1. We do have a few documented reports in the Islamic tradition about the companions seemingly criticizing or denying a Qur’anic reading.
These reports (assuming they're authentic) *are easily* understood to be based on what they were familiar with from the diverse
readings of the Qurʾān.
The companions might reject a reading simply because they're not familiar with it...
These disagreements occurred during the life time of the Prophet PBUH as well.
2. In the tradition of teaching the Qur'an since the time of the Prophet, there is a well established statement that a person must recite precisely according to the way they were taught.
3. Ibn Jarir and other scholars addressed this particular example.
Some scholars rejected this narration.
See Abu Hayyan:
Ibn Jarir reported a narration indicating that the scribe wrote it down exactly as he was told:
He also said that it's written
والمقيمين
In 'Ubayy's mushaf... Al-Farra' attributed this reading to Ubayy as well.
He said this can't be wrong!
As for,
إن هذان
I addressed this issue before but I can't seem to find the thread.
This can be easily explained as well from grammatical point of view.
The most reasonable explanation is the following:
It's a lughah (Arabic dialect):
شرح شذور الذهب
Those who say that this is a "grammatical error", they need to prove that the Arabs did not speak according to this dialect. In other words, this dialect didn't exist in the Arabic language.
Both readings are valid and grammatically correct.
Ibn abi Dawud:
4. Abu 'amr himself said that if he had the choice of reading in a way other than what was already transmitted/read, he would've read according to his own preference...
Source:
سير أعلام النبلاء، الذهبي
5. Arabic scholars might reject a reading because it doesn't agree with the Arabic grammar they're familiar with.
Others might accept it...different grammatical doctrines.
I really wish I have the time to explain this in more details.
These texts from scholars regarding the criticism of some readings should be understood in their historical context.
Did the readers always, in principle, follow their regional codices?
Answer: (it's a screenshot of a book I'm still working on)
The scholars of Qir'aat/Rasm made it very clear that occasionally the readers/Qurra' don't follow the regional rasm...
Ibn Al-Jazari also stated that this is fine since it's based on riwayah:
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1. It seems like many non-specialist Muslims believe that these Mushafs were the actual 'Uthmanic Mushafs…this can be corrected gently and I think Marijn did an excellent job of commenting on that part.
I also encourage people to follow two giant Muslim scholars of Quranic Manuscripts:
Dr. Ghanim Al-hamad & Dr. Bashir Al-Himyari and also read the books of Dr. M M Al-A’zami.
2. Regarding the illiteracy of the Prophet (PBUH), we actually have a minority of scholars in the Islamic tradition who believe that the Prophet learned reading & writing after he received revelation. Ibn Hajar has a good discussion on this topic in Fath Al-Bari:
1. The Qur'an was revealed in stages:
"˹It is˺ a Quran We have revealed in stages so that you can recite it to people at intervals; We have sent it down little by little".
Qur'an: 17:106
The history of writing the Qur'an in a few lines (according to the Islamic tradition):
1. The entire Qur'an was written down during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad. However, these writings were unbound and scattered.
2. Those scattered writings were then collected into a master volume called ṣuḥuf during Abu Bakr's caliphate.
3. Making copies of the ṣuḥuf
and make people adhere to one unified text (the 'Uthmanic Mushafs).
This final stage took place during the Caliphate of Uthman.
Note:
In stage 1 & 2, there were no restrictions in reading the Qur'an. Muslims read the Qur'an according to their dialects & the way they were taught.
However, in stage 3, Muslims had to adhere to the 'Uthmanic text (the 'Uthmanic Mushafs).
I have been receiving questions about this.
I personally don't agree with this conclusion. Classical scholars are of the opinion that these differences were intended. Thus, they cannot be called "scribal errors".
It is true that we see scribal errors in Qur'anic manuscripts all the time. However, we are not talking about some random Qur'anic manuscripts. The 'Uthmanic Mushafs were the official copies of the government. This project was led by the third Khalifah himself.
I'm assuming calling these differences " scribal errors" means that it was not intended in the first place, but not that it is an invalid reading.
I was asked by @rashrashii to comment on this thread.
The main topic I will be commenting on is whether or not Ibn Al-Jazari was of the view that Tawatur is a must condition for Qira'at to be accepted.
The statements of Ibn Al-Jazari in his book Munjid Al-muqr'in can be contradictory.
Why? let's examine some of his statements in this book which he wrote in his early youth.
In this statement, Ibn Al-Jazari talks about the three conditions for a reading to be accepted as a Mutawatir reading. He clearly stated Tawatur as one of the 3 conditions.
1. We have reports about the companions seemingly criticizing or denying a Qur’anic reading.
The Sahabah were always strict in accepting a reading if they were not familiar with it.
They were so cautious and a dispute occurred when they suspected a variation in reading that was not taught or approved by the Prophet PBUH.