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We know there are multiple Qira'at of the Qur'an derived from the original Seven Ahruf in some way.

The most popular Qirat, the de facto Qur'an almost anywhere and especially online is the Hafs < Asim transmission. In some parts of Africa they use the Warsh < Nafi' Qur'an.

Currently I am trying to obtain the most "authentic" Warsh Qira'at, I think that would mean finding the manuscripts used today to produce Warsh Qur'ans

What are they, where are they and are there online scans?

thanks

Hisham
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    The Islamic sciences were transmitted orally ever since the beginning especially the Qur'an. The Qur'an is the orally transmitted word of Allah what you find in a book shelf is a moshaf just learning the words of Allah from this book doesn't make you a hafidh but as some scholars would say a moshafi which is what one can call a "bad" attribute since you haven't learnt it from a sheikh and being tested. Another fact is that without the influence of the 'Othmans and the rather strange choice of ibn Mujahid Hafs 'an 'Asim would have never been one of the so called 7 qira'at and remain unknown. – Medi1Saif Jul 21 '23 at 05:32
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    The two riwayat of Nafi' have been well known in northern Africa since the 3rd hijri century. While the rest of the Muslim world has known the qira'at of Abu 'Amr (via ad-Duri or as-Susi) prior to this even the qira'a of ibn 'Amir was known in al-Andalus. Among the two rays of 'Asim Sho'aba was the known one in al-Kufa and it wasn't that known elsewhere. Most other qira'at where only known by specialist after the 5 first centuries. See Why is the hafs reading of the qur'an so prevalent? – Medi1Saif Jul 21 '23 at 05:36
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    In other words and to sum up your question is not well posed. Because first There's no such thing as a qur'an manuscript of Warsh, but a riwaya of warsh from Nafi' of the qur'an and a moshaf with the riwaya of warsh from Nafi'. Secondly while the qira'at already existed the rasm of the moshafs (how the qur'anic text was written) was somewhat dependent on the development of the Arabic scripture which had several phases which came after the qira'at were established and agreed. So some older manuscripts of the 3rd and 4th century will be a standard moshaf which hardly distinguishes any riwaya. – Medi1Saif Jul 21 '23 at 06:50
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    And thirdly it is not necessary to find a manuscript of the word of Allah since it was ever since transmitted orally. The moshaf was only introduced as a help or backup in case of a sudden death of almost all hufadh as it happend at the time of abu Bakr or to avoid mispronunciations and chaos in the wording as it happend at later times like at the time of 'Uthman. – Medi1Saif Jul 21 '23 at 08:41
  • In this Hadith it says only four people memorised the Qur’an during the Life of the Prophet , so a lot of Qur’an transmission was probably done by writing . thanks for the detailed responses, i am quite shocked to read there are 500 differences between Hafs and Shu’bah from Asim. So where do you recommend to get an authentic mushaf of the Qira’at of Warsh < Nafi ? jazakallah – Hisham Jul 21 '23 at 11:25
  • Surely the mass production of Warsh < Nafi Qur’ans in africa is only possible by using a “master copy” right? They can’t feasibly assemble a squad of huffaz for every printing session. – Hisham Jul 21 '23 at 11:27
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    @Hisham for a mass production a committee of scholars hufadh and experts of rasm and waqf is gathered to release the production. The differences between Hafs and Sh'obah are very high, but this isn't a reason to be shocked since the Arabic grammar standards was only established due to the qur'an and choices of tajweed may differ from one qira'a to another but generally these are main rules not specific rules for example in case of madd the riwaya Qalun is extermely easy compared to Warsh. Nevertheless this amount is more than any differences between two rawi's of the same imam of a qira'a! – Medi1Saif Jul 21 '23 at 13:31
  • Further the hadith you've quoted is sahih, but there are many more. Note that strictly speaking this isn't a hadith since a sahabi is telling his observation he might have missed many more hufadh which actually is the case. And many sahabah have memorized the qur'an till or after the death of the prophet of which we may know only a handful. Since in the ridda wars 70 hufadh died. – Medi1Saif Jul 21 '23 at 13:34
  • A manuscript for producing a moshaf is not necessary as Medi explained. The qur'an was preserved by hufadh not by mansucripts. When gathering the first moshaf scattered pieces of text + memorization by two witnesses/hufadh of the content was used as a backup to accept the written text. The logic that a manuscript is necessary as a proof was neverr even considered by early Muslims be it for the the qur'an or sunnah. As a matter of fact since the prophet never ordered the arrangement of the text passages in one book could be considered as a proof that this was an inovation if it occured later. – Sassir Jul 21 '23 at 23:21

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