So now that we have been talking about different
codices and extra surahs, there is another issue
we have to look at honestly. When Muslims say
the Quran is one book, do they all even read
exactly the same Arabic text? Or are there recognized
differences right inside the tradition? Let me
start with a very striking story from the life
of Umar ibn al -Khattab. Imagine this situation.
Umar is in the mosque. He hears another companion
reciting the Quran. in a way he has never heard
before. Not just a different voice or rhythm,
but different wording. His reaction is so intense
that he almost attacks the man during prayer.
This is recorded in Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume
6, in the section on the virtues of the Quran.
In Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith
514, it says the following. Narrated Umar ibn
al -Khattab. I heard Hisham ibn Hakim reciting
Surah Al -Furqan during the life of the Messenger
of Allah. I listened to his recitation and noticed
that he recited in several ways that the Messenger
of Allah had not taught me. I was about to jump
on him while he was praying, but I controlled
myself until he finished. When he completed his
prayer, I took hold of him by his cloak and pulled
him and said, Who taught you this Surah which
I heard you reciting? He replied, The Messenger
of Allah taught it to me. I said, You have spoken
falsely, for the Messenger of Allah taught it
to me in a different way. Then I dragged him
to the Messenger of Allah and said, I heard this
man reciting Surah Al -Furqan in a way that you
did not teach me. The Prophet said, Release him,
O Umar. Then he said to Hisham, Recite, O Hisham.
So he recited in the way I had heard him. The
Prophet said, It was revealed in this way. Then
he said, So I recited in the way he had taught
me. The Prophet said, It was revealed in this
way. This Quran has been revealed to be recited
in seven different ways. So recite from it whatever
is easier for you. That is Sahih al -Bukhari,
Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith 514. So what do we
learn from that? First, Umar and Hisham were
both Qurayshi Arabs, from the same tribe as Muhammad.
speaking the same general dialect. Second, their
differences were not just trivial. Umar considered
them serious enough that he was ready to accuse
Hisham of error and even lie. Third, Muhammad
settled the dispute by saying that the Quran
was revealed in seven different ways and that
both forms of recitation were acceptable. This
idea of seven ways, often called the seven Ahruf,
appears again in another hadith. In Sahih al
-Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61, Hadith 513. There
is a report from Abdullah ibn Abbas. It says,
Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas. The Messenger of
Allah said, Gabriel recited the Quran to me in
one way. I asked him to read it in another way,
and he did. I continued asking him, and he recited
it in several ways, until he finally recited
it in seven different ways. That is Sahih al
-Bukhari, Volume 6. Book 61, Hadith 513. So at
this point you might ask, are those seven ways
simply different tribal dialects? Many modern
Muslims say yes, but that explanation runs into
problems. For one thing, as I just mentioned,
both Umar and Hisham were Quraishi. They were
not from different tribes with radically different
dialects. And for another thing, we saw earlier
that in Sahih al -Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 61,
Hadith 510 When Uthman set up the standardization
committee, he told the three Qurayshi men working
with Zayd ibn Thabit, If you disagree with Zayd
on any point in the Qur 'an, then write it in
the dialect of Quraysh, because the Qur 'an was
revealed in their tongue. So if the Qur 'an was
revealed in the tongue of Quraysh and both of
these men were Qurayshi, then the differences
Umar heard were not just regional dialect issues.
They appear to be alternative wordings within
the same general dialect. Now, fast forward a
few centuries. What did Muslim scholars do with
this idea of multiple accepted readings? Around
the 4th Islamic century, a scholar named Ibn
Mujahid, who died in the year 324 after the Hijrah,
tried to put some order on the chaos of different
recitations. He formally recognized seven primary
readings. each associated with a master reciter
and a region. So seven were as follows. Nafi
from Medina, Ibn Kathir from Mecca, Ibn Amir
from Damascus, Abu Amr from Basra, and three
from Kufa, Asim, Hamza, and Al -Qasai. Each of
these readings then had students and transmitters
who passed on slightly different versions. But
Ibn Mujahid's seven became a kind of benchmark.
Over time, however, Not all of those seven became
equally popular. Two particular transmission
lines became dominant in the Muslim world. One
is the reading of Warsh, who transmitted the
recitation of Nafi from Medina. The other is
the reading of Hafs, who transmitted the recitation
of Asim from Kufa. Today, most printed Qur 'ans
in the world use the Hafs reading, especially
in the Middle East and much of Asia. while the
Warsh reading is more common in parts of North
and West Africa. Scholars like Samuel Green,
in his written work comparing the Hafs and Warsh
transmissions, have documented that the differences
between these approved readings are not simply
matters of accent or melody. They include differences
at the level of letters, differences in diacritical
marks such as dots, and differences in vowels
that affect the meaning of words. In some cases,
the wording of a verse changes in a way that
shifts nuance or even content. So let me bring
this home with a question. If the Qur 'an was
revealed in seven different ways, as the hadith
in Sahih al -Bukhari says, and if early companions
like Umar reacted strongly when they heard different
wordings, and if later scholars like Ibn Mujahid
had to standardize which readings were allowed,
and if even among those standard readings like
Hafs and Warsh, There are differences in letters
and vowels that affect meaning. Then can we honestly
say that there has always been one single uniform
Arabic text of the Quran, identical in every
detail across all times and places? The reality
is that the history of the Quran's recitation
and text is more complex than the simple slogan
that many Muslims use today. The seven Aruf and
the multiple Chirat show that variation and flexibility
were built into the tradition from the beginning.
Later efforts to narrow that variation to a few
approved readings tell us that the early diversity
was real enough to require control and limitation.
For someone honestly investigating Islam's claim
of a perfectly preserved and unchanging scripture,
the hadith about seven different ways of reciting
the Quran, the later history of the canonical
readings, and the documented differences between
them all need to be factored into the picture
they show us that what muslims call the one quran
has in fact existed in multiple accepted forms
both in wording and in recitation from very early
on