Ahruf


According to Islamic tradition, the Quran was revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. The seven reading variants, translated as 'styles', 'ways', 'forms' and 'modes', are said to have been taught by Michael. Islamic scholars agree that the were styles used by the early Muslims to recite the Quran.
The Islamic Caliph Uthman compiled the Quran using one of the during the 7th century, and the other fell out of use. The are distinct from the, which are methods of pronouncing the Quran that also go back to Muhammad according to the Hadith.

Etymology

The word is the plural of paucity of the Arabic word, which has multiple meanings. It can refer to the letters that form a word, and the aspects, borders or sides of an object. For this reason, Yasin Dutton suggests the Quran is being described as "linguistically seven-sided". Abu Amr al-Dani posits two explanations of 's meaning in the context of the seven : that it refers to "dialectical variation" in the sense that language has multiple "sides", or that it refers to a reading of the Quran by virtue of being part of it; in each reading a letter has been modified.

Scriptural basis

The Quran itself talks about it being recorded in the preserved tablet in heaven, but makes no mention of there being any variant modes/forms/readings of it. However, there are numerous references to the seven in Sunni hadith literature. These are principally found in three "clusters" of similar narrations. Seven traditions are included in Sahih al-Bukhari and 21 traditions in the of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Other traditions and references are found in the of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, the of Abu Ya'la, the of Ibn Abi Shaybah, the of Ma'mar ibn Rashid and most other classical hadith collections, including versions attributed to Abu Hurairah and Abdullah ibn Masud.

First cluster of narrations

The most prevalent cluster of narrations describe a dispute between Umar ibn al-Khattab and a certain Hisham ibn Hakim regarding the recitation of Surah Al-Furqan, before the former requests Muhammad to adjudicate on the matter. One such narration can be found in the of Malik ibn Anas:
Variants of the narration are included in all six of the canonical Sunni hadith collections, including Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari.

Second cluster of narrations

A second cluster of narrations describes how the ahruf encompass the substitution of words in more detail, including a hadith in the of Abd al-Razzaq citing Ubayy ibn Ka'b:
Variants of the narration are included in the of Ahmad ibn Hanbal and the of Abu Dawud, with Ibn Hanbal's recension including the addition of .

Third cluster of narrations

A third cluster of narrations, citing Ibn Abbas and included in Sahih Muslim, describe Muhammad relating how he asked Gabriel to recite in an increasing number of before the latter stopped him at seven.

Differences

The exact meaning and nature of the seven ahruf has been debated by Muslim scholars. The 9th-century hadith specialist Ibn Hibban, thought there were up to forty explanations for the traditions.
The majority of explanations identify the seven with Arabic dialects, although a minority identifies them as categories of Quranic material. Muslim scholars also disagreed on whether the number seven was to be interpreted literally or metaphorically.

Why there are differences between the

Different dialects

According to Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi:
were banned about 1400 years ago, according to Islamic literature, when Uthman destroyed all but the official copies of the Quran, so the variants cannot be compared today. According to the explanations given by many sources, the differences reflect the differences in tribal dialects of the era and region, or at least "subtleties of pronunciations and accents".
Several Muslim scholars identified the seven with Arabic dialects. Ibn al-Jazari mentions Abu Ubaid al-Qasim bin Salam as believing the ahruf referred to the dialects spoken by seven Arab tribes, including Quraysh and Banu Tamim. Bismika Allahuma website also states that at least according to one scholarly opinion there were seven because there were seven Arab tribes – Quraysh, Hudhayl, Tameem, Hawaazin, Thaqeef, Kinaanah and Yemen -- each with their own dialect at the time the Quran was revealed. "Thus, under this opinion, various verses would be pronounced according to the pronunciation of that particular tribe, and words from one dialect would be replaced by other words used by that particular tribe."
Other views, according to al-Jazari, include the ahruf referring to seven dialects found in the Quran – a position held by Ahmad al-Harrani – or every Arabic dialect. Al-Jazari criticises these stances on the grounds that Umar and Hisham, who dispute over the recitation of Surah al-Furqan in some ahruf traditions, both hailed from the same tribe, Quraysh.
The Australian Islamic da‘wah media network OnePath Network states that hundreds of companions of the Prophet "memorised the complete Quran in seven official dialects, all of which were considered valid ways of reciting the Quran", the seven dialects being the seven ahruf.
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 and not with the text itself which was transmitted and preserved in a culture with a strong oral tradition."
;Linguistic variation
In the view of Ibn al-Jazari, the seven ahruf refer to seven types of linguistic variation. These range from changes in short vowels that do not change the Uthmanic rasm or meaning of a verse, to differences in both and word order. Similar views were held by Ibn Qutaybah, al-Zarkashi and Abu al-Fadl al-Razi.

Other explanations for Ahruf and elements of it

;Categories of Quranic content
According to Ibn al-Jazari, a group of scholars identified the ahruf with seven categories of Quranic content – such as stories, prayers and parables – or legal judgements, such as haram, halal, mutashbih, etc. Proponents of the second view adduce a hadith narrated by al-Tabarani attributed to Abdullah ibn Masud, describing the Quran as being sent down from seven gates of heaven according to seven ahruf, before listing seven types of legal judgement. Al-Jazari comments that ahruf, as defined in this tradition, may be referring to a separate concept since it is mentioned elsewhere in the context of Quranic recitation. He alternatively proposes that the legal judgements refer to the seven heavenly gates, not the ahruf.
;Diversity
Khan and Khatib argue ahruf are "multiple diverse equally valid alternate readings" for diverse audiences, quoting from Jami' al-Tirmidhi where Muhammad appeals to the angel Jibril: “‘O Jibrīl! I have been sent to an illiterate nation among whom are the elderly woman, the old man, the boy and the girl, and the man who cannot read a book at all.’ He said: ‘O Muḥammad! Indeed the Qur’an was revealed in seven aḥruf.’”
;Meaning of seven
A group of Muslim scholars argued that seven should be interpreted metaphorically, due to the tendency of Arabs to use numbers such as 7, 70 and 700 to denote large quantities. In their view, the ahruf were intended to permit the recitation of the Quran in any Arabic dialect or a multiplicity of variants. Ibn al-Jazari objects on the basis of the hadith which describes Gabriel granting Muhammad ḥarfs. In one of its recensions, Muhammad is quoted as saying "I knew that the number had come to an end." when seven ḥarfs had been reached. According to al-Jazari, this is evidence that seven is a specific value. However, Dutton maintains that it can still be interpreted metaphorically, as the number seven indicates limited multiplicity in a manner that others do not.

What happened to the ''ahruf''

According to Bilal Philips the downfall of ahruf came from "a rivalry" of "some Arab tribes" over which ahruf was superior, and that in the end only the harf of the Quraysh tribe remained.
Bilal Philips writes that the Quran continued to be read according to the seven ahruf until midway through Caliph 'Uthman's rule when some confusion arose in the outlying provinces concerning the Quran's recitation. Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley talks not of different tribes but of different regions of the new empire following different 'ahruf' of different prominent companions of the prophet : "the Syrians followed Ubayy ibn Ka'b, the Kufans followed Abdullah ibn Masud, the people of Hims followed Miqdad ibn Aswad, and the people of Basra followed Abu Musa." Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman reportedly observing these regional differences and on returning to Madina told Uthman, "Take this umma in hand before they differ about the Book like the Christians and Jews."
Philips writes that some Arab tribes had begun to boast about the superiority of their ahruf and a rivalry began to develop. At the same time, some new Muslims also began mixing the various forms of recitation out of ignorance.
The "official copies" of the Quran Caliph 'Uthman decided to make were according to the writing conventions of the Quraysh tribe, Philips writes. Uthman sent them along with the Quranic reciters to the major centres of Islam. This decision was approved by Companions of the Prophet and all unofficial copies of the Quran were destroyed so that the Quran began to be read in only one harf. Thus, the Quran which is available throughout the world today is written and recited only according to the harf of Quraysh.
;Do they still exist anywhere?
According to at least one source parts of ahruf can still be found in some works of tafsīr.

Comparison to Qira'at

The identification of the seven ahruf with the qira’at -- the seven readings of the Quran -- has been rejected by Muslim and Western scholars. Medieval Quranic scholar Ibn al-Jazari mentioned the rejection of the notion as a point of agreement among subject specialists, while Christopher Melchert stated that it is both "contrary to reason" and "unsupported by the Islamic tradition". Others who opposed this view include al-Qurtubi and al-Suyuti, with the latter citing six other scholarly authorities against the view.
According to Ahmad 'Ali al Imam, Ibn al-Jazari described three general explanations for what happened to the Ahruf.
  1. One group of scholars, exemplified by Ibn Hazm, held that Uthman preserved all seven ahruf.
  2. Another group, exemplified by Al-Tabari, held that Uthman preserved only one of the seven, unifying the ummah under it.
  3. 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.
;Bilal Philips
Bilal Philips writes that "after the seven ahruf were reduced to one", under the direction of Caliph 'Uthman, all of the methods of recitation were based on this mode. But despite all being subsets of just one of the seven aḥruf, all these Qira'at variants can also be traced back to Muhammad. Bilal Philips writes that
A Qirâ'ât is for the most part a method of pronunciation used in the recitations of the Qur'an. These methods are different from the seven forms or modes in which the Qur'an was revealed. The seven modes were reduced to one, that of the Quraysh, during the era of Caliph 'Uthman, and all of the methods of recitation are based on this mode. The various methods have all been traced back to the Prophet through a number of Sahaabah who were most noted for their Qur'anic recitations. That is, these Sahaabah recited the Qur'an to the Prophet or in his presence and received his approval. Among them were the following: Ubayy Ibn K'ab, 'Alee Ibn Abi Taalib, Zayd Ibn Thaabit, 'Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud, Abu ad-Dardaa and Abu Musaa al-Ash'aree. Many of the other Sahaabah learned from these masters.

Thus the Qirâ'ât are based on the single harf that was selected during the era of Caliph Uthman, and these Qirā’āt were approved by Muhammad.
On transmission of Quran, Philips writes that among the next generation of Muslims, there arose many scholars who learned the various methods of recitation from the Sahaabah and taught them to others. Centres of Quranic recitation developed in Medina, Mecca, Kufa, Basra and Syria, leading to the evolution of Quranic recitation into an independent science. By the mid-eighth century CE, there existed many outstanding scholars considered specialists in the field of recitation. Most of their methods of recitations were authenticated by chains of reliable narrators ending with the Prophet.
;Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley
In writing about "The Seven Qira'at of the Quran", Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley suggests some of the diversity of the ahruf lived on in the Qira'at. The "official" Uthmanic mus'haf to "unite the Muslims on a single copy" of the Quran thinned out variation, but because it contained only rasm or a "skeleton" of the Arabic with "no diacritical marks", it still allowed for diversity of oral transmission.
The Qurayshi dialect was favoured in this and this eliminated much of the diversity, but some of it was still reflected in the different readings because it was essentially a business of oral transmission and there were no diacritical marks in the 'Uthmanic script. People recited the Qur'an as they had read it from their teacher and they in turn passed on this oral transmission.

;Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan
Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan also write that "the famous ten qirāʾāt studied today represent only a limited assortment of the variations that existed prior to the ʿUthmānic codex" which is now narrowing down to ahruf that can fit the rasm of ʿUthmānic's codex.
According to Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan the "vast majority of specialists in Qur’anic sciences" agree with their argument on aḥruf and Qiraat that difference among aḥruf are manifested "in the following ways":
  • Singularity, duality, plurality, masculinity, and femininity.
  • Taṣrīf al-Afʿāl —verb tense, form, grammatical person.
  • Iʿrāb.
  • Omission, substitution, or addition of words.
  • Word order.
  • Ibdāl.
.