—namely in such words as ‘alayhim, ilayhim, ladayhim, and every comparable instance throughout the entire Qur’an.
Al-Dānī then remarked: Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar disagreed with him; transmitting from Ibn Būyān, he reported that the mīm should be read with ḍammah (the short vowel “u”) in every occurrence in the Qur’an.
In Ibn Mujāhid’s Sabʿah it is recorded: “Ibn Abī Mihrān narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Qālūn informed us, from his father, from Nāfiʿ, that he did not censure pronouncing the mīm with ḍammah in expressions such as an-dhartahum am lam (Qur’an 2:6) and the like.”
Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī erred when he stated that Abū Nashīṭ died in 263 AH. The one who actually passed away around that year was the ḥadith scholar Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Hārūn Shīṭā. Al-Dānī was correct, however, in identifying Abū Nashīṭ al-Marwazī with the Baghdadi al-Rabaʿī; some biographers treat them as two distinct entries, yet—in my considered view—they are one and the same person. His death occurred in 258 AH, as his student Ibn Makhlad reported. Allah knows best.
I read to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim, who related from Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī, who said: “I completed one full recitation according to Qālūn’s transmission with Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ṭabar.” He said: “I read to Abū Bakr al-Khayyāṭ,” who said: “I read to Abū Aḥmad ibn Abī Muslim al-Farḍī,” who said: “I read to Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Būyān,” who said: “I read to Abū Ḥassān,” who said: “I read to Abū Nashīṭ—and he had read to Qālūn, the companion of Nāfiʿ, may Allah have mercy on him.”
ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Khaṭīb informed us, saying: ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf informed us; Abū al-Fatḥ ibn al-Baṭṭī informed us; Ibn al-Baṭir informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh informed us; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maḥāmilī informed us; Abū Nashīṭ Muḥammad ibn Hārūn and al-ʿAbbās al-Tarqafī (1) narrated to us, saying:
“Abū al-Mughīrah narrated to us, Ṣafwān narrated to us, Shurayḥ ibn … narrated to me …”