BismiLlah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim

Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala tells us,

The word Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has used to mention about the Harut and Marut is Malakayn. The root of this word is Malak which means an Angel. But, Imam al-Baghawi rahimahuLlah mentions in his tafsir that ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abbas radhi Allahu ‘anhuma, Al-Hasan rahimahuLlah and Imam Fakhrud-Din ar-Razi rahimahuLlah mentions that adh-Dhahhak rahimahuLlah used to recite the word as Malikayn [2]whose root is Malik with a kasrah on lam rather than fathah. This fact is also mentioned in Tafsir al-Kashshaf by Imam az-Zamakhshari rahimahuLlah

One might wonder, the Qur’an is in different recitations? The answer to this question is yes, it has reached to us in ten different but authentic Qira’ah. Before we study the variant recitation of the verse, lets give a brief introduction to the different Qira’ah of the Qur’an.

A Qira’ah is, for the most part, a method of pronunciation used in the recitations of the Qur’an. These methods are different from the seven forms or modes (huruf) in which the Qur’an was revealed. The seven modes were reduced to one, that of Quraysh, during the era of Caliph ‘Uthman radhi Allahu ‘anhu when he ordered that the Qur’an be copied in the Qurayshi dialect and distributed among the Islamic centers of the time. Hence, only the Qurayshi mode remains today and all of the methods of recitation are based on this mode. The various methods have all been traced back to the Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wassalam through a number of the Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhum who were most noted for their Qur’anic recitations. That is, these Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhum recited the Qur’an to the Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wassalam or in his presence and received his approval. Among them were the following: Ubayy ibn Ka’b, ‘Ali ibn Abi ?alib, Zayd ibn Thabit, Ibn Mas’ud, Abu ad-Darda’, and Abu Musa al-Ash’ari radhi Allahu ‘anhum Many of the other Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhum learned from these masters. ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Abbas radhi Allahu ‘anhuma, the master commentator of the Qur’an among the Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhum, learned from both Ubayy and Zayd radhi Allahu ‘anhma. [3]

Among the next generation of Muslims, referred to as the Tabi’un there arose many scholars who learned the various methods of recitation from the Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhu??and taught them to others. Centers of Qur’anic recitation developed in Madinah, Makkah, Kufah, Basrah, and ash-Sham (Greater Syria), leading to the evolution of Qur’anic recitation into an independent science.[4] By the mid eighth century CE, there existed a large number of outstanding scholars, all of whom were considered specialists in the field of recitation. Most of their methods of recitation were authenticated by chains of reliable narrators, ending with the Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wassalam. Those methods on each level of their chain were called Mutawatir and were considered to be the most accurate. Those methods in which the number of narrators were few or one on any level of the chain were referred to as Shadh.

However, some of the scholars of the following period began the practice of designating a set number of individual scholars from the previous period as being the most noteworthy and accurate reciters. By the middle of the tenth century CE (6th century AH), it became a popular convention to limit the number of best reciters to seven, since this number coincided with the number of huruf in which the Qur’an was revealed.

Similarly, during this period the number of schools of Islamic law (Madhhab) were reduced to the famous four after a period in which there were many. The first to limit the number of authentic reciters to seven was the ‘Iraqi scholar, Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid rahimahuLlah (d. 936 CE), and those who wrote books on Qira’ah after him followed suit.[5] This limitation is not an accurate representation of the classical scholars of Qur’anic recitation. There were many others who were as good as the seven and a number who were greater than them. In fact, the classification of scholars was really a classification of how well their methods of recitation were preserved. Hence, the famous seven were those early scholars from different generations whose methods of recitation had the most chains of narrators with many narrations on each level of the chain. However, there were other classical scholars whose methods of recitation were just as authentically (Mutawatir) recorded as the famous seven. A list of the ten scholars of Qur’anic recitation whose methods were best preserved is as follows:

1. Abu ‘Amr ibn al-’Ala (d. 771 CE/154 AH) of Basrah

2. Ibn Kathir (d. 738 CE/119 AH) was among the students of the Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhum of Makkah.

3. Nafi’ (d. 786 CE/169 AH) was originally from Isfahan, and his recitation, as transmitted by Warsh (d. 812 CE/196 AH), was of Madinah.

4. Ibn ‘Amir (d. 737 CE/118 AH) was the chief judge (Qadhi) of Damascus during the reign of al-Walid ibn ‘Abdul Malik, who, along with the other Umayyad caliphs, made that city his capital.

5. ‘Asim (d. 746 CE/128 AH) of Kufah was the narrator of the dominant recitation in current use. His narration, as transmitted by Hafs, is the most common method of narration used in the Muslim world today with the exception of Africa.

6. Hamzah (d. 773 CE/156 AH) of Kufah.

7. Al-Kisa’i (d. 805 CE/189 AH) of Kufah was one of the foremost grammarians. He played a major role in the formulation of Arabic grammar rules.

8. Abu Ja’far (d. 750 CE/132 AH) of Madinah.

9. Ya’qub (d. 820 CE/204 AH) of Basrah.

10. Khalaf (d. 844 CE/229 AH) of Baghdad rahimahum Allah

At the same time that scholars of hadith laid down conditions to determine the authenticity of statements or actions attributed to the Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi wassalam, scholars of Qur’anic recitation also formulated conditions to facilitate critical analysis of the existing recitations. For any given recitation to be accepted as authentic (Sahih), it had to fulfill three conditions. If any of the conditions were missing, such a recitation was classified as Shadh (unusual). The first condition was that the recitation have an authentic chain of narration; that is, that the chain of narrators had to be unbroken, that the narrators were known to be righteous, and that they were known to possess good memories. It was also required that the recitation be conveyed by a large number of narrators on each level of the chain of narration below the level of the Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhm (the condition of Tawatur). Narrations which had authentic chains but lacked the condition of Tawatur were accepted as explanations (Tafsir) of Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhu??, but were not considered as methods of reciting the Qur’an. As for narrations which did not even have an authentic chain of narration, they were classified “batil” (false) and rejected totally.

The second condition was that the recitations’ variations match known Arabic grammatical constructions. Unusual constructions were verified by their existence in passages of pre-Islamic prose or poetry.

The third condition required the recitation to coincide with the script of one of the copies of Qur’an distributed during the era of Caliph ‘Uthman radhi Allahu ‘anhu. Hence, differences which result from dot placement (e.g. ta’lamun and ya’lamun) are considered acceptable, provided the other conditions are met. If no support for an unusual condition could be found, the recitation of that construction would be classified Shadh. [6]

This classification did not mean that all aspects of the recitation were considered Shadh; in fact, none of the accepted ten methods are totally free from some Shadh constructions. Shadh narrations of this type also serve as explanations for the authentic narrations, as they are obviously statements of the Sahabah radhi Allahu ‘anhum.

Now back to the issue of variant recitation. The answer to this question is that it is an odd recitation that has was rejected by Imam At-?abari rahimahuLlah although it was transmitted in authentic chain from ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abbas radhi Allahu ‘anhma. This recitation is both Shadhah and Mashhurah at the same time as it is a recitation that that is according to Arabic language and match the writings of the ‘Uthmani script written words that comes in authentic chain but did not reach level of Tawatur. And, this is not from the famous ten recitations. This ayah’s tafsir been disputed by the scholars of the past so it is not possible to say which of the tafsirs is stronger. And indeed, Allah subhanahu wa ta’alaknows best.

References:

[1] Surah al-Baqarah, 2:102

[2] Ma’alim at-Tanzil

[3] Al-Itqan

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Ibid

BismiLlah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim

Divine laws were revealed by Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to His messengers ‘alayhim salatu was-salaam for the purpose of correcting man’s beliefs about Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala (‘aqidah), his methods of worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala (‘ibadah), and his social life or social conduct (mu’amalat). Since there is only one correct belief about Allah subhanahu wa ta’alatawhid, whereby Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is considered as One, without partner in His essence, His attributes, His actions, and right of worship, all of the prophets invited mankind to that belief in exactly the same way.

However, in the case of methods of worship and social conduct, the same format was not used in all cases. Thus Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala repealed Laws in certain conditions and this is known as Naskh. The proof of this is in the ayah,

CONDITIONS FOR NASKH

For naskh to have taken place, the following three conditions must have been fulfilled:

1. The law which has been replaced has to have been a divine law. This means that the gradual prohibition of alcohol would not be classified as naskh, because each successive verse only expanded the prohibitive scope of the previous verse. The original behaviour of the people was to act as if alcohol was lawful. It was their assumption that alcohol was permissible that was gradually abolished by the three verses on this subject, not any previous statement by Allaah that liquor was permissible.

2. The proof used to replace the old law has to be a divine command which was revealed after the revelation of the old law.

3. The law which is to be replaced cannot have a specific time limit attached to it from the time of its revelation. If it has a limited time period, it simply becomes void when the time period ends, and such a process is not considered as naskh. For instance, fasting is required daily until sunset during Ramadan. The permission to eat at night during Ramadan or, after it is over, by day or night, doesn’t involve naskh.

[1] Surat al-Baqarah:106