Usool at-Tafseer Part 8 (THE QUR’AANIC TEXT) by Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Usool at-Tafseer (The Fundamental Principles of Qur’aanic Interpretation)
Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
in each soorah was set by the Prophet (r) himself, as is indicated in a number of
hadeeths (recorded sayings or actions of the Prophet [r]). For example, ‘Uthmaan
ibn Abee al-‘Aas said, “Once while I was sitting with Allaah’s Messenger (r), he
rolled his eyes upwards in a stare, then after a while he lowered them and said,
‘Jibreel came to me and ordered me to place this aayah in this place in this
soorah:
‘Verily Allaah commands justice, kindness, and charity to close
relatives.”3
1 Arabic-English Lexicon, vol. 1, p. 135.
2 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 1465.
3 Soorah an-Nahl (16):90. The report was collected by Ahmad (no. 17240). It has Layth ibn Abee
Sulaym ibn Zunaym in the isnaad. Ibn Hajar said about him, “He was sadooq (truthful) but he
became very befuddled (in his old age) and his hadeeth could not be sorted out, so they abandoned
him.” However, Muslim relies on him when his reports corroborate others. (See Taqreeb at-
Tahtheeb, p. 464, no. 5685.) Ahmad reports in another hadeeth that ‘Uthmaan told Ibn ‘Abbaas,
The Prophet (r) also made reference to aayahs in particular positions in soorahs.
For example, Aboo ad-Dardaa’ reported that the Prophet (r) said,
“Whoever memorizes the first ten verses of Soorah al-Kahf will be protected from
Ad-Dajjaal (the Anti-Christ).” 4
Also, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab mentioned during a sermon that he had been
confused about a problem of inheritance related to a person who dies without
parents or children to inherit from him. He kept asking the Prophet (r) about it,
until he became annoyed, prodded him in the chest and said,
“ Isn’t the verse (revealed) in the summer, the one at the end of Soorah an-Nisaa’,
enough for you?” 5
If the order of the verses was not fixed, these hadeeths, and others like them,
which attach special benefits for particular verses would be meaningless. There
are also numerous authentic reports in which the Prophet (r) recited soorahs
with the verses in order during salaah (prayer), Jumu‘ah sermons, etc.
During the second copying of the Qur’aan, Caliph ‘Uthmaan personally
checked the position of each aayah in every soorah, making sure that every one
was in place, even if they were abrogated verses. Ibn az-Zubayr reported that he
said to Caliph ‘Uthmaan, “The verse: ‘And those of you who die, leaving wives
behind...’6 has been canceled by the other aayah, so why are you having it written
“Soorahs were revealed to the Prophet (r) over a period of time. Whenever something would be
revealed to him, he would call one of his scribes and tell him, ‘Place this in the soorah that
mentions such-and-such.’ (Musnad Ahmad, nos. 376 and 468.) The hadeeth was also collected by
Aboo Daawood (Sunan Abu Dawud, vol. 1, pp. 201-2, no. 785) and at-Tirmithee and has seven
isnaads, all containing Yazeed al-Faarisee, who was classified as maqbool (acceptable for
corroborative reports) by Ibn Hajar. (See Taqreeb at-Tahtheeb, p. 606, no. 7796.) The rest of the
narrators are highly reliable. The hadeeth is thus weak by itself, but it may be used where it
corroborates another report, such as the hadeeth of ‘Uthmaan ibn Abee al-‘Aas.
4 Collected by Muslim (Sahih Muslim, vol. 2, pp. 386-7, no. 1766) and Aboo Daawood (Sunan
Abu Dawud, vol. 3, p.1203, no. 4309).
5 Sahih Muslim, vol. 3, p. 854, no. 3937.
6 Soorah al-Baqarah (2):240.
[or why are you allowing it to stay written]?” He replied, “O my nephew, I will
not remove anything from its original place.”7
Similarly, the order of the soorahs was fixed by the Prophet (r) himself,
although it is recorded that ‘Alee ibn Abee Taalib had compiled a text in which
the soorahs were ordered according to the time of their revelation. That is, it
began with Soorah al-‘Alaq, then al-Mudath-thir, and then Noon. It has also been
recorded that Ibn Mas‘ood had a text which began with Soorah al-Baqarah, then
an-Nisaa’, and then Aal‘Imraan; while Ubayy had one which began with Soorah
al-Faatihah, then al-Baqarah, an-Nisaa’, and Aal ‘Imraan.8 However, none of
these great companions of the Prophet (r) argued with the order confirmed by
Caliph ‘Uthmaan and the committee of sahaabah that copied and distributed
copies of the Qur’aan to the various centers of the Muslim state. In fact, these and
other companions burned their copies in order to avoid any confu-sion.9 None of
this would have taken place if the order of the soorahs was not fixed.
It should also be noted that Jibreel reviewed the Qur’aan once during every
Ramadaan of the Prophet’s life except during the final year, in which he recited it
to him twice.10 For such a review to be of any value, a fixed order had to have
been there, especially considering the fact that some of the sahaabah used to
listen to the Prophet (r) as he recited it to Jibreel.
THE ‘UTHMAANEE SCRIPT
There is nothing recorded from the Prophet (r) to indicate that the script used
to copy the Qur’aan during Caliph ‘Uthmaan’s era was fixed. Caliph ‘Uthmaan
told the scribes to write it according to the Qurayshee dialect if any difference
arose in spelling. Hence, when Zayd ibn Thaabit differed with the other three
Qurayshee scribes over the word taaboot, and Zayd wanted to write it تابوة
7 Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 6, p. 40, no. 53.
8 See al-Itqaan, vol. 1, pp. 181-3, and Ma‘ al-Masaahif, pp. 81-7.
9 See al-Itqaan, vol. 1, pp. 170-1. As-Suyootee quotes a report he classified as authentic, which
was collected by Ibn Abee Daawood in Kitaab al-Masaahif, that after‘Uthmaan’s death, ‘Alee
defended his reputation from people who tagged him “the mus-haf burner,” explaining that he did
so only after consulting the leading companions and receiving their approval.
10 Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 6, p. 486, no. 519.
(taabooh), ‘Uthmaan said, “Write it تابوت (taaboot), for verily, the Qur’aan was
revealed according to the Qurayshee dialect.”11
However, the majority of scholars considered it preferable that the original
spelling be maintained in order to protect the Qur’aan from changes which might
result from the evolution of writing rules with the passage of time. These rules
also vary from country to country, which could have led to disunity and discord
over the very text of the Qur’aan. Hence, when Imaam Maalik was asked whether
the Qur’aan could be written according to the dictation rules of his time, he
replied, “No, it should only be written according to the way that it was originally
written.”12
Other scholars, such as Qaadee al-Baaqillaanee (died 1013 CE/403 AH) and
Ibn Khaldoon (died 1405 CE/808 AH), considered it permissible to write the
Qur’aan according to the rules of standard Arabic, from which the ‘Uthmaanee
Mus-haf differs slightly. Al-Baaqillaanee argued that for someone to insist upon
writing the Qur’aan according to a specific set of written symbols requires a proof
from the Qur’aan and Sunnah, and there is no such proof. He also mentioned that
some of the prominent sahaabah had mus-hafs which differed from the writing
system employed in the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf.13 Ibn Khaldoon (died 1406 CE/808
AH) argued that the sahaabah wrote the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf at a time when the
rules of Arabic writing had not yet been standardized, therefore there is no need to
stick to their writing where it differs from what became the accepted norm. Al-
‘Izz ibn ‘Abdis-Salaam (died 1282 CE/660 AH) held the position that it was
obligatory to write the mus-haf which ordinary people read according to standard
Arabic in order to protect the ignorant from falling into errors of recitation that
change the meaning. Those who see the permissibility of this change point out
that what people are reading today and calling the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf is really
quite different from the way the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf originally looked. The
changes were all made for one purpose: to make it easier for the average Muslim
to recite the Qur’aan easily and correctly.14 The defenders of the ‘Uthmaanee
Mus-haf point out that the sahaabah wrote it in such a way as to accomodate the
greatest number of variant authentic recitations, and that writing it according to
modern standard Arabic would make some of the variants impossible to reconcile
with the script.
11 Collected by at-Tirmithee and authenticated by al-Albaanee in Saheeh Sunan at-Tirmithee, vol.
3, pp. 60, no. 2480.
12 Reported by Ash-hab and collected by Abu ‘Amr ad-Daanee in Al-Muqni‘. Quoted by as-
Suyootee in al-Itqaan, vol. 4, p. 146.
13 Lamahaat fee ‘Uloom al-Qur’aan, pp. 133-4.
14 Lamahaat fee ‘Uloom al-Qur’aan, p. 135.
The Qur’aanic texts of ‘Uthmaan’s era were written without dashes (tashkeel,
i.e. fat-hah, kasrah and dammah) to indicate the vowels and without dots (nuqat)
to distinguish between look-alike letters (e.g. Seen and Sheen, Saad and Daad,
etc.) The verses were not numbered, nor were there any punctuation signs to
indicate pauses or even the ending of verses. The following is an example of some
Qur’aanic verses written during that era:
All the literate Arab Muslims of those days possessed a natural grasp of the
language which enabled them to read texts written in this simple form without any
difficulty. However, when non-Arabs began to accept Islaam and learn Arabic,
errors in the recitation of the Qur’aan began to appear, due to their unfamiliarity
with the language. This became especially noticeable in the province of Iraq. In
fact, it is reported that once the grammarian, Abul-Aswad ad-Du’alee (d. 638 CE),
heard someone recite the phrase “rasooluh” in the following verse as “rasoolih.”
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“Annal-laaha baree-um minal-mushrikeena wa rasooluh”
“Verily, Allaah and His Messenger are free from (any obligation) to the
idolaters.”15
This minute change in recitation of a kasrah instead of a dammah, which could
not be distinguished in the written text caused the verse to mean instead: “Verily
Allaah is free from (any obligation) to the idolaters and His messenger.” Ziyaad,
the governor of al-Basrah, had previously requested ad-Du’alee to develop some
signs by which the masses could more easily read the Qur’aan. Ad-Du’alee had
delayed responding to the governor’s request for fear of introducing an un-Islamic
innovation. However, this recitational error shook him to such a degree that
shortly after that incident, he developed the first set of marks to indicate the
vowelling of the Arabic text.16 The fat-hah (the short vowel “a”) was indicated
by a dot above the beginning of the letter, kasrah (the short vowel “i”) was
indicated by a dot below the beginning of the letter, and dammah (the short
vowel “u”) was indicated by a dot at the end of the letter, between it and the
following letter if they were joined. Sukoon (indicating the end of a syllable on a
consonant) was represented by two dots.17 An example of a text from that period
follows:
8cm X 4cm
Later on, dots were added to distinguish between look-alike letters, and
vowel signs evolved from the letters related to them. For example, fat-hah
evolved from the alif and became a straight line above the letter; the kasrah
15 Soorah at-Tawbah (9):3.
16 Manaahil al-‘Irfaan, vol. 1, p. 401.
17 Mabaahith fee ‘Uloom al-Qur’aan, pp.150-51.
evolved from the yaa’ and became a line below the letter; and dammah evolved
from the waaw and became a tiny waaw written near the end of the letter.
Decoration of the Text
In the third century after the Hijrah (9th century C.E.), calligraphers began
competing with each other in the beautification of the Qur’aan. A number of
flowery scripts evolved and a variety of distinguishing marks appeared. It was
during this period that the sign “ ”, indicating a doubled consonant (tashdeed),
first came into use.
Following that, calligraphers began the practice of writing the name of the
soorah and the number of verses in it at the beginning of each soorah. Since the
Prophet (r) only mentioned a few of the soorahs by name and it was the practice
among the sahaabah to entitle the soorahs according to the introductory phrases
(e.g. Soorah Ara’ayta is now known as Soorah Maa‘oon), a variety of names for
the same soorah became common. Signs indicating the beginning and ending of
verses, signs showing the division of the Qur’aan according to juz’ (one of 30
parts), hizb (half a juz’) or rukoo‘, as well as a variety of punctuation marks, were
added to the text during this period.18
The scholars of the time were opposed to these additions, fearing
interpolations (additions to the main text). They based their opposition also on
the statement of the sahaabee Ibn Mas‘ood, “Keep the Qur’aan free from
additions and do not mix anything with it.”19 Most scholars, however, were not
against the dots and dashes to indicate vowelling and differentiate between lookalike
letters, as these had become a real necessity for correct recitation and
protection of the Qur’aanic text from distortion. Al-Hasan al-Basree, Ibn Seereen,
and Rabee‘ah (scholars among the students of the sahaabah) were all reported to
have said that the nuqtah (dots for distinguishing look-alike letters) and tashkeel
(vowel markings) were acceptable.20 In time, the widespread additions and
decorations of calligraphers became so commonplace that the early objections of
the scholars were forgotten. The Qur’aanic texts of today are clear evidence that
the opposition of the scholars was ignored, but the feared interpolation of
decorative additions has not occurred, due mainly to the continuing tradition
18 See al-Itqaan, vol. 4, pp. 161-62.
19 Musannaf ‘Abdur-Razzaaq, vol. 4, pp. 322-3, no. 7944.
20 Musannaf ‘Abdur-Razzaaq, vol. 4, pp. 323-4, no. 7948. Ibn Seereen seems to have changed his
mind on the issue, as ‘Abdur-Razzaaq has reported that he also expressed disapproval of this
practice. among Muslims of memorizing the whole text of the Qur’aan in its original
purity.
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