Since that is so, the people, by abandoning the transmission of all seven recitations, were not abandoning what was obligatory upon them to transmit; rather, what was obligatory upon them to do was precisely what they did. For what they did in that regard was out of consideration for Islam and its people. Performing what was obligatory upon them was more proper for them than doing that which, had they done it, would have brought them closer to committing an offense against Islam and its people than to safety from it (1).
As for the variation in recitation involving the nominative case (rafʿ), genitive case (jarr), accusative case (naṣb), unvoweled consonant (taskīn), voweled consonant (taḥrīk), or substituting one letter for another while maintaining the same written form, this is entirely apart from the meaning of the statement of the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him: "I was commanded to recite the Qurʾān in seven modes" (2). For it is well known that no letter among the letters of the Qurʾān—among those whose recitation varies in this manner—causes disputation over it to constitute disbelief on the part of the disputant according to any of the scholars of the nation. Yet he, peace and blessings of God be upon him, made disputation concerning it disbelief in the sense in which the disputants argued before him, and as the narrations from him abundantly demonstrate (3), just as we have previously mentioned at the beginning of this chapter (4).
If a questioner should say to us: "Do you have knowledge of the seven dialects in which the Qurʾān was revealed? And which dialects are they among the dialects of the Arabs?"
Notes
- (1) His statement, "from that", meaning from the offense against Islam.
- (2) Meaning, "so he is far removed from the meaning of the statement of the Prophet Peace and blessings of God be upon him...".
- (3) His statement, "and supported one another", it is unpointed in the manuscript and can barely be read in a satisfactory manner.
- (4) Ibn Ḥajar quoted in al-Fatḥ (9: 27) from Imam al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Shāma, who said: "Some people thought that the seven recitations present today are what was intended in the hadith, which is contrary to the Consensus of the scholars altogether; only some ignorant people think that." Ibn ʿAmmār also said: "The one who designated these seven did what he ought not to have done, and confused the general public by making everyone with little insight imagine that these recitations are the ones mentioned in the report. Would that when he restricted himself he had subtracted from the seven or added to them to remove the doubt!" Imam Ibn al-Jazarī said in al-Nashr (1: 33): "The first authoritative Imam who collected the recitations in a book was Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, and he made them, I think, twenty-five reciters along with these seven, and he died in the year 224 AH..." Then he said on p. 34: "Following in his footsteps was Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Mujāhid, the first to restrict himself to the recitations of these seven alone, and he died in the year 324 AH." Then he said on p. 35: "We have only elaborated in this chapter because of what reached us regarding some who have no knowledge, that the authentic recitations are only those from these seven, and that the seven modes referred to by the Prophet Peace and blessings of God be upon him are the recitations of these seven. Rather, it has prevailed upon many of the ignorant that the authentic recitations are only those in al-Shāṭibiyya and al-Taysīr..."
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