Ahruf

According to hadith حَدِيث ‎ literature, the Quran is revealed in seven Ahruf أَحْرُف ‎ (the plural of harf حَرْف ‎). Ahruf are distinct from Qira'at قِرَاءَات ‎. Malik Ibn Anas reported that the second Rashidun Caliph Umar Ibn al-Khattab said: "I heard Hisham Ibn Hakim Ibn Hizam reading Surat Al-Furqan in a different way from the one I used to read it, and the Prophet himself had read out this surah to me. Consequently, as soon as I heard him, I wanted to get hold of him. However, I gave him respite until he had finished the prayer. Then I got hold of his cloak and dragged him to the Prophet. I said to him: “I have heard this person [Hisham Ibn Hakim Ibn Hizam] reading Surah Al Furqan in a different way from the one you had read it out to me.” The Prophet said: “Leave him alone [O ‘Umar].” Then he said to Hashim: “Read [it].” [Umar said:] “He read it out in the same way as he had done before me.” [At this,] the Prophet said: “It was revealed thus.” Then the Prophet asked me to read it out. So I read it out. [At this], he said: “It was revealed thus; this Quran has been revealed in seven Ahruf. You can read it in any of them you find easy from among them." Malik Ibn Anas , Muwatta , vol. 1 (Egypt: Dar Ahya al-Turath, n.d.), 201, (no. 473).

Method of transmission of the Quran According to Islamic tradition, the Quran was revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel ( Jibril ) in seven ahruf ( , singular: ḥarf ), translated variously as "styles", "ways", "forms" and "modes". Islamic scholars agree that the ahruf were styles used by the early Muslims to recite the Quran. The Islamic Caliph Uthman compiled the Quran using one of the ahruf during the 7th century, and the other ahruf fell out of use. The ahruf are distinct from the qira'at , which are methods of pronouncing the Quran that also go back to Muhammad according to the Hadith.