Page:William Goldsack-The Qurān in Islām (1906).djvu/23

 14

We saw in the preceding chapters that the Khalif ʿUsmān, shocked at the grave differences which had crept into the reading of the Qurān, applied a drastic remedy by compiling one authoritative copy, and then burning all the rest. But even these measures were ineffectual; and in spite of ʿUsmān’s recension, the ‘seven readings,’ at least in a modified form, still continued to exist. These various readings are known as the 'Haft Qirāʿat’, and the readers, through whom these various readings have been handed down, are known as Qāris. Some were natives of Mecca, some of Medīna, some of Kūfa, and some of Syria; and the different readings of the Qurān continue to be known by the names of those who gave them currency. Thus the reading current in India is known as that of ʿAsim, or of Hafaz, his disciple; whilst the qirāʿat current in Arabia is that of Nāfi, a native of Medīna. Jalāl-ud-dīn, on the other hand, in his famous commentary, follows the qirāʿat of the Qāri Imām-Abū-ʿUmr. Many of the differences are merely in pronunciation, but in not a few cases grave differences in meaning still exist. Thus in Sūra Fātiha the Qāris Yaʿqūb, ʿAsim, Kisaʿī and Khalaf-i-Kūfi approve of the reading (mālik); whereas every other Qāri reads  (malik).

We will now fulfil our promise to give specific examples of the many differences which exist even in the present text of the Qurān; though the reader should bear in mind the fact that even if that were now perfect, it would signify little, seeing that ʿUsman’s recension itself has been proved absolutely untrustworthy. Before giving detailed examples of the present corruption of the Qurānic text, however, we here quote