In answer to the video by Jai Apologetics "Ahad is One of Many Variants! (Ft. Dr. Yasir Qadhi & Mohammed Hijab)"
This video superficially touches upon the known phenomenon of variant readings. These readings are known, going back with certainty to the prophet who approved each and everyone of them. They are valid and complimentary ways of reading the Quran. Besides those authentic readings, others did not pass the validation criteria either because they could not be traced to the prophet, or because they were never meant to be variant readings.
For example the prophet recited words of prayer that were sometimes thought to be Quran verses until these people saw that the prophet did not instruct these words to be part of the final version. Even today, in the daily prayers and many other rituals, Muslims recite words that arent from the Quran. Again, none ever argued that these verses were missing from the Quran which the prophet left, just that they were abrogated.
In addition, the prophet did sometimes speak revelation, which he paraphrased and that were never meant to be in the Quran, known later as hadith qudsi. Some early believers might have included them in their personal recitations, just as others would include personal notes in relation to certain passages, and even words of prayers and supplications. A typical such example is that of Ubayy' ibn Kaab's supposed 2 missing chapters, al-Hafd and al-Khalaa, which were in fact supplications the prophet used to recite and never ordered them written as part of the Quran, neither did Ubayy claim anything of the sort. That later people believed them to be so is no proof of anything, and in fact, as will be shown later, Ubayy was part of the standardization comitee under Uthman. Uthman himself is reported to have recited these supposed "lost surahs" as a supplication in his prayers (Musannaf ibn Abi Shayba, n°7032).
The prophet allowed, under his watch, for the companions to freely paraphrase, add or substract to certain Quran passages during their supplications. The prophet himself did so, sometimes merging different suras together for supplication
"When Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) went to his mattress each night, he joined the palms of his hands, then breathed into them and recited into them: “Say: ‘He is Allah, One [qul Huwa'llahu Ahad]!' (Al-Qur'an;112:1), and: “Say: ‘I take refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak [qul a'udhu bi-Rabbil-falaq]!' (Al-Qur'an;113:1), and: “Say: ‘I take refuge with the Lord of humankind [qul a'udhu bi-Rabbi’n-nas]!' (Al-Qur'an;114:1)".
Neither the prophet nor the companions said that these recitals were to be passed on as Quran readings. Here is another example with sura ikhlas
"Mihjan bin Al-Adra' narrated to him that the Messenger of Allah entered the masjid and there was a man who had finished his prayer and he was reciting the tashahhud. He said: "Allahumma inni as'aluka ya Allah! Bi-annakal-Wahidul-Ahad us-Samad, alladhi lam yalid wa lam yowled, wa lam yakun lahu kufuwan ahad, an taghfirali dhunubi, innaka antal-Ghafurur-Rahim".
These variants involving sura al ikhlas, and others attributed to the prophet and notable companions, were, again, never meant to be part of the Quran. Al Qurtubi, who reports some of these variants of sura ikhlas says that anyone who argues that these variant readings can replace the canonical reading is in grave error. The prophet forbade his contemporaries from recording from him anything other than the Quran, precisely to limit or stop this phenomenon of some people introducing in their Quran recital something that isnt supposed to be part of it
"Do not write down anything of me...whoever writes other than the Quran should delete it".
This shows that the prophet was reacting to an already existing trend among certain believers. But the consensus of the community, given the mass transmission of the Quran, always prevailed over these marginal opinions.
Further articles on the issue of Qiraat/variant readings
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