Aisha Bewley
When reading the Qur'an, we frequently refer to Warsh or Hafs and say, "Thisis Hafs" or "This is Warsh". What we mean by that is that this is the riwayaor Warsh or the riwaya of Hafs. It is the riwaya of a particular qira'a.The qira'at or the readings, or methods of recitation, are named after theleader of a school of Qur'an reciters. Each qira'a derives its authorityfrom a prominent leader of recitation in the second or third century hijriwho in turn trace their riwaya or transmission back through the Companionsof the Prophet. For instance, in the back of a Warsh Qur'an, you are likelyto find "the riwaya of Imam Warsh from Nafi' al-Madini from Abu Ja'far Yazidibn al-Qa'qa' from 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas from Ubayy ibn Ka'b from the Messengerof Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, from Jibril, peace beupon him, from the Creator." Or in Hafs you will see "the riwaya of Hafsibn Sulayman ibn al-Mughira al-Asadi al-Kufi of the qira'a of 'Asim ibnAbi'n-Nujud al-Kufi from Abu 'Abdu'r-Rahman 'Abdullah ibn Habib as-Sulamifrom 'Uthman ibn 'Affan and 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and Zayd ibn Thabit and Ubayyibn Ka'b from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace." Theseall go back to the Prophet.
There are slight differences in these readings, for example, where one stops,as in Surat al-Baqara (1): "Dhalika'l-Kitabu la rayb" or "Dhalika'l-Kitabula rayba fih" as well as some voweling differences ("suddan" or "saddan"),and sometimes a difference in the letters due to different diacritical marks,as ya' or ta' (turja'una or yurja'una). Sometimes a word will have a shaddaor not have a shadda.
In this context, we should mentioned that the Prophet himself said that theQur'an was revealed in seven dialects (ahruf, sing harf). Harf here meansdialect, idiom, or mode of expression. Now, during the khalifate of 'Uthman,this had given rise to squabbling. For instance, the Syrians followed Ubayyibn Ka'b, the Kufans followed 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, the people of Hims followedal-Miqdad, and the people of Basra followed Abu Musa. To put an end to thesesquabbles over which was best, 'Uthman decided to unite the community behindone text.
In the time of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Zayd ibn Thabit had been charged by AbuBakr to gather together all the written parts of the Qur'an and compile acomplete text (for a large number of huffaz had been killed in the Battleof Yamama). He did this, and it is reported that he was the first to collectthe Qur'an between two covers." This copy went from Abu Bakr to 'Umar andthen to Hafsa.
'Uthman used it to make his copy which was then distributed to all partsof the Muslim umma, but it is reported that 'Uthman "made the copies of theQur'an" or "united the Muslims on a single copy." The impetus to do thiswas provided by Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman when he returned to Madina after observingregional differences. He said to him, "Take this umma in hand before theydiffer about the Book like the Christians and Jews." So he sent for the copymade by Abu Bakr which was in the possession of 'Umar's daughter, Hafsa.
The Qurayshi dialect was favoured in this and this eliminated much of thediversity, but some of it was still reflected in the different readings becauseit was essentially a business of oral transmission and there were nodiacriticalmarks in the 'Uthmanic script. People recited the Qur'an as theyhad read it from their teacher and they in turn passed on this oral transmission.
Within the qira'at, there are two categories:
Mutawatir: a transmission which has independent chains of authorities so wide as to rule out the possibility of any error and on which there is consensus.
Mashhur: these are slightly less wide in their transmission, but still so wide as to make error highly unlikely.
There are 7 mutawatir qira'at and 3 mashhur ones.
The Mutawatir are:
Nafi' (d. 169/785)Ibn Kathir (d. 120/737)
Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala' (d. 154/762)
Ibn 'Amir (d. 154/762)
'Asim (d. 127/744)
Hamza (d. 156/772)
al-Kisa'i (d. 189/904)
The Mashhur:
Abu Ja'far (d. 130/747)Ya'qub (d. 205/820)
Khalaf (d. 229/843)
There are also some "shadhdh" readings, rare readings which are generallydiscounted.
It used to be that proper scholars learned all 7 or even 10 qira'at. Sometimesthey would use one qira'a one day and another the next day. Some people hadcopies of the variants marked in them. There was a slavegirl called Tawaddudin the time of Harun ar-Rashid who knew all ten readings by heart,
However, these readings did then to divide up according to location. Forinstance, in 200 AH, Basra was reciting the qira'a of Abu 'Amr and Ya'qub,Kufa was using Hamza and 'Asim, Syria was using Ibn 'Amir, Makka had IbnKathir, and Madina was using Nafi'. Egypt, which was the home of Warsh, usedWarsh largely up until the arrival of the Turks. Then Hafs became popularas it was the variant which the Turks used. Hafs, incidentally, is the qira'aof 'Asim, used in Kufa. The Warsh riwaya of the qira'a of Nafi'.
Today, the two readings must used are the qira'a of 'Asim in the riwaya ofHafs, and the qira'a of Nafi' in the riwaya of Warsh. Also in use in Africais the qira'a of Abu 'Amir in the riwaya of ad-Duri.
Now, each of these readings, or riwayas, is the whole of the Qur'an as recitedby a master in all the variants which are transmitted from him. It is a corupusof reciation. The forms of each recitation are referred to by the notablestudents of the master who recited them. So we will find the tariq (pl. turuq)of so-and-so, the student of the master. Then under the Turuq, there arealso the wujuh. We find the wajh of so-and-so from the tariq of so-and-so.There are about twenty riwayat and eighty turuq. So you can see how fineand precise the science of transmission was with these people. The differencebetween the turuq and wujuh under a riwaya are so slight as to be almostunnoticeable. They are mainly in intonation and diction rather than vowelingor inflection. But this is the level of care and precision which these peoplehad.
