Its been a while since we’ve posted and we apologise for the long silence. We have been busy because we’ve recently moved to Egypt and it has taken a while settling in. InshaaAllaah we will have internet set up soon and the usual weekly posts will resume.
Weekly Inspiration – ‘Uyoon al-Kooshee
This week’s inspiration is a truly gifted and very well known recitor from Morroco who has studied in Al-Azhar in Egypt and received his Ijaazahs there. All the videos are recited in the recitation of Warsh ‘an Naafi’.
The Ahruf Of The Qur’aan (Part 1)
1. The Meaning of the Word ‘Ahruf’
The word ahruf is the plural of harf. Linguistically, ‘harf’ has a number of meanings, including:
1) ‘A letter or a word.’ Al-huruf al-abjadiyya, for example, means the letters of the alphabet.
2) ‘The border, the edge of something, the brink.’ For example, Allaah says,
“And among mankind is he who worships Allaah (as it were) upon a harf (i.e., upon the very edge, or in doubt)” [22:11]
3) ‘To swerve from the truth, to distort.’ Allaah says concerning the Jews,
“…they have displaced (lit., yaharifuna) words from their right places…” [4:46]
Its exact definition in Qur’aanic sciencs is the subject matter of this chapter, and therefore cannot be defined at this point. However, a temporary definition maybe given as follows: The ahruf are the various ways that the verses of the Qur’aan are read. Imaam al-Qurtubee (d. 671 A.H.) said, “Every variation of a word in the Qur’aan is said to be a harf. So, for example, when we say the harf of Ibn Mas’ood, it means the way that Ibn Mas’ood used to recite that verse or word.” (1)
Most English authors translate ahruf as ‘modes’ or ‘dialects.’ However, in this book the word will be left in Arabic since the meaning is [...]