Historical Study of the Stages of Forming the Frequency of the Seven Readings

To understand how the idea of frequency (tawātur) of the seven readings was formed is a major challenge in the science of readings. Despite the fact that the history and documents of the seven readings testify that these readings are not authenticated as mutawātir, with its conditions, this theory among the Sunnis has become taken as a common belief, as far as those who deny it are regarded as infidel. The present study is based on the historical-structural method, applying the sequence means in the study of history, in order to explore the origins of the emergence of this idea. Accordingly, it is pointed out to the connection between the history of the Qur’an, the history of Islam and the history of hadith; Although the emergence of the idea of ​​the seven readings is one of the topics of the history of the Qur’an, it is related to various matters of the history of Islam and hadith, as well. Paying attention to these two related areas is the key to reopen the ambiguities of its emergence. Some of these topics include: the book of Ali (AS), the problem of madār al-'isnād of the Sunni jurisprudential hadiths, the hadith plagiarism, the system of classifying the society during the Abbasids, etc.