Qiraat ≠ Ahruf

In a previous blog post, we examined the lack of consensus among scholars regarding the meaning of the Quran's supposed seven Ahruf and the many contradictions that exist in the various interpretations. In this article, we look specifically at the claim that the seven Ahruf are connected to the various readings of the Quran.

Narrated Ibn `Abbas: Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “Gabriel read the Qur’an to me in one harf and I continued asking him to read it in different ways till he read it in seven ahruf.”

حَدَّثَنَا إِسْمَاعِيلُ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنِي سُلَيْمَانُ، عَنْ يُونُسَ، عَنِ ابْنِ شِهَابٍ، عَنْ عُبَيْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عُتْبَةَ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ ـ رضى الله عنهما ـ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏ “‏ أَقْرَأَنِي جِبْرِيلُ عَلَى حَرْفٍ، فَلَمْ أَزَلْ أَسْتَزِيدُهُ حَتَّى انْتَهَى إِلَى سَبْعَةِ أَحْرُفٍ ‏”‏‏.‏

Sahih al-Bukhari 3219 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3219

Qira'at ( قراءات ) refers to the different canonical methods of reciting the Quran. These variations encompass differences in pronunciation, intonation, meanings, verse counts, and, in extreme cases, differences in the words and phrases used.

Historically, these differences took root after the prophet's death when Islam expanded to new lands. Various communities learned to recite the Quran in their respective regions, and over time, this led to slight differences in recitation. In the 3rd/9th century, the scholar Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid (d. 936 CE) played a crucial role in standardizing these recitations. He selected seven reciters from various regions whose recitations were widely recognized and respected.

Because Ibn Mujahid limited the reciters to seven, many falsely conflated the seven Qiraat with the seven Ahruf. However, scholars widely recognized this as an inaccurate association.

For example:

Ibn Jazārī attributes this claim to ignorant and innocent people who are deprived of any learning. (Tahbīr al-Taysīr, p. 10)

Abū Muḥammad al-Makkī has said, “Anyone who imagines that the recitation of each of these reciters (qurrā’) is one of the seven harfs stipulated by the Prophet (ﷺ) is committing a blunder.” (Al-Ibānah, p. 3; Al-Murshid al-Wajīz, p. 151)

Abū Shāmah has said, “Some have imagined that the ‘seven harfs’ mentioned in the tradition refers to the seven readings – a notion which is prevalent even up to now. This is while this notion is contrary to the consensus of all the people of knowledge, and it has been discussed only by some ignoramuses.” (Al-Itqān, vol. 1, p. 80)

He has also said, “Some people who are not experts in the science of recitation (qirā’ah) have imagined that the recitation of the seven sheikhs is the one referred to by the Prophet (ﷺ) in the tradition ‘The Qur’an has been revealed in seven harfs’ and the recitation of each of them is one of these ‘seven harfs’. Those who adduce this notion to Ibn Mujāhid are mistaken.” (Al-Murshid al-Wajīz, p. 146)

Ibn Taymiyyah says, “All credible and prominent scholars believe that the seven harfs mentioned by the Prophet (ﷺ) does not refer to the famous Seven Readings. The first person to have compiled the seven recitations was Ibn Mujāhid, and he has not done this on the basis of a revelation or something harmonious with the number of harfs on the basis of which the Qur’an has been revealed. It is not that he believed that the seven recitations are the same seven Ahruf, or no one can accept anything other than the recitation of the seven reciters. This is something which none of the scholars – including Ibn Mujāhid – believes in.” (Ibn Jazārī has recorded this religious edict (fatwā) from Ibn Taymiyyah in Al-Nashr fī ’l-Qirā’āt al-‘Ashar, vol. 1, p. 39)

In the book "An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qura'aan" by Yasir Qadhi on p. 177, he writes regarding the scholar's opinion equating the seven ahruf to the various qiraat:

"This is contradicted historically, as there are more than seven qira'aat, and the collection and codification of the qira'aat occurred four centuries after the Prophet's death. None of the major scholars of Islaam held this view, as Ibn Tamiyyah (d. 728 A.H.) said, "There is no difference of opinion among the scholars that the seven ahruf are not the same as the seven famous qira'aat." (Zarzur, p. 186). Unfortunately, most of the Muslim masses understand the hadeeth of the ahruf to refer to the qira'aat.

What further discredits this notion is that one would have to presuppose that the seven Ahruf were to remain hidden until centuries after the prophet's death before they gradually emerged over time. Abū Muḥammad Harawī criticizes this view, stating,

"It is not correct to say that the tradition on the seven Ahruf refers to the seven Qiraat whose reciters had been born later. This claim renders the tradition devoid of any benefit for them to appear. Also, the corollary of this claim is that no Companion had been allowed to recite the Qur’an except he would know in advance the ways of recitation of the later reciters and recite the same."

How is it possible for the Prophet to have only ordered Ibn Mujāhid to determine the application of the ‘seven Ahruf,’ thus depriving his predecessors and successors of it? This point underscores the flawed understanding and misapplication of the concept of seven Ahruf to refer to the Qiraat.

According to the paper “The Canonizations of the Qurʾān” by Harvard Professor Shady H. Nasser:

“Many scholars objected to Ibn Mujāhid’s selection of the seven Readers, calling it an innovation (bidʿa) that caused fitna (conflict, confusion) among Muslims, for he randomly and whimsically limited the eponymous Readings to only Seven and excluded many reliable Readers from his system.”

As detailed in the previous blog post, since each reciter had two authorized students this would equate to 28 different authorized readings of the Quran, and not seven. Additionally, according to the paper mentioned above by Nasser, before Ibn Mujāhid, there were some twenty to twenty-five different recitations, and al-Hudhalī (d. 467/1072-3) collected fifty recitations, according to his Qirāʾāt compendium.

On page 77 of his book Transmission of the Quran, Shady Nasser also explains that historically, the variations were not considered divine but of human origin.

“Early Muslim scholars did not look at the variant readings of the Qur’an as divine revelation. They attributed the Qur’anic variants to human origins; either to the reader’s ijtihad [“independent reasoning”] in interpreting the consonantal outline of the Qur’an or simply to an error in transmission. This position changed drastically in the later periods, especially 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.”

All this confirms that Ahruf and the Qiraat are not the same or related.