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28 With Love to Muhammad sa the Khātam-un-Nabiyyīn
and nations mixed with the Arabs, and there was no more a
need for the different dialects and recitation styles (qirā’āt) of the
Qur’ān. Hence, Hazrat ‘Uthmān ra ordered that only the Quraishī
dialect (or the Hijāzī dialect) should be preserved and Farhan
Khan agrees to this when he writes, “The Qur’ān was originally
compiled in a single copy for mass distribution by Zayd bin
Thābit ra under the direction of [Hazrat] ‘Uthmān bin ‘Affān ra in
the year 24 A.H. All of the other alternat[ive] dialects were
disregarded. The only dialect that [Hazrat] ‘Uthmān ordered to
be preserved was the dialect spoken by the Qurayshī Arabs” 12 .
This is true and a reason for this which Farhan Khan does not
apparently understand is that the people had started
understanding the Hijāzī dialect. The need for them to use the
other dialects was now non-existent. The differences in the
qirā’āt existed due to a temporary need and when the times
changed, Hazrat ‘Uthmān ra abrogated the permission to use the
different qirā’āt and established only one qirā’ah, that is, the
qirā’ah of the Quraishī dialect.
Second, it must be noted that the qirā’āt other than the
Hijāzī qirā’ah do not come directly from the Holy Prophet
Muhammad sa . While the chain of narrators of the different
qirā’āt do reach the companions of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad sa , there is no evidence of any of the qirā’āt, other
than the Hijāzī qirā’ah, to have been narrated directly from the
Holy Prophet Muhammad sa .
Third, whether the word is khātim or khātam, it does not
affect the Ahmadiyya Muslim understanding. The construction
of the word khātam is called Ism Ālah in Arabic grammar and the
construction of the word khātim is called Ism Fā’il. As a result,
while khātam means seal, khātim means the one who seals. Both of
12
Ibid.