Quran 24:35 Scribal Error Claim Refuted — Was "The Light of the Believer" the Original Reading?
The verse of divine light — Quran 24:35 contains no scribal error — is one of the most well-attested verses in the Mushaf, transmitted through continuous and unbroken chains. Despite this, a claim has circulated attributing to Ibn Abbas the view that the original reading should refer to the light of the believer, not the light of Allah Himself, and that a copyist made a mistake. This post addresses that claim systematically.
The Objection
This is attributed to Ibn Abbas via what Ibn Ashtah and Ibn Abi Hatim narrated on the authority of Ata’.
Supporting narrations cited by opponents include:
[!hadith] Abu Ubaid — Fadhail al-Quran
Hajjaj reported, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujahid, that he used to recite: “The example of the light of the believers is as a niche in which is a lamp.”
[!hadith] Abu Ubaid — Fadhail al-Quran
Khalid bin Amr reported, on the authority of Abu Ja’far al-Razi, on the authority of al-Rabi’ bin Anas, on the authority of Abu al-Aaliyah: “It is in the recitation of Ubayy bin Ka’b: ‘The example of the light of he who believes in Allah’” — or: “The example of he who believes in Him.”
Al-Hakim said: Its chain of transmission is authentic, but they did not include it. Al-Dhahabi confirmed in Al-Talkhees: It is authentic.
The Response
The claim fails on multiple grounds — internal logical inconsistency, weakness of transmission, the unbroken tawatur of the Mushaf, and the known reading history of Ibn Abbas himself.
First: Internal Contradiction in the Narration
If Ibn Abbas genuinely believed the transmitted reading was erroneous, he would have recited the corrected form himself. Yet none of the chains of the variant recitation transmit that Ibn Abbas ever recited “Noor al-Mu’min” as his own recitation. This silence is decisive: a man who believes a word is a scribal error does not continue reciting that error in his own tilawah.
Second: These Narrations Were Weakened by Classical Scholars
These narrations were opposed and weakened. They are contradicted by other narrations from Ibn Abbas and the companions that confirm the transmitted letters of the recitation without any reservation.
(Al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Quran, 2/2)
Third: The Mushaf Is Mutawatir — Error Is Logically Impossible
[!scholar] Ibn Taymiyyah — Majmu’ Fatawa (15/255)
Whoever claims that the writer made a mistake is himself the one who has made a reprehensible mistake. The Mushaf was transmitted by continuous transmission (tawatur), and multiple Mushafs were written and distributed. How can it be imagined that a scribal error crept into all of them simultaneously?
This is the decisive theological and historical point: the Mushaf was not a single manuscript. Multiple copies were produced, distributed to major cities, and recited by thousands. The notion of a scribal error surviving across all copies without correction is incompatible with the documented history of the Uthmanic compilation.
Fourth: Ibn Abbas Himself Learned the Quran from Its Compilers
Ibn Abbas received the Quran directly from Zayd bin Thabit and Ubayy bin Ka’b — the same men appointed by Abu Bakr to compile the Mushaf, and the same scribes of revelation who wrote under the direct instruction and approval of the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Abbas knew this and was certain of it.
It is not reasonable that he would take the Quran from these men and then criticize what they themselves wrote in the Mushafs.
(Manahil al-Irfan, 1/392)
Fifth: Ibn Abbas Was Among the Younger Companions and a Student of the Reciters
(Al-Nashr fi al-Qira’at al-‘Ashr, 1/178, 122; Ma’rifat al-Qurra’ al-Kibar, 1/57, 45)
Furthermore, the recitation from Ibn Abbas was transmitted by Abu Ja’far, Nafi’, Ibn Kathir, Abu Amr, and other canonical reciters — and nothing in their transmitted recitation supports the variant the opponents rely upon. His recitation is in full agreement with the established group of reciters.
Sixth: The Ubayy Variant Is Either Explanatory or Abrogated
- An explanatory paraphrase — clarifying the referent of the pronoun in the transmitted recitation, not a variant text; or
- An abrogated recitation — a reading that existed in an earlier stage of revelation before the final written form was sealed.
Neither reading constitutes evidence of a scribal error in the Mushaf.
The claim that Quran 24:35 contains a scribal error collapses under scrutiny. The attribution to Ibn Abbas is internally inconsistent, opposed by classical scholars, and contradicted by his own known recitation history. The Mushaf is mutawatir — transmitted by continuous mass narration across multiple copies — making the hypothesis of an uncorrected scribal error historically untenable. The variant readings of Mujahid and Ubayy are best understood as explanatory paraphrases or abrogated recitations, not competing textual traditions.