Abū Amr Ḥafṣ ibn Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Abi Dawud al-Asadī al-Kūfī ( ar, أبو عمرو حفص بن سليمان بن المغيرة الأسدي الكوفي), better known as Hafs (706–796 CE; 90–180 AH according to the

Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 ...

), was one of the primary transmitters of one of the seven canonical methods of Qur'an recitation (''

qira'at In Islam, ''Qirāah'', (pl. ''Qirāāt''; ar, قراءات , lit= recitations or readings) are different linguistic, lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactical forms permitted with reciting the holy book of Islam, the Quran. Differ ...

''). His method via his teacher Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud has become the most popular method across the majority of the

Muslim world The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...

.Bewley, Aishah
"The Seven Qira'at of the Qur'an"
, ''Aisha Bewley's Islamic Home Page'' In addition to being the student of Aasim, Hafs was also his son-in-law.Peter G. Riddell
Early Malay Qur'anic exegical activity
p. 164. Taken from ''Islam and the Malay-Indonesian World: Transmission and Responses''. London: C. Hurst & Co., 2001. Having been born in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, Hafs eventually moved to

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

where he popularized his father-in-law's recitation method. Eventually, Hafs' recitation of Aasim's method was made the official method of Egypt, having been formally adopted as the standard Egyptian printing of the Qur'an under the auspices of

Fuad I of Egypt Fuad I ( ar, فؤاد الأول ''Fu’ād al-Awwal''; tr, I. Fuad or ; 26 March 1868 – 28 April 1936) was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and the Sudan. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, he became Sulta ...

in 1923. The majority of copies of the Quran today follow the reading of Hafs. In

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...

there is a bigger tendency to follow the reading of

Warsh Abu Sa'id Uthman Ibn Sa‘id al-Qutbi, better known as Warsh (110-197AH), was a significant figure in the history of Quranic recitation (''qira'at''), the canonical methods of reciting the Qur'an. Alongside Qalun, he was one of the two primary ...

Hafs recitation

Of all the canonical recitation traditions, only the Kufan tradition of Hafs included the basmala as a separate verse in

Chapter (surah) 1 Al-Fatiha (alternatively transliterated Al-Fātiḥa or Al-Fātiḥah; ar, ألْفَاتِحَة, ; ), is the first ''surah'' (chapter) of the Quran. It consists of 7 '' ayah'' (verses) which are a prayer for guidance and mercy. Al-Fatiha i ...

. In the 10thC, in his ''Kitāb al-sabʿa fī l-qirāʾāt'', Ibn Mujahid established seven readings of the Quran which would later be known as the canonical 'Seven'. Three of their readers hailed from

Kufa Kufa ( ar, الْكُوفَة ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Currently, Kufa and Najaf a ...

, a centre of early Islamic learning. The three Kufan readers were Al-Kisa'i, the Kufan;

Hamzah az-Zaiyyat Abu ‘Imarah Hamzah Ibn Habib al-Zayyat al-Taymi, better known as Hamzah az-Zaiyyat (80-156AH), Edward SellThe Faith of Islam pg. 341. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2013 reprint. Muhammad Ghoniem and MSM SaifullahThe Ten Readers & Their Transmit ...

; and Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud. It is, alongside the Hafs 'an 'Asim tradition which represents the recitational tradition of

, one of the two major oral transmission of the Quran in the Muslim World.Ibn Warraq, ''Which Koran? Variants, Manuscript, Linguistics'', pg. 45. Prometheus Books, 2011. The influential standard

Quran of Cairo History of the Quran is the timeline and origin of the written compilations or manuscripts of the holy book of Islam, based on historical findings. It spans several centuries, and forms an important major part of the early history of Islam ...

that was published in 1924 is based on Hafs 'an ʻAsim's recitation.

Chain of Transmission

Imam Hafs ibn Suleiman ibn al-Mughirah al-Asadi al-Kufi learned from Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud al-Kufi al-Tabi'i from Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami from Uthman ibn Affan, Ali,

Ubayy ibn Ka'b Ubayy ibn Ka'b ( ar, أُبَيّ ٱبْن كَعْب, ') (died 649), also known as Abu Mundhir, was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a person of high esteem in the early Muslim community. Biography Ubayy was born in Medina (th ...

, and Zaid ibn Thabit from

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...

References

{{Authority control 706 births 796 deaths 8th-century Arabs Quranic readings People from Mecca People from Baghdad People from Kufa Iraqi Sunni Muslims

Hafs recitation

Chain of Transmission

See also

References