more than probable, and the Shiʾahs have always charged the Ansárs[1] with "having mutilated and changed and made the Qurán what they pleased;" a charge, however, which they do not attempt to prove, beyond the mere assertion that certain passages were omitted which favoured the claims of Alí to be the first Khalif.
The various readings (Qiraʾat) in the Qurán are not such as are usually understood by the term in English authors, but different dialects of the Arabic language. Ibn Abbas says the Prophet said, "Gabriel taught me to read the Qurán in one dialect, and when I recited it he taught me to recite it in another dialect, and so on until the number of dialects increased to seven."[2]
Muhammad seems to have adopted this expedient to satisfy the desire of the leading
- ↑ See the Hyát-ul-Kalúb, a Shiʾah book of Traditions, leaf 420. "The Ansárs were ordained to oppose the claims of the family of Muhammad, and this was the reason why the other wretches took the office of Khalif by force. After thus treating one Khalif of God, they then mutilated and changed the other Khalif, which is the book of God."
- ↑ Mishkát, bk. ii. chap. ii. pt. 1.
