Proof That Hafs Didn't Use Ikhtiyar & Tracing Its Tawatur Back To Prophet (sws)
Ghamidi saheb writes in his essay on Qirat in his book Maqamaat: He was taught this reading from his teacher ‘Āsim ibn Abi al-Najud (d. 127 AH) who in turn was a student of the celebrated follower Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 74 AH). Al-Sulami taught its subtleties in Kufah to various students for almost forty years. About him, Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid (d. 324 AH), the first person to have selected the seven canonical readings, has specified that he did not teach his own preferential reading but the very one on which ‘Uthman (rta) had striven to gather the ummah on. He writes: أول من أقرأ بالكوفة القراءة التي جمع عثمان رضي اللّٰہ تعالي عنه الناس عليها أبو عبد الرحمن السلمي The first person who taught the reading in Kufah on which ‘Uthman had gathered the people was Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami.[4] He is the same person who upon seeing the proliferation of various readings among people had said: كانت قراءة أبي بكر وَعمر و عثمان و زيد بن ثابت و المهاجرين وَالأنصار وَاحدة كانوا بقرءون القراءة العامة وَهي القراءة التي قرأها رَسُوْلَ اللّٰہِ صَلَّي اللّٰہُ عَلَیۡہِ وَسَلَّمَ علي جبريل مرتين في العام الذى قبض فيه وكان زيد قد شهد العرْضَة الأخيرة وَكان يقرئ الناس بها حتیمات The reading of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman and Zayd ibn Thabit and that of all the Muhajirun and the Ansar was the same. They read the Qur’an according to the al-qira’at al-‘ammah. This is the same reading which was read out twice by the Prophet (sws) to Gabriel in the year of his death. Zayd ibn Thabit was also present in this reading [called] the al-‘ardah al-akhirah. It was this reading that he taught the Qur’an to people till his death.[5] …. [4].Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Musa ibn ‘Abbas ibn Mujahid, Kitab al-sab’ah fi al-qira’at, 2nd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-ma’arif, 1400 AH), 67. [5]. Abu ‘Abdullah Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Bahadur ibn ‘Abdullah al-Zarkashi, Al-Burhan fi ‘ulum al-Qur’an, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (Beirut: Dar al-fikr, 1980), 237.