“One!”—and he insisted that this solitary word was the correct recitation, while the reading followed by the rest of the people was, in his words, sheer falsehood and impossibility.

During the obligatory congregational prayer he went so far as to pronounce: “Say to those who disbelieve: I do not worship what you worship,” and then proceeded to attack the Muslims’ accepted reading.

He further alleged that the codex we possess contains letters that have been corrupted and altered, citing as proof the verse:
“If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are the Almighty, the All-Wise.”
He objected that “might” and “wisdom” are out of keeping with “forgiveness,” claiming the verse ought to read:
“If You forgive them, You are indeed the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.”

His error only deepened. He charged the Muslims with corrupting the words:
“and held in honour with Allah,”
maintaining that the unaltered, correct wording should be:
“and he was a servant of Allah, held in honour.”

Reliable witnesses informed us that in another obligatory prayer he recited:
“Do not move your tongue with it; surely upon Us rests its collection and its recitation. When We have recited it, follow its recitation; then upon Us rests making it known.”

Others, reporting through further transmitters, heard him read:
“And Allah certainly helped you at Badr—by the sword of ʿAlī—while you were humble,”
and also:
“This is the straight path of ʿAlī.”

They also told us that he inserted into a Qur’anic verse wording that matches neither the eloquence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ nor the idiom of the very people of whom Allah said: “We have sent no messenger except with the tongue of his own people.” Thus he recited:
“Did you not say to the people…?”
instead of the Qur’anic:
“Did you say to the people…?”
This construction is unknown to the grammarians of classical Arabic and is unsupported by their schools, for the Arabs never say, “laysa qumta” (“you did not stand”). As for the form “lastu qumta,” ending with a tāʾ, it is an ugly and corrupt anomaly, because the verb laysa is never used to negate a past-tense verb. The only remotely similar usage is the rare phrase, “alaysa qad khalaqa Allahu mithlahum,” an isolated dialect that can never serve as a basis for the Book of Allah.

He went on to assert that ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—was mistaken when he entrusted the compilation of the Qur’an to Zayd ibn Thābit, arguing that ʿAbd-Allah ibn Masʿūd and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb were more entitled to the task, citing the Prophet’s words ﷺ: “The most proficient reciter of my community is Ubayy ibn Kaʿb,” and, “Whoever wishes to recite the Qur’an fresh as it was revealed, let him recite according to the reading of Ibn Umm ʿAbd (Ibn Masʿūd).”

The same man declared, “I am free to differ from ʿUthmān’s codex just as Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ differed,” and so he recited:
“inna hadhayni …,”
“fa-aṣṣaddaqa wa-akūna …,”
“Give glad tidings to My servants …,” pronouncing the yāʾ openly,
and, “What has come to me from Allah …,” likewise opening the yāʾ—whereas the codex reads:
“in hādhāni …” with an alif.