on the Arabic evident in the Quranic consonantal text (QCT). Van Putten brings internal linguistic arguments (internal rhymes) to show that this dialect had lost the hamza (except at the end of words spoken in the canonical readings with a final alif), not just in the orthography of the written text, as is well established, but even in the original spoken performance of the Quran. He also notes Chaim Rabin's (d. 1996) observation of "several statements by medieval Arabic scholars that many important Hijazis, including the prophet, would not pronounce the hamza" and quotes his point that "the most celebrated feature of the Hijaz dialect is the disappearance of the hamza, or glottal stop". The canonical readings on the other hand use hamza much more widely and have considerable differences in its usage.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=van Putten |first1=Marijn |date=2018 |title=Hamzah in the Quranic Consonantal Text |url=https://www.academia.edu/35556452 |journal=Orientalia |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=93–120 |access-date=17 April 2021}}</ref> In another paper, Van Putten and Professor Phillip Stokes argue, using various types of internal evidence and supported by early manuscripts and inscriptions of early dialects found in Arabia, that unlike the dialects found in the canonical readings, the spoken language behind the QCT "possessed a functional but reduced case system, in which cases marked by long vowels were retained, whereas those marked by short vowels were mostly lost".
<ref>{{cite journal |last1=van Putten |first1=Marijn |last2=Stokes |first2=Phillip |date=2018 |title=Case in the Qurˀānic Consonantal Text |url=https://www.academia.edu/37481811 |journal=Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes |issue=108 |pages=143–179 |access-date=17 April 2021}}</ref> Van Putten also reconstructs the spoken dialect represented by the QCT to have treated nouns ending with feminine -at as diptotes (without nunation) rather than the triptotic feminine endings spoken in Quran recitations today.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=van Putten |first1=Marijn |date=2017 |title=The Feminine Ending -at as a Diptote in the Qurānic Consonantal Text and Its Implications for Proto-Arabic and Proto-Semitic |url=https://www.academia.edu/35131582 |journal=Arabica |issue=64 |pages=695–705 |access-date=17 April 2021}}</ref>
A summary of these findings is given by Van Putten in his book, ''Quranic Arabic: From Its Hijazi Origins to Its Classical Reading Traditions'' .<ref>[[#MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022|van Putten, ''Quranic Arabic'', 2022]]: p.184. For further detail, see chapter 7 which covers the lack of 'i'rab and tanwin in the QCT dialect. He also notes on pp. 100-101 ff. the work of al-Jallad on the Damascus Psalm fragment, which shows no signs of 'i'rab or tanwin, further supporting the picture of the old Hijazi / QCT dialect.</ref> In the concluding chapter, van Putten reiterates his overall argument that the Quran has been "reworked and ‘Classicized’ over time, to yield the much more Classical looking forms of Arabic in which the text is recited today". He suggests that "we can see traces of the Classical Arabic case system having been imposed onto the original language as reflected in the QCT, which had lost most of its word final short vowels and tanwīn".<ref name=MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022:216>[[#MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022|van Putten, ''Quranic Arabic'', 2022]]: p.216</ref>
Van Putten has further argued that no canonical reading maintains any particular dialect. Rather, through a process of imperfect transmission and explicit choices, the readers assembled their own readings of the Quran, with no regard as to whether this amalgamation of linguistic features had ever occurred in a single dialect of the arabiyyah. In this way the readings came to have a mixed character of different dialectical features.<ref name="MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022:78-79, 96">[[#MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022|van Putten, ''Quranic Arabic'', 2022]]: pp.78-79, 96</ref>
===Recitation of scribal errors inherited from the original Uthmanic copies===
In modern times some academic scholars have regarded descriptions by Muslim scholars of the 40 or so differences in the rasm (skeleton text) of the four copies of the Uthmanic codex sent out to Medina, Syria, and the garrison towns of Basra and Kufa, to be scribal errors in those copies, especially after Michael Cook (who expresses this view) established from these descriptions that they form a stemma (tree structure), widely considered to prove a written copying process.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cook |first1=Michael |date=2004|title=The Stemma of the Regional Codices of the Koran |journal=Graeco-Arabica |volume=9 |issue=10 |pages=89–104}}</ref> All subsequent manuscripts can be grouped into these regional families based on the inherited differences. Marijn Van Putten and Hythem Sidky have noted that the canonical readers strongly tended to include the differences found in the codex given to their region and adapted their readings accordingly,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Van Putten |first1=Marijn |date=2020|title=Hišām's ʾIbrāhām : Evidence for a Canonical Quranic Reading Based on the Rasm |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338434122 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=251 |doi=10.1017/S1356186320000218 |access-date=17 April 2021|doi-access=free }} (pp.13-15 of the linked open access pdf)</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://twitter.com/PhDniX/status/1218669152371650560 | title=Twitter.com| author=Dr Marijn Van Putten | date= 18 January 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200119002517/https://twitter.com/PhDniX/status/1218669152371650560 |archive-date=19 January 2020}}</ref><ref name="Sidky2020">{{cite journal |last1=Sidky |first1=Hythem |date=2020|title=ON THE REGIONALITY OF QURʾĀNIC CODICES |journal=Journal of the International Quranic Studies Association |volume=5 |pages=133–219 }}</ref> while Shady Nasser gives a somewhat more complex picture, with a more comprehensive list of the documented differences including those that are less well attested. He also identifies examples where different readers from the same town sometimes seem to have used codices from elsewhere.<ref name="SHN2CofQ2020:144–163">[[#TWLUI1982|Nasser, ''2nd Canonization of the Qurʾān'', 2020]]: pp.144–163</ref> Hythem Sidky too notes some such examples, suggesting that as knowledge of regionally isolated variants proliferated, new options became available to the readers or that codices became contaminated through copying from multiple exemplars. He also finds that the less well attested variants in the rasm literature have a "poor agreement" with the regionality found in early manuscripts, whereas the well attested variants in the rasm literature (which form a stemma) have an "excellent agreement" with the manuscript evidence. He finds that "by all indications, documentation of the regional variants was an organic process", rather than being known at the time the codices were produced.<ref name="Sidky2020"/>
====Implications of variant readings====
Discussing different views on when the Quran reached a state of codification or stability [[Fred Donner]] argues that due to the variant readings which "circulated in great numbers" prior to the canonical selection, as well as the canonical differences, the Quran had not yet crystalized into a single, immutable codified form ... within one generation of Muhammad".<ref name=FMDQiRS2008:42>[[#FMDQiRS2008|Donner, "Quran in Recent Scholarship", 2008]]: p.42</ref>
Donner does agree however, with the standard narrative that despite the presence of "some significant variants" in the ''qira'at'' literature,  there are not "long passages of otherwise wholly unknown text claiming to be Quran, or that appear to be used as Quran -- only variations within a text that is clearly recognizable as a version of a known Quranic passage".<ref name=FMDQiRS2008:42-3>[[#FMDQiRS2008|Donner, "Quran in Recent Scholarship", 2008]]: p.42-3</ref> Revisionist historian Michael Cook also states that the Quran "as we know it",  is "remarkably uniform" in the ''rasm''.<ref name=MCKaVSI2000:119>[[#MCKaVSI2000|Cook, ''The Koran'', 2000]]: p.119</ref>
One example of how slight changes in lettering in different Qiraat suggesting the possibility of a major doctrinal impact on the Quran is the first word in two verses: Q.21:4 and 21:112. In Hafs qiraa version that first word is  "qāla,  translated as 'He [Muhammad] said ...'".  The orthography is different in the two verses—in Q.21:4 the second letter is a "plene" [[Arabic alphabet#Alif|alif]] {{lang|ar|قال}}, in 21:112  "[[Dagger alif|dagger aliph]]"  (i.e. a diacritical mark, so not part of the ''rasm'' as a plene aliph is).
But in  Warsh qiraa the first word in the verses is a different verb form, {{lang|ar|قل}} ''qul'' (the imperative 'say!')<ref>cited in {{cite journal |last1=Ibn Warraq |title=Which Koran? |journal=New English Review |date=February 2008 |url=https://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/15565/sec_id/15565 |access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> changing the verse from talking about what Muhammad said to a command from God.
Examining verse 21:112, [[Andrew Rippin]] states
<blockquote>"The very last verse (112) of sura 21 starts "He said [qāla], 'My Lord, judge according to the truth. Our Lord is the All-Merciful' ". The reference to "My Lord"  and "Our Lord" in the text indicates that the subject of  "He said " cannot be God but is the reciter of the Qur’än, in the first place understood to be Muhammad. Such a passage, in fact, falls into a common form of Qur’änic speech found in passages normally prefaced by the imperative "Say!" (qul).The significant point here is that in the text of the Qur’ān, the word here translated as "He said" is, in fact, more easily read as "Say!" due to the absence of the long "a" marker (something which commonly happens in the Qur’än, to be sure, but the word qäla is spelled this way only twice - the other occasion being in Qur’än 21:4 and that occurs in some of the traditions of the writing of the text). In the early Sana manuscripts, the absence of the long "a" in the word qäla is a marker of an entire set of early texts. But why should it be that this particular passage should be read in the way that it is? It really should read "Say!" to be parallel to the rest of the text. This opens the possibility that there was a time when the Qur’än was understood not as the word of God (as with "Say!") but the word of Muhammad as the speaking prophet. It would appear that in the process of editing the text, most passages were transformed from "He said" to "Say!" in both interpretation and writing with the exception of these two passages in Sura 21 which were not changed. This could have occurred only because somebody was working on the basis of the written text in the absence of a parallel oral tradition".<ref name=[47]>A. Rippin. ''Muslims, Their Religious Beliefs and Practices'' London: Routledge, 2nd Edition  2001, pp.30-31; cited in {{cite journal |last1=Ibn Warraq |title=Which Koran? |journal=New English Review |date=February 2008 |url=https://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/15565/sec_id/15565 |access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref>[''[[wikipedia:Reliable sources|unreliable source?]]'']</blockquote> i.e. the verses in the Hafs version may have been an editing oversight where in the process of converting the Quran from  "the word of Muhammad as the speaking prophet" to "the word of God",  dozens of 'Say!' [qul], were added or replaced "He said [qāla]", but a couple of qāäla were missed.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}
===Misunderstanding===
Using "''qiraʼat''"/"recitations" to describe Quranic variants may sound as though different reciters are reading from the same text (or reciting based on the same text) but with different "prolongation, intonation, and pronunciation of words";<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/>  or if their spoken words are different it's because they have the same consonants but  different vowel markings (see orthography diagram above).  (Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan, for example, talk of the "basis of the qirāʾāt" being "words that can be read in multiple ways" rather than different  words or word forms used in the same verse.)<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/>
However, not only do the written vowel markings and written consonant diacritical marks differ between Qiraʼat, there are also occasional small but "substantial" differences in the "skeleton" of the script (''rasm'', see  [[#Examples_of_differences_between_readings|Examples of differences between readings]]) that Uthman reportedly standardized.
===Rationale===
According to [[Oliver Leaman]], "the origin" of the differences of ''qira'at'' "lies in the fact that the linguistic system of the Quran incorporates the most familiar Arabic dialects and vernacular forms in use at the time of the Revelation."<ref name="Kahteran-2006-233"/>  According to Csaba Okváth, "Different recitations [different ''qira'at''] take into account dialectal features of Arabic language ..."
<ref name="Okvath-2014"/>
Similarly, the Oxford Islamic Studies Online writes that "according to classical Muslim sources", the variations that crept up before Uthman created the "official" Quran "dealt with subtleties of pronunciations and accents (''qirāʿāt'') and not with the text itself which was transmitted and preserved in a culture with a strong oral tradition."<ref>{{cite web |title=Qurʿān |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0661 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121040252/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0661 |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 November 2008 |website=Oxford Islamic Studies |accessdate=30 March 2020}}</ref>
On the other hand, [[Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley]]  writes that different ''qirāʿāt'' have "different diacritical marks", and the differences "compliment other recitations and add to the meaning, and are a source of [[tafsir|exegesis]]."<ref name="IIUM"/>  Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan contend that ''qirāʿāt'' "constitute a unique feature of the Qur’an that multiplies its eloquence and aesthetic beauty", and "in certain cases" the  differences in ''qirāʾāt'' "add nuances in meaning, complementing one another."<ref name="Khatib-variant-2019"/>
===Questions===
Other reports of what Muhammad said (as well as some scholarly commentary) seem to contradict the presence of variant readings -- ''ahruf'' or ''qirāʾāt''.<ref name="jav"/>
Abu Abd Al-Rahman al-Sulami writes, "The reading of [[Abu Bakr]], [[Umar]], [[Uthman]] and [[Zayd ibn Thabit]] and that of all the [[Muhajirun]] and the [[Ansar (Islam)|Ansar]] was the same. They would read the Quran according to the ''Qira'at al-'ammah''. This is the same reading which was read out twice by the Prophet to Gabriel in the year of his death. [[Zayd ibn Thabit]] was also present in this reading [called] the ''{{'}}Ardah-i akhirah''. It was this very reading that he taught the Quran to people till his death".<ref>Zarkashi, al-Burhan fi Ulum al-Qur'an, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1980), p.&nbsp;237.</ref> According to [[Ibn Sirin]], "The reading on which the Quran was read out to the prophet in the year of his death is the same according to which people are reading the Quran today",<ref>[[Suyuti]], al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Qur'an, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (Baydar: Manshurat al-Radi, 1343 AH), p.&nbsp;177.</ref> which seems to contradict the recent Sanaa Mosque discoveries.
Examining the hadith of Umar's surprise in finding out "this Quran has been revealed in seven Ahruf", [[Suyuti]], a noted 15th-century Islamic theologian, concludes the "best opinion" of this hadith is that it is "''mutashabihat''", i.e. its meaning "cannot be understood."<ref>[[Suyuti]], Tanwir al-Hawalik, 2nd ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Jayl, 1993), p.&nbsp;199.</ref>
==See also==
{{columns-list|
*[[Ahruf]]
*[[Ten recitations]]
*[[Seven readers]]
*{{interlanguage link|Special recitations|ar|قراءات شاذة}}
*[[Hizb Rateb]], in Sufism
*[[Salka (Sufism)|Salka]], in Sufism
*[[Sermon]], in Christianity
*[[Torah reading]] and [[Hebrew cantillation|cantillation]] in Judaism
*[[Ali As-Suwaisy]] Quran reciter }}
==References==
===Notes===
{{reflist|group=Note}}
===Citations===
{{reflist}}
==={{anchor|Notations}}Sources===
*[http://www.warchwahafs.com Qiraa'aat Warch & Hafs] {{Dead link|date=January 2024}}
*{{cite web |url=http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Qiraat/hafs.html#3 |title=Versions Of The Qur'an? |website=Islamic-Awareness.org |date= 15 January 2002 |access-date=8 November 2023}}
*{{cite web |last1=Bewley |first1=Aisha |title=The Seven Qira'at of the Qur'an |url=http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Abewley/Page6.html |website=Our World |access-date=9 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060501195523/http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Abewley/Page6.html |archive-date=1 May 2006 |date=c. 1999}}
*‘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.&nbsp;33.
* {{cite book|last1=Cook|first1=Michael|title=The Koran : A Very Short Introduction|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/koranveryshorti00cook |url-access=registration|quote=The Koran : A Very Short Introduction.|isbn=0192853449 |ref=MCKaVSI2000}}
*{{Cite book |last=Deroche |first=Francois |title=The One and the Many: The Early History of the Qur’an |date=2022 |publisher=Yale University Press}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Reynolds |editor1-first=Gabriel Said |title=The Quran in its Historical Context |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |chapter=The Quran in Recent Scholarship |last1=Donner |first1=Fred M. |pages=29–50 |ref=FMDQiRS2008}}
*{{cite book|last1=Dundes|first1=Alan|title=Fables of the Ancients?: Folklore in the Qur'an|date=2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=9780585466774|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yfo2AgAAQBAJ|accessdate=2 May 2019|ref=ADFotA2003}}
*[[Habib Hassan Touma]] (1996). ''The Music of the Arabs'', trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: [[Amadeus Press]]. {{ISBN|0-931340-88-8}}.
*{{cite book |last=Nasser |first=Shady H. |date=2020 |title=The Second Canonization of the Qurʾān (324/936) |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004401976 |ref=SHN2CofQ2020}}
*{{cite book |last=Nasser |first=Shady H. |date=2012 |title=The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān: The Problem of Tawātur and the Emergence of Shawādhdh |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004240810}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Reynolds |editor1-first=Gabriel Said |title=The Quran in its Historical Context |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |chapter=Recent Research on the Construction of the Quran|last1= Böwering |first1=Gerhard |ref=GBRRCQ2008}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Reynolds |editor1-first=Gabriel Said |title=The Quran in its Historical Context |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |chapter=Introduction, Quranic studies and its controversies |last1=Reynolds |first1=Gabriel Said |pages=1–26 |url=http://www.islam-and-muslims.com/Quran-Historical-Context.pdf}}
*{{cite book |last=van Putten |first=Marijn |date=2022 |title=Quranic Arabic: from its Hijazi Beginnings to its Classical reading traditions |url=https://brill.com/view/title/61587 |location=Leiden, Boston |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004506251 |ref=MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022}}
*[https://yaqeeninstitute.org/nazir-khan/the-origins-of-the-variant-readings-of-the-quran/ The Origins of the Variant Readings of the Qur’an, Yaqeen Institute]
<ref name=MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022:52-55>[[#MvPQAfiHBtoiCRT2022|van Putten, ''Quranic Arabic'', 2022]]: p.52-55</ref>
==External links==
*[https://quran-archive.org/readings-of-the-quran Readings of the Quran], including a biography of The Seven Readers, Quran Archive.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090131143540/http://community.al-quran.info/ Online Quran Project Community Site].
*[http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Qiraat/ Frequent Questions around qiraat] about: the different [http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Qiraat/hafs.html Qiraat], including [http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Qiraat/green.html Refuting The Claim of Differences in Quran] and other useful information
* [https://quran.com/1 quran.com] - By clicking Settings and selecting the Bridges’ translation by Fadel Soliman, words that have significant variants among the ten canonical qira'at are highlighted in red, together with a footnote listing the readers or transmitters and an English translation for each of the variant readings
*[https://erquran.org/ erquran.org] - Encyclopedia of the Readings of the Quran (with [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBa_p3ThlpdUFzCDgzf12iw tutorial videos]). A database and tools for studying canonical and non-canonical reading variants.
* [https://www.nquran.com/ar/index.php?group=ayacompare&sora=1&aya=1 nquran.com] - Compare variant readings in Arabic among the ten readers in each of their two canonical transmissions
* [https://corpuscoranicum.de/en/verse-navigator/sura/43/verse/19/variants corpuscoranicum.de] - Compare transliterated variant readings (including some non-canonical), with the main 7 canonical readings as recorded by Abū ʿAmr ad-Dānī highlighted in dark green (scroll right to see columns)
{{Quranic qira'ates}}
{{Islamic prayer}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Quranic readings| ]]
[[Category:Reading of religious texts]]