In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Qiraah (Reading) of the Qur'an.

by Abdal-Hadi Fazli

Translated by Dr. S. S. Moosavi

Definitions of Qiraah:

According to Zarkashi, "Qiraahs indicate the differences in dialects and/or pronunciations of the revealed words. Qiraahs mainly refer to differences in stress, syllabifying, etc., as narrated by Qurra (the readers of Qur'an)."

[1]

This definition implies that qiraahs are confined and limited to the words of the Holy Qur'an about whose pronunciations there are differences of opinion among the reciters (Qurra), whereas one can see that the qiraah experts have included other words - about the pronunciation of which there is no controversy - within the sphere of qiraah. Ibn Aljazri has defined Qiraah as follows: "Qiraah is a discipline which deals with the way of pronouncing Qur'anic terms and the differences in pronouncing them as stated by their narrators."

[2]

[In fact, the controversy over the manner of pronouncing a term is ascribed to its narrator.]

Qiraah has been defined by Demyaty Bana as follows: "Qiraah deals with the consensus or differences among the narrators of Qur'an regarding the pronunciation of Qur'anic terms. It concentrates on such grammatical aspects as vowels, semi-vowels, consonants, stress, propositions, etc. By observing these grammatical points, every Qur'anic concept shall be comprehensible through listening only. "

[3]

These definitions clearly indicate that "narration" and "listening" are two conditions for reciting Qur'anic words with an accurate qiraah and pronunciation. According to Zaid ibn Thabet Ansari, a companion of the Holy Prophet (s), qiraah is a tradition which should be strictly followed in recitation of the Holy Qur'an.

[4]

It was on the basis of this principle that Ibnn Aljazri, said: A qari of the Holy Qur'an should refrain from using a qiraah, the authenticity of which is not confirmed. "

[5]

In the definition stated by Zakariya Ansari, we come across another condition which he stipulates in the definition of qiraah. He is of the opinion that the narrated qiraahs and the reported qiraahs (the heard ones) should be matched and tallied with the Qur'an itself. In this regard Zakariya Ansari says: "Qiraah means reading of the Holy Qur'an - whether it is a continuous reading or reading of each syllable as directed by the teachers. "

[6]

Based on these definitions, we come to know that qiraah is a discipline which imparts to us the most accurate pronunciation of Qur'anic words, i.e., the manner in which the Holy Prophet (s) used to pronounce them and/or the way these words were pronounced in his presence and he acknowledged the qiraah. Hence, a qiraah of Qur'anic words will be correct if such a qiraah tallies with those of the Prophet himself (s), or those acknowledged by him.

Thus, precise qiraah of the Qur'anic words is acquired through two methods:

listening to the qiraah of each word as pronounced by the Prophet, himself (s); following a qiraah acknowledged by the Prophet (s).

Therefore, we can classify the qiraahs of the Qur'anic words into two categories:

The "consensus qiraah", which refers to the qiraah of wordsabout which there is a consensus among the Qaris. The "controversial qiraah" which refers to the qiraah of words about which there is a controversy among the Qaris.

Kinds of Qiraahs:

There are certain criteria for correct and accurate reading of the Holy Qur'an. The most important of them are authenticity of the sources; conformity with Arabic grammar and tallying with the Uthman script. We can classify the qiraahs into two broad categories.

Widely Transmitted Qiraahs: Ibn Aljazri defines the widely transmitted qiraahs as follows: "Any qiraah which is in accordance with the Arabic grammar and is in conformity with any Uthman script with successive occurrence in the narrations should be considered as widely transmitted qiraah. "

[7]

Accurate Qiraahs: This category of qiraahs are further divided into two classes: Comprehensive qiraah - This qiraah refers to the one which is in conformity with the three above mentioned criteria.

The comprehensive qiraahs have been defined by Alyazri as follows: "This qiraah has been quoted by a just and reliable narrator from another just and authentic source tracing the source of reference up to the Prophet, himself (s), through just and reliable informants. Moreove1; this kind of qiraah is in conformity with Arabic grammar and the Uthman script. "

[8]

Rare qiraahs.

Kinds of Comprehensive Qiraahs:

The comprehensive qiraahs are further divided into two classes:

frequently transmitted (mostafizeh) and

scantily transmitted.

According to Ibn Aljazri, the frequently transmitted qiraah is a qiraah which has been quoted frequently and the Muslim Ummah has accepted it as an accurate qiraah. In another place, by citing some examples of such qiraahs, he defines them as "Qiraahs which have been narrated only by a few authentic books or narrators and could not be found in others. "

[9]

Though this kind of qiraah is not equal to the widely transmitted qiraahs, nevertheless, they are considered to be a subcategory of them. Hence, they are as authentic as the widely transmitted qiraahs since the source of these qiraahs are traced back to the Prophet (s) or the infallible members of his household ('a). Therefore, they are considered to be accurate.

Scantily transmitted qiraahs do not have the characteristics of frequently transmitted qiraahs and, therefore, the Ummah does not consider them authentic. Although there is a controversy over the acceptance of this kind of qiraah, some believe that these qiraahs are also acceptable.

According to Ibn Aljazri, the scantily transmitted qiraahs are those which "are in confomlity with Arabic grammar, have correct references, but are not in conformity with the Uthman script. "

[10]

Ibn Aljazri mentions some of the qiraahs which are considered to be in this category. For instance, when there is a question of: "addition or omission of a word (of course, based on authentic documents): conversion of words into other words, and so on, the Qiraah is scantily transmitted. "

[11]

Thus, the qiraahs may be divided and subdivided as shown in the following diagram.

Qiraahs Widely Translitted Qiraahs Accurate Qiraahs Comprehensite Qiraahs Rare Qiraahs Frequently Transmitted Scantily Transmitted

However, qiraahs may also be divided into three categories as follows:

Widely Transmitted Qiraahs: These qiraahs are definitely traced back to the Prophet (s) or the members of his household ('a). Since they have been attested by the Prophet (s) or his Ahl al-Bayt ('a), therefore, they are considered to be authentic-whether they are frequently transmitted or scantily transmitted. Scantily Transmitted Qiraahs: These qiraahs have the three characteristics of the comprehensive qiraahs. However, they cannot be traced back to the Prophet{s) or a member of his family ('a). Hence, they are not as authentic as the widely transmitted qiraahs. Rare Qiraahs: These qiraahs are not in conformity with the Uthman script.

Differences Between the Qiraahs and the Qur'an:

It is important here to see if there are any differences between the qiraahs and the Qur'an itself. Various Muslim scholars have different ideas in this regard, some of which are discussed below.

Qiraahs are Different from Qur'an: Badrudin Mohammad Zarkashi believes that Qur'an and qiraahs are two distinct realities. He says: "By Qur'an we mean what was revealed to the Prophet (s). The Qur'an was revealed to .express the divine laws and miracle. But qiraah refers to the method of pronouncing words, stress, merging, omitting and combining the sounds in pronouncing the Qur'anic words. "

[12]

Qastalani has followed Zarkashi's definition and has quoted him in his own book.

[13]

Some of the contemporary Muslim scholars follow Zarkashi and believe that the qiraahs are distinct from the Holy Qur'an. Among them are Grand Ayatullah Seyed Abu al-Qasem al-Khoie,

[14]

Dr. Sobhi Saleh,

[15]

and Ibrahim Abyari.

[16]

Tallying Qiraahs with Accurate Qiraah: According to this view, if a qiraah is in conformity with the three conditions of the accurate qiraahs (i.e., conformity with Arabic grammar, the Uthman script and supported by accurate documents), one can say that it is synonymous with Qur'an itself.

However, if a qiraah lacks even one of these conditions, it cannot be considered as synonymous with Qur'an. Therefore, such a qiraah is different from the Holy Qur'an. This idea is maintained by the majority of the Muslim scholars and Qaris of the Holy Qur'an. All Qiraahs are Synonymous with Qur'an: Ibn Daqiqis of the opinion that any qiraah - even the rare qiraahs - can be synonymous with Qur' an.

Elaboration of Some of the Views About Qiraahs

Ayatullah Seyed Abu al-Qasem al-Khoie believes that qiraahs are different from the Holy Qur'an itself. He gives the following reasons to support his ideas:

There might be some mistakes in anyone of the seven famous qiraahs of Qur'an. Therefore, according to reason and Shari 'a, we are not bound to follow any particular qiraah while reciting the Holy Qur'an. In fact, reason and Shari 'a forbid us from following an uncertain method.

[17]

Ayatullah Khoie believes that qiraahs should be considered as subjective opinion of Qaris. He enumerates four reasons for his viewpoint in this regard. In support of his approach, Ayatullah Khoie refers to Ibn Abu Hashim as saying: "The main reason behind the difference between the seven styles of qiraah and other qiraahs is that, when copies of the Uthman manuscripts were sent to different parts, a companion of the Prophet (s) was present at the site. Since the scripts did not have any punctuation and diacritical marks to distinguish similar letters, people did try to learn the pronunciation, qiraahs and signs from the Prophet s companion. "

Ibn Abu Hashim adds that: "Therefore, in every area the natives used to learn the qiraah of Qur'anic words through 'listening' to the Prophet's companions though they did accept only the qiraahs which were in conformity with the Uthman script. Hence, we come across different kinds of qiraahs of the Qur'anic concept. " Ayatullah Khoie also quotes Zarqani in support of his ideas. According to Zarqani, at the preliminary stages of the emergence of Islam, the Arabs considered using punctuation and diacritical marks in Qur'anic scripts as impermissible. This was because they were very strict in retaining the Uthman writing style. Indeed, they feared that using punctuation and diacritical marks might cause alteration in the Qur'an and, therefore, tried to keep it intact. But later on, for the same reason, i.e., safeguarding the Qur'an from alteration, Muslims themselves decided to use punctuation and diacritical marks. At this stage they were of the opinion that using punctuation and diacritical marks would result in reading the Qur'an as it was recorded in the Uthman script. They also feared that lack of punctuation and diacritical marks might lead to changes in the Qur'anic words.

[19]

Some Muslim scholars believe that some of the informants of the seven qiraah styles may not be reliable. They doubt the authenticity of some of the informants of the seven qiraahs. For instance, some people state that Hafis Douri (informant of Asem) and Nafea were not reliable. Partial knowledge over the fact that some of the qiraahs were not stated by the Prophet (s). Finally, Ayatullah Khoie stresses that it is known for certain that some of the qiraahs have not been uttered by the Prophet (s) though we do not know them particularly. Therefore, we come across differences among various qiraahs. The variations, in turn, have led to the uncertainty of Muslim scholars about the authenticity of some of the qiraahs. Hence, we have to tally such qiraahs with Arabic grammar.

[20]

Shaykh Tusi: Shaykh Tusi is of the opinion that: "According to the prevailing belief of the Imamia school of thought and on the basis of their traditions, the Holy Qur'an was revealed to one prophet with one qiraah. However; the Shi'i scholars have unanimously allowed the recitation of Qur'an with any one of the authentic qiraahs. Hence, we should not forbid them from using different qiraahs by confining them to one qiraah only. They opine that it is undesirable to prevent the Muslims from selecting a permissible qiraah for reciting Qur'an. Therefore, it is permissible to recite Qur'an with any recognized Qiraah. "

[21]

Shaykh Tabarsi: Abu Ali Fazl-ibn Hassan Tabarsi's viewpoint on qiraahs is: "The Shi'i alims unanimously allow the qiraahs which are popularly known as authentic ones among the Muslims. However; qiraahs confirmed by Qaris as authentic are allowed to be used, but we cannot ask the Muslims to confine themselves to a particular qiraah and discard others. "

[22]

Mohammad Baqir Khunsari: He says that there is no controversy over the permissibility of the seven well known qiraahs. He further argues that there is even no diversity of opinion among the Shi'i 'alims regarding another three qiraahs which have been added to the original seven, or the ten qiraahs.

[23]

Shaheed Awwal (Shaykh Mohammad ibn Makki): He believes that the ten qiraahs are widely transmitted qiraahs and, therefore, all can be used in reciting the Holy Qur'an. He further says that there is a consensus (among the Muslim 'alims) in this regard.

[24]

We come across the issue of the qiraahs in Rouzat al-Jannat also. Regarding the qiraahs it says: "The authentic qiraahs are those which have been revealed to the Prophet (s) through Gabriel. All of these seven qiraahs have been confirmed by the Prophet (s) and have been widely quoted by the Qaris. They have also been confirmed by the informants of traditions (hadith). For instance, the tradition narrated by Shaykh al-Sadduq in his well known book, al-Khisal, reads as follows:

"The Prophet (s) said: 'Gabriel was sent by God to me and told me, 'God has ordained that you recite Qur'an in one qiraah only.'

"I said: Oh God, do not be so strict with the ummah with regard to qiraahs and let them use more qiraahs.

"Gabriel said: 'God has ordained that you recite Qur'an in seven qiraahs."'

[25]

Elsewhere in Rouzat al-Jannat it has been emphasized that "we are duty bound to recite Qur'an in accordance with the popularly known qiraahs. The most well known qiraahs are, indeed, the well established seven qiraahs, and people mainly rely on them. "

[26]

Mohammad Javad al-Ameli says: "There is a consensus among the Shi'i scholars about the authenticity of the seven qiraahs. The late al-Karki, in his book, Jame al-Maqased, writes that there is a consensus among the Shi'i scholars that the seven qiraahs have been frequently quoted. In other books like al-Ezyah and al-Rauz, we notice the consensus of the scholars about this issue. Again in Majma al-Borhan we can observe the same issue."

Al-Ameli further states that in the following books, written by Shi'i authors, the seven qiraahs have been termed as widely transmitted qiraahs:

Muntaha al-Wosool Ela Elm ul-Kalam wa al-Usool, Tahrir al-Ahkam al-Shariya ala Mazhab al-Emamiyah, and Tazkerat al-Fuqaha, written by Allarmah Hilli ( 648- 726 A.H.). Zekr al-Shi 'a fi Ahkam al-Sharia, Al-Moojez al-Havi, and Kashf al-Eltebas, written by Shaheed Awwal Moharnmad ibn Makki. Al-Maqased al-Elliah fi Sharh al-Resalat ul-Alfieh, written by Shaheed Thani.

Since some of the scholars quoting other scholars have confirmed the authenticity of certain qiraahs (in fact, frequently quoting them), such qiraahs are certainly authentic ones. In Majma al-Borhan, this issue has also been taken up.

[27]

Mirza Abu al-Hassan She'arani. She'arani is one of the contemporary Muslim scholars who says: "The Muslims unanimously believe that the Qaris, in their qiraahs, rely on hearing and authentic traditions which constitute the main sources of reference for them. The Qaris never rely on subjective opinions or personal attitude nor do they even rely on Arabic grammar: Therefore, the qiraahs are not the outcome of subjective opinion or the product of Arabic grammar: "

She'arani further states: "Now the seven qiraahs, along with the name of their Qaris, have been recorded in certain exegesis books. Even today 1ve observe that the Qaris use these qiraahs while reading the Holy Qur 'an. It is interesting to note that the Muslim 'alims who have recorded these seven qiraahs belonged to various geographical places and followed different sects of Islam, but they spared no effort to record the authentic qiraahs. For instance, the al-Taiseer is one of the most important qiraah books written by Abu Amr Uthman ibn Saeed Dani which is considered by the majority of Muslim scholars as an authentic document. "

The Objection of al-AbyariThere is an objection to the above consensus raised by al-Abyari. He is of the opinion that most of the qiraahs are the outcome of subjective opinion of the Qaris. He argues that sometimes a word can be pronounced (according to the Qaris) with twenty or thirty qiraahs. Even the ten qiraahs can be pronounced in 980 different ways. He concludes that such immense diversity of opinion about the way of pronouncing a word is itself an indication that different qiraahs are the result of subjective opinion of the Qaris.

Even Zumakhshari rejected several versions of the qiraahs and termed them unreliable.

Ibn Qotaikah undertook an extensive study on the authenticity of qiraahs. While rejecting several qiraahs as unreliable, he says, "There are a few persons among the Qaris who have not committed a mistake in their qiraahs. "

[28]

He concludes that when we allow such dictions to prevail in the society, indeed, we are violating the objectives of the compilers of Qur'an during the Uthman rule and the objectives of Imam Ali ('a) in compiling the Holy Qur'an. Indeed, the main objective of Uthman, Imam Ali ('a) and the Prophet's companions was to bring about a unified method - a unified qiraah of reciting or pronouncing Qur'anic words, whereby imparting to the people a unified qiraah of the Qur'anic words.

Such an approach to the issue of qiraah sprouts from the assumption that qiraahs are the outcome of the Qaris' subjective opinion. In turn, the subjective opinion of the Qaris was itself a result of the absence of punctuation and diacritical marks in the early manuscripts of the Holy Quran.

[29]

Criticism of al-Abyari's Approach

First of all, it is not clear whether al-Abyari refers to the ways of pronouncing qiraahs as the qiraahs themselves or if he means the ascription of qiraahs to the informants. The Muslim scholars have classified the qiraahs into four categories depending on the nature of the ascription of a qiraah to its informant.

1. Qira'ah: The authenticity of a qiraah may be assessed from the viewpoint of its ascription to one of the well known original Qaris. For example, if a qiraah is ascribed to Nafea, it is considered as Qiraat al-Nafea (the way of recitation by Nafea).

2. Informant: A qiraah can also be assessed from the viewpoint of its informant, i.e. the person who quotes it from the original Qari. For instance, Qaloon is an informant of Nafea qiraah and we have to assess him before any judgment about Nafea.

3. Tareeq (method): This is another category of ascertaining the authenticity of a qiraah. In this category the assessment is about an informant who has quoted a qiraah from the informants who have had a direct access to the original Qari himself. For instance, Abi Nasheet has quoted a tareeq from Qaloon who has directly quoted from Nafea.

4. Vajh (aspect): This kind of qiraah is said to have been selected by a Qari.

[30]

We should keep in mind that any of the above categories can be considered as authentic only when it is widely transmitted or it is at least frequently transmitted.

Maki ibn Abi Talib's Idea About the Qiraahs

In reply to a question as to why there are differences of opinion about the qiraahs among the Qaris, Maki says: "Indeed, each Qari used to recite Qur 'an for some of the teachers of qiraah in accordance with the qiraah that he himself had learned from other prominent Qaris. The teachers, in turn, used to teach to others these qiraahs as authentic ones. Under the circumstances, no qiraah was rejected, hence, the prevalence of several qiraahs.

[11]

Nafea himself says:

"I recited Qur'an to seventy experts of qiraah in order to check the authenticity of the qiraahs with them. Then I considered only those qiraahs as authentic that were confirmed by at least two experts. In case a qiraah was confirmed by one expert only, I did not consider it as authentic. "

[31]

Dr. Abdul Saboor Shaheen has also studied the multiplicity of qiraahs and forwarded the following observations:

The multiplicity of the qiraahs predominantly involves the rare qiraahs. The diversity of opinion among the Qaris about the qiraahs is mainly confined to certain aspects of punctuation and diacritical marks. Differences in qiraahs are not the result of subjective opinion, rather they have been narrated by the informants.

Zumakhshari and Ibn Qutaibah prefer to assess the authenticity of the qiraahs from the viewpoint of grammar. However, there are differences of opinion among the Muslim scholars regarding this kind of assessment.

Most of the grammarians of Basra and some of their followers, including Zumakhshari and Ibn Qutaibah, believe that some of the qiraahs, due to their conflict with grammatical rules, are not authentic and, therefore, rejected. Recent grammarians do not agree with the ideas of Basra grammarians and their followers. The former consider some of the rejected qiraahs of the latter as authentic.

They, therefore, do not consider grammatical rules as a criterion for the assessment of the authenticity of qiraahs.

[32]

Conclusion

When a qiraah is ascribed, with certainty, to the Holy Prophet (s), or it is ascribed to the Prophet (s) by the informants, it should be considered as synonymous to Qur'an itself. However, one should not recite Qur'an in accordance with the rare qiraahs. Indeed, the rare qiraahs are rejected, hence, by abandoning them, we can protect the letter and spirit of the Holy Qur'an.

Moreover, the rare qiraahs are used very scantily. Since the widely transmitted qiraahs are available, therefore, it is better to stop using the rare qiraahs.

In summary, according to Zarkashi, we should use those qiraahs which are in conformity with the widely transmitted qiraahs and also are authentic and well documented.

Quoting Abu Mohammad Ismail ibn Haravi's book, Al-Kafi, Zarkashi wrote in his own book, Al-Borhan, that if someone asked us as to why we had included the qiraahs of Abu Ja'afar Madani and Yaqub Hazrami in the seven qiraahs, our answer is: "Since these two qiraahs are in conformity with the qiraahs of later Qaris, are authentic, well documented and without any mistake, therefore, we included them in the seven qiraahs."

Moreover, there is no tradition or quotation from Muslim scholars that qiraahs other than the seven should be abandoned. In other words there is no tradition or decree regarding an exclusive confinement to the seven qiraahs.

Hence, we may consider a qiraah as authentic if it has the following characteristics:

1) reliable informant;

2) authenticity;

3) well documented; and,

4) homogenous from the viewpoint of grammatical rules.

Thus, the seven qiraahs are considered to be the most reliable qiraahs along with the qiraahs of Abu Ja'afar Madani and Yaqub Hazrami.

Endnotes

[1]

Alburhan Fi Uloom al-Qur 'an, vol. 1, p. 38.

[2]

Munjad al-Muqrein, p. 3.

[3]

lthaf al-Fozala al-Bashar, p. 5.

[4]

Al-Etqan, vol. 1, p. 57.

[5]

Munjad al-Muqrein, p. 3.

[6]

Kashaf Estelahat al-Fonoo1', vol. 5, p. 1158.

[7]

Munjad a1--Muqrein,p.15.

[8]

lbid., p.

[9]

Such qiraalhs are confined to a few books only.

[10]

Munjad al-Muqrein, p. 16.

[11]

lbid.

[12]

Al-Borhan fi Uloom al-Qur 'an, vol. 1, p. 318.

[13]

Lataef al-Esharat.

[14]

Mabaheth fl Uloom al-Qur'an.

[15]

Al-Bayan fl Tafseer al-Qur'an, vol. 1, p. 171. 1

[16]

Al-Mozooat al-Qur'aniah, vol. 1.

[17]

Al-Bayan, vol. I, p. 180.

[18]

Ibid.,p.181.

[19]

lbid.

[20]

lbid., p. 182.

[21]

Al-Tabyan, vol. 1, p. 8.

[22]

Majjma al-Bayan, vol. 25, p. 1.

[23]

Rouzat al-Jannat.

[24]

Ibn Aljazri in Ghayat al-Nahayh1, writes that Shaheed Awwal is a master in fiqh, Arabic grammar and qiraah.

[25]

Al-Khesal, pp. 327-328.

[26]

Rouzot Jannat, p. 263.

[27]

Meftah al-Keramah, vol. 2, p. 290.

[28]

Taawil Mushkel al-Qur'an, p. 42.

[29]

Al-Mozooat al-Qur'aniah,

[30]

Ithaf Fozala ol-Boshar, pp. 17-18.

[31]

Al-Abanah, p. 45.

[32]

Al-Qiraat al-Qur'aniah, p. 219.

From "Message of Thaqalayn" Vol.I, No.4 October 1994 Jamadi ul Awwal, 1415

Shi'I Approach to Qiraah (Reading) of the Qur'an

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