Comparing Arabic Qur’ān Versions Verse 9:66 (Hafs, Qaloon, Al-Bazzi)

On July 4, 2022June 28, 2022 By Whatsoever Things Are TrueIn IslamLeave a comment

Ask any Muslim which Qur’ān they read and they’ll respond “there’s only one Qur’ān”. Is this true, is there only one Qur’ān? Below we’ve compared At-Tawbah 9:66 from 3 different Arabic Qur’an’s.

Those being a recitation according to Hafs from Asim, this is the most popular version of the Qur’ān among Muslims. The Majority of Muslims recite the Qur’ān according to Hafs as it was standardised and published in the year 1924. The other two Qur’ān’s we’ll look at are Qalon and Al-Bazzi all of which you can purchase online.

Do not ( لَا ) make excuse ( تَعْتَذِرُوا۟ ) verily (قَدْ) you have disbelieved (كَفَرْتُم) after (بَعْدَ) your belief (إِيمَـٰنِكُمْ ۚ) if ( إِن ) we pardon ( نَّعْفُ ) on ( عَن ) a party ( طَآئِفَةٍۢ ) of you ( مِّنكُمْ ) We will punish ( نُعَذِّبْ ) a party ( طَآئِفَةًۢ ) because they ( بِأَنَّهُمْ ) were ( كَانُوا۟ ) criminals ( مُجْرِمِينَ )

Qalon on Nafi’ and Al-Bazzi are two lesser-known Qur’ān’s. When comparing words between the 3 on the surface they look the same but upon careful examination, we see the words are actually not the same due to different diacritical marks and letters.

It’s important that we know what diacritical marks are and how they affect the words of the Arabic language. The Arabic language has numerous diacritics. The word diacritic refers to the markings which appear above and below letters to help in their pronunciation.^[1]

The basic diacritics

The diacritics will be demonstrated with the letter د (d).
دَ – fathah (فَتْحَة) (Fathah (a line above the letter) means a short vowel “a” after the letter. So دَ is “da”, بَ is “ba” and so on.)
دِ – kasrah (كَسْرَة) (Kasrah (a line below the letter) means a short vowel “i” (ee) after the letter.)
^{Arabic letters and diacritics}

Diacritical marks are extremely important as to the pronunciation and meaning of the Arabic words. So if the Qur’ān has different versions with different diacritical marks this would alter the meaning of verses. If just one marking is different then the word is no longer the same, the purpose of this article to provide evidence there’s more than one Qur’ān. In the following quote, we’re told that one word can have multiple meanings to the different diacritical marks.

…the use of diacritical marks generates sixteen different words from a single root word that comprises three letters س ل م, the decomposed word in green. The difference between these words is either in meaning or grammar, in addition to pronunciation. Let’s consider the first three words in the first line in the table. These words have the same component letters, and the only difference between them is the diacritical marks which make them three completely different words with respect to meaning. The first word سَلِمَ salima means ‘to be secure’, the second سَلَّمَ sallama means ‘to surrender’, and the third سِلْمٌ silmun means ‘peace’
^{Basic Arabic: Diacritical Marks}

Qalon was of Roman heritage. His Sheikh was Naafi’, who apparently nicknamed him Qalon due to the quality of his recitation. Below is the Qalon^[2] version of the Qur’an same verse in the Hafs version of the Qur’ān all except some words are different. The highlighted portions show the differences in words and diacritical marks as we learned above.

This completely contradicts the argument that theirs only one Qur’ān, for the sake of brevity I’m only presenting 3 different Qur’ān’s but there are to date somewhere around 40 versions of the Qur’ān with different letters and markings which at times slightly or dramatically changes the meaning of verses.

Al-Bazzi was an important figure in the transmission of Qira’at, the seven canonical methods of Qur’ān reading. Below is the Al-Bazzi version of the Qur’an,^[3] he and Qunbul were responsible for spreading the recitation method of Ibn Kathir, which was popular among the people of Mecca.

The Hadith (Sunnah.com)

We have Hadith which proves there was more than one Qur’ān. Ibn Abbas reported that Muhammad said Jibril gave him seven different styles or modes of Qur’ān. After Jibril taught Muhammad one “style” Muhammad then asked him to give more “styles” until he taught him seven modes. I guess one was not enough, has anyone noticed the obsession Muhammad has with Biblical numbers such as seven? That’s because he plagiarized the Bible.

How can there be seven different ways yet claim they’re one? Just as Muslims say 1+1+1+1+1+1+1=1. Do they really think we’re to believe seven different “modes” are the same and are essentially one? This is called madness! In the following Sahih Hadith, there was an incident between two Muslims. As they recited the Qur’ān one of the Muslims realised that the other was reciting in a different way than himself.

This caused him to grab the man and bring him forcefully to Muhammad, he then told him that this man was caught reciting the Qur’ān in a different way. Muhammad then says there are seven different ways to recite the Qur’ān.

The Variant Readings of The Qur’ān

Shady Nasser Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Holds a PhD in Qur’ānic studies with a focus on the history of the transmission of the text of the Qur’an, its language, and its acceptance among the early Muslim community.

In his book The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qurʾān : The Problem of Tawātur and the Emergence of Shawādhdh pp 8-10 Nasser explains the historic codification process of the Qur’ān how Muslim scholars agreed on the historic accounts in the early sources. That the Qur’ān went through 3 compiling stages, the first was the writing down of the individual verses (ayats) and Surah’s under the direction of Muhammad.

The second stage consisted of gathering all of the verses into sheets called suhuf Hafsah under the command of Abu Bakr the first caliphate. The final stage was Uthman’s codification, he attempted to “unify” the text as he sought to standardize the text of the Qur’ān also known as naskh al-masahif.

The disagreement among Muslims in reading the Qur’ān was the main reason which compelled Uthman to collect, codify, and unify its text. He ensured that all the other unoffcial copies owned by the Companions were burned, hence the event’s nickname tahrıq al-masahif.
^{The transmission of the variant readings of the Qurʼān p.9}

Uthman took all the different Qur’ān and burned them trying to hide the fact that there’s more than one Qur’ān. Each of these Qur’āns contradict each other, and they still exist today. If you’d like to read about the burning of the Qur’ān by Uthman you can read this article titled Uthman Burned The Quran And Abu Bakr Burned The Hadith? Why?

Conclusion

Once again we’ve proven that the standard Islamic narrative is false, there’s not one Qur’ān but many. And each of them disagree with each other by having different words and diacritical marks. The truth is that Muslims are lied to from their Imam’s and Sheikh’s. Only Jesus Christ is the Truth^[4] and He offers all Muslims salvation, if they are willing to place their faith in Jesus Christ. He offers you the free gift of salvation.

Footnotes

[1] “Diacritics are usually forgotten; however, they are extremely important in order to learn Arabic pronunciation. Diacritics تشكيل, pronounced as Tashkil, literally means Forming, which is its main function, since Arabic letters on their own, without Tashkil, do not show proper guidance as to the proper Arabic pronunciation. Therefore, learning diacritics goes hand in hand with learning Arabic.” Asmaa Akl (2019, December 16). Learn Arabic Diacritics: Tashkil [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.nouracademy.com/article/learn-arabic-diacritics-tashkeel

[2] Madina Mushaf (Qaloon) This is an Arabic item contain Madina Mushaf (Qaloon) in PDF format. qurancomplex.org – King Fahd (2006, September 11). islamhouse.com. Retrieved from https://islamhouse.com/en/books/5268/

[3] The Quran the narration of Al Bazzi on the authority of Ibn Kathir. noor-book.com (2007, July 9). How and when to reference. Retrieved from https://www.noor-book.com/

[4] Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6 biblegateway.com (2022). The Gospel of John. Retrieved from https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A6&version=KJV

Arabic Contradictions in the Qur’ān (3:146) Hafs Vs Warsh

On August 23, 2021December 30, 2021 By Whatsoever Things Are TrueIn IslamLeave a comment

Continuing on with our series variant readings from different Arabic Qur’ān’s we’re going to look at the differences between the Hafs version compared with the Warsh recitation. Below is the English translation of the ayat.

The Hafs

How many of the prophets fought (قَاتَلَ) (in Allah’s way), and with them (fought) Large bands of godly men? but they never lost heart if they met with disaster in Allah’s way, nor did they weaken (in will) nor give in. And Allah Loves those who are firm and steadfast.

Here is the Arabic of Hafs focus on the bold word:

وَكَأَيِّنْ مِنْ نَبِيٍّ قَاتَلَ مَعَهُ رِبِّيُّونَ كَثِيرٌ فَمَا وَهَنُوا لِمَا أَصَابَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَمَا ضَعُفُوا وَمَا اسْتَكَانُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الصَّابِرِينَ

The Warsh

Let’s compare what we’ve read thus far in the Hafs Qur’ān and compare it with the Warsh version of the Qur’ān.

Here is the Arabic of Warsh notice the bolded Arabic letter has different markings than the one above.

وَكَأَيِّنْ مِنْ نَبِيٍّ قٌَتِلَ مَعَهُ رِبِّيُّونَ كَثِيرٌ فَمَا وَهَنُوا لِمَا أَصَابَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَمَا ضَعُفُوا وَمَا اسْتَكَانُوا وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الصَّابِرِينَ

Note the Warsh version has the word (قٌَتِلَ) which changes the meaning of the ayat. This word found in Warsh has different diacritical marks than the one in Hafs. The variant in the Warsh reads:

And how many a prophet were killed (قٌَتِلَ) and with him fought many religious scholars. But they never lost assurance due to what afflicted them in the cause of Allah , nor did they weaken or submit. And Allah loves the steadfast.

Question

If one version says the prophets fought and the other says they were killed the significance of that statement between the two are vastly different. If someone fought in a war that doesn’t necessary mean they were killed. But if the statement is made that someone was killed then we realise that person is no longer alive.

Conclusion

Muslims claim there’s only 1 Qur’ān, translators will try to conceal certain words from the Arabic when translating into English. This is the deception of Islam, without lies Islam dies. These lies which Muslims using Dawah deceive many people into thinking there’s only 1 Qur’ān when in reality there are 37-40 different Arabic Qur’ān’s with different words.

An argument made against the Bible by Muslims is “there’s many Bible versions”, this argument is incorrect. There are many English translations of the Bible (KJV, ESV, NASB etc.), the same as there are many English translations of the Qur’ān (Yusuf Ali, Pickthall, Arberry etc.). Does this mean there are also many different Qur’ān’s?

Yes there are because in this article we’re speaking of different Arabic versions, not English translations. Unlike the Qur’ān the Bible is originally written in Hebrew and Greek, therefore, for Muslims to point at English translations and claim there’s many Bible versions is untrue. There’s only 1 Bible in Hebrew and Greek, in speaking of the Qur’ān there’s the Hafs, Warsh, Doori, Al-Susi, Qaloon, Abi Jafar, al-Bazzi and many more.

We would like to take the time to invite Muslims to come to the better and bigger book the Bible and learn about the Saviour of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ that they might have salvation.

The fable of Holey Quran Preservation

On October 26, 2020December 30, 2021 By Whatsoever Things Are TrueIn Islam2 Comments

Today we’re taking a look at another Quran variant found in Surah 18:86. Our Muslim friends continuously tell us, the Quran has been perfectly preserved from any error. Every word, dot, letter and sound is the same throughout the whole world. One of Islam’s most highly esteemed scholars said in an interview with Muhammad Hijab in regards to the preservation of the Quran:

“The standard narrative has holes in it” — Dr. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi

Currently there’s been 40 Arabic Quran’s found which are being observed by textual critics and these critics have found more than 90,000 textual variants. These variants a lot of times will change the meaning of a verse which is in direct conflict with the other Quranic version.

For our purposes today we’re going to compare the Hafs Quran against the Ibn Jamaz Quran, reading from Yusuf Ali it says:

Yusuf Ali: Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water: Near it he found a People: We said: “O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority,) either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness.”
Surah 18:86

Let’s look at the differences between the 2 versions, in the Hafs it says “a spring of murky water” the word in Arabic for murky is hami’atin. The same verse in Ibn Jamaz reads “a spring of extremely hot water” the word there for extremely hot is haameiyatin. We’ve established these are 2 different words with different meanings.

Viewing the 2 verses together it becomes more apparent that the two meanings are completely different:

Hafs Quran: hami’atin “murky”
Ayat: Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water: Near it he found a People: We said: “O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority,) either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness.”

Ibn Jamaz Quran: haameiyatin “Extremely hot”
Ayat: Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of extremely hot water: Near it he found a People: We said: “O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority,) either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness.”

The question must be asked: Does the sun set in murky, or extrememly hot water? There’s quite a difference between dark and gloomy, and extremely hot water.

If it’s not clear that these are different to our Muslim friends, it would seem that they need to perform mental gymnastics for them to believe that the Quran has been “perfectly preserved”. Time and time again Muslims are being lied to by there Islamic scholars and Imam’s.

We Christians don’t have this problem, while there are different English translations of the Bible this in no way affects the underlining text. Muslims consistently claim the Bible has been changed, they don’t understand that our Bibles are translated from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.

Therefore, the English rendering is no problem whether one version says “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” or “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” doesn’t change the doctrine/meaning of the verse in view. The Quran on the other hand has a huge dilemma, because the issue lies within its original Arabic text.

Muslims come to Jesus Christ and leave Islam, there’s no hope in Islam but with Christ Jesus there’s everlasting life awaiting. The Lord Jesus said:

John 5:39-40 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

Notice Jesus Christ says to come to Him for eternal life, only a person saves and that’s the Son of God Jesus Christ. Muslims listen to the conflicting statements from Dr. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi on the following video.

Quran perfect preservation?

On October 5, 2020December 30, 2021 By Whatsoever Things Are TrueIn IslamLeave a comment

Muslims have been saying there’s only 1 Quran, perfectly preserved right down to the letter. A known Muslim missionary in the UK called Mansur said “the Hafs reading, anywhere in the world today anywhere you go this reading we have we know its been preserved even to the dot, to the letter, to the vowels, to the sound”.

This is a big claim Muslims are trying to hold onto which deserves our critique. It’s quite possible the gig is up for the claim of “perfect preservation”. There are thus far 38 Arabic Qurans which have contradicting statements. We will be analyzing the differences in these ayat (verses).

Surah 7:57 Chapter (7) sūrat l-aʿrāf (The Heights)

The majority of Muslims read from the Hafs Quran, it’s their standardized Quran. Abū ‘Amr Ḥafs ibn Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Abi Dawud al-Asadī al-Kūfī, better known as Hafs (706–796 AD), is an important figure in Quranic reading and recitations (qira’at). As a primary transmitter of one of the seven canonical methods of Quran recitation, his method has become the most popular throughout the Muslim world.

The Hafs’ recitation was made the official method of Egypt, and adopted as the standard printing of the Quran under Fuad I of Egypt in 1923. The majority of the Quran’s today follow the reading of Hafs, while in other countries such as North and West Africa tend to follow the Warsh Quran.

Comparing the different Qurans reveal that in the case of the Muslim argument of there being only 1 Quran we find multiple variations. Reading Surah 7:57 from Hafs and another version called Ibn Kathir it reads as follows.

Surah 7:57

The Hafs Quran: al-reyaah and bushraa “winds and good news”
Transliteration: And He it is Who sends forth the winds bearing good news before His mercy, until, when they bring up a laden cloud, We drive it to a dead land, then We send down water on it, then bring forth with it of fruits of all kinds; thus shall We bring forth the dead that you may be mindful.

In the Hafs Quran we’re told Allah sends “forth the winds bearing good news”, let’s see how the other version reads.

The Ibn Kathir Quran: al-reeh and nushuraa “wind and as scatterers”
Transliteration: And He it is Who sends forth the wind as scatterers before His mercy, until, when they bring up a laden cloud, We drive it to a dead land, then We send down water on it, then bring forth with it of fruits of all kinds; thus shall We bring forth the dead that you may be mindful.

Looking at these 2 readings we see the verses are saying completely different things, here it says “sends forth the wind as scatterers” but the Hafs version says “sends forth the winds bearing good news”. Does the wind bear good news, or does the wind simply scatter? This is a clear contradiction in the 2 readings.

Our Muslim friends are under the misconception that the Quran is “perfectly preserved” that all Qurans in the world are the same, we see this is simply not true. Muslims are continuingly being lied to by their Imam’s to believe this rubbish as Muslims memorise what their teachers say and regurgitate this nonsense. As Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi mentioned recently in his “there are holes in the standard narrative” talk with Mohammad Hijab.

They need to realise that salvation is only found in the Holy One of Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for guilty sinners so that they can place their trust in Him and not themselves. The Lord Jesus says:

John 11:25-26 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Our Muslim friends do you believe in the Son of God? Salvation is not found in religion, salvation is only found in a Person and that’s Christ Jesus the great I AM. Only He can give you everlasting life.

Quran Variants (1)

On September 1, 2020December 30, 2021 By Whatsoever Things Are TrueIn IslamLeave a comment

Muslims make a few astounding claims (1) they say that Islam is the only true path. (2) That the Bible has been corrupted with the biggest claim they make is (3) the Quran is perfectly preserved. They say all Qurans in the word are exactly identical, every word, dot, letter and sound.

Let’s answer these claims. If you’re familiar with Islam Muhammad contradicts the Bible in many ways. One that comes to mind is the Quran says Jesus Christ was never crucified. Muslims deny the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

This verse from the Quran says Christ was never crucified.

Pickthall: And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger – they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain. — Surah 4:157

The Lord Jesus clearly said He would be killed (crucified) be buried and raise the 3rd day.

Luke 18:31-33 Then he took [unto him] the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: And they shall scourge [him], and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.

This is clearly a contradiction, therefore, who do we believe Jesus Christ or Muhammad? The sinless man (Jesus Christ) or the sinful man (Muhammad)? This was just to demonstrate the Quran contradicts the Bible in many places. Lastly the Quran claims that the word of God is preserved and says the Torah, Psalms and Gospel (Injeel) are God’s words which cannot be changed see (Surah 6:34, 6:115, 10:64) using phrases such as “None can change His words”.

Arabic Quran Variants

Our Muslims friends say all Qurans are the same, every word, dot, letter and sound. Let’s put that claim to the test. To date there have been found over 30 different Arabic Qurans with about 9000 variant readings. Here’s one of these verses from the Quran.

Most Muslims use a Quran called Hafs, it’s the most popular version of the Quran used. There’s another version called Warsh this version is typically used in countries such as Algeria, Morocco, parts of Tunisia, West Africa and Sudan. Below you can clearly see from the 2 highlighted portions the words are not the same, neither the sound one is “aw ain yuzhir” the other being “wa ain yuzhir”.

Chapter (40) sūrat ghāfir (The Forgiver God)
Pickthall: The Fire; they are exposed to it morning and evening; and on the day when the Hour upriseth (it is said): Cause Pharaoh’s folk to enter the most awful doom. — Surah 40:26

As you can see the above words in the verse are written differently in the Arabic. This is something Muslims have a hard time grasping because they have been lied to in regards to the Quran being the eternal word from allah and it’s perfectly preserved from any corruption.

The question is why are Muslims making the claim that all Qurans are identical word for word, dot for dot, letter for letter and sound for sound? Here are just a few more variant readings proving there are differences between the Hafs and Warsh Qurans. Reminder this is not including the other 28 or so versions which also have different readings.

The following examples are of the same word(s) in the same verse from these two Qurans. Occasionally the verse number differs because the two Qurans number their verses differently as they don’t equal the same amount of verses.

The call to our Muslim friends still rings out, the gift of salvation which is freely given by God not because of anything you done but because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for guilty lost sinners. Islam cannot be the “true path” as the evidence shows. If you’re a Muslim reading this be thankful that you still have the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, He’s willing to save you from your sins. Muhammad can’t do anything for you.

The Lord Jesus said:
John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.