A Critical Study of Rippin's Viewpoints on the Origin and Function of Different Readings of the Qur ān

Andrew Rippin, one of the most prominent of contemporary Qur’ānic scholars has, in numerous articles, studied the Verses 95 of Sura al-Anbia, 40 of al- Araf, and 24 of Naba. He has also studied the challenges which the interpreters encounter in dealing with difficult syntactic structures or strange vocabularies in these verses as well as the role of different readings in this process.
He, like other skeptic orientalists, has considered the chains of authorities relating Islamic traditions as totally invalid. He has also considered the attribution of the Qur’ānic readings to the first generation of Muslims, which is the only way to validate these readings, as fake and forgery. Rippin considers the influence of biblical concepts and theological-ideological motives effective in appearance of various readings in a period of time, which ultimately led to consolidation of the text. In this inquiry, his viewpoints concerning the origin of the discrepancy in the readings and their main functions have been elaborated upon and critically assessed.