没有任何记载表明先知（愿主赐福他并使他平安）时期已确定《古兰经》抄写所用的字形。奥斯曼哈里发（愿主喜悦他）曾吩咐抄写员，若在拼写上出现分歧，就按照古莱什方言书写。因此，当宰德·本·萨比特与另外三位古莱什抄写员在“taaboot”（تابوت，约柜）一词上意见不一，宰德想写成تابوة（taabooh）时，奥斯曼说：“写作تابوت（taaboot），因为《古兰经》是按照古莱什方言降示的。”11

There is nothing recorded from the Prophet (r) to indicate that the script used to copy the Qur’aan during Caliph ‘Uthmaan’s era was fixed. Caliph ‘Uthmaan told the scribes to write it according to the Qurayshee dialect if any difference arose in spelling. Hence, when Zayd ibn Thaabit differed with the other three Qurayshee scribes over the word taaboot, and Zayd wanted to write it تابوة (taabooh), ‘Uthmaan said, “Write it تابوت) taaboot), for verily, the Qur’aan was revealed according to the Qurayshee dialect.” 11

然而,大多数学者认为,最好保留原有的拼写方式,以防《古兰经》的文字因时代推移、书写规则演变而发生改变。这些规则也因国家而异,可能导致人们在《古兰经》的经文本身上产生分歧和争议。因此,当有人问马立克伊玛目,《古兰经》能否按照当时的书写规则书写时,他回答说:“不能,只能按照它最初书写的方式书写。”12

However, the majority of scholars considered it preferable that the original spelling be maintained in order to protect the Qur’aan from changes which might result from the evolution of writing rules with the passage of time. These rules also vary from country to country, which could have led to disunity and discord over the very text of the Qur’aan. Hence, when Imaam Maalik was asked whether the Qur’aan could be written according to the dictation rules of his time, he replied, “No, it should only be written according to the way that it was originally written.”12

其他学者,例如卡迪·巴基拉尼(Qaadee al-Baaqillaanee,卒于公元1013年/伊历403年)和伊本·赫勒敦(Ibn Khaldoon,卒于公元1405年/伊历808年),认为依照标准阿拉伯语的规则书写古兰经是允许的,而奥斯曼版穆斯哈夫与标准阿拉伯语的规则略有不同。巴基拉尼认为,坚持必须依照某种特定的书写符号来书写古兰经,需要古兰经和逊奈中的证据,而这样的证据并不存在。他还提到,一些著名的圣门弟子所持的穆斯哈夫,与奥斯曼版穆斯哈夫所采用的书写体系并不相同。伊本·赫勒敦(卒于公元1406年/伊历808年)则认为,圣门弟子书写奥斯曼版穆斯哈夫时,阿拉伯文的书写规则尚未统一,因此在其书写与后来被公认的规范不同之处,没有必要固守他们的写法。伊兹·本·阿卜杜勒-萨拉姆(Al-'Izz ibn 'Abdis-Salaam,卒于公元1282年/伊历660年)则主张,为了保护无知者免于出现改变词义的诵读错误,普通民众所读的穆斯哈夫必须依照标准阿拉伯语书写,这是一项义务。主张允许这一改变的人指出,今天人们所读并称之为奥斯曼版穆斯哈夫的经本,与奥斯曼版穆斯哈夫最初的样式已有相当大的不同。所有这些改动都出于同一个目的:让普通穆斯林能够更容易、更正确地诵读古兰经。 奥斯曼版穆斯哈夫的捍卫者则指出,圣门弟子这样书写,是为了容纳尽可能多的经过确认的不同诵读本;如果依照现代标准阿拉伯语书写,其中一些诵读变体将无法与书写形式相协调。

Other scholars, such as Qaadee al-Baaqillaanee (died 1013 CE/403 AH) and Ibn Khaldoon (died 1405 CE/808 AH), considered it permissible to write the Qur’aan according to the rules of standard Arabic, from which the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf differs slightly. Al-Baaqillaanee argued that for someone to insist upon writing the Qur’aan according to a specific set of written symbols requires a proof from the Qur’aan and Sunnah, and there is no such proof. He also mentioned that some of the prominent sahaabah had mus-hafs which differed from the writing system employed in the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf.13 Ibn Khaldoon (died 1406 CE/808 AH) argued that the sahaabah wrote the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf at a time when the rules of Arabic writing had not yet been standardized, therefore there is no need to stick to their writing where it differs from what became the accepted norm. Al- ‘Izz ibn ‘Abdis-Salaam (died 1282 CE/660 AH) held the position that it was obligatory to write the mus-haf which ordinary people read according to standard Arabic in order to protect the ignorant from falling into errors of recitation that change the meaning. Those who see the permissibility of this change point out that what people are reading today and calling the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf is really quite different from the way the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf originally looked. The changes were all made for one purpose: to make it easier for the average Muslim to recite the Qur’aan easily and correctly.14 The defenders of the ‘Uthmaanee Mus-haf point out that the sahaabah wrote it in such a way as to accomodate the greatest number of variant authentic recitations, and that writing it according to modern standard Arabic would make some of the variants impossible to reconcile with the script.

《古兰经》在奥斯曼时代书写的经文，没有标示元音的符号（harakat，即fat-hah、kasrah和dammah），也没有用来区分形近字母（例如Seen与Sheen、Saad与Daad等）的点（nuqat）。经文没有编号，也没有用来标示停顿或经文结束的标点符号。以下是那个时代书写的一些《古兰经》经文示例：

The Qur’aanic texts of ‘Uthmaan’s era were written without dashes (tashkeel, i.e. fat-hah, kasrah and dammah) to indicate the vowels and without dots (nuqat) to distinguish between look-alike letters (e.g. Seen and Sheen, Saad and Daad, etc.) The verses were not numbered, nor were there any punctuation signs to indicate pauses or even the ending of verses. The following is an example of some Qur’aanic verses written during that era:

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所有那个时代识字的阿拉伯穆斯林都天然地掌握这门语言,因此能毫无困难地阅读这种简单形式书写的文本。然而,当非阿拉伯人开始皈依伊斯兰并学习阿拉伯语时,由于他们不熟悉这门语言,诵读《古兰经》时开始出现错误。这在伊拉克省尤为明显。事实上,据记载,有一次语法学家艾布·阿斯瓦德·杜阿里(卒于公元638年)听到有人在下面这节经文中把“rasooluh”读成了“rasoolih”。

All the literate Arab Muslims of those days possessed a natural grasp of the language which enabled them to read texts written in this simple form without any difficulty. However, when non-Arabs began to accept Islaam and learn Arabic, errors in the recitation of the Qur’aan began to appear, due to their unfamiliarity with the language. This became especially noticeable in the province of Iraq. In fact, it is reported that once the grammarian, Abul-Aswad ad-Du’alee (d. 638 CE), heard someone recite the phrase “rasooluh” in the following verse as “rasoolih.”

这一分钟内把本应读作dammah的音误读为kasrah，而这在书面文字中是无法分辨的，结果这节经文的意思变成了：“真主和祂的使者与多神教徒毫无关系。”Ziyaad是al-Basrah的总督，此前曾请求ad-Du’alee设计一些符号，使普通民众能够更容易地诵读《古兰经》。Ad-Du’alee因担心引入不合伊斯兰教的创新而迟迟没有回应总督的请求。然而，这一诵读上的错误使他深受震动，以至于事件发生后不久，他便设计出了第一套用来标示阿拉伯文元音的符号。16 fat-hah（短元音“a”）以字母开头处上方的一个点来表示，kasrah（短元音“i”）以字母开头处下方的一个点来表示，dammah（短元音“u”）以字母末尾处的一个点来表示，若字母相连，则位于该字母与其后一个字母之间。Sukoon（表示音节以辅音结尾）则用两个点来表示。17 以下是该时期一段文本的示例：

This minute change in recitation of a kasrah instead of a dammah, which could not be distinguished in the written text caused the verse to mean instead: “Verily Allaah is free from (any obligation) to the idolaters and His messenger.” Ziyaad, the governor of al-Basrah, had previously requested ad-Du’alee to develop some signs by which the masses could more easily read the Qur’aan. Ad-Du’alee had delayed responding to the governor’s request for fear of introducing an un-Islamic innovation. However, this recitational error shook him to such a degree that shortly after that incident, he developed the first set of marks to indicate the vowelling of the Arabic text.16 The fat-hah (the short vowel “a”) was indicated by a dot above the beginning of the letter, kasrah (the short vowel “i”) was indicated by a dot below the beginning of the letter, and dammah (the short vowel “u”) was indicated by a dot at the end of the letter, between it and the following letter if they were joined. Sukoon (indicating the end of a syllable on a consonant) was represented by two dots.17 An example of a text from that period follows:

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后来，为了区分形近的字母，人们加上了附点，元音符号也由与之相关的字母演变而来。例如，fat-hah（发音符号“fatha”）由alif演变而来，成为写在字母上方的一条直线；kasrah（“kasra”）由yaa’演变而来，成为写在字母下方的一条线；dammah（“damma”）由waaw演变而来，成为写在字母末端附近的一个小waaw。

Later on, dots were added to distinguish between look-alike letters, and vowel signs evolved from the letters related to them. For example, fat-hah evolved from the alif and became a straight line above the letter; the kasrah evolved from the yaa’ and became a line below the letter; and dammah evolved from the waaw and became a tiny waaw written near the end of the letter.