As for presenting the various views and their evidence, and explaining the correct position in detail, this would require citing the relevant hadiths, their wording, and the other evidence at a length that exceeds the space available here and is unsuitable for an answer of this kind. We shall instead mention the essential points that clarify the intended answer.
We say:
There is no disagreement among recognized scholars that the “seven ahruf” in which the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said the Quran was revealed are not the “well-known readings of the seven reciters.” Rather, the first to compile the readings of these reciters was Imam Abū Bakr ibn Mujāhid, who was in Baghdad around 300 AH. He wished to collect the well-known readings of the two Holy Cities, the two Iraqi cities, and Syria, for it was from these five centers that prophetic knowledge spread: the Quran and its interpretation, hadith, jurisprudence concerning inward and outward actions, and all the other religious sciences. In undertaking this, he collected the readings of seven renowned leading reciters from these centers, so that their number would correspond to the number of ahruf in which the Quran was revealed—not because he or any other scholar believed that the seven readings were the seven ahruf, or that no readings other than those of these particular seven reciters could be used.
Hence one of the leading reciters said:
“Had Ibn Mujāhid not preceded me in selecting Hamza, I would have put Ya‘qūb al-Hadramī in his place, the imam of Basra’s congregational mosque and the leader of its Quranic reciters in his time, around 200 AH.”