The Ten Qira’at (Recitation)

The sources of the recitations of the Quran were eight of the companions of
Rasulullah SAW (following his passing). They were ‘Umar AlKhattab, ‘Uthman bin
‘Affan, ‘Ali bin Abi Talib, Zayd bin Thabit, Ubayy bin Ka‘ab, Abdullah bin Mas‘ud, Abu
Musa AlAsy‘ari dan Abu Darda' RadhiyaLLAHU ‘anhum ajma‘in.

The ten qiraat consists of seven mutawattir and three mashuur recitations.

Seven are mutawattir:

1. Nafi’ ibn ‘Abdurrahman ibn Abi Nu’aim al-Madani (d. 169 H). He had two
disciples viz. Qalun and Warasy.
2. Ibnu Katsir i.e. ‘Abdullah ibn Katsir ad-Dari al-Makki (45-120 H). He had two
disciples viz. al-Bazziy and Qunbul.
3. Abu ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ala’ al-Bashri (70-154 H). He had two disciples viz. ad-Duriy
and as-Susiy.
4. Ibnu ‘Amir i.e. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amir al-Yahshubi asy-Syami (21-128 H). He had
two disciples viz. Hisyam and Ibnu Dzakwan.
5. ‘Ashim ibn Abi an-Najud al-Asadi al-Kufi (d. 127 H). He had two disciples viz.
Hafsh and Syu’bah.
6. Hamzah ibn Habib az-Zayyat al-Kufi (78-156 H). He had two disciples viz.
Khalaf and Khallad.
7. Al-Kisa’iy i.e. Abul Hasan ‘Ali ibn Hamzah an-Nahwi al-Kufi (d. 189 H). He had
two disciples viz. ad-Duriy and Abu al-Harits.

Three are mashuur:

8. Abu Ja’far, yaitu Yazid ibn al-Qa’qa’ al-Madani (d. 130 H). He had two
disciples viz. Ibnu Wardan and Ibnu Jammaz.
9. Ya’qub ibn Ishaq al-Hadhrami al-Kufi (d. 205 H). He had two disciples viz.
Ruwais and Rauh.
10. Khalaf ibn Hisyam (d. 229 H). He had two disciples viz. Ishaq and Idris.

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These recitations used to be famous in certain places, for instance, in 200 AH, Basra
was reciting the qira'a of Abu 'Amr and Ya'qub, Kufa was using Hamza and 'Asim,
Syria was using Ibn 'Amir, Makka had Ibn Kathir and Madina was using Nafi'. Egypt,
which was the home of Warsh, used Warsh largely up until the arrival of the Turks.
Then Hafs became popular as it was the variant which the Turks used. Hafs,
incidentally, is the qira'a of 'Asim, used in Kufa. The Warsh riwaya is of the qira'a of
Nafi'.

Today, the two readings most used are the qira'a of 'Asim in the riwaya of Hafs and
the qira'a of Nafi' in the riwaya of Warsh. Also in use in Africa is the qira'a of Abu
'Amr in the riwaya of ad-Duri.

The two disciples listed for each qariy are the most famous riwayaat (2 for each
qiraat as mentioned by Imam Al-Jazari). Imam Al-Jazari also mentioned 2 tareeq for
each riwayat and 2 tareeq for each of the above mentioned tareeq (level 2 tareeq).
Hence, altogether we have 10 qiraat, 20 riwayaat and 80 turuq (up to level 2)
mentioned by Al-Jazari. The riwayat and the turuq mentioned are the famous ones
and they are not exhaustive! The actual number of turuq is almost a thousand!

Malaysia (and Indonesia) mostly takes the qiraat of ‘Asim, riwayat of Hafs and tareek
of Syatibiah. According to AlJazari, ‘Asim carries 128 turuq, Hafs carries 52 turuq
and Syatibi only one. The other rawiy of ‘Asim viz. Syu’bah carries 76 turuq.

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The following is the chain of tareeq Syatibiah, riwayat Hafs and qiraat ‘Asim:

Imam Syatibi (590H) takes his recitation from AbulHasan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn
Huzil (564H), who takes his recitation from Abu Dawud Sulaiman ibn Najah (496H),
who takes his recitation from Abu ‘Amru ‘Uthman ibn Sa‘id AdDani (444H), who
takes his recitation from AbulHasan Tahir ibn ‘AbdulMun‘im ibn Ghalbun (399H), who
takes his recitation from AbulHasan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad AlHasyimi (368H) who takes
his recitation from Abul‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Sahl AlUsynani (307), who takes his
recitation from Abu Muhammad ‘Ubayd ibn AsSabah (235H) who takes his recitation
from Abu ‘Umar Hafs ibn Sulayman AlAsadi (180H who takes his recitation from Abu
Bakr ‘Asim ibn Abin Najud AlKufi (127H). Imam ‘Asim takes his recitation from Abu
‘Abdur Rahman ‘Abdullah ibn Habib AsSulami (73H), who takes his recitation from
AbulHasan ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib KarramaLLAHU Wajhah AmirulMu'minin; who takes his
recitation from Abul Qasim Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah SAW ARRASUL; who takes his
recitation from Jibril ‘AlayhisSalam, who takes his recitation from Lawh Mahfudz,
from ALLAH Subhanahu WaTa‘ala.

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