He also said: “These people say: darabtuhu bayna udhunāhu (‘I struck him between his two ears’).”

I say: Banū al-Hārith ibn Ka‘b are the people of Najrān. There is no doubt that the Quran was not revealed in this dialect. Rather, throughout the Quran, the dual forms of indeclinable nouns take yā in the accusative and genitive, as the examples cited above demonstrate.

It is established in al-Sahīh that ‘Uthmān said: “The Quran was revealed in the dialect of Quraysh.” He told the men of Quraysh who wrote out the Quran manuscript together with Zayd: “If you disagree over anything, write it in the dialect of Quraysh, for the Quran was revealed in their dialect.” They disagreed over only one word (al-tābūt, “the Ark”). They referred the matter to ‘Uthmān, who ordered that it be written in the dialect of Quraysh. Al-Bukhārī related this in his Sahīh.

Anas reported that Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān came to ‘Uthmān. He had been campaigning with the people of Syria, alongside the people of Iraq, in the conquest of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Their differences in recitation alarmed Hudhayfah, so he said to ‘Uthmān: “Commander of the Faithful, save this community before they differ over the Book as the Jews and Christians did.”

‘Uthmān sent word to Hafsah: “Send us the sheets so that we may transcribe them into copies of the Quran, then return them to you.” Hafsah sent them to ‘Uthmān, who instructed Zayd ibn Thābit, ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, Sa‘īd ibn al-‘Ās and ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn al-Hārith ibn Hishām to transcribe them into copies of the Quran. ‘Uthmān told the three men of Quraysh: “If you and Zayd ibn Thābit disagree over anything in the Quran, write it in the dialect of Quraysh