Why Were the Six Letters Removed, and the Qur’An Remained With One Letter_ Doesn’T This Indicate Tha

Why were the six letters removed, and the Qur’an remained with one letter? Doesn’t this indicate that the Qur’an has not been preserved?

Scholars differed regarding the meaning of “the seven letters,” and most of these opinions are intertwined. Most scholars have said that what is meant by “the seven letters” are seven languages ​​of the Arabic languages ​​with one meaning. This means that when the languages ​​of the Arabic language differ in expressing a meaning, the Qur’an is revealed in words that are appropriate for these languages ​​for this one meaning. Where there is no difference, it comes with one word or more. This means that these letters are present in the Qur’an in different forms, not that every Qur’anic word has seven languages.

God, in His wisdom, willed that the Qur’an be revealed in seven letters, which included a number of the dialects and languages ​​of the Arabs, for many reasons:

Among them: multiplying the rulings by multiplying the letters; the letter is pronounced in one way: it conveys a ruling and a meaning, and in another way: it conveys another unique ruling and meaning, which gives beauty and perfection.

Likewise: it removes hardship by facilitating the reading of the same meaning with different words, as there is no harm in expanding the words as long as the meaning is the same. If it was revealed in one dialect, it would be difficult for the speakers of other languages ​​to switch from speaking in their dialect to another.

The seven letters were common in the language of Quraysh because it was a mixture of the languages ​​and dialects of all the Arab tribes. The people of Quraysh took from the languages ​​and dialects of the tribes continuously during the Hajj seasons, as the tribes met in their markets and seasons. It is the most eloquent of the Arab dialects, due to its distance from the lands of the Persians. Therefore, the rest of the Arab tribes resorted to the language of Quraysh in every linguistic dispute that arose between them. This is why the Qur’an was revealed in the seven letters of the language of Quraysh mostly.

Then people used to write the Qur’an according to what they knew of the letters that had reached them. With the spread of readers in the lands of the Muslims, and the people of each part of it being limited to a specific reading, leaving everything else, the people of the Levant and the people of Kufa met in the invasion of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and it happened that they differed in their reading of the Qur’an; which led to their dispute and the outbreak of a conflict between them, which almost led to a great strife among the Muslims.

Therefore, Uthman, may God be pleased with him, decided to unify the Muslims’ copies of the Qur’an into one copy, written in one letter, which is the Quraish letter. This is due to the characteristics of the Quraish language that were mentioned earlier. The other fixed letters remain capable of being read in the same written letters or similarly.

This is what Uthman, may God be pleased with him, did, and the rest of the Companions agreed with him and approved of his action. This is what the Islamic nation followed.

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(However, this does not include anything mentioned in the question. The Ummah did not waste memorizing the Qur’an because of that, because Allah the Almighty has given them the choice to memorize and recite the Qur’an in whatever way they wish from those seven letters, just as He has given them the choice in other matters, such as expiation for breaking an oath, for example. There is no dispute among Muslims that the seven letters in which the Qur’an was revealed do not include contradiction or opposition in meaning. Rather, their meanings may be the same or similar, as Ibn Mas’ood (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “It is like one of you saying: ‘Come, come, come.’ The meaning of one of them may not be the same as the other. But both meanings are true, and this is a difference of diversity and variation, not a difference of contradiction and conflict.)

The multiplicity of Quranic letters means the multiplicity of the way words are pronounced in some places in the Quran - not in all of them - and this multiplicity was for special reasons; such as removing hardship, multiplying rulings, challenging, and other things.

At first, the Qur’ans were written in different scripts due to the different letters, in order to relieve the Arabs of hardship when the Qur’an was revealed, due to the difference in their dialects and the diversity of their tongues. However, after the expansion of the lands of Islam, this became a cause of disputes and differences among Muslims. Therefore, it was necessary to unify those letters in one Qur’an and one letter.

This is what Uthman, may God be pleased with him, did, and the rest of the Companions agreed with him and approved of his action. This is what the Islamic nation followed.

This does not mean that the nation has wasted the preservation of the Qur’an as a result, because God Almighty has given it the choice to memorize and recite the Qur’an in whatever way it wishes from those seven letters, just as He has given it the choice in other matters, such as expiation for breaking an oath, for example.

There is no dispute among Muslims that the seven letters upon which the Qur’an was revealed do not include contradiction or opposition in meaning. Rather, their meanings may be the same or similar, and the meaning of one of them may not be the meaning of the other. However, both meanings are true, and this is a difference of diversity and variation, not a difference of opposition and contradiction.