The Qur'an and Its Study. Adnan Zarzour

Tārīkh al-Qur’an, p. 46; al-Zarkashī, Al-Burhān, vol. 1, p. 240; Muqaddimatān fī ‘Ulūm al-Qur’an, p. 46; al-Qurṭubī, Tafsīr, vol. 1, p. 53; al-Zurqānī, Manāhil al-‘Irfān, vol. 1, p. 155. For the full version of the first report by Suwayd, its verification and discussion of the other reports, see, Ibn Abī Dāwūd, Al-Maṣāḥif, vol. 1, pp. 213–214. Also, Ibn Kathīr, Al-Bidāyah wal-Nihāyah, vol. 7, p. 218.

      147.Ibn Abī Dāwūd, ibid, vol. 1, p. 186.

      148.Ibid, vol. 1, pp. 216–217.

      149.‘Uthmān’s martyrdom took place when he was assassinated on 18 Dhūl-Ḥijjah 35 AH/656 CE, and ‘Alī was chosen as Caliph seven days later. He was also a martyr, assassinated by ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Muljim of the Khawārij on 17 Ramadan 40 AH/660 CE.

      150.The appendix to the copies of the Qur’an printed in Saudi Arabia under the title Muṣḥaf al-Madīnah al-Nabawiyyah written by the committee in charge of its publication states: ‘In numbering the verses of the Qur’an, we have followed the system of the Kufis, as taught by Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ‘Abdullāh ibn Ḥabīb al-Sulamī who studied under ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, as stated in al-Shāṭibī’s Nāẓimat al-Zahr, and other books that deal with verse endings. According to this system, the total number of the Qur’anic verses is 6236.’ (The Appendix, p. B). See also: al-Qurṭubī’s Tafsīr, vol. 1, p. 478. According to this system, the starting phrase of the Basmalah, i.e. ‘In the Name of God, the Lord of Grace, the Ever-Merciful’ is a verse used in every surah, except Surah 9. This is also reported to be endorsed by ‘Alī, as related by al-Dāraquṭnī, Sunan, vol. 1, p. 313, and al-Bayhaqī, Al-Sunan al-Kubrā, vol. 2, p. 45, Hadith no. 2217. Al-Suyūṭi mentions several Hadiths and reports that confirm that the Basmalah is a verse in every surah, then says: ‘All these Hadiths make it absolutely certain that the Basmalah is a verse of the Qur’an, revealed at the beginning of the Qur’anic surahs.’ Al-Itqān, vol. 1, p. 371.

      151.A. Zarzour, Al-Ḥākim al-Jushamī, p. 356.

      152.See the Introduction to Majmū‘ Kutub wa Rasā’il al-Imām al-Qāsim al-Rassī, vol. 1, pp. 136–137. In the Arabic text, the word ‘fight’ is qātilū while ‘kill’ is uqtulū. As Arabic is written without diacritics, the difference in writing is the letter corresponding to ‘a’ which follows the letter ‘q’ in ‘fight’, but precedes it in ‘kill’. The reference to the last two surahs is a confirmation by Imām al-Rassī that these two surahs are part of the Qur’an. This refutes the claims in some Imamite Shia writings that they are not part of the Qur’an.

      153.See: the sixth introduction of Al-Taḥrīr wal-Tanwīr by Ibn ‘Āshūr, vol. 1, p. 52.

      154.In the early period of Islam some teachers of the Qur’an had different ways of numbering the verses in each surah, putting two verses as one in several places. As such, the difference in numbers did not mean a difference in the text. The number of verses was finally settled in accordance with what al-Sulami taught. The difference in numbers did not mean a difference in the text.

      155.Ibn Abī Maryam, ‘Alī-Kitāb al-Muwaḍḍaḥ, vol. 1, p. 118; Al-Dhahabī, Ma‘rifat al-Qurrā’ al-Kibār ‘alā al-Ṭabaqāt wal-A‘ṣār, vol. 1, p. 15; Ibn Kathīr, Al-Bidāyah wal-Nihāyah, vol. 9, p. 7; Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāyat al-Nihāyah fī Ṭabaqāt al-Qurrā’, vol. 1, p. 546; Ghānim Q. Al-Ḥamd, Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī wa Juhūduh fī al-Iqrā’ wa Ta‘līm al-Qur’an, a paper presented to the First Conference on the Qur’an, Amman, 1427 AH, 2006.

      156.Al-Qurṭubī, Tafsīr, vol. 1, p. 84. We may add that such people attribute a falsehood to God on the one hand and fabricate a lie against Him by their distortion of His Book on the other. Perpetrating such falsehood proves that all their reports are clearly suspect.

      157.Miftāḥ al-Sa‘ādah, vol. 2, p. 229.

      158.Al-Zarkashī, Al-Burhān, vol. 1, p. 280; Al-Suyūṭī, Al-Itqān, vol. 2, pp. 471–480; Al-Zurqānī, Manāhil al-‘Irfān, vol. 1, p. 362.

      159.Quoted by al-Dānī in Al-Muqni‘. He adds: ‘None of the scholars of the Muslim community disagrees.’ Al-Suyūṭī, Al-Itqān, vol. 2, p. 470.

      160.Ibid. The Fatwa Committee at al-Azhar also gives the same ruling. See: Al-Qur’an al-Karīm wa Atharuh fī al-Dirāsat al-Naḥawiyyah, p. 17.

      161.Scholars give other interpretations for cases of difference, but we take Ibn Khaldūn’s view that these are all arbitrary and unnecessary (Al-Muqaddimah, p. 378). In my view, however, these were ways of writing these words that were acceptable to the Quraysh. Hence, when ‘Uthmān saw that the committee added the ‘a’ in the two mentioned words, he said: ‘Had the scribe belonged to the Thaqif and the one dictating belonged to the Hudhayl, none of these added letters would have appeared.” The writers asked him whether they should revise the written form. He said: “Leave it as written. The Arabs will pronounce it all correctly.’ His answer meant that what was memorised would be pronounced without the added letters. Hafni Naseef said: ‘The Thaqif were the best writers in Hijaz, while the Hudhayl were the most eloquent’ (M. Al-Ghazālī, ‘Ilal wa Adwiyah, p. 127).

      162.The Umayyads accomplished another great task. According to the distinguished scholar Muhammad Kurd ‘Alī, it was Abū Sufyān and his father Ḥarb (the father and grandfather of Mu’awiyah, the first Umayyad Caliph) who imported writing into the Arabian Peninsula, having seen it used in al-Ḥīrah in Iraq. He describes their work as ‘a great favour they did the Arabs that should never be forgotten’. See Kurd ‘Alī, Dimashq: Madīnat al-Siḥr wal-Shi‘r, p. 15.

      163.Ibn Aṭiyyah, Al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, vol. 1, p. 54.

      164.Ibid, vol. 1, pp. 55–56.

      165.Al-Nawawī, Al-Tibyān fī Ādāb Ḥamalat al-Qur’an, p. 162.

      166.The Qur’an is made into thirty juz’ based on the Prophet’s order to ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr: ‘Read the Qur’an once a month’ (related by Al-Bukhārī, Hadith no. 5045; Muslim, Hadith no. 1159). Each juz’ comprises twenty pages of fifteen lines each, in most copies in circulation today. Each ḥizb is divided into four quarters, to help spacing its memorisation. The markers denoting ten verses is to indicate the length of passage to recite in prayers.

      167.Al-Nawawī, , Al-Tibyān, p. 163.

      168.Ṭāhir Makkī, Dirāsah fī Maṣādir al-Adab, p. 54.

      169.The muṣḥaf written by ‘Alī ibn Shādhān al-Kūfī in 361 AH/972 CE represents this period of change.

      170.Ṭ. Makkī, Dirāsah fī Maṣādir Al-Adab, p. 52.

      171.We may draw a comparison here between ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Alī’s calligraphy and the recitation of Shaykh Muhammad Rifa‘at in that both give their art beauty, brilliance and spirituality, as well as a touch of interpretation, even though their scopes are widely different.

      172.Ṭ. Makkī, Dirāsah, p. 54.

      173.Makkī, ibid, p. 73, quoting Montero vills, Jose’ de: Mahoma, Su vida, vol. 11, p. 345, 1926.

      174.The care taken by King Fuad of the printing of the Qur’an under al-Azhar’s supervision was the first of his measures that aimed to make him closer to the Egyptian people and to al-Azhar in particular. As the most famous Islamic institution, al-Azhar enjoyed great social and political influence. It led the uprising against British imperialism in Egypt, which led to the Declaration of February 1922 in which Britain recognised Egypt as an independent sovereign state. Its ruler became a King, and the Egyptian monarchy was established shortly after this Declaration. Prior to that, it was an Ottoman governorate.

      175.It appears that the calligrapher ‘Uthmān Ṭaha, from Damascus, Syria, who wrote the Academy’s muṣḥaf, known as Muṣḥaf al-Madīnah al-Nabawiyyah, has written more than a dozen complete copies, but in none did he use a reed pen, while the Ottoman calligrapher ‘Uthmān, who wrote many