VI. Existing Interpretations

The Shiite authorities are divided into two groups regarding the contents of the Qur’ān collected by ‘Alī (rta).

Al-Majlisī (d. 1110 AH) has summarized these two views in his Mir’āt al-‘uqūl while explaining a narrative:

واختلف أصحابنا في ذلك ، فذهب الصدوق ابن بابويه و جماعة إلى أن القرآن لم يتغير عما أنزل ولم ينقص منه شىء ، وذهب الكلينى ، والشيخ المفيد قدس الله روحهما و جماعة إلى أنّ جميع القرآن عند الائمة عليه السلام ، وما في المصاحف بعضه ، وجمع أمير المؤمنين صلوات الله عليه كما أنزل بعد الرسول  وأخرج إلى الصحابة المنافقين فلم يقبلوا منه ، وهم قصدوا لجمعه في زمن عمر و عثمان كما سياتى تفصيله في كتاب القرآن.

قال شيخنا السديد المفيد روح الله روحه في جواب المسائل الّسروية أن الذي بين الدفتين من القرآن جميعه كلام الله و تنـزيله ، وليس فيه شىء من كلام البشر و هو جمهور المنزل ، والباقى مما أنزله الله تعالى قرآنا عند المستحفظ للشريعة المستودع للاحكام لم يضع منه شىء ، وإن كان الذى جمع ما بين الدفتين الآن لم يـجعله في جملة ما جمع ، الأسباب دعته إلى ذلك ، منها قصوره عن معرفة بعضه ، ومنها ماشك فيه ، ومنها ما عمد بنفيه ، ومنها ما تعمد إخراجه عنه ،

 وقد جمع أمير المؤمنين عليه السلام ، القرآن المنـزل من أوله إلى آخره وألفه بجسب ما وجب من تأليفه ، فقدم المكى على المدني و المنسوخ على الناسخ ووضع كل شىء منه فى موضعه ، فلذلك قال جعفر بن محمد صادق عليه السلام : أما والله لو قرىء القرآن كما أنزل لألفيتمونا فيه مسمين كما سمى من كان قبلنا ، وساق الكام إلى أن قال : غير أن الخبر قدصح عن أئمتنا عليه السلام أنهم أمروا بقراءة مابين الدفتين وان لانعتداه إلى زيادة فيه ولا نقصان منه حتى يقوم القائم عليه السلام ، فيقرء الناس القرآن على ما أنزل الله وجمعه أمير المؤمنين عليه السلام ، وإنما نهونا عن قراءة ماوردت به الأخبار من أحرف تزيد على الثابت فى المصحف ، لأنها لم تأت على التواتر ، وإنما جائت بها الآحاد ، والواحد قديغلط فيما ينقله ، ولأنه متى قرء الانسان بما يخالف ما بين – الدفتين غرر بنفسه من أهل الخلاف وأغرى به الجبارين وعرض نفسه للهلاك فمنعونا عليهم السلام عن قراءة القرآن بخلاف ما ثبت بين الدفتين لما ذكرناه ، انتهى

In this matter, there is a difference of opinion between our authorities. al-Sadūq ibn Bābawayh [d. 381 AH] and a group of scholars are of the opinion that the Qur’ān revealed to the Prophet has not been changed and nothing has been taken away from it. Al-Kulaynī [d. 329 AH] and Shaykh Mufīd [d. 413 AH] and another group of scholars are of the opinion that the whole of the Qur’ān lies with the imāms and the masāhif only contain a part of it. After the Prophet, ‘Alī collected it in the way it was revealed and took it to the Companions who were Hypocrites. But they did not accept it. They resolved to collect the Qur’ān in the time of ‘Umar and ‘Uthmān, the details of which are forthcoming in the chapter Kitāb al-Qur’ān.

Our bona fide Shaykh al-Mufīd has said in Jawāb al-masā’il al-sarawiyyah that all of what we have in the Qur’ān is from God; all of it is His discourse and revealed by Him and it does not contain anything from human beings. It contains most of what was revealed by Him and what remains of what was revealed by Him lies with the person who has been entrusted with the sharī‘ah and who is the repository of injunctions; nothing has been lost from it. And he who had collected the current Qur’ān did not place the remaining revelations within what he had collected. There are various reasons for this: among them is his unawareness of some of it; another reason for it is his doubts about part of it and still another reason is his leaving out parts which he thought were not the Qur’ān and yet another reason is that he deliberately left out a part of it.

And Amīr al-Mu’minīn ‘Alī collected the whole of the revealed Qur’ān from the beginning to its end and arranged it the way it should have been arranged. He placed the Makkan verses before the Madīnan ones and the abrogated verses before the abrogating ones and put each of its parts at its right place. For this reason, Ja‘far ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq has said: “By God! If the Qur’ān was read in the way it was revealed, you would have found our names written in it the way the names of those prior to us are written in it,” and after mentioning other details he said: “Except that the report from our authorities is correct that they commanded us to read what was between the two covers and that we should neither add to it nor take any thing away from it until the al-Qā’im appears. He will then teach people the Qur’ān in the way it was revealed and collected thereof by ‘Alī. And indeed we have been prohibited to read it on readings which are reported in narratives which exceed the ones found in the mushaf because they are not reported through tawātur; they are reported through single or few reporters and a single reporter or a few reporters can err in what they narrate and because when a person would read something which is not in the existing Qur’ān, he would give the wrong impression to others that he is among their enemies, and he would incite cruel people against himself and present himself to destruction. So our authorities have forbidden us to read the Qur’ān on a reading which is not found in our Qur’ān for reasons we have stated.”76

Al-Khū’ī77, while presenting his view on the mushaf of ‘Alī (rta) writes that it did not contain anything over and above the Qur’ān we have today except that its sūrahs were arranged in a different sequence. Whatever additions it had were not part of it. These additions were of explanatory and elucidatory nature.

Al-‘Āmilī says that it is evident from all the narratives that ‘Alī (rta) actually had two Qur’āns. One which he had collected in the time of the Prophet (sws) and it was in the chronological sequence; the other one was collected after the demise of the Prophet (sws) and was in the same order as the Qur’ān we have today. He further comments that it seems that narrators have at times mixed-up the two.78

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