Follow The Truth Wherever It May Lead

The Quran has many different versions, more than 40. The vast majority of Muslims are not aware of this fact, and they assume there is a single unchanged Quran, preserved as received down to the letter. Muslim scholars call these versions: Qira'at (قراءات)

21 of these versions are listed on this Islamic website: Comparison of different Quran versions (readings), namely:

1. حفص عن عاصم
2. قالون عن نافع
3. ورش عن نافع
4. ورش عن نافع من طريق الأصبهاني
5. البزي عن ابن كثير
6. قنبل عن ابن كثير
7. دوري أبي عمرو
8. السوسي عن أبي عمرو
9. هشام عن ابن عامر
10. ابن ذكوان عن ابن عامر
11. شعبة عن عاصم
12. خلف عن حمزة
13. خلاد عن حمزة
14. أبو الحارث عن الكسائي
15. الدوري عن الكسائي
16. ابن وردان عن أبي جعفر
17. ابن جماز عن أبي جعفر
18. رويس عن يعقوب الحضرمي
19. روح عن يعقوب الحضرمي
20. إسحاق الوراق عن خلف البزار
21. إدريس الحداد عن خلف البزار

These versions have hundreds of differences between each other. These differences include:

1. Syntactical differences:

   Differences in syntax that do not necessarily change meaning. For example:

   • Quran verse 57:24 has a dropped preposition 'he' (هو):

     

2. Grammatical differences:

   Differences in grammar that significantly change the meaning of the verse. These include the alteration of words, letters or accents. Examples include:

   • Quran verse 37:12 has a changed accent (الضمّة) which changes the pronoun "you" to "I", which effectively changes the meaning of the verse from "you wondered" to "I wondered" (which admittedly is an error according to Al-Qortoby):

     

   • Another example is Quran 1:4: Hafs version says 'Owner', Kalun version says 'King':

     

   • Quran verse 2:191: Shu'ba version says 'fight them', Khalaf version says 'kill them' (the difference is in three words in the same verse):

     

3. Missing verses:

   They are verses that have either been added or omitted from the Quran.

   • An example of a missing verse is the very first verse in the first sura of the Quran (Al-Fatiha), verse 1:1, known as the Basmalah/Bismillah. It is considered belonging to the Quran in Hafs, but not in Warsh and others where it is omitted, hence it has been added to Hafs version:

     

   • Another verse is the stoning verse which had been eaten by a goat (put references) + Omar saying "قرأناها.. رجمنا ورجم الرسول".

What is the meaning of this? Despite knowing the facts, some muslims continue lying about this, and claiming that not a single letter in the Quran has been changed. For example see islamqa.info and islamweb.net.

To explains these different Qira'at, Muslims rely on the Hadith. They go back to a specific hadith (that the Quran was given in seven "letters"), but there is no agreement among Muslim scholars as to how to explain this hadith (for example see this discussion by Dr. Yasir Qadhi "One of the most confusing issues of Hadith science is Qira'at issue").

But on top of this, the whole of Hadith "science" (علم الإسناد) is completely debunked according to the same scholar who said: "No body in the academy affirms the Muslim Sunni science of Hadith, it is considered to be completely discredited":

Which means that the Hadiths are lies made up by Muslims to explain contradictions which Muhammad came up with. An evidence of this is the lack of agreement among classical/traditional Muslim scholars. Muslims cannot explain many of the Hadiths. Take the Hadith about Jesus being replaced by someone else. It is merely a lie. Same goes about the definition of Messiah (المسيح).