There is no disagreement among Muslims that the seven ahruf in which the Quran was revealed contain no contradictory or mutually opposed meanings. Their meanings may be identical or closely related, as ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mas‘ūd said:

“It is simply like one of you saying, ‘Come here,’ ‘Come along,’ and ‘Come.’”

One reading may also convey a meaning different from another, while both meanings are true. This is variation and diversity, not opposition and contradiction. Thus, in the hadith traced back to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) concerning this matter, he said:

“The Quran was revealed in seven ahruf. Whether you say ‘All-Forgiving, Most Merciful’ or ‘Almighty, All-Wise,’ Allah is indeed so—as long as you do not conclude a verse of mercy with a verse of punishment, or a verse of punishment with a verse of mercy.”

Examples occur in the well-known readings: “Rabbanā bā‘ad” (“Our Lord has made [our journeys] far apart”) and “bā‘id” (“make [them] far apart”); “unless the two fear that they will not maintain” and “unless it is feared that the two will not maintain”; “wa-in kāna makruhum li-tazūla” (“their scheming was not such as to make [the mountains] vanish”) and “wa-li-yazūla minhu al-jibālu” (“and so that the mountains would vanish thereby”); and “Rather, you marvel” and “Rather, I marvel”; and similar examples.

Some readings convey meanings that agree in one respect but differ in another, such as “they deceive” and “they seek to deceive”; “they lie” and “they deny”; “you have touched,” read as lamastum and lāmastum; and “until they become pure” and “until they purify themselves”; and similar examples.

All these readings whose meanings differ are true. Each stands in relation to another as one verse stands in relation to another. It is obligatory to believe in them all and to follow the meanings they convey, in both knowledge and practice. It is not permissible to abandon what one entails because of another, supposing that this constitutes