قراءات
Qirā’āt
The recognised modes of reciting the Quran, taught by an unbroken chain of teachers.
What it means
Ten readings are recognised as authentic, each traced through a named teacher back to the Prophet. They share the same written skeleton and differ mostly in vowelling and pronunciation. Two are common today: Hafs, from Asim, in most of the Muslim world, and Warsh, from Nafi, in North and West Africa.
A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari relates that the Quran was “sent down in seven aḥruf”: Umar objected to how Hisham ibn Hakim was reciting, and the Prophet approved both recitations.
Often misunderstood as
That there are different Qurans, or that the text is unstable.
What the sources say
The readings are variants within one text, and the great majority make no difference to the meaning. A few change a word in a way that adds a shade of meaning, and scholars treat these as additions to understanding rather than contradictions. The same standard text, in Hafs or Warsh, is in every mosque.