e Traditions handed down by the
Companions, their followers, and their followers' followers, who can point
out a flaw in the Isnad (_i.e._ chain of narrators) of a Tradition quoted
by an opponent, or maintain, by repeating the long list of names, the
authority of the Isnad of the Tradition he quotes himself. A good memory,
not critical acumen, is the great desideratum in a Muslim theologian. The
chief qualification of a Hafiz, a man who can repeat the whole Quran by
heart, is not that he shall understand its meaning, but that he shall be
able to pronounce each word correctly. By men who are not Arabs by birth,
this is only to be attained after years of practice from childhood. The
Sunnis say that no Shia'h can ever become a Hafiz, from which fact they
draw the conclusion that the Shia'hs are heretics. In the early days of
Islam, the great authorities on the question of the correct pronunciation
of the Quran were the Khalifs Abu Bakr, Omar, Osman, and 'Ali, and ten of
the Companions, who learned from the Prophet himself the exact way in which
Gabriel had spoken. The Arabic of heaven was the Arabic of Islam. The
effort, however, to preserve one uniform method of repeating the Quran
failed. Men of other lands could not acquire the pure intonation of Mecca,
and so no less than seven different ways of reading the sacred book became
current. Here was a great difficulty, but it proved surmountable. Abu Ibn
Kab, one of the Companions, had become so famous as a reader that the
Prophet himself said: "read the Quran under Abu Ibn Kab." These men
remembered that Abu Ibn Kab had stated, that one day when scandalized at
man after man who entered the mosque repeating the Quran in different ways,
he spoke to Muhammad about it. His Highness said: "O Abu Ibn Kab!
intelligence was sent to me to read the Quran in one dialect, and I was
attentive to the Court of God, and said: 'make easy the reading of the
Quran to my sects.' These instructions were sent to me a second time
saying: 'read the {43} Quran in two dialects.' Then I turned myself to the
Court of God saying: 'make easy the reading of the Quran to my sects.' Then
a voice was sent to me the third time saying: 'read the Quran in seven
dialects.'"

This removed all difficulty, and the foresight displayed by the Prophet in
thus obtaining a divine sanction for the various ways of reading was looked
upon as a proof of his inspiration. Thus arose the "haft qira,at," or seven
readings of th