notes from lectures by Sheikh Yasir Qadhi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=uV_RMnOjKZw&feature=channel_video_title "Sciences of the Qur'an 9: The Compilation and Preservation of the Qur'an Part 1": Zaid ibn Thabit chosen by Muhammad as most trusted companion w/ Qur'an and was physically present at last recitation w/ Jibril. chosen by Umar, and Abu Bakr: 11:00, compilation done w/ unanimous consensus of companions. preserved by scraps and memorization during Muhammad's time. collected as one book by Abu Bakr 1-2 yrs after prophet's death after hafiz were killed during battle of Yamama vs. Musailama

"Sciences of the Qur'an 10: The Compilation and Preservation of the Qur'an Part 2": 15 years later, during Uthmani caliphate during battle in Azerbaijan, Muslims from Medina and Mecca had different recitation than Muslims from Damascus, Syria, etc. Hudaifha the sahaba warned the Muslims and united them. he went to Uthman and asked him to standardize the Qur'an. the variations came from Muhammad himself. Uthman created a committee, once again led by Zaid ibn Thabit, and in a few months made 5 copies of the mushaf of Abu Bakr in the Quraysh spelling to the cities along

with a famous reciter. he told the muslims to dispose of the unofficial Qur'ans. all future Qur'an confirm word for word, letter for letter to the Uthmanic manuscript. done by the unanimous consensus of all the companions at that time. khufic script: no dots, were added in the 2nd and 3rd centuries by Abul Aswad ad-Du'ali. before this, vowels could only be told apart by context: Neskhi script. internet images of ancient Qur'ans: 1. one of oldest Qurans, from Tashket in Russia. written on leather, reported to be an uthmanic copy. 2. Huesseni mushaf in Cairo, 40-50 Hijrah. huge, written on leather dates to decades after the death of the prophet. can be compared letter for letter. specialist curators assigned to take care of it 3. Quran in Topkapi, Istanbul. very early, reported to be Uthmanic mushaf. 4. 80-90 AH written in Yemen in al ma'il manuscript. 5. commissioned by the famous umayyad caliph Walid ibn abdul malik famous caliph, 1st century AD.

6. mushaf of the blue quran w/ gold ink. from 1st century hijrah.

"Sciences of the Qur'an 12: The Various Recitations of the Qur'an" diff: pronounciations, letters, harakat. Algeria, Morocco, north Africa. different styles, pronounciations, accents, spellings, dialects of the Arabic language. slight differences WITHOUT CHANGING THE MEANING. hadith in Sahih Bukhari, Muslim, Ahmad: Jibril recited in one harf increased the harf until seven ahruf. same meaning, different pronounciations and details. asked permission for mulitiple ahruf for different dialects to the Arabs to make it easy on the ummah. Jibril allowed him to increase and said "in whichever harf you recite, it will be correct, it will be the same meaning." the sahaba were surprised because they didn't know until the prophet told him. 5:45 Umar and Hisham ibn Hakim recited surah Furqan. Umar heard him and was about to jump on him in anger. thy both went to the prophet. the Quran was revealed in seven ahruf.

how were the ahruf different? in the pronounciation of words (like England, US). sometimes, they had different words that were changed depending on dialects. different synonyms. based on the famous 7 dialects of the Arabian peninsula. the younger students of the companions were unaware of the differences of the ahruf. ibn Masud vs Zaid ibn Thabits students. Zaid went back to Medina to Uthman ibn Affan combined the ummah upon the recitation of the Qurayshi dialect 8:55. people will recite the same words in different pronunciations, which were named after the people who became famous of their recitation, codified in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AH = Qira'at 10:15. difference between ahruf (dialect) and qira'at (pronounciations) 10:43: the 7 ahruf are divinely revealed. if you jumble up the ahruf and spread them and let people recite them according to recitations, you get the qira'at. they are read and standardized, 10 qira'at were chosen as the best by muslim sholars. Nafi (Medina), ibn Kathir (represented qira'at in Mecca, not tafsir), basra, khufa. N. Africa has qira'a of Medina. most people have qira'a of Medina, khufi (over 90% of ummah), hafsah al asim al kufi.