القراءات السبع متواترة عند الجمهور وقيل مشهورة [.....] والتحقيق أنها متواترة عن الأئمة السبعة أمَّا تواترها عن النبى صلى الله عليه وسلم ففيه نظر فإنّ إسنَاد الأئمة السبعة بهذه القراءات موجود في كتب القراءات وهي نقل الواحد عن الواحد لم تكمل شروط التواتر في استواء الطرفين والواسطة : وهذا شىء موجود فى كتبهم
The opinion of the majority is that these seven readings are mutawatir. However, one opinion is that they are mashhur3…. The truth in this regard is that they are mutawatir from these seven [qurr’a]. As far as their tawatur from the Prophet (sws) is concerned, this is debatable. For the chains of narrators of these seven are found in the books of qira’at. These chains are transmission from a single person to another and do not fulfill the condition of tawatur neither from the first narrator to the last nor in between.4
(ii) Not only are these readings isolate reports (ahad), but also many of the narrators of these readings are not regarded as trustworthy by the scholars of ‘ilm al-rijal as far as accepting Ahadithfrom them is concerned. As an example, this is what is written about Hafs Ibn Sulayman, perhaps the most famous and most widely acclaimed of all the disciples of the major qurra’:
‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Abi Hatim says that he is matruk al-hadith. Nasa’i says that he is not trustworthy. In the opinion of Yahya Ibn Ma‘in as quoted by Abu Qudamah Sarakhsi and ‘Uthman Ibn Sa‘id al-Darimi he is not trustworthy. ‘Ali Ibn al-Madini says: he is weak in matters of Hadith and I have forsaken him voluntarily. Abu Zur‘ah also says that he is weak in matters of Hadith … S~alih Ibn Muhammad al-Baghdadi says that the Ahadithnarrated by him are not worth writing and all of them mention unfamiliar things in religion. Zakariyya Ibn Yahya al-Saji narrates from Simmak and ‘Alqamah Ibn Marthad and Qays Ibn Muslim that his Ahadithare not reliable. ‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Abi Hatim says that he asked his father about Hafs. His father said that his Ahadithare not even worth writing. He is weak in matters of Hadith, cannot be attested to and his Ahadithare not acceptable. ‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Yusuf says that he is a great liar, worthy of being forsaken and forges Ahadith.5
It seems quite strange that a person so widely regarded as unreliable (even called a liar) in accepting Hadith from be regarded as a very dependable person as far the Qur’an is concerned.
(iii) The only complete reading of the Qur’an which is in vogue from the time of the Prophet (sws) is the qir‘at al-‘ammah (the universal reading) – the very reading read out to the Prophet (sws) once the revelation of the Qur’an had been completed. It was this very reading which existed among the companions of the Prophet (sws). Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Sulami (d. 105 AH)6 narrates:
قال أبو عبد الر حمن السلميّ : كانت قراءة أبى بكر وَعمر و عثمان و زيد بن ثابت و المهاجرين وَالأنصار وَاحدة كانوا يقرءون القراءة العامة وَهى القراءة التى قرأها رسول لله صلي الله عليه وسلم على جبريل مرتين في العام الذى قبض فيه وكان زيد قد شهد العرْضَة الأخيرة وَكان يقرئ الناس بها حتى مات.
The reading of AbuBakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and Zayd Ibn Thabit and that of all the Muhajirun and the Ansar was one. They would read the Qur’an according to the qira’at al-‘ammah. This is the same reading which was read out to the Prophet (sws) in the year of his death by Gabriel. Zayd Ibn Thabit was also present in this reading [called] the ‘ardah akhirah7 and it was this very reading that he taught the Qur’an to people till his death.8
As far as certain countries are concerned where the Qur’an is practically read on a different reading,9 these readings are bound to have been enforced in them in a certain period of time much later to the departure of the Prophet (sws). Thus, for example, it is historically known that the reading of Nafi‘ was officially promulgated in the third century hijrah in North Africa after the rise of Malikite fiqh in this area.10
It is clear from this analysis that these extant readings which are found in books of tafsir and read and taught in religious schools can in no way be accepted. Whether they originated from insistence by some to cling to the first recital of the Qur’an, or were mere explanations of the actual verses written down by the companions in their own codices or were concocted to disparage the Qur’an is a mystery which perhaps may never be solved. However, this much is certain that they have nothing to do with the text of the Qur’an.
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