Seven ahruf dialects for the recitation of the Qur'anic text

Seven ahruf dialects for the recitation of the Qur'anic text
Among the Companions (Ashab) of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), Ubay bin Ka'b, 'Abd Allah bin Mas'ud, Mu'adh bin Jabal and Abu 'Abd al-Rahman were the prominent qurra' who learned the science of qira'ah from the person of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) and received the honour of their excellence in this science from their teacher. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) attested to their knowledge in qira'ah and after his death they taught and promoted the science and became the undisputed authority.
The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) was able to seek approval from the Angel Gabriel for the seven ahruf dialects for the recitation of the Qur'anic text because he was fully aware that his illiterate Ummah included many old people, children and slaves. It was difficult at the initial stage to ignore the existence of natural variations in dialect in their spoken Arabic among the different tribes and clans. It is necessary to point out that Arabic was the language commonly spoken by all the tribes. The agreement between them as regards language was far greater than dialectal disagreements. People did not recite each word of the Qur'an in seven dialects but their pronunciation of some words did differ. When the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) realized the difficulty for people to recite certain words in the Quraysh dialect - the language in which the Qur'an was revealed - he permitted them to recite these words in their own dialects because they conveyed more or less the same sense.
The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) himself sent governors to the different parts of the newly established Islamic state and gave them assignments which included the teaching of the Qur'an. During the time of the subsequent rightly-guided Caliphs, Islam spread with remarkable speed and a large number of people of different languages and cultures em¬braced Islam; this necessitated the appointment of qurra' of repute with the task of teaching the Qur'an in different parts of the Islamic state. These qurra' were fully aware of the approved dialects regarding the recitation of some words of the Qur'an and they instructed the people in this approval. The new converts to Islam, however, were neither familiar with the Arabic language nor its dialects. As a result, some confusion developed in the recitation because of dialectal variation. In order to arrest this situation the need was strongly felt to unite the people on one standard text with special reference to the Quraysh dialect.
The third rightly-guided Caliph, 'Uthman bin 'Affan, accomplished this extremely important task of uniting the people on a standard text of the Qur'an by appointing a committee of four distinguished scholars of the Qur'an and making available to them the copy of the Qur'an (Imam) collected by Zayd ibn Thabit during the time of the first Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. The Ummah was officially informed about the terms of reference of the Committee. It was indeed an extremely important attempt - connected with the life of the Ummah for all time - and was accomplished with piety, sincerity, honesty, great care, caution, meticul-ousness and consultation with huffaz and the available written documents. With the ijma', consensus, of the Companions officially authorized copies were sent from the capital city Madinah to different provinces of the Islamic state together with qurra' so that no ambiguity should remain in the recitation of the Qur'an. For the acceptance of the dialectal variation in the recita¬tion of the Qur'an the following three conditions have been strictly observed at all times:
1. The variation must be transmitted by a large number of authentic, indisputable and trustworthy narrators from the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.).
2. It should be connected with reason with the Arabic language in which the Qur'an was revealed.
3. It should be in agreement with the script of the standard text of the Qur'an commissioned by the Caliph 'Uthman bin 'Affan.
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In the course of time, the approved authentic text of the Qur'an has been accepted by Muslims the world over and the recitation of the Qur'an in approved dialects is confined among a minority as an important science of the Qur'an.
The seven prominent qurra' who were the authority during their time in the recitation of dialectal variations of some words of the Qur'an were: Nafi' (d. 169/785), Ibn Kathir al-Makki (d. 120/738), Abu 'Amr bin al-'Ala (d. 153/771),Ibn 'Amir al-Dimashqi (d. 118/736), 'Asim bin Abi al-Najud (d. 127/774), Hamzah al-Qari (d. 156/773) and al-Kisa'i (d.189/805). The reader should be careful not to make any unnecessary association between the seven celebrated qurra' and the seven dialects. Neither did the qurra' strictly adhere to one specific dialect nor were each of them able to recite all the words of the Qur'an in each of the seven dialects. But all of them selected some approved dialects for the recitation of some words of the Qur'an. Three more names in this respect can be added to the list of celebrated qurra'. They were Abu Ja'far (d. 132/750), Ya'qub al-Hadraml (d. 205/820) and Khalf bin Hisham (d. 229/843). Their dedication and meticulous endeavours have been preserved in Tafsir literature and their independent treatises on 'Ilm al-Qjra'ah contributed to the legacy of the dialectal recitations.