In recent weeks, a fierce argument has re-emerged in Kano over an old and sensitive question: Do the Shīʿa possess a Qur’an different from the one all Muslims read today?
A Salafi preacher, Barrister Ishaq, boldly claimed that they do — quoting a narration from al-Kulaynī’s al-Kāfī which states that the original Qur’an contained 27,000 verses. When we challenged him to produce a physical copy of this supposed “Shīʿite Qur’an” and offered a financial reward for proof, he failed to bring any evidence. Instead, he resorted to personal attacks and selective hadith citations.
But as I reminded him publicly, if a single narration is enough to indict an entire sect, then the same standard must apply to everyone. The Sunni tradition also contains narrations — some from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (RA), Ibn Masʿūd, and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb — that speak of variant readings, lost verses, or differing counts of surahs and letters. The Qur’an they transmitted was the same revelation, but their memories and manuscripts reflected the early human process of preservation.
To be fair, we cannot use one hadith to discredit a people while ignoring hundreds of similar reports in our own books. Justice in knowledge is the hallmark of faith — and sectarian bias, wherever it appears, only weakens the unity that the Qur’an itself was sent to establish.
In every generation of Islamic scholarship, the question of how the Qur’an was compiled and transmitted has never been merely academic — it has been a test of intellectual sincerity.
Recently, a public argument arose when a Salafi scholar claimed that the Shi‘a possess a Qur’an different from Mushaf al-‘Uthmānī — the standardized codex compiled under Caliph ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (RA).
In response, we challenged him to present this supposed “Shi‘ite Qur’an,” promising a financial reward if he could show any manuscript — historical or contemporary — that differs in words, chapters, or structure from the Qur’an recited and printed throughout the Muslim world today.
Instead of producing evidence, he resorted to personal attacks and cited narrations from al-Kulaynī’s al-Kāfī, where it was allegedly mentioned that the Qur’an originally contained “27,000 verses.” The implication was that the Shi‘a altered or lost much of the Qur’an’s text.
This claim, often repeated by sectarian preachers, deserves a sober and scholarly response — not through anger or emotion, but through history, logic, and fairness.
1. The Problem of Single Hadith Condemnation
The first intellectual error of our brother’s claim lies in the method of argument.
To indict an entire school of thought on the basis of a single hadith from al-Kulaynī is neither scholarly nor just. Every tradition, Sunni or Shi‘a, contains narrations that are weak, anomalous, or misunderstood.
If this becomes our yardstick, then the same principle would condemn Sunni scholarship as well. For example, we have narrations in Sunni sources where ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (RA) reportedly said: “The Qur’an contained more than a million letters, and what people recite now is only a part of it.”
Similarly, in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and Musnad Aḥmad, we encounter authentic reports about verses that were revealed but not preserved in the current Muṣḥaf — the verse of stoning, the verse of suckling, the verse of wealth, and the single-verse surah on the martyrs of Biʾr Maʿūna.
None of these reports are used by Sunni scholars to claim that “the Qur’an was altered.” They are studied as abrogated recitations (naskh al-tilāwah) — revelation that was divinely removed from recitation while its meaning remained.
If that interpretive generosity is allowed for Sunni ḥadīth, it must also be extended to Shi‘a sources for the sake of fairness.
2. Diversity of Codices in Early Islam
History itself proves that variant codices existed among the Prophet’s companions — all sincere Muslims who heard revelation directly from the Messenger ﷺ.
Ibn Masʿūd’s mushaf reportedly lacked Al-Fātiḥah, Al-Falaq, and An-Nās — yet no scholar accused him of disbelief; they explained it as a matter of arrangement, not rejection.
Ubayy ibn Kaʿb’s mushaf contained 116 or 117 surahs, including Al-Ḥafd and Al-Khalʿ — supplications recited by the Prophet but excluded from the Uthmānic text.
Even ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (RA) lamented that the verse on stoning and the one on birr al-wālidayn were missing from the written compilation, though revealed and recited in the Prophet’s time.
If these realities do not mean the Sunni Qur’an is “corrupted,” then citing al-Kulaynī’s narration cannot logically prove that the Shi‘a possess a different scripture.
Both traditions grappled with the same early fluidity of transmission — but both converged on the same Mushaf al-ʿUthmānī, which today remains the universal Qur’an of Islam.
3. Between Revelation, Recitation, and Record
The roots of confusion lie in failing to distinguish three categories of revelation:
1. Waḥy matlū — revelation recited as Qur’an.
2. Waḥy ghayr matlū — revelation not meant for Qur’anic recitation (e.g., some ḥadīth qudsī).
3. Tafsīr ṣaḥābī — companion commentary occasionally written in personal codices.
When the Qur’an was standardized, these layers were carefully separated. What some modern polemicists call “additions” or “omissions” were, in truth, efforts to distinguish divine recitation from divine explanation.
Hence, both Sunni and Shi‘a traditions record traces of this process — and that does not compromise the Qur’an’s preservation.
4. On the Numbers Game: Verses, Words, and Letters
Those who cite al-Kulaynī’s “27,000 verses” must remember that classical Muslims counted differently — sometimes by letters, sometimes by phrases, and sometimes by the length of pauses.
The same applies to ʿUmar’s statement that the Qur’an originally had “a million letters.” Counting methods, not revelation, were at issue.
Even among Sunni scholars, the total number of verses varies — 6,204 in the Kufan count, 6,236 in the Basran, and 6,219 in the Shami enumeration — yet the text remains one.
If numerical discrepancy does not undermine the Sunni text, it cannot be used to impugn the Shi‘a.
5. The Spirit of the Qur’an and the Sufi Perspective
As a Sufi — and therefore a seeker of inner truth beyond factional labels — I affirm that the miracle of the Qur’an lies not in the arithmetic of its letters, but in the harmony of its message.
The Divine Word is preserved in essence, spirit, and guidance, not merely in ink or parchment.
It is the same Qur’an that inspires the Sunni jurist, the Shi‘a theologian, and the Sufi mystic — the same kalām Allāh that transforms hearts in every generation.
To weaponize its textual history for sectarian gain is to dishonor the very message of unity it proclaims.
Conclusion
Therefore, if one condemns the Shi‘a by citing a single narration from al-Kulaynī, intellectual integrity demands that he also confront the parallel narrations in Sunni sources that speak of omitted verses, lost surahs, or differing codices.
The honest verdict is clear: both traditions share a complex history of oral and written transmission, but the Qur’an they uphold today is one and the same.
Faith demands reverence, scholarship demands fairness — and the Sufi heart demands truth free from prejudice.
Epilogue
Truth is not guarded by sects, nor preserved by slogans — it lives in the heart that seeks, and the mind that reflects.
The Qur’an remains whole not because men agreed upon its pages, but because God guarded its light within the souls of believers.
When we argue, let it be with humility.
When we differ, let it be with knowledge.
For in the end, the Qur’an calls not to division — but to justice, wisdom, and peace within the One Ummah.
* Malam Muhammad Fatuhu Mustapha is the Executive Director, Administration & Training, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). He is also a devoted adherent of the Tijjaniyya Order.
