[Sūrah xxxix. 12]: “He who observeth the hours of the night in devotion.”
QĀNŪN (قانون). Κάνων. Canon; a rule, a regulation, a law, a statute.
QARĀBAH (قرابة). Lit. “Proximity.” A legal term in Muḥammadan law for relationship.
QĀRIʾ (قارى), pl. qurrāʾ. “A reader.” A term used for one who reads the Qurʾān correctly, and is acquainted with the ʿIlmu ʾt-Tajwīd, or the science of reading the Qurʾān. In the history of Islām there are seven celebrated Qurrāʾ, or “readers,” who are known as al-Qurrāʾu ʾs-Sabʿah, or “the seven readers.” They are—
1. Imām Ibn Kas̤īr. Died at Makkah, A.H. 120.
2. Imām ʿĀsim of al-Kūfah, who learnt the way of reading the Qurʾān from ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān as-Salāmī, who was taught by the K͟halīfahs ʿUs̤mān and ʿAlī. He died at al-Kūfah, A.H. 127.
3. Imām Abū ʿUmr was born at Makkah, A.H. 70, and died at al-Kūfah, A.H. 154. It is on his authority that the following important statement has been handed down: “When the first copy of the Qurʾān was written out and presented to the K͟halīfah ʿUs̤mān, he said, ‘There are faults of language in it, let the Arabs of the desert rectify them with their tongues.’” The meaning of this is that they should pronounce the words correctly but not alter the written copy.
4. Imām Ḥamzah of al-Kūfah was born A.H. 80, and died A.H. 156.
5. Imām al-Kisāʾī who had a great reputation as a Qāriʾ, but none as a poet. It was a common saying, among the learned in grammar, that there was no one who knew so little poetry as al-Kisāʾī. He is said to have died at T̤ūs about the year A.H. 182.
6. Imām Nāfiʿ, a native of al-Madīnah, who died A.H. 169.