The Role of the Ghulāt (Extremists) in the Formation of Sab’at Aḥruf Traditions

Subject Areas :

Mohammad Etrat Doust ¹ (Assistant Professor in Department of Islamic Education, Faculty of Humanities, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran.)

Received: 2018-11-06 Accepted : 2019-01-03 Published : 2018-12-22

Keywords: Quran Distortion, Reading Variation, Hadith Criticism, Sab’at Ahruf Traditions, Qulāt Paradigm,

Abstract :

One of the specialized topics in the field of Quranic sciences and is the theory of the multiple revelation of the Holy Quran based on the Sab'at Aḥruf traditions (which claim that the Quran was revealed in seven different readings). Apart from the necessity to identify the context on which they were issued from the Prophet (peace be upon him), what is of great importance and has caused a great deal of controversy among the Shiite scholars, is the fact that such traditions also exist in Shia works which support this theory, There are some traditions with the same concept coming from Imam Sādiq and Imam Bāqir. Since these narrations seem to contradict the other narrations of Imams about the Qur'an and that it was reveled  in a single reading,  and considering the fact that such traditions provide the basis for the belief in the distortion of the Qur'an among the Shiites, this study attempts to, by using both criticism and Sandy analysis and considering the historical discourse prevailing in the era of Imams Sādiqain (AS), reveal the reasons for issuing these narratives and their relationship with the socio-religious currents of the early days of Islam and explain a new view to understand such narrations. Considering the activities of the Extremists, their motivation for discussing the Qur'anic controversy, and how Aḥl al-Bayt (AS) was exposed to these false ideas, are among the topics discussed in this article.