The Qur'an and Its Study. Adnan Zarzour

‘To say that such a reading is better than such another almost amounts to unbelief.’ Second, it sought to exclude everything that did not show an absolute identity with the original, so as to ‘ward off’ any possible serious rift between Muslims, or any eventual alteration of the text by the insertion of certain variants. These may have been the subject of discussion, or the various explanations of individuals, who might have added them in good faith to their copies.¹¹⁷

      Abu Bakr, ‘Uthmān and their Work

      When we compare what ‘Uthmān did to the work undertaken by Abū Bakr, we may say that ‘Uthmān did not aim at preserving the Qur’an so that nothing of it would be lost. His main concern was to ensure its correct reading, making clear what reading variants were acceptable, and what pronunciation of certain words was acceptable. In other words, this work focused on features of the Qur’an, not its content.¹¹⁸ Hence, he ordered the making of several copies of the master copy, and ensured that these copies were available in all provinces of the Muslim world. They would, thus, be the reference work to determine what readings are acceptable and what are not.

      The first collation under Abū Bakr followed the battles against the apostates which ensured the consolidation of the principles of Islam and the structure of the Muslim nation and society. The copying under ‘Uthmān was parallel to the wars of liberation and expansion, as clearly indicated in the Hadith concerning Ḥudhayfah. This leads us to the discussion of the rule established by ‘Uthmān in his collation and copying of the Qur’an, and the features of the copies he made.

4. ‘Uthmān’s Rule on the Copies of the Qur’an. Features of the ‘Uthmāni Standard Copies

      4.1 These copies were written according to the Qurayshi pronunciation, because the Qur’an was revealed ‘in their tongue’.¹¹⁹ This is the reason why a word like tābūt retained its ‘t’ sound at the end, while the people of Madinah pronounced it with a final ‘h’ sound. Al-Bukhārī and al-Tirmidhī quote Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī: ‘They [the committee appointed by ‘Uthmān] differed regarding the word tābūt. Zayd said tābūh while ‘Abdullāh ibn al-Zubayr and Sa‘īd ibn al-‘Āṣ said tābūt. They referred the matter to ‘Uthmān and he instructed them to write it tābūt as it was the Quraysh pronunciation.’ Ibn ‘Aṭiyyah said: ‘Zayd’s read it with a final “h”, while the three from the Quraysh read it with a final “t”, and it was then written with “t”.’¹²⁰ They also referred to ‘Uthmān regarding God’s words ‘lam yatasannā’, and he instructed them to add a final ‘h’.¹²¹

      4.2 The ‘Uthmāni copies were confined to the Qur’anic text only, leaving out whatever was not in the Qur’an, such as the explanations some of the Prophet’s Companions wrote for themselves in their own collections. Ibn Mas‘ūd, for example, added the phrase ‘during the pilgrimage season’ after the sentence: ‘It is no sin for you to seek the bounty of your Lord’¹²² (2: 198). Other Companions read the statement, ‘behind them there was a king who was taking every boat by force’¹²³ (18: 79), adding the adjective ṣāliḥah, which means ‘in good condition’, to qualify ‘the boat’. Such additions were clearly explanatory. Other additions referred to the practical case or scenario that led to a particular revelation. Since these Companions were writing for themselves, they felt there was no harm in writing some explanation next to a text. They were, however, fully aware of the exact text they learnt from the Prophet (peace be upon him), and there was no confusion for them between the two.

      4.3 The ‘Uthmānī copies did not add dots or short vowels. It is well known that in Arabic the sounds ‘b, y, n, t, th’ are written in exactly the same shape when they occur in the middle of a word. Distinction between them is made by adding one, two or three dots above or under each. Writing without dots allowed different ways of pronunciation, since the Qur’an was revealed in seven different pronunciations. Thus, ‘Uthmān did not discard any of the variant recitals that could be accommodated in the written form. Nor did he stop anyone from reading the Qur’an in any method of pronunciation that was received from the Prophet (peace be upon him) by tawātur [i.e. multiple reporting]. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: ‘Whichever pronunciation you use is right. Therefore, do not dispute among yourselves.’ We will discuss this in detail in Chapter 9.

      i.If a word accepted more than one way of reading, and writing it without dots or short vowels accommodated these readings, it was written in all copies in the same way. An example is the verse that says: ‘Believers! If any evildoer comes to you with a piece of news, make sure of it first’ (49: 6). The Arabic equivalent of ‘make sure of it first’ is the single word fatabayyanū. Another reading of the verse uses the word fatathabbatū instead. The two Arabic words are synonymous, and when they are written without dots and short vowels, they are written in the same way. Both readings have been authentically transmitted. Hence, the word is written to allow both readings.¹²⁴ Another word is nunshizuhā, meaning ‘how We put them up’ in Verse 259 of Surah 2. When it is undotted and without short vowels it is exactly the same as nanshuruha, meaning ‘how We shape them’. The two words are close in meaning. Both are accepted as correct and authentically reported readings.

      It may be said that the ‘Uthmānī writing without dots and short vowels allows different readings of countless words. So, are all these accepted as correct readings? The answer is that the examples we have given of different words written in the same way are accepted as correct readings because they are authentically and indisputably reported as appropriate readings, either because the Prophet (peace be upon him) was known to have read them both, or because one of his Companions read one or the other in the Prophet’s presence and the Prophet (peace be upon him) approved his reading. Otherwise, we cannot read other than the one version that is authentic. Hence, every reading that may be accommodated by the written form but transmitted by only one or two reporters is considered ‘odd’, and as such unacceptable. An example is the sentence: ‘Of all God’s servants, it is those who are endowed with knowledge that stand truly in awe of God’ (35: 28). Arabic gives a case marker to nouns so as to distinguish subject, object etc. These markers are represented by short vowels. A reading that reverses the case markers of the nouns Allah and al-‘ulamā’ (which mean God and those... endowed with knowledge, respectively) can be accommodated by the written form, but it is unacceptable. The correct reading gives God the objective case marker and the people with knowledge the subjective one as they are the ones who stand in awe of God.

      ii.When a Qur’anic word varied in the authentic and reliable readings and could not be written in a single way that accommodated these readings, it was written one way in some copies and the other way in the other copies. One example is shown in the verse that starts: ‘Abraham enjoined the same on his children, and so did Jacob...’¹²⁵ (2: 132). The Arabic equivalent of enjoined is given as waṣṣā and awṣā, both of which are derived from the same root and have the same meaning, but they are variants that cannot be combined in a single way of writing. Hence, scribes wrote it differently in different copies. Needless to say, they did not write the two versions in the same copy, not even as a footnote or in the margin, because that might have implied that one way was better or more authentic than the other.

      iii.The ‘Uthmānī copies that were written in this way became the reference work for all reciters in the provinces to which ‘Uthmān sent them. This is what caused the main Qur’anic recitation scholars to make the choices they did from the pronunciation variants. In other words, they were committed to sticking to the writing in the copy belonging to their own province. Al-Qurṭubī said: ‘‘Uthmān sent reference copies to Iraq, Syria and Egypt, and the scholars in these provinces used them as their ultimate reference. None of them read in any way that differed with the copy of his province. The differences between these seven main reciters, consisting of adding or omitting certain letters, are due only to the fact that each of them relied on the reference copy of his province and authentically reported the same. ‘Uthmān wrote these words differently in different copies to point out that all these differences were acceptable and reading any of them is perfectly correct.’¹²⁶ It should be noted that this does not mean that there were seven copies to give seven variant recitals. A word may be pronounced in two or three different ways, and in most cases,