Ahruf

According to Islamic tradition, the Quran was revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel (Jibrail). The seven reading variants (Arabic: أَحْرُف, romanized: aḥruf, singular: ḥarf), translated as 'styles', 'ways', 'forms' and 'modes', are said to have been taught by Gabriel. Islamic scholars agree that the aḥruf were styles used by the early Muslims to recite the Quran.

The issue of ahruf (lit means letters), whose origin and legality are disputed, is considered problematic to discuss today within the orthodoxy of the Quran's divine origin and preservation. According to some accounts, when Uthman created his official codex, ordered the collection and destruction of other codices collected from different regions -and so expected to be having native different dialects-; other accounts suggest that the writing process was based on the Quraysh dialect, and according to scholars who assumed the 'Ahruf' were dialects in themselves, these dialects were abolished through the work of Uthman's committee. This suggests that the accounts of Uthman's cancellation and burning of the codices may actually refer to a single issue encompassing different codices. While variant readings were initially scorned and criticized as human creations, five centuries later these readings were sanctified by being linked to a divine source.

Today, the terminology that delves deeply into the various readings the Quran, encompassing diverse narrations and schools, is Qira'at, and it is said to be distinct from "ahruf”, that also go back to Muhammad according to the Hadith.