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Why did Uthman ibn Affan choose the dialect of Quraysh from among the seven ahruf when compiling the Qur’an?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) did not choose the language of Quraish alone for writing the Mushaf; rather, he made it a reference and a basis in case of disagreement in writing, because the Qur’an was revealed among them and most of it was in their language, so it was more deserving than others. The Mushaf was written to accommodate other languages and was stripped of dots and diacritics to allow for established variations and readings. They only differed on the word "al-Tabut" (the ark), where the Quraish said "al-Tabut with a ta’" and Zayd said "al-Tabuh with a ha’." So, Uthman ordered it to be written with a ta’ because it was in the language of Quraish. This choice was made in the event of disagreement and was justified to resolve the dispute.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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