The reason for the diversity of readings accommodated by the written text of the codex is that the Lawgiver authorized and permitted this for them. Its basis is the Sunnah and adherence to it, not personal opinion and innovation.

If these readings are said to constitute the seven forms, this is evident. It applies even more clearly if they are said to constitute one of the seven forms. For if they were permitted to recite it in seven forms, each satisfying and sufficient, despite differences in their written outlines, then such permission is all the more appropriate when the written outline is the same and only the pronunciation differs.

This was one reason why, when the codices were first written, they left them without vowel marks or distinguishing dots: the written outline could thus accommodate either reading, such as tā’ or yā’, or the a- or u-vowel, while they preserved both precisely through oral recitation. A single written outline indicating both transmitted pronunciations—heard and recited—is comparable to a single expression indicating both transmitted meanings—grasped by reason and understood.

The Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, received from him everything of the Quran that Allah had commanded him to convey to them, both its wording and its meaning. Thus Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Sulamī said—he was the one who narrated from ‘Uthmān, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The best of you are those who learn the Quran and teach it.”

Al-Bukhārī recorded this in his Sahīh, and al-Sulamī taught Quranic recitation for forty years. He said:

“Those who taught us to recite—‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān, ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mas‘ūd, and others—told us that whenever they learned ten verses from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, they would not proceed beyond them until