Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 873 [Read full issue]
Multiple Readings
The unity of dialect which the Prophet (peace be upon him) had been accustomed to in Makkah vanished with his arrival in Madinah. Islam's spread over the Arabian expanses meant the incorporation of new tribes with new dialects, and for some of them the purity of the Quraishi vernacular proved difficult. In his Sahih, Muslim quotes the following hadith:
Ubayy bin Kab reported that the Prophet was near the locale of Banu Ghifar when Jibril came to him and said, "Allah has commanded you to recite the Quran to your people in one dialect." To this he said, "I ask Allah's pardon and forgiveness. My people are not capable of this." He then appeared for the second time and said, "Allah has commanded that you should recite the Quran to your people in two dialects." The Prophet replied, "I seek pardon and forgiveness from Allah, my people would not be able to do so." Jibril came for the third time and said, "Allah has commanded you to recite the Quran to your people in three dialects," and again he responded, "I ask pardon and forgiveness from Allah. My people would not be able to do this." He then came to him for the fourth time and stated, "Allah has permitted you to recite the Quran to your people in seven dialects, and in whichever dialect they recite, they will be correct."
Over twenty Companions have narrated hadiths confirming that the Quran was revealed in seven dialects. Most agree that the main objective was to facilitate the Quran's recitation for those who were unaccustomed to the Quraishi dialect. Such a concession was granted through the grace of Allah, These variant dialects resulted in disputes a few decades later, prompting Uthman to prepare a Mushaf in the Quraishi dialect. The end tally for all multiple readings found in the skeletons of five official Mushafs did not exceed forty characters, and all dispatched reciters were obligated to follow this skeletal text and to reveal which authority they had learned their recitations from.
The Prophet Muhammad, Allah's sole vicegerent for the wahy's reception and transmission, himself taught certain verses in multiple ways. There is no principle of doubt here, no fog or confusion, and the word 'variant' fails to convey this. Multiple is a far more accurate description. One reason behind this phenomenon was the divergence of accents in Arabia and the need to accommodate them in the short term, as discussed above. A second reason may have been an attempt to better elucidate the various shades of meaning within a particular verse by supplying two wordings, each one being sanctioned by Allah. A well-known example of this is in Sura al-Fatiha, where the fourth verse can be recited as maalik (Owner) or malik (King) of the Day of Judgement. Both wordings were taught by the Prophet and therefore constitute multiple, rather than variant, readings.
Compiled From:
"History of The Quranic Text" - Muhammad Mustafa Al-Azami, pp. 153 - 155