At Q20:63, the readers disagreed on how to recite {قالوا ان هذن لسحران} (Indeed these are two magicians ...)

This thread shall discuss the variant readings at this verse, and the issue of a possible scribal error.

Ibn Kathīr reads : {إنْ هذانِّ}. Hafs (a transmitter of 'Āsim) reads {إنْ هذانِ لساحران} & the other canonical readers (except Abū 'Amr) read {إنّ هذان لساحران}

Abū 'Amr, who considered the 'Uthmānic text here to be grammatically wrong, reads {إنّ هذين لساحران} , with a yā.

In fact, 'Ā'ishah is reported to have said the 'Uthmānic text here is a scribal error:

Narrated 'Urwah: I asked 'Ā'ishah about {والمقيمين} at Q4:162, {والصبئون} at Q5:69 and {ان هذان لساحران} at Q20:63, and she said : O Son of my sister, this is a mistake from the scribe.

The reading of Abū 'Amr {إنّ هذين لسحران} is attributed to Companions such as 'Ā'ishah and 'Uthmān and some from the Tābi'īn.

This was also read the same way by non - canonical readers such as Īsa b. Umar, 'Āsim Al Jahdari and others.

However, early grammarians such as Al Farrā' (d. 207 AH) have stated that the 'Uthmānic text here is according to a dialect of a tribe (Banū Al Hārith) that maintains the alif in the dual form, (ie. by reading هذان} in all three cases (nominative, accusative & genitive)

Most of the earliest Qur'ānic Manuscripts have the "standard" text {ان هذان لسحران}

1st image : Ma VI 165 (carbon dated to 649-675 CE)

2nd image: Sarayı Medina 1a
3rd image: DAM 01-27.1 (upper text)
4th image: Marcel 13

Some of these Qur'ānic Manuscripts omit the alif, and have {ان هذن لسحران}

1st image: DAM 01-29.1
2nd image: Or. 2165

The Lower Text of the Sana'ā Palimpsest, which is the only known non - 'Uthmānic manuscript, has the reading:

{قالوا ما هذان الا سحران}

This reading is similar to what has been reported for the Companion 'Ubayy, who reads {إنْ ذان إلا سحران}