The Islamic Personality by Sheikh Taqīuddīn An-Nabahānī

The Qur’ānic script is tawqeefi and it is not allowed to go against it. The evidence for this is that the Prophet  used to have scribes who wrote down the revelation and they actually wrote down the Qur’ān according to this script and the Messenger  approved of their writing. His  period came to an end with the Qu’ran in the same script in which no change or alteration occurred. Even though the Sahaba  wrote the Qur’ān, it has not been reported from anyone that he differed with this writing until 'Uthman  became the Khalifah and he transcribed the sheets that had been preserved with Hafsa , the mother of the believers into mushafs according to that script, and he ordered that any remaining Mushafs be burned. What also came from the Quranic script that is different from the Arabic script in other books was the deviation from the Arabic script, and there could be no reason for this other than the form of the script being Tawqeefi and not conventional. For example it is not asked why the word arRiba in the Qur’ān is written with the letters waw and alif and not with the letters ya and alif. It is also not asked why there is an additional alif in the word mia’a but not in the word fia’a, why the additional ya in the words bi’ayeekum and the extra alif in the word sa’aw in Sura al-Hajj but absent from the word sa’aw in Sura Saba. Why is the alif added to the word ‘ataw but missing from ‘ataw in Sura al-Furqan. The alif is also added in the word aamano but omitted from the words ba’ao, ja’ao and fa’ao in the Quran. It is added in the word ya’afo allazee but absent from the word ya’afo anhom in Sura an-Nisa. Likewise it should not be said what is the sense of deletion of certain letters in some words but not in other similar words. This is like omitting the alif from the word Qura’an in Sura Yusuf and az-Zukhruf but keeping it in other places, and keeping the alif after the waw of the word samawat in Sura Fussilat but omitting it in others. So why is the alif in the word Al-Mi’aad kept but omitted from the same word in Sura al-Anfal also why the alif in the word sirajan exists wherever this word is mentioned in the Qur’ān except in Sura al-Furqan. This difference in the writing of a single word between one Sura and another, even though there is no difference in the meaning clearly suggests that this depends on the hearing of the words and not on Ijtihād or their understanding. Anything that depends on the hearing as such is i. Likewise, a difference in the order of the Sura’s (chapters) in the Qur’ān was reported, but there was no reported difference in the Quranic script from the script writing recorded in the presence of the Messenger of Allah . Nor was there any difference reported in the order of the Ayahs (verses) in the Qur’ān, indicating that the Quranic script is Tawqeefi. This is clear from the Messenger of Allah’s  acknowledgement of this writing, the consensus of the Sahaba  on this issue, and the existence of differences in the writing of a single word between one Sura and another despite the same wording and meaning. All this is clear evidence proving that the script in which the Mushaf has been written is Tawqeefi script, which must be adhered to without fail. Writing the Mushaf in any other script is prohibited. That the Messenger of Allah  was illiterate is not considered for he had scribes who could write and they described the script to him, not to forget that he could recognise the forms of letters as reported in some ahadith. His scribes also wrote letters on his behalf in normal Arabic script which he sent to the kings and leaders, this script being different from the script used to write the Qur’ān whilst it was being revealed. However the obligation to follow the ‘Uthmani script of the Qur’ān is specific only to the writing of the Mushaf. As for the writing of the Qur’ān by way of quotation or for teaching purposes or for any other reasons this is permissible because the approval of the Messenger  and consensus of the Sahaba is in concern to the Mushaf alone to the exclusion of everything else. There is no Qiyas on this matter because this is an issue of Tawqeefi without an Illah (reason).