 Inshallah, in this episode, I want to discuss and critique the two most prominent views that I mentioned. So let me start with the first view which was that the Ahruf as Saba'a refers to, and it means Saba'a Lugat, Men Lugat Al Arab Al Fusha, that it refers to seven dialects of the Arabs, seven prevalent dialects of the Arabs in the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. This view is strong, but there are things that weaken it. It's a strong opinion, but there are points that work against it, that weaken it, push it down, and they are the following reasons. These are not the only reasons, but I'm just going to mention some. Number one, the fact that they disputed one another and disagreed amongst themselves, which of those dialects are they? And to say this is the particular dialect that the Quran came down on. These are the seven. To say that, we have no authentic evidences for it. There's no hadith for it. There's no ether from the Sahabas for this. And none of the A'imah and the scholars of hadith have authenticated any narration that states that these are the seven dialects. So number one, they don't have no evidence to say that these are the seven. Also, which seven from the Arab dialects is it? It's again, they don't know why they chose these seven and not these seven. The second reason, or the second point is, if you look at the Qiraat that we have today that we recite the Quran, you find it consists of more than the seven dialects that they mentioned. And we have words in the Quran that are dialects other than the seven dialects they all mentioned. For example, the word Samidun. The word Samada means ganna to sing. And this is Lugat-u-Himiar. It's the dialect of the people of Himiar, which is not stated in the seven. Each party is bringing forward. The word Rafath. The word Rafath, it means Jima'ah, sexual intercourse. Again, this is the Lugat of Muth-Hijj. Again, it's not in the seven that they stated. It's not in the seven that they stated. So that shows that the seven dialect argument is not strong, it's not powerful. Number three, that which has been narrated from Umar ibn al-Khattab, and Umar radiallahu anhu was speaking to Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. Umar radiallahu anhu said to him, Inna Al-Qur'ana Unzila bi-Lugat-u-Quraysh. The Qur'an has been sent down in the dialect of Quraysh. Fa'akri inna sa bi-Lugat-u-Quraysh. Read the Qur'an to the people in the language of Quraysh. Wa la tukri'uhum bi-Lugat-u-Hudayl. Do not read the Qur'an to them in the dialect of Hudayl. Now this again shows you that the Qur'an has been sent down in this dialect. Umar radiallahu anhu said it. Unzila bi-Lugat-u-Quraysh. There's another Hadith al-Imam Al-Bukhari narrated that Uthman ibn Affan said to the scribes that were writing, he said to them, If you disagree with Zaydu ibn Thabit, if you guys and Zaydu ibn Thabit dispute regarding anything related to the Qur'an, faqtabuhu bi-Ligat-u-Quraysh. Write it in the dialect of Quraysh. Fa inna ma nazala bi-Lisanim because it came down in their dialect. So that shows the argument that says it came down. Unzila al-Qur'anu ala sab'ati ahrufin that the Qur'an was sent down in seven dialects. And those dialects each refer to the dialects of the Arab of that time is weak because Uthman and Umar are both saying that it came down in the dialect of Quraysh. The fourth point that debunks this claim that it sent down in the seven dialects is Umar and Hisham ibn Hakim who are both Qurashiyan. Umar is a Qurashiman and Hisham ibn Hakim is a Qurashiman. And both of them disputed in the recitation verse in Surat al-Furqan. Both of them are Qurashiyan, both of them are for Quraysh. If it was an issue of dialects they would not have disputed one another. Then Umar would read in the dialect of Quraysh and Hisham ibn Hakim is reading in the dialect of Quraysh. But Adalika they are differing amongst themselves. And they are claiming the reason why there is a difference is because there is different dialects and the Qur'an was sent down in different dialects. But here we have two Qurashiyan, two Quraysh men having a what? Having a Khilaf, a dispute amongst themselves both of whom are reading in the Qurashil dialect. Now we are going to go into the second opinion, the second strongest opinion out there when it comes to al-Ahrufi Saba'a. The second most prominent opinion out there regarding al-Ahrufi Saba'a. And this view, as you all know, is the view that says the al-Ahrufi Saba'a is referring to seven variations of reciting the Qur'an. And I mentioned Ibn Qutaybah held that view Abu al-Fadal al-Razi and also Ibn al-Jazali, Rahimahullah. And we discussed it in our previous episode. This opinion is weak for many reasons. I'm only going to mention two. Number one is that they amongst themselves disputed and argued what seven different variations are we referring to? Because there are 20 different variations in the Qur'an. Why did you select these seven? And if you look at amongst themselves, Abu al-Fadal al-Razi has seven different variations that he's referring to. Here you have Ibn Qutaybah mentioning seven different. You have Ibn al-Jazali, he has seven different. This shows you the fact they couldn't agree on it makes the argument a bit weak. Number two, the second reason why this opinion seems also weak is because the wisdom in why the Ahruf al-Saba'a came down is to make matters easy for the elderly person, the illiterate person who can't read or write. And that was the purpose it came down. If you look at the seven that Ibn al-Jazali mentioned, Abu al-Fadal al-Razi mentioned, Ibn Qutaybah mentioned, you see that it doesn't fulfill that objective. Rather, if you look deep at it, you tend to find that they are more referring to the writing rather than the pronunciation and the articulation and the recitation. When in reality, if you look at the riyat concerning the Ahruf al-Saba'a, it's talking about the recitation. So for example, when they mentioned the issue of the tasrif al-af'al past, present and verb, taqdeeman ta'akhir, word order, the verbal morphology. This is something that doesn't show the wisdom of why the Ahruf al-Saba'a came down to make matters easy. The verbal morphology doesn't seem to fulfill that goal or the issue of word order, for example. Okay? Or the issue of subtraction or mission and addition in some places. That doesn't seem to be the case. The problem that was there and that Ahruf al-Saba'a is trying to fulfill is people are struggling to pronounce particular words, to say those words properly. That's what they're struggling with. And so the Quran came down in those seven Ahruf in order to make matters easy for the people. Those two opinions are the two strongest opinions. And without a shadow of a doubt, they have element of truth present in both of them. But as a whole, the seven dialects of the Arabs as a whole, the whole entire argument doesn't all seem right. There is right and wrong within the argument. And also the view that says it's seven different variations that Ibn al-Jazali, Ibn al-Qutaybah and Abu Fadal al-Razi chose also has element of truth in it. And there's also in their things that are incorrect. Evidence doesn't back it up. It's like contradiction and etc. So now it moves me to what is the strongest opinion? But before I go into what is the strongest opinion, I want to ask a question and also answer that question. The hadith related to the seven Ahruf is reached multitude narration. Has reached multitude narration. Why has not there come one narration that has inside it the meaning of the seven Ahruf? And when we know the Qa'ida that the scholars mentioned, to delay something that is needed. When it's needed is not something that we can say that the Prophet ﷺ would do. And it's haram for us to say that the Messenger ﷺ is going to delay something when the need is outstanding. The people are in need of it and he will not clarify it. Na joozu fi haqqihi ta'khirul bayani an waqtil haja. Nabi Allahi Muhammad would never delay something that the people need at the time they needed. So al-Ahru fi saba'ah. The response to this question is that there were one of two reasons why the narrations didn't state this and didn't mention this. The first one is li wuduhil muradi min al-Ahruf i'indahum. Sahabah and Rasulullah ﷺ they understood what the Prophet ﷺ meant by it. It was ma'lum. They knew it out of necessity. So it wasn't something they needed to ask him, what do you mean by this old message of Allah? And the Sahabahs used to do that a lot. If there was a matter they didn't understand they would say Ya Rasulullah what do you mean by this and the Prophet will clarify it for them. Plus the Sahabahs are very knowledgeable people. They're not like us. The Sahabah are more knowledgeable in the Arabic language. They are more knowledgeable in the Prophet's speech ﷺ. They lived with him. They knew his character. They knew his method of speech. They knew what he intended from things. And Abu Bakr for example. When the Messenger ﷺ stood up and he gave his khutbah and the Prophet ﷺ said to the companions, a slave. There's a slave. Allah gave him the choice of this dunya and its glamours and its glamours. And the hereafter and this slave he chose the hereafter. Abu Bakr cried. Why did Abu Bakr cry? Because he knew that the Prophet was talking about himself. And he knew the Prophet that well. So it's not possible that the Prophet will say ﷺ that the Qur'an came down in seven Ahruf. And Abu Bakr would hear the Prophet say that. And Umar would hear him say that. And all the Sahabahs would hear him say that. Multiple times. Multiple companions would hear that from him. And not one of them would say, oh Messenger of Allah, what do you mean by that? So that shows us that the Sahabahs understood the Ahruf of the seven. And that's why they didn't ask for clarification. And that's why they didn't explain it in their hadith because it's known. It's known. A second argument can be that the reason why they didn't explain it to us the Sahabahs or the narrations didn't mention it is because the Sahabahs didn't know. And that is a very weak argument. And I've given the reason why that wouldn't make sense or that wouldn't be the correct approach to say that the Sahabahs didn't understand when they're hearing it from him many times. Now inshaAllah ta'ala I'm going to go into the strongest opinion regarding what is meant by the Ahruf of the seven. The opinion that my heart settles with personally. And I found it to be very strong. And it seems to be the best argument out there. And again brothers and sisters I want to put this out as a disclaimer and say to each and every one of you that these opinions are again each tihadat. They are based on independent reasoning. This opinion can be an opinion that you might find deficiencies in it. But we're only looking for which opinion is the closest to the truth. Or the evidence is back it up. So after looking and researching and observing that which my heart is content with. And I've read all the views out there that Suyuti and others have mentioned regarding this issue. I've read so many books on it. The view that my heart settles with. And I find contentment in is the view that was set by Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Qari. Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Qari's argument is the strongest. He argues the following. He says by the way what he did was Abdul Aziz Al-Qari is that when he read all of the entire views he weakened each view. He took a view from within all of those. Whichever view had correct points in it he took it from it. Whatever was wrong he left it. And the next view whatever was right he took from it and whatever was wrong he abandoned it. And from that he brought a view. Which is what I'm going to mention now. So inshaAllah it revolves around five points. Five points it revolves around is. The first he said is Al-Wujuh Al-Saba. Al-Wujuh Al-Saba it means seven forms. And the reason why he specifically said the word Al-Wujuh which is a jama'at of the word Al-Wujuh. Remember at the beginning we said that some said the word Al-Ahruf which comes from the singular word Harf. Has many meanings. It's a word which is Mushtarak. Has many meanings. It means taraf. It also means Al-Naqat Al-Damirah. It means Al-Nahiyah. And etc. He's choosing the opinion that said that the word Al-Ahruf means Al-Wujuh. So he said Al-Wujuh. He's strengthening that opinion. The reason why is because Bistikra'i Al-Fad Al-Hadeeth. When he looked at the narrations and observed the narrations the meaning that stands out from all of that is this concept is talking about Al-Wujuh forms. And that seems to be very strong. He said Al-Wujuh Al-Saba seven. The reason why he's saying seven is because he's trying to strengthen the opinion that the seven is literal not metaphorical. He's trying to say that the aded here, the seven here is Al-Haqiqatihi. It's literal. It's not metaphorical. It's not a metaphor. But that being said it doesn't mean that it's going to reach seven because seven is the maximum. It could sometimes be the recitation can be in one word three. It can mean four. It can be four. It can be five. It can be six. It can be two. It could be possible because the recitation of the Qur'an is two types. The first one is unanimously agreed upon. The recitation of this is all of the Qur'an are the same on it. There's no difference amongst them all. And that's the majority of the Qur'an. And there is places where there are differences. Those differences doesn't reach more than seven. Seven is the maximum. Sometimes there can be three differences. Sometimes there's four differences. So when he says Al-Saba it means Al-Aqsa had the maximum amount. It can be the recitation of it. Or the forms is that seven. For example the word Ar-Jih. We have in the Qur'an Ar-Jih. Ar-Jih has six forms it can be recited in. Six ways that it can be recited in. And those six ways are mutawatirah. That means six. Now it's not seven. We have it's recited in arbaat-Ujjuh. Four forms. Four ways. So sometimes it can be four, sometimes it can be six. But seven is the maximum. Point number three that the definition revolves around is he said Al-Ujjuh Al-Saba. The third point is Al-Mutaghairah. Mutaghairah means variations. But these variations are not variations which is specific to synonyms. I mean some of the scholars argued remember before that the variations here are only synonyms. It's like halouma wa aqbil wa ta'al. Like halouma which means come here. Wa aqbil which means come here. Ta'al which means come here. No. Some of the variations in the Quran are not just synonyms. It's actually a different word with a different meaning. So the sheikh is trying to say Al-Mutaghairah here means that the ikhtilaf is not just the one type which is a taraduf that is synonyms. That's not the only type. The mutaghairah because it's sometimes being other than a synonym which is strong. Point number four. He said Al-Munazalah Quranen. Al-Munazalah Quranen what he's trying to say is that he's refuting those people who are saying the ruqsa is the Ahruf-i Saba when it came down. It's the ruqsa here that's been given to the people into reading in the seven is seven in whichever way they want. The sheikh is trying to refute that. No. The recitation is restricted by revelation. The word cannot just be recited the way you feel like or the way you want. It has to be restricted by is a revelation. Ya'ani as I said to you before is talaqiyan mushafah. Ya'ani these variations that you're seeing all of them are from who? Allah Azawajal. They are not from the Prophet. He didn't make this. The sahabas didn't make this and the Qur'an that you're seeing they didn't make this. All of these variations are all taken from the Prophet. They go back to the Prophet. Last but not least the fifth one is Al-Qira'ah. You can recite it in whichever of those seven you want. He used the one Al-Qira'ah which is the fifth one. The fifth point is Al-Qira'ah which is the ahruf is connected to the concept of pronunciation. It's not an issue of writing and the form of a word. It's talking about the pronunciation and the articulation of the word. That's why the Prophet in many of the hadiths, what did he say? Al-Qira'ani jibreed. Jibreed recited on me in another recitation or another word. He said wa Allah. He says, wa inna allaha ya muruk an taqra'u mataka. Allah is commanding you to recite on to your ummah. Also the Prophet, he said in another recitation or another word he said, or another hadith, faqra'u minha matayasar. The word is the issue of al-Ahruf revolves around recitation. Okay, so this again is it debunks the claim of those who are more focusing on the form of the word and the writing of that word. The issue of al-Ahruf revolves around al-Qira'ah pronunciation and it was to make it easy for the elderly person and the illiterate and the young child to recite the Quran as it came down from Allah. I hold that this opinion, Abdul Aziz Al-Qari mentioned, it's very safe, very good, but I do say that to say that this is 100% the strongest opinion and this is it, it's very hard but this seems to be the closest to the evidences of the hadith. Anything I might have said that was wrong is from me, Shaytan, and Allah is messenger of free from it. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. How can you do a two-second action right now that will give you a share of the reward of everything we're doing on this YouTube channel? Simple. Like this video and click subscribe. Why? It will allow YouTube to recommend our videos to other users and imagine the huge amount of reward that could be waiting for you on the day of judgment if you did that with a sincere intention of spreading the deen of Allah. You'll be rewarded for every single person who benefits from one of our videos as a result of your like or subscribe. That's an easy two-second action that you definitely don't want to miss out on. Do it now, click like and subscribe and don't forget to make that intention.