these seven became widely known in regions where no others were known, such as the Maghrib. People there therefore recite no other readings, being unaware that others are also widely known. As for those among whom these readings and others alike are well known, as in Iraq and elsewhere, they may recite either.

An irregular reading is, for example, one that departs from the codex of ‘Uthmān, such as the readings:

“al-Hayy al-Qayyām” (the Ever-Living, the Sustainer);

“sirāta man an‘amta ‘alayhim” (the path of those You have blessed);

“in kānat illā zaqyatan wāhidatan” (it was but a single cry);

“By the night as it envelops, and by the day as it shines forth, and by the male and the female.”

These and similar readings, when recited in prayer, are subject to two well-known scholarly views, both reported from Imam Ahmad.

The first is that the prayer is valid, because the Companions who used these readings recited them in prayer without objection.

The second is that it is not valid, because these readings have not reached us through mass transmission. According to this view, should it be said that they were once Quran but were abrogated, while it is not known who recited the abrogating text? Or were they not abrogated, but permissible to recite for those to whom they were reliably established, unlike those to whom they were not? Or is there some other explanation? This is a disputed matter discussed at length elsewhere.

As for those who recite according to the readings of Abū Ja‘far, Ya‘qūb and others like them, their prayer is not invalidated thereby, by agreement of the imams. Some later scholars from the Maghrib, however, made statements on this matter with which some who did not understand the basis of the issue agreed.