This Is Islam Uncovered

The Quran Before Hafs: What Manuscripts Reveal — And How the 1924 Cairo Committee Silenced the Others

❓ The Core Claim Muslims Make

“The Quran we have today is exactly the same as the one revealed to Muhammad — preserved letter for letter, word for word, without variation.”

But the historical record tells a very different story — one that most Muslims never hear:

Ancient Quran manuscripts show variations, corrections, and omissions.
Different qirāʾāt (readings) with different words and meanings were in circulation for centuries.
And in the 20th century, the Cairo Committee in 1924 eliminated all the variants — printing and distributing just one version: Hafs.

So here’s the truth:

The Quran before Hafs was diverse, unstable, and regionally fragmented.
The Hafs Quran became dominant only through government enforcement, not divine preservation.

🧾 What the Early Manuscripts Really Show

📜 1. The Sana'a Palimpsest (Yemen)

One of the oldest Quran manuscripts ever found.
Contains a lower text that was later erased and overwritten.
The erased version differs from today’s Quran in words, structure, and content.

“The differences are significant enough to demonstrate that the text was not fixed at the time.”
— Gerd Puin, Quranic manuscript expert (Sana'a Project)

📜 2. The Topkapi and Samarkand Manuscripts

Often claimed by Muslim apologists as “Uthman's Quran.”
Yet both contain:
- Missing words
- Different orthography
- Corrections and marginal notes
Neither matches the Hafs Quran fully.
Both date to decades or even a century after Uthman — proving no uniform text existed.

📜 3. The Birmingham Fragments

Carbon dated to the 7th century.
Contain only a few verses.
Show no evidence of the full Quran’s structure, and do not match the Hafs text completely.

🤯 Bottom Line: Early Manuscripts Contradict the Hafs Quran

There is no manuscript from the 7th century that:

Matches the Hafs Quran word-for-word,
Contains all 114 surahs in order,
And is free from corrections and changes.

The myth of “perfect preservation” is not supported by manuscript evidence — only by claims made centuries later.

🏛️ The 1924 Cairo Committee: History’s Quiet Censor

📍 Background

By the early 1900s, Egypt was overwhelmed with:

Students reciting different qirāʾāt in schools,
Inconsistent Quranic texts across regions,
Confusion over which version to teach and print.

🛠️ The Solution? Standardize Everything

Al-Azhar University established a review committee.
They selected Hafs ‘an ‘Asim as the “official” Quran.
All other qirāʾāt — including Warsh, Qalun, Al-Duri, and others — were excluded from schools and publications in Egypt.

The 1924 Cairo Edition became the de facto “One Quran” of the modern Islamic world.

🔥 The Effect Was Profound

Warsh, once dominant in North Africa, was slowly replaced.
All non-Hafs printings were discontinued.
Only Hafs Qurans were mass-produced and exported globally.

This is why:

Muslims in the West, Middle East, and Asia today recite only Hafs.
Other qirāʾāt survive only in limited areas (e.g., Warsh in Morocco).

The diversity of early Qurans was erased — not by divine decree, but by a bureaucratic decision.

🧠 But Didn’t Muhammad Teach All the Qirāʾāt?

No historical evidence supports that claim.

The 10 canonical qirāʾāt were selected and codified between the 10th and 14th centuries, long after Muhammad.
Ibn Mujahid canonized seven in 934 AD. Others were added later.
The Prophet never:
- Named these reciters,
- Taught multiple contradictory versions of the same verse,
- Or instructed that “10 Qurans” should coexist.

⚖️ Logical Breakdown

Syllogism A – Preservation or Editorial Control?

A truly preserved divine book would not require 1,300 years and a government committee to define it.
The Hafs Quran was finalized and standardized only in 1924.
∴ The Quran was not preserved — it was edited and enforced.

Syllogism B – Manuscript Evidence

A text preserved perfectly must match its earliest manuscripts.
The Hafs Quran does not match the oldest manuscripts word-for-word.
∴ The claim of perfect preservation is false.

Syllogism C – Authenticity of Qirāʾāt

If the Prophet taught all 10 qirāʾāt, they would have been documented and preserved from the beginning.
The 10 qirāʾāt were canonized centuries later by scholars, not by the Prophet.
∴ The qirāʾāt are not part of the original revelation.

✅ Final Verdict

The Quran before Hafs was a collection of variant texts, competing recitations, and regional readings.
The Quran after 1924 became “perfect” only by suppressing the evidence of its imperfection.

Conclusion:

The Quran was not preserved. It was standardized.
What we call “the Quran” today is a 20th-century product of modern state censorship, not a 7th-century oral miracle.