This Is Islam Uncovered

Are the 10 Qira’at All from God — or Were They Canonized by Men?

❓ What Muslims Claim

“The 10 Qira’at (readings) of the Quran are all divinely revealed and equally valid. They were all taught by the Prophet and preserved through sound transmission.”

This belief is widespread in the Muslim world today — especially since the 10 Qira’at were officially taught, memorized, and printed in the 20th and 21st centuries.

But here’s the big question:

If God revealed one Quran, why are there 10 different versions — with different words, different grammar, and different meanings?

And even more importantly:

Who decided which ones were “divine” and which ones weren’t?

The truth, backed by historical sources and Islamic scholarship, is this:

The 10 Qira’at were not all from God, and they were not all taught by Muhammad.
They were canonized by human scholars — hundreds of years after Muhammad’s death — based on varying transmission lines, politics, and regional influence.

🧾 What Are the Qira’at?

The Qira’at are different Arabic versions of the Quran.
Each one includes:
- Different wording
- Different grammar
- Different meanings
- In some cases, different theological or legal implications
They are traced back to different reciters who lived after Muhammad — often by multiple generations.

Examples:

Hafs ‘an ‘Asim (Iraq)
Warsh ‘an Nafi‘ (Medina)
Al-Duri ‘an Abu ‘Amr (Basra)
Khalaf ‘an Hamzah (Kufa)

They’re regional, not original — and were not all taught in Mecca or Medina during Muhammad’s life.

🕰️ The Timeline Exposes the Myth

Let’s be brutally honest about the historical timeline:

Event	Date
Muhammad dies	632 AD
Uthman’s recension (burning codices)	~650 AD
Earliest qira’at transmitters born	Late 7th century
Qira’at compiled and transmitted orally	8th–9th centuries
Ibn Mujahid canonizes 7 Qira’at	934 AD (3 centuries later!)
3 more qira’at added later (10 total)	11th–14th centuries

That means:

The Prophet taught none of the 10 qira’at in the form we know them.
The 10 qira’at were selected and authorized by scholars long after the Quran’s supposed completion.

📚 Who Was Ibn Mujahid?

Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid (d. 936 AD) is the man who:

Canonized 7 Qira’at as the official readings of the Quran in Baghdad.
Chose only 1 transmitter per reciter (e.g., Hafs from ‘Asim).
Rejected other readings that were well known in other regions.

So, the Quran’s "seven readings" didn’t come from Muhammad —
They came from a 9th-century scholar choosing which ones to accept.

Later scholars added 3 more to get the "Ten Qira’at." These were added by:

Al-Shatibi (for the 7 + 2 = 9 readings)
Ibn al-Jazari (added the 10th reading)

That’s not divine revelation. That’s scholarly selection and late-stage canonization.

🧠 Examples That Show These Are Not the Same Quran

Here are real examples of divergence between qira’at:

🔁 Surah 3:146

Hafs: “Many a prophet fought...”
Warsh: “Many a prophet was killed...”

👉 Did the prophets fight — or were they killed?

🔁 Surah 2:125

Hafs: “...a place of prayer”
Warsh: “...a place of prayers”

👉 Impacts ritual law and the number of prayers prescribed.

🔁 Surah 6:115

Hafs: “None can change His words.”
Kisa’i: “None can change Our words.”

👉 Pronoun changes alter the tone, voice, and possibly the theology.

🤯 If These Are All From God…

Then God:

Revealed 10 different versions of the same verse,
With different vocabularies,
Different grammatical constructions,
And different rulings.

That’s not clarity. That’s Quranic relativity (see previous post).

It directly contradicts:

“This is a clear Arabic Quran.” – Surah 16:103
“If it were from other than Allah, you would find much contradiction in it.” – Surah 4:82

The contradictions exist.
The clarity is gone.
The readings are divergent.

⚖️ Logical Breakdown

Syllogism A – Divine Origin?

God’s revelation cannot contradict itself.
The 10 qira’at contradict each other in content and meaning.
∴ They cannot all be from God.

Syllogism B – Canonization vs. Revelation

If something was chosen by scholars centuries after the Prophet, it was not directly revealed to him.
The 10 qira’at were chosen by scholars between the 10th–14th centuries.
∴ The 10 qira’at were not revealed to Muhammad, but selected by man.

✅ Final Verdict

The 10 Qira’at are not equally divine — and they were not all recited by Muhammad.

They contradict each other.
They were canonized by humans — not preserved by divine decree.
Their acceptance was based on politics, region, and scholarly consensus — not revelation.

Conclusion:

The 10 Qira’at are not the Word of God. They are human reconstructions of a fragmented oral tradition.

You don’t get 10 versions of a perfect book.
You get 10 when your preservation failed — and you tried to legitimize the damage.