The Reflex of Defensing the Seven Letters and Qiraahs Within the Context ofCriticism Directed Towards Al-Tabari

According to al-Tabarî, seven letters (al-ahruf al-sab‘a) are expression types having the same meanings. However, Caliphate Uthman ordered the copying of the Quran just with one of the letters, leaving out the rest; besides, current recitation/qiraah of the Quran was cited through single report/khabar al-wâhid by recitators/qurrâ. That‘s why, in the interpretation/tafseer of Taberî, in order a qiraah to be recitated and evaluated, it is emphasized that its‘ citations should be agreed or it must be recitated by most of the qurrâs. This approach means that al-Tabarî makes a distinction between the Quran and qiraah. His criticizing some of the qiraahs, which were accepted as continually cited/motewaater, due to their contrariety to the consensus/ijmâ‘ is an evidence of this. In traditional thought, a qiraah‘s being cited by the qurrâ of sab‘a or ashara means that it can be questioned and its being questioned or criticism have been accepted as the criticism of the Quran. Thus, al-Tabarî‘s criticizing the qiraahs which were accepted as motewaater with different aspects has been considered dangerous with the concern of damaging the reliability of the Qur‘an. Besides, al-Tabarî was tried to be defamed in terms of Qiraah science. The present study tackles the afore-mentioned criticisms with particular considerations. As a result, it has been put forth that criticisms towards al-Tabarî were carried out with settled acceptances and a defensive reaction.