Abu Bakr ‘Aasim Ibn Abi al-Najud al-'Asadi (died 745 CE / 127 AH),Shady Hekmat Nasser
Ibn Mujahid and the Canonization of the Seven Readings
p. 57. Taken from ''The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Qur'an: The Problem of Tawaatur and the Emergence of Shawaadhdh''.

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers () is a Dutch international academic publisher of books, academic journals, and Bibliographic database, databases founded in 1683, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the Netherlands. Founded in the South ...

, 2012. Muhammad Ghoniem and MSM Saifullah
The Ten Readers & Their Transmitters
(c) Islamic Awareness. Updated January 8, 2002; accessed April 11, 2016. commonly known as ‘Aasim ibn Abi al-Najud, was, according to Islamic tradition, one of the seven primary transmitters of the Qira'at, or variant readings of the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

. Of

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

origin, his method of reciting the Qur'an as transmitted by Hafs is the most common and popular way of reciting the holy book in the

Muslim world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...

in general.Bewley, Aishah
"The Seven Qira'at of the Qur'an"
, ''Aisha Bewley's Islamic Home Page'' Though he lived much of his life in

Kufa Kufa ( ), also spelled Kufah, is a city in Iraq, about south of Baghdad, and northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates, Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000. Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya ...

, he was associated with Banu Asad ibn Khuzaymah due to a pact. His fellow recitation transmitter Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Ala' also studied under him. Despite being from Kufa, Aasim's reading was not popular there at first.Nasser, ''Canonization'', p. 57. Unlike most reciters in Kufa, he did not accept the pre-Uthmanic style of the Qur'an written by the companion of the Prophet, Abdullah ibn Masud; most of the people of Kufa continued reciting based on that style for a period even after the Uthmanic version became canon. Eventually this changed with the standardisation of the

mushaf ''Mushaf'' (, ; plural ) is an Arabic word for a codex or collection of sheets, but also refers to a written copy of the Quran. The chapters of the Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed during a 23-year period in Muhammad's lifetime, were wr ...

, and in time Aasim's reading became the norm for the Muslim world. In fact, of the seven primary methods of recitation, only two have become particularly common in the Muslim world: that of Nafi‘ al-Madani in much of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

outside of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and that of Aasim in the rest of the Muslim world in general. He died in the year 745 CE, corresponding to the year 127 AH.

Comparison of Warsh and Aasim's recitation

The Warsh 'an Naafi' recitation of the Quran differs from Hafs 'an Aasim' in orthography. The majority of differences do not affect the meaning. Yet in some cases the differences change the implications of the verse. In verse 2:184 Hafs recites the verse to be "... a ransom s substituteof feeding a poor person...". On the other hand, Warsh reads it "... a ransom s substituteof feeding poor people..."A.Brockett, ''Studies in Two Transmission of the Qur'an'', doctorate thesis, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1984, p.138 Other variants orthography include : Another major difference between Hafs and Warsh recitation of the Quran is the pronunciation of the words. Modern Qurans have diacritical marks (known as Tashkil) and in some cases pronouncing the word differently could imply different meaning. Here are some examples:

References

{{Quranic qira'ates 745 deaths Quranic readings 8th-century Iranian people