to affirm categorically that these scholars were mistaken and that the basmalah is a verse of Allah’s Book wherever the Companions wrote it in the Quran manuscript. They wrote nothing in it except the Quran and kept it free of anything extraneous, such as markers for groups of five or ten verses and surah names. Nevertheless, it is not said to belong to the surah that follows it, just as it does not belong to the surah that precedes it. Rather, as its placement indicates, it is a verse that Allah revealed at the beginning of each surah, even though it is not part of that surah. This is the most balanced of the three views on this question.

Whether its status is categorically denied or affirmed, this does not prevent the question from being a matter open to scholarly judgment, in which neither those who deny it nor those who affirm it are to be declared unbelievers or transgressors. Indeed, one may say, as a group of scholars have said, that both views are true: it is a verse of the Quran in some readings—those of the reciters who separate two surahs with it—and is not a verse in other readings—those of the reciters who join the surahs without separating them with it.

As for the questioner’s words, “What caused the reciters to differ over readings accommodated by the script of the Quran manuscript?” this comes down to transmission and the Arabic language, since the Lawgiver permitted them to recite in all these ways. No one may adopt a reading merely on the basis of personal opinion; rather, Quranic recitation is an established practice to be followed. When they agree to follow the Quran written in the authoritative master manuscript, but some recite with a yāʾ and others with a tāʾ, neither reading departs from the manuscript. And among the things that