Qira'at

Qira'at , in the context of Islam , which means literally the readings, and terminologically the method of recitation. Traditionally, there are 10 recognised schools of qira'at, and each one derives its name from a famous reader of Qur'an recitation.

In Islam , Qira'at , which means literally the readings, terminologically means the method of recitation . Traditionally, there are 10 recognised schools of qira'at, and each one derives its name from a famous reader of Quran recitation.

In Islam , Qira'at ( ) refers to variants in the recitation of the Quran . There are ten different recognised schools of qira'at , each one deriving its name from a noted Quran reciter or "reader" ( Qari ). Each reciter recited to two narrators whose narrations are known as riwaya (transmissions) and named after its primary narrator. Each Rawi (singular of riwaya ) has turuq (transmission lines) with more variants created by notable students of the master who recited them and named after the student of the master. Passed down from Turuq are wujuh : the wajh of so-and-so from the tariq of so-and-so. There are about twenty riwayat and eighty turuq . Various hadith —where Muhammad listens to recitations of various companions and approves of each of them, or corrects Umar 's berating another companion 's recitation saying the "Quran has been revealed in seven Ahruf ", or claim Muhammad asked the angel Jibreel to teach him different styles of recitation until he had learned seven —provide an Islamic basis for the different variants ( Ahruf ) of the Quran. (Both Ahruf and Qira'at are variations in recitation but Ahruf were discontinued by order of caliph Uthman sometime in the mid-7th century CE when "the Quran began to be read in only one harf (variation)", while the seven readings of the Qira'at began to be passed down in the 8th century CE.) Differences between Qira'at are slight and include differences in stops, vowels, and sometimes letters. Recitation should be in accordance with rules of pronunciation , intonation , and caesuras established by Muhammad and first recorded during the eighth century CE. The maṣḥaf Quran that is in "general use" throughout almost all the Muslim world today, is a 1924 Egyptian edition based on the Qira'at reading of Ḥafṣ (the Rawi , "transmitter"), on the authority of `Asim (the Qari , "reader"). Each melodic passage centers on a single tone level, but the melodic contour and melodic passages are largely shaped by the reading rules (creating passages of different lengths, whose temporal expansion is defined with caesuras). Skilled readers may read professionally for urban mosques .

Method of recitation of the Quran This article is about the traditional schools of recitation. In Islam , Qirāʼah (pl. Qirāʼāt ; ) are different linguistic, lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactical forms permitted with reciting the holy book of Islam, the Quran . Differences between Qiraʼat are slight and include varying rules regarding the prolongation, intonation, and pronunciation of words, but also differences in stops, vowels, consonants (leading to different pronouns and verb forms), and less frequently entire words. Qiraʼat also refers to the branch of Islamic studies that deals with these modes of recitation. There are ten recognised schools of qiraʼat , each one deriving its name from a noted Quran reciter or "reader" ( qāriʾ pl. qāriʾūn or qurr'aʿ ), such as Nafi‘ al-Madani , Ibn Kathir al-Makki , Abu Amr of Basra , Ibn Amir ad-Dimashqi , Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud , Hamzah az-Zaiyyat , and Al-Kisa'i . While these readers lived in the second and third century of Islam, the scholar who approved the first seven qira'at ( Abu Bakr Ibn Mujāhid ) lived a century later, and the readings themselves have a chain of transmission (like hadith ) going back to the time of Muhammad. Consequently, the readers/ qurr'aʿ who give their name to Qira'at are part of a chain of transmission called a riwaya . The lines of transmission passed down from a riwaya are called turuq , and those passed down from a turuq are called wujuh . Qiraʼat should not be confused with Tajwid —the rules of pronunciation , intonation , and caesuras of the Quran. Qiraʼat are called readings or recitations because the Quran was originally spread and passed down orally, and though there was a written text, it did not include most vowels or distinguish between many consonants, allowing for much variation. ( Qiraʼat now each have their own text in modern Arabic script.) Qira'at are also sometimes confused with Ahruf —both being readings of the Quran with "unbroken chain(s) of transmission going back to the Prophet". There are multiple views on the nature of the ahruf and how they relate to the qira'at , the general view being that caliph Uthman eliminated all of the ahruf except one during the 7th century CE. The ten qira'at were canonized by Islamic scholars in early centuries of Islam. Even after centuries of Islamic scholarship, the variants of the Qira'at have been said to continue "to astound and puzzle" Islamic scholars (by Ammar Khatib and Nazir Khan), and along with Ahruf make up "the most difficult topics" in Quranic studies (according to Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi ). Qira'at may also seem to conflict with the doctrine that the Quran "exists exactly as it had been revealed to the Prophet ; not a word - nay, not a dot of it - has been changed", which many Muslims assume means there must be only one reading of the Quran. The Qira'at include differences in consonantal diacritics ( i‘jām ), vowel marks ( ḥarakāt ), and the consonantal skeleton ( rasm ), resulting in materially different readings (see examples ). The maṣḥaf Quran that is in "general use" throughout almost all the Muslim world today is a 1924 Egyptian edition based on the Qira'at "reading of Ḥafṣ on the authority of `Asim" (Ḥafṣ being the Rawi , or "transmitter", and `Asim being the Qari or "reader"). Islamic Beliefs, Practices, and Cultures . In Leaman, Oliver (ed.). The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia . There are <ref group=Note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a template (see the help page ).