Hafs vs Warsh, do their 5,000 differences change anything?

Описание: One of the most often and worn-out responses by Muslims concerning the Qira'at dilemma is that though the 30 different Qira'at Qur'ans have different words and letters, none of them really change anything, as they all say exactly the same thing.

Obvious that excuse is rather tenuous, since in any language, when you change the vowels, or the consonants in a word, you get completely different words, which at times can lead to similar ideas, but more than often they change the whole context of the words, leading to changes in the meaning of the sentences, and then to different doctrines, different beliefs, and even in some cases different practices.

But simply saying that hasn't convinced many Muslims so far, with hundreds of them baying for concrete examples of these changes.

So, here finally I have asked to join me Al Fadi, an Arabist, whose native tongue is Arabic, who is also finishing his doctorate on the Arabic in the Qur'an, specifically the earliest Arabic in one of the earliest manuscripts of the Qur'an, to help us out with these differences.

Who better than someone like him to take on this task.

This first video is just an introduction to the task at hand. We will then upload verse by verse, and video by video the differences we can find when comparing just the Hafs and the Warsh Qira'ats, which are the two most popular versions of the Qur'an used today for memorization.

The Warsh is primarily used in North Africa and is memorized by about 3% of the Muslim world. The Hafs, considered since 1985 as the canonical text world-wide, is memorized by around 97% of the Muslim world. Yet, there are 5,000 different words between them.

We will eventually get through all of the 5,000 differences, but will begin with a few at a time. It won't take long for all of you to see just how different these changed letters and vowels bring to the text of these two Qur'ans, both written in Arabic, and dated to over 1,000 years ago; and yet, simply two, out of 30, which, when totaled, have over 93,000 differences between them.

Let's see if you can see just how significant these changes are, and whether you will agree that indeed, when you change a letter or a word, it leads sometimes to changes in theology, doctrines, beliefs, and even to practices.

© Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2022
(62,930) Music: "Ukulele Fun" by Rafael Krux, from filmmusic-io