A Survey of the Interaction and Encounter between the two Realms of Reading and Writing of the Qur'an from the Time of Revelation until the Development of the Seven Readings

Document Type : Research Article

Author

• Muḥammad Riḍā Ḥājī Ismā‘īlī, Assistant

Isfahan University

10.22067/jfiqh.2020.60959.0

Abstract

he research studies suggest that the companions (ṣaḥāba) of the Prophet have strongly attempted to learn, read, teach how to read, and to write down the Qur'anic verses and phrases. However, the drawbacks and shortcomings existing in the Arabic handwriting of that era as well as the differences that had occurred in the reading of some Qur'anic phrases, has given rise to two major questions for the Qur'an researchers. First, did the difference of readings occur under the influence of the orthography of the Qur'an? Second, are various readings and the orthography of the Qur'an subject to scriptural ruling (tawfīqī) or to the individual reasoning (ijtahādī)?
In this research, with a study of the historical documents and reports as well as the Qur'anic evidences within four historical periods that led to the formulation of the "seven readings" – i.e., the Revelation era, the beginning of the Islamic Caliphate, the period of integrated copies of the Qur'an, and the "development of the seven readings" (tasbī‘ al-qirā’āt) – we have attempted to review and analyze the manner of interaction and contrast between the readings and the orthography of the Qur'an. In the end, we have concluded that various readings and the orthography of the Qur'an had resulted from the personal reasoning (ijtaiād) of the readers (qārīs) and human beings rather than revealed by Allah.

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