The translation of the report as follows:
Section: What al-Hajjâj
Had Changed in cUthmân's Mushâf?
Abû Bakr said that it was there
in the book of my father that a man told; I asked my father, "Who was that man?".
He said,"Abbâd ibn Suhaib told us from Awf ibn Abî Jamîla
that al-Hajjâj bin Yûsuf changed in cUthmân's
mushâf 11 letters". He said in
al-Baqarah (2:259) lam yatasanna
wanzur without ha to lam yatasannah with ha.
and in al-Ma'idah (5:48) sharî'atan
wa minhâjan was changed to shir'atan wa minhâjan
and in Yûnus (10:22) huwal-ladhî
yunash-shirukum was changed to yusay-yirukum
and in Yûsuf (12:45) 'anâ-âtîkum
bita'wilihi was changed to 'anâ onabbio'kum bita'wilihi
and in Mu'minûn (23:85-89) sayaqûlûna
lillâh....lillâh....lillâh he made the two last occurrences
allâh....allâh
and in as-Shucara
in the story of Nuh (26:116) it was minal mukhrajîna and in the story
of Lut (26:167) it was minal marjumîna. It was changed in the story
of Nuh to minal marjumîna and in the story of Lut to minal mukhrajîna
and in az-Zukhruf (43:32) it was nahnu
qasamnâ baynahum mâc ishahum and he changed it to macîshatahum
and in al-ladhîna kafarû
(47:15) min mâcinn ghayri yasin was changed to
min mâcinn ghayri âsin
and in al-Hadîd (57:7) he
changed fal-ladhîna âmanu minkum wat-taqaw lahum 'ajrun kabîr
to minkum wa anfaqu.
and in "When the Sun is folded up"
(81:24) wa mâ huwa 'alal-ghaybi bidhanîn to bidanîn[7]
The Nature Of Changes Which Al-Hajjâj
Made
Interestingly enough this report does not provide
any clue of the nature of changes that were made by al-Hajjâj in the
mushâf of cUthmân(R). An in-depth study shows that they are the differences in
the Qirâ'ât. A crash course on Qirâ'ât can be obtained from
here.
So, we will deal with the changes which al-Hajjâj
made one by one, inshallah.
Dr. cUmar Ibn Ibrâhîm Radwân did research on
this issue for his Ph.D thesis in University of Imâm Muhammad Ibn Saud.
His thesis was published as a book from Riyadh in two volumes. The book is called
Aarâ' al-Mustashriqîn
Hawl al-Qur'ân al-Karîm wa Tafsîr: Dirâsah Wa Naqd (The
Views Of The Orientalists About The Holy Qur'ân & Its Interpretation: Study
and Criticism).
After quoting the hadîth of Ibn Abî
Dâwûd, Dr. Radwân mentions in his footnotes about the Qirâ'ât
which the changes are associated with.
al-Baqarah (2:259) lam yatasanna
wanzur without ha to lam yatasannah with ha.[8]
Comments: Both
readings are among The Seven as it is mentioned by Ibn Zanjalah in Hujjat al-Qirâ'ât,
page 142/143, where he says that Hamzah and al-Kisâ'i read lam yatasanna
without the letter ha in wasl (i.e., in case they didn't stop at the word
yatasanna while reading) and the five other readings read yatasannah
keeping the ha even when they didn't stop.[9]
and in al-Ma'idah (5:48) sharî'atan
wa minhâjan was changed to shir'atan wa minhâjan.[10]
Comments: an-Nakh'î
and Ibn Waththâb read with a fathah on the letter shîn
(i.e shar'atan) and the whole community of readers read shir'atan and
I found nobody mentioning sharî'atan.[11]
and in Yûnus (10:22) huwal-ladhî
yunash-shirukum was changed to yusay-yirukum[12]
Comments: Both
readings are among The Seven. They were mentioned by Ibn Zanjalah in his book Hujjat al-Qirâ'ât, page 329, where he says that Ibn 'Aamir read
yunash-shirukum and the other readers read yusay-yirukum.[13]
and in Yûsuf (12:45) 'anâ-âtîkum
bita'wilihi was changed to 'anâ onabbio'kum bita'wilihi[14]
Comments: al-Hasan
read 'anâ-âtikom with a long hamzah having a fathah followed
by the letter tâ having a kasrah and a silent yâ.
And in wasl (i.e., when not stopping on the word), Nâfî' and Abû
Jacfar read 'anâ onabbio'kum as it is
mentioned by Ahmad cAbdul Ghany ad-Domyâtî in his book
Ithâfu Fodalâ' ilbashar Fil Qirâ'ât Ilarba'a 'Ashar,
page 265.[15]
and in Mu'minûn (23:85-89) sayaqûlûna
lillâh....lillâh....lillâh he made the two last occurrences
allâh....allâh16]
Comments: All
these readings are among The Seven as mentioned by Ibn Zanjalah in Hujjat al-Qirâ'ât, page 490, where he says that Abû 'Aamir
read allâh...allâh with an alif and the others read lillâh...lillâh
and all readings agreed on the first occurrence (i.e., lillâh). [17]
and in as-Shucara
in the story of Nuh (26:116) it was minal mukhrajîna and in the story
of Lut (26:167) it was minal marjumîna. It was changed in the story
of Nuh to minal marjumîna and in the story of Lut to minal mukhrajîna.[18]
Comment: I
didn't find anybody who mentioned what the author has said.[19]
and in az-Zukhruf (43:32) it was nahnu
qasamnâ baynahum mâc ishahum and he changed it to macîshatahum[20]
Comments: The
reading of the community (jumhoor) of readers is macishatahum
in singular. al-'Amash and cAbdullâh and Ibn cAbbâs
and Sufyân read mâcishahum in plural as mentioned by Abû
Hayyân in Al-Bahr al-Muhît, VIII - page 13.[21]
and in al-ladhîna kafarû
(47:15) min mâcinn ghayri yasin was changed to
min mâcinn ghayri âsin[22]
Comments: The
Seven except Ibn Kathîr read ghayri âsin with a madd (a
long vowel), as for the reading yâsinin it is shâdh and
was mentioned by Abû Hayyân who reported it using the words it was said
that .... Refer to Hujjat al-Qirâ'ât in page 667 by Ibn Zanjalah and the interpretation of Al-Bahr al-Muhît, VIII - page 79.[23]
and in al-Hadîd (57:7) he
changed fal-ladhîna âmanu minkum wat-taqaw lahum 'ajrun kabîr
to minkum wa anfaqu. [24]
Comment: I
could not find the one who mentioned this reading.
[25]
and in "When the Sun is folded up"
(81:24) wa mâ huwa 'alal-ghaybi bidhanîn to bidanîn[26]
Comment: Ibn
Kathîr and Abû 'Amr and al-Kisâ'i and Rees and Ibn Mahrân
from Rawh read with the letter dhâ and the others read with the letter
dâd, and so it is in all the Codices (the books). Refer to An-Nashr fil Qirâ'ât il'ashr, II - page 398/399. [27]
Dr. Radwân went on to say:
These readings as I have just highlighted
are among the correct (Sahîh), Mutawâtir
and well established that we can read in any form it has been drawn into and among
them are ones I could not verify which make us doubt about their being attributed
to al-Hajjâj, especially because he was not isolated from the Ummah.
Much more, in his time, no Muslim would let him change or replace anything traced
back to the Prophet(P) whether it concerned Qur'ân or hadith.
All these arguments rebut the claims
of the Orientalists. And the following points confirm the validity of my opinion:
- al-Hajjâj being loyal to
cUthmân (or from his court) and since he
wouldn't forgive those who let cUthmân down on the day of ad-Dâr (or
the house), how could he question cUthmân and his codex and make changes in
it.
- The codex of cUthmân
was spread everywhere and its copies in the time of cUthmân
were countless. How about their number in the Umayyads time? Undoubtedly, their number
has increased. Moreover, al-Hajjâj was the mere governor of one county
of the huge Islamic land. Supposing that he was able to change the copies of his
county how could he reach the ones in the other districts while there were thousands
of copies! Much more, history did not mention contradictions between the Codices
of Iraq and the other Codices. It is well known that the Great Book is saved in the
chests of Muslims as much as it is saved in written form. If al-Hajjâj
managed to change the lines how could he reach what is inside the chests of thousands
of Muslims?
- It is known as well that the Abbassid
dynasty was established on the ruins of the Umayyads and that they changed many of
the policies of Banî Umayyah in the administration of the lands. They didn't
spare any effort in showing the negative aspects of Banî Umayyah and in getting
close to the people by spreading justice and defending it. If the Abbassids had found
any changes in the Holy Book, it would have been the greatest opportunity for them
to show how misleading Banî Umayyah were and, thus, give their own rule some
additional legitimacy.[28]
To conclude the issue of al-Hajjâj and
the changes he made in the Qur'ân:
- It is very obvious that there was no new recension
after cUthmân
united Muslims on the basis of single text. Muslims have agreed on this. al-Hajjâj's
role is rather well documented in the literature concerning cUlum al-Qur'ân
(Sciences of the Qur'ân). It has been shown above that the readings which he
changed are mutawatir. There is only the difference in the Qirâ'ât.
Muslims have accepted various Qirâ'ât as authentic provided they satisfy
some conditions. They are the following:
- The first condition was that the recitation
have an authentic chain of narration in which the chain of narrators was continuous,
the narrators were all known to be righteous and they were all 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 Sahaabah
(the condition of Tawaatur). Narrations which had authentic chains but lacked
the condition of Tawaatur were accepted as explanations (Tafseer) of
the Sahaabah but were not considered as methods of reciting the Qur'ân.
As for the narrations which did not even have an authentic chain of narration, they
were classified as Baatil (false) and rejected totally.
- The second condition was that the variations
in recitations match known Arabic grammatical constructions. Unusual constructions
could be 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 the Qur'ân distributed
during the era of Caliph 'Uthman (RA). Hence differences which result from dot placement
(i.e., ta'lamoon and ya'lamoon) are considered acceptable provided
the other conditions are met. A recitation of a construction for which no evidence
could be found would be classified Shaadhdh. This classification did not mean
that all aspects of the recitation was considered Shaadhdh. it only meant
that the unverified constructions were considered Shaadhdh.[29]
- As pointed out earlier, how could al-Hajjâj,
who was governor of Iraq, a small part of Muslim land, able to change the Qur'ânic
text completely. The only changes he made was in cUthmân's mushâf not in any other
text as far as the report mentioned above suggests. The complete change of Qur'ân
is not documented in the Islamic history at all. And above all how could he change
what was commited in the memory of Muslims in the Islamic empire.
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