The 'Complicated Process' of Early Quran Compilation, Texts and Readings | Rami Halaseh | PfanderFilms

introduces the 2nd stage of canonization of the Qur'an. The first was that of Uthman in 652 AD, in Medina, Arabia.

Dr Halaseh noted that Muslims claim that the Qur'an was canonized, or rather finalized in 652 AD, and that the Qur'an we have today is exactly the same. Many even state that not 'One word or even one letter has changed since this time'.

Dr Halaseh disagrees, as the literary sources in Islam paint a very different picture, one which includes later developments, as well as different transmissions with differing acceptances and rejections so that a multiplicity of changes leading to what his colleague Dr. Shady Nasser states were 5 different stages of canonization.

The first we already did a previous episode on, that of Uthman, who supposedly introduced the 'Textus receptus' in Medina, which had 114 Suras, and a 'fixed skeletal Rasm' (consonantal text).

Yet, according to Dr Halaseh, within a few years other 'Companion Codices' began to appear in other cities; including a codex in Damascus, written by Ubay Ibn Ka'b, which had 116 Suras, and another codex in Kufa (Iraq) which was written by Ibn Mas'ud; yet it had only 110 Suras, and contained different Sura titles as well as different verses and even different wordings.

These Codices were suppressed about 50 years later by Al Hajjaj, the governor of Iraq under Abd al Malik.

By the 10th century, Dr Halaseh suggested that there were many variant Qur'anic readings which were written using the newly created dots and vowels. These variants were such a problem that the scholar Ibn Mujahid (d.936) was commissioned to choose 7 'Eponymous' (self-titled) Readings before he died in 936 AD.

But what did he use to choose the 7 among more than 50 which existed at that time? According to Dr Halaseh there were two criteria which he could have used. Either that of 1) 'Mutawatir' (an agreement of many people who were separated from each other, so that they could have not influenced the decision of others), or 2) that of 'Ijma' (the agreement of the leaders amongst the Umma, known as the 'Ulemma').

In the end he seemed to use geography for much of his choice, so that 3 were from the city of Kufa, while one each was chosen from Mecca, Medina, Basra, and Damascus.

But these 7 were only chosen from the 50 or so 'Eponymous' Readers (Qira'ats). What about the few hundred 'Rawis', or transmitters who also had differing variant readings by the 10th century? And what of the two most popular readings which are used today, the Hafs and Warsh, neither of which were included in these 7 'Eponymous Readings' chosen by Ibn Mujahid?

That will be answered in the next episode by Dr Halaseh...so, stay tuned...


You can buy Dr Rami Halaseh's book 'The Topkapi Manuscript H.S. 32'
here:
https://www.amazon.com/Topkap%C4%B1-Qur%CA%BE%C4%81n-Manuscript-H-S-32/dp/3111455254/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CQL8OXJXVL33&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.LdGt9166h1QgbrLcdStNtDehvtvC87_qbhsuTjm8lHiwlsoVJiOIITtzhslU1SLUxWBDRlmcRaNaglR03wAe_FBYK6zPBsRPuFXT_n-9OUY.Gu-i1rI2TFNI43fAI32X1lq84jaxQ_TtPraL3CbSBz8&dib_tag=se&keywords=rami+halaseh&qid=1775612765&sprefix=Rami+Hala%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-1

© Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, March 31, 2026
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