supervision of Zaid ibn Thabit has been ordered to make an official
editorship of the whole Koran. But this"Oethmanian" text didn't give
yet a uniform reading.
Because early arabic language didn't have vowels and also some
consonants had the same or almost the same form. New signs were
introduced to seperate thedifferent letters. But this still did not
stop the different ways of reading.
In the first half of the fourth/tenth century the 'imaam of the Koran
readers' in Baghdad, Ibn Moedjahid, gave a solutionto this problem. He
said that the word harf should be put equivalent to kira'a.He declared
seven ways ofreading correct. Because according to him the saying of
the Prophet (PBUH) that the Koran wassend in seven ahroef means that
seven ways of reading are inspired.
Nowadays only to ways ofreading are in use, Warsj of Nafi' and Hafs of 'Asim.
Could you tell me more about these different waysof reading? Are there
ahadieth about this?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly :
you should note, may Allaah bless you, that the Qur'aan was revealed
in one style at the beginning,but the Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) kept asking Jibreel until he taught
himseven styles, all of which were complete. The evidence for that is
the hadeeth of Ibn 'Abbaas who narrated that the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Jibreel taught me one style
and I reviewed it until he taughtme more, and I kept asking him for
more and he gave me more until finally there were seven styles."
(narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3047; Muslim, 819)
Secondly, what is meant by styles (ahruf, sing. harf)?
The best of the scholarly opinions concerning what is meant is that
there are seven ways of reciting the Qur'aan, where the wording may
differ but the meaning is the same; if there is a different meaning
then it is by way of variations on a theme, not opposing and
contradiction.
Thirdly:
Some of the scholars said that what was meant by ahruf was the
dialects of the Arabs, but this is far-fetched, because of thehadeeth
of 'Umar ibn al-Khattaab who said: "I heard Hishaam ibn Hakeem
reciting Soorat al-Furqaan in a manner different from that in which I
used to recite it and the way in which the Messenger of Allaah
(peaceand blessings of Allaah be upon him) taught me to recite it. I
was about to argue with him whilst he was praying, but I waited until
he finished his prayer, and then I tied his garment around his neck
and seized him by it and brought him to the Messenger of Allaah
(peaceand blessings of Allaah be upon him) and said, 'O Messenger of
Allaah, I heard this man reciting Soorat-al-Furqaan in a way different
to the way you taught it to me.' The Messenger of Allaah (peaceand
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to him, 'Recite it,' and he
recited it as I had heard him recite it. The Messenger of Allaah(peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, 'It was revealed like
this.' Then he said to me, 'Reciteit,' so I recited it and he said,
'It was revealed like this.' This Qur'aan has been revealed in seven
different ways, so recite it in the way that is easiest for you.'"
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 2287; Muslim, 818)
It is known that Hishaam was Asadi Qurashi (i.e., from the clan of
Bani Asad in Quraysh) and 'Umar was'Adawi Qurashi (i.e., from the clan
of Bani 'Adiyy in Quraysh). Both of them were from Quraysh and Quraysh
had only one dialect. If the difference in ahruf (styles) had been a
difference in dialects, why would two men of Quraysh have been
different?
The scholars mentioned nearly forty different opinions concerning this
matter! Perhaps the most correct is that which we have mentioned
above. And Allaah knows best.
Fourthly:
It seems that the seven styles were revealed with different wordings,
as indicated by the hadeeth of 'Umar, because 'Umar's objection was to
the style, not the meaning. The differences between these styles are
not the matter of contradiction and opposition, rather they
aresynonymous, as Ibn Mas'ood said: "It is like one of you saying
halumma, aqbil or ta'aal (all different ways of saying 'Come here')."
Fifthly:
With regard to the seven recitations (al-qiraa'aat al-saba'), this
number is not based on the Qur'aan and Sunnah, rather it is the
ijtihaad of Ibn Mujaahid (may Allaah havemercy on him). People thought
that al-ahruf al-saba' (the seven styles) were al-qiraa'aat al-saba'
(the seven recitations) because they happened tobe the same number.
But this number may have come about coincidentally,or it may have been
done deliberately by Ibn Mujaahid to match what was narrated about the
number of styles (ahruf) being seven.....
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