Islam > Quran > Tajweed > Questions: The 7 Ahruf and the Readings
Updated on 04 October 2026 at 11:01 PM
📖 5 min readThe first to codify the scientific rules of tajweed were the imams of recitation and of the Arabic language, at the beginning of the era of authoring books: it was said al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi, others said Abu al-Aswad ad-Du'ali, and it was also said Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam. This came after the conquests multiplied, when lahn spread across tongues: the governors feared a distortion of the Book of Allah, introduced the dots and the vocalization, then codified the rules of tajweed.
The first to gather this science into a book was without doubt the imam Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam, in the third century of the Hijrah: he composed the book القراءات (al-Qira'at), and he died in Mecca in the year 224 AH. It was also said that the first was Abu 'Amr Hafs ibn 'Umar ad-Duri, who died in the year 246 AH.
The regions to which the mushafs copied at the time of the caliph 'Uthman were sent each had among the Companions the one from whom the people of that region received transmission and learned the Quran through oral recitation. As the mushafs were free of dots and vocalization, the people of each region held to what they had received by hearing from the Companions, on condition that it agreed with the script of the Uthmani mushaf, and abandoned what contradicted it: from there arose the difference among the reciters of the great cities.
It is not a difference of opposition or of contradiction, for that is impossible in the Quran, which falsehood does not approach from before it nor from behind it: it is a difference of variety and diversity, as if one were to say: "هلمَّ أو تعالَ أو أقبل" (come, draw near, come forward), all these expressions having a single meaning. It arose from the varied transmissions of the Companions, each Companion having made the people of his territory recite what he had heard from the Messenger of Allah, a reading that the script of the Uthmani mushaf can admit.
The mutawaatir readings are the differences of mode in the recitation of the Quranic text revealed to our master Muhammad, each one being attributed to the one who transmits it, their chain of transmission reaching back to the Messenger of Allah.
The qira'ah (the reading): the choice attributed to one of the ten imams concerning the mode of reciting the Quranic text according to what he received orally, his chain reaching back to the Messenger of Allah, as the qira'ah of 'Asim. The riwayah (the transmission): what is attributed to the one who transmits from one of the ten imams, as the riwayah of Hafs from 'Asim. The tareeq (the path): what is attributed to the one who conveys the riwayah of the transmitter, even if he stands low in the chain, as the riwayah of Warsh by the tareeq of al-Azraq.
It is established from Ibn 'Abbas that the Messenger of Allah said: "Jibril made me recite upon one harf, I asked him to review it, and I kept asking him for more and he kept adding until he reached seven ahruf". And the hadith of 'Umar: "... The Messenger of Allah said: Leave him, recite, O Hisham. He recited, and the Messenger of Allah said: Thus was it sent down. Then he said: Recite, O 'Umar. I recited, and he said: Thus was it sent down. This Quran was sent down with seven ahruf, so recite what you are able to of it".
Revision: The 7 Ahruf and the Revelation of the Quran With Them
What the verifying scholars prefer is the view of the imam Abu al-Fadl ar-Razi: what is intended by these ahruf are the aspects through which variety and difference occur, and they do not exceed seven: the difference of nouns (singular, dual, plural, masculine, feminine), the difference in the conjugation of verbs, the difference of the case endings, the difference by omission and addition, the difference by anticipation and deferment, the difference by substitution, and the difference in the dialectal pronunciations.
Revision: The 7 Ahruf and the Revelation of the Quran With Them
The seven ahruf were revealed at the beginning to make things easy for the ummah, then most of them were abrogated by the final presentation, which led the caliph 'Uthman to write the mushafs sent to the provinces. The seven readings are therefore not the seven ahruf: the truth is that the readings of the seven imams, indeed of the ten, are part of the seven ahruf with which the Noble Quran was revealed, all these ten readings agreeing with the script of one of the Uthmani mushafs.