Why do we still write the word" ʿamr " with wāw at the end?
عَمْرو
Arabic scholars stated that the reason the wāw was added is to differentiate between the two words ʿamr and Omar.
See Adab Al-Katib by Ibn Qutaybah; Al-Jumal by Az-Zajjaji; Adab Al-Kuttab by As-Suli
However, Ibn Durustawayh was skeptical about this reasoning. He said that if we were to add the wāw to differentiate between similar words in orthography, the wāw will be present in many words.
I find it interesting that some poets used the waw in ʿamr in Arabic satirical poetry. For example,
أبو نواس
was satirising a man claiming to be from the tribe of Sulaym :
إنما أنت من سليم كواوٍ
أُلحِقَتْ في الهجاء ظلمًا بعمرو
Many researchers didn't agree with the theory of the Arabic scholars and pointed out that the waw in ‘Amr we still see today came from Nabataean Arabic...see for example Rasm al-Mushaf by Dr. Ghanim Al-Hamad.
We even have Arabic inscriptions from the early Islamic period that contain names with waw at the end.
In PERF 558 (dates back to 22 AH), we have
ابن حديدو
We see this phenomenon in early inscriptions in other names as well such as:
عديو
كعبو
قيسو
etc
Should we still write 'amr with waw at the end?
I personally think that the waw in 'amr should be eliminated =
عَمر
A simple fathah above the 'ayn should be enough.
There is no need for the waw...
We have some early Arabic scholars that suggested the elimination of the waw.
For example see Al-Mubarrad:
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
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.