Prolegomena Lesson 9 CHAPTER 4 & 5: Insight about the Readers of Holy Qur'an The Readers Conclusion on the Readings Conclusion

Insight about the Readers of the Holy Qur'an There has been a big debate and argument on the 7 readers or recitations of the Holy Qur'an. Whether they are proven by tawatur, or solitary hadeeth, whether they are 7 or 10 or more or less, and why to fix the number! The followers of Ahlul-Bayt a.s support the opinion which say that these readings are not Mutawatir, and it is not even a narration, but a conclusion or Ijtihad or they are the famous readers of the Qur'an. Some of the scholars from the School of Companions supported it.

To understand these issues, we have to mention two points: 1.Muslims agree unanimously that the Qur'an is proven by Tawatur. 2.The readers are solitary narrators, and they claimed that their reading was the actual way the Qur'an was read by the Prophet (s). So we have to look into each and every single narrator, and put them in the process of investigation of their character, which would later reflect the authenticity of their narrations and by this, the authenticity of their readings will be revealed.

TAWATOR and not AHAAD The Qur'an is narrated by Tawatur, and whatever is related to Qur'an and narrated by solitary hadeeth creates a possibility of it being related to Qur'an. And since the Readings are based on solitary narrations, then we can just have a possibility of one of them being the proper way of recitation. It is like when a great king enters a crowded city, and only one person announces it. That does not make any sense, because what happens is many people know his entrance to city, usually many people know it.

The Readers: 1.Abd Allah bin Amir al-Dimishqi 2.Ibn Kathir al-Makki 3.Asim bin Bahdala al-Kufi 4.Abu Amr al-Basri 5.Hamza al-Kufi 6.Nafi’ al-Madani 7.Al-Kisa’i al-Kufi 8.Khalaf bin Hisham al-Bazzar 9.Yaqub bin Ishaq 10.Yazid bin al-Qa‘qa As it is observed that some narrators readers were authentic or trusted narrators and their recitations were approved by the Infallibles (a.s).

There are more readers!!! Why these? Other readers than these 10 are not narrated through proper link. The most popular ones are the readings of: Hafs narrated by Aasim Hamza al-Kofi took from the ones who took from Imam al-SADIQ (a.s) Hamraan Ibn A’yon, who took from Imam al- SADIQ (a.s) Al-Kisa’i al-Kufi who also took from Imam al- SADIQ (a.s) Yaqub bin Ishaq who took from those who narrated from Imam Ali (a.s) Based on this, Sayyid Al-Khu’i said it is permissible to recite in the daily prayers any readings which were well established during the lifetime of the Infallibles (a.s).

Conclusion on the Readings: 1.They are not proven by Tawatur 2.Limiting on 7 or 10 is just an opinion without proof. Why not more and why not less!!! 3.These are narrated by solitary narrators, and are subjected to the process of authentication, and after that, they create an accepted possibility and not a certain truth. 4.Some of the readers are trusted and some are not 5.Every Reader claims his Reading to be the correct, that means each one of them rejects others’ recitation. 6.Rejection of many scholars of some of these recitations shows that there is no Tawatur in them.

7.Some claimed by the consensus of scholars, that the recitations are Mutawatir, and this claim is merely false. 8.There were more than 7 ways of recitation, and were restricted to the 3rd century (A.D) 9.The Qur'an was spread by Tawatur of many companions who memorized it and taught to generation after generation, and it didn’t depend on the readers so it was transmitted through hundreds of Muslims who memorized the text or wrote the whole text and passed it over generations and generations until it reached to us. 10.The validity of the reading? Since these recitations are not proven by tawatur, then it is not a proof logically. Yes it requires extra evidences and authentications to prove that which ones are approved by the Infallibles (a.s).

Points of evaluation: So, the investigation contains several points:- 1.Whether it is a narration or Ijtihad of the reader. 2.These Readers: Are they trusted or not and what was the base of their Ijtihad? 3.In case of their conflicting recitations, at the same level and strength of conflict, both fall down and are omitted, and both become unreliable.

Conclusion Based on what was said, most of there recitations belie each other, but as mentioned previously that in the salaat, a person can rely on the recitation practiced in front of the infallibles (a.s) and which were not rejected by them (a.s). Precaution is to repeat the salaat the number of times of most authentic recitations or repeating the doubted parts “malike” or “maakili”, and for short sura, the precaution is to recite the short sura which does not have any different recitation. The Infallibles (A.S) gave permission to their followers to recite any one of the popular ways of recitation known in their time. [Recite in the way people recite; recite the way you are taught] Therefore the odd and unpopular ways of recitation, or the ones narrated by non-trusted readers should be avoided, such as Malaka is unpopular (odd) and the fabricated ones such as [“God only fears from his servants, the scholars.”]