CIRA International expose countless Qurans; how many possible readings?

In answer to the video "Why are there over 30 different Arabic Qur’ans? - Quranic Corrections Ep. 3"

A clarifying note as regards the various recital methods of the Quran. There are 10 qiraat/reading methods which have been approved by the scholars of Islam due to their mass transmission. The differences between them lie in the manner in which the basic Uthmanic text (absence of vowels and dots) was read. As stated earlier, besides the purpose of protecting the text from corruption by locking it with the oral tradition, the defective script allowed the preservation and integration of most authentic readings into the Uthmanic mushaf. Other authentic readings which modified the skeletal text could not be accommodated and thus people progressively ceased reciting them. This is a view shared by al Dani, Ibn al Arabi, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn al Jazari.

These readings are preserved till this day, as kindly shown by these 2 youtubers who think that by naming some of the memorizers, their predecessors whom they learned from, and their students, then they will fool people into thinking that each individual recited differently than the one he learned from or to whom he transmitted his recital. For instance they show 2 different Qurans under the names of Al-Layth ibn Khaleed and al Kisa'ee, while the latter is the former's teacher! The name given to a particular qira'a/reading was after its most excellent or famous reciter, not necessarily after the one that first transmitted it from the prophet. This formidable flexibility of the text allows for people of all cultural-linguistic backgrounds to choose which Quranic Arabic is easier for them to pronounce.

Scholars of fiqh/law must consider all readings of a verse before extracting a ruling. The various readings, all of which are based on the very same text, are actually an integral part of the Quran's miraculous eloquence, with words carrying multiple but complementary meanings whether in areas of story-telling, beliefs or even divine laws. What is further remarkable is that there are "only" 10 readings, while the basic script allows for many times more reading possibilities, as these youtubers have noted, with all of them making sense. This in itself is enough to dispel the notion that the 10 qiraat were due to a defective arabic script, rather than inherited by the oral tradition we already know to exist and is well attested. An evident example to corroborate is that of the skeletal m-l-k in surah fatiha read maalik or malik. The word appears in several other places where both reading could equally be applied yet the only place with divergent readings is sura fatiha. This is because the readers were not free to apply their preferences, they were constrained by the sunna of the qiraat.

These Recitations were accomodating to the major dialects of the Arabs, thus leading to unifying the Arabic language, and validating all of its variations and subtleties. This not only allowed a faster spread of Islam but also solidified and preserved the language, as part of the divine pledge to protect the Quran. Had there not been approved recital variations, going back to the prophet's time himself, it would have opened the door to tampering with the text to adapt it to different dialects. It would have corrupted the meaning of the text.

As time passed, the phenomenon of fame and spread of one religious, political center instead of another led in the Muslim world, movement of students and teachers led to some qiraat being supplanted by others more popular ones. Today the one most spread is that of Aasim through Hafs.

As a side note, ibn Mujahid compiled a popular book in which he only listed 7 readings, which later led to some thinking that the readings were restricted to only 7. Ibn Mujahid simply wanted to list those he deemed more popular because of the major cities wherein they were most famous, such as Mecca, Medina, Kufa, Basra and Damascus. The scholars have added 3 other readings on top of those 7. These 3 additional readings are mutawaatir like the 7. They conform to grammar rules and to Uthman's mushaf. Some have counted more than these 10 but their list was disputed by other scholars in light of the aforementionned criteria of authenticity. Anyone can make recital mistakes due to one's own peculiar way of pronouncing certain words and letters. Then transmit those errors to others. This has no bearing on the issue of Quran authenticity unless one can prove that these errors became widespread until assimilated in the approved readings. Or that there was resistance when these errors were pointed and declared inauthentic. Another thing to note is that ibn Mujahid was not the first to write a book on qira'at. The first compiler of qira'at was Abu Ubayy Qasim ibn Salam, who collected 25 in total, including those famous 7. Then Ahmad bn Jubair al-kufi wrote on only five Qira'at, selecting one reader from each city. Then Ismail ibn Ishaq with his 20 authoritative readers, including the 7 famous ones. At-Tabari recorded 20 Qira'at in his Al-Jami'u fil Qira'at. Tabari affirms the divinity of the qiraat. When discussing 2 variant readings of 37:12, he proposes that multiple readings were miraculously dictated to the Prophet simultaneously, just as has been known in the famous hadith from Hisham.

Then al-Dujuni talked about 11 readers. Finally came Ibn Mujahid and was the first to restrict his work on the famous 7.

It is to be kept in mind that a qiraa is a mode of recitation. A recitation is orally transmitted by one reciter to the next going back to the prophet himself. That is why the fame and spread of a qiraa is in itself testimony of its authenticity and the less it is used the more its legitimacy can be questionned. One cannot create a recital in a vacuum and impose it on the masses, passing it off as authentically received from the prophet. This has never hapenned and never will. The process by which a particular recitation imposed itself was gradual, as it was transmitted from teacher to student. Had there been other mass transmitted qiraat than the 10, it would have been inevitably known. Their spread and use among the Muslims in itself would have provided a major argument for their authenticity, as with the 10.

Sometimes one and the same teacher reciter, taught a different qiraa to a different student. Hafs quoted Aasim as saying that the qiraa he taught him was that of as-Sulami, from Ali ibn Abi Talib, from the prophet, while the one that he taught his other main student Shu'ba, was that of Zirr ibn Hubaysh, from ibn Mas’ud, from the prophet. That is why we find that, Shu’ba and Hafs, who studied under the same reciter Aasim, differed from each other in around forty places.