"‘Umar found a Mushaf (manuscript) with a boy wherein it was written, ‘the prophet is closer to the believers than their own selves, and he is a father to them, and his wives are their mothers.’ He said, ‘Erase it O boy!’ The boy replied, ‘By Allah I will not erase it and it is so in the Mushaf of Ubayy bin Ka’b.’ So ‘Umar went to Ubayy bin Ka’b". There Ubayy replied; "[Occupation with] Qur’an causes me the lapse as you are caused a lapse by the noise in the markets …"
So even the renouned Ubay could make an error in his own reading and text. He admits to the correct reading by ackowledging his error. Years later, he was part of the comitee charged with supervising the standardization of the Quran. This error, of one scribe, in one manuscript made while writing 33:6 isnt found in any of the manuscripts he was in charge of, meaning he had agreed with the correction years before. The report in At-Tabari's tafsir on 24:25 where 2 words are supposedly switched in the mushaf of Ubay is attributed to Jarir ibn Hazm (see the full tafsir in Arabic). This was most certainly a scribal error, as At-Tabari goes on saying that the correct reading is the one as we have it today and as transmitted by the readers throughout the Islamic lands (Amsar).
Further reading answering The Islam Issue "Ubai bin ka’b testifies to Quranic corruption"
- Islam Critiqued cannot ask with humility...(variant 48:26)
- Islam critiqued goes back in time; Early Muslims opinion on the Quran? (200 missing verses)
