# What are the differences between the Sana'a lower text and today's Quran?

*The twenty to thirty discrepancies, and why they are most likely one person's mistaken reading*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/k6faz7xw53y/s/8/
- Date: 2019-03-01 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: In Depth: The Sanaʽa Manuscript -Mufti Abu Layth (22:07–24:43)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6fAZ7xW53Y&t=1327s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/k6faz7xw53y/

**Topics:** Preservation and variant readings

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The lower text differs from today's Quran in twenty to thirty mostly small ways, such as a missing word or a changed pronoun. Mufti Abu Layth's assessment is that it is one person's, possibly a companion's, personal notes written from a mistaken or personal reading.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that the lower text of the Sana'a palimpsest is most likely someone's personal notes, possibly a companion's, written from his own and probably mistaken reading, rather than an alternative Quran.

**Evidence, his words at 23:38:** “this is most likely somebody he may have been a companion he may have been I'm not denying that um but somebody's personal notes” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6fAZ7xW53Y&t=1418s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says the researchers have listed some twenty to thirty discrepancies between the lower text and the Quran as read today, which he will not go through in full. Sometimes a word is missing: where today's reading says Allah will punish them with a severe punishment, the manuscript says only that Allah will punish them; in a verse about those who struggle in the path of God, today's text lacks the words 'with their wealth and lives' that the manuscript has, though those words occur in a different verse. Many of the differences are very small, such as 'they' for 'you', but words are also missing. His understanding, which he presents as the most plausible assessment rather than certain knowledge, is that this is most likely somebody's personal notes, possibly a companion's, in which the writer set down certain verses for himself in what he thought was the Quran, and that the writer was most likely mistaken in his reading, or that it was simply his own way of reading.

## Sources and names cited

- palimpsest (the Sana'a palimpsest)

## Transcript (machine tier, 22:07–24:43)

[21:41] all I'd like to highlight uh what is what is this most likely so I feel that I'm not so sure whether it was a student documenting it in a study circle like Dr Asma hilali has said but what I think is this is definitely somebody's personal script if it wasn't like I know Dr Quinn seems to uh emphasize she thinks this was some kind of standard manuscript that people were sending out and there's no evidence for that at all if anything this seems to be somebody's personal uh script personal copies that they're writing and they're making some

[22:18] notes okay so like don't say bah here don't do this don't do that the other thing is I think that where they've disagreed so they've made made a list by the way I won't go through all the things here but they've made a list of some of the disagreement discrepancies they've said the uh the variations between this uh manuscript and between how we read the Quran today and sometimes words are missing like for example in one it says Allah will punish them and it says like in our reading of the Quran today it says Allah will punish them uh uh a severe punishment but in there

[22:58] doesn't say it just says Allah will punish them or in some it will say things like um they're saying that those who do you know those who do with their wealth and money and in this verse today in that particular verse I know in a different verse it does say that with their wealth and money but in this particular verse it doesn't say that in the Quran just says J those who who struggle in the path of God so so there's these kind of discrepancies and they've and a lot of these people have listed them they've gone through them so whether there's like I think they've highlighted

[23:38] something like 20 to 30 kind of discrepancies that they've found now a lot of them are very small just like instead of you it says they and things like this but there are words missing as well stuff like this so in my understanding the truth to this is is one is this is most likely because we we don't have certain knowledge but we can go by our interpretation our assessment that this is most likely somebody he may have been a companion he may have been I'm not denying that um but somebody's personal notes so somebody seems to have

[24:16] been writing uh certain verses of the Quran for himself and this seems to be that and it seems to be his personal reading which I feel firstly that he may have been mistaken in or that may have been his way of what he thought was the Quran now that's most plausible okay that's most likely what has happened here and then maybe a few decades later uh what's happened is when they've started to realize because we know withman as

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/8. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/k6faz7xw53y/s/8/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.