The Quran in the Ibn Wardan ‘an Abi Ja‘far riwaya

Ibn Wardan ‘an Abi Ja‘far is one of the two transmissions of the reading of Abu Ja‘far, the leading reader of Medina before Nafi‘ and one of the ten canonical readers. Its transmitter, Abu al-Harith ‘Isa ibn Wardan al-Hadhdha’, a Medinan reader who died around 777 (160 AH), read with Abu Ja‘far himself and then with Nafi‘, of whose companions he was one of the earliest. Today it is mainly preserved in the teaching of the ten readings.

Abu Ja‘far Yazid ibn al-Qa‘qa‘ (d. 747; 130 AH), a Successor, was the master of recitation in Medina and one of Nafi‘'s teachers. He read with his patron ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Ayyash, with Ibn ‘Abbas and with Abu Hurayra, all students of Ubayy ibn Ka‘b. Ibn Wardan's transmission came down notably through Qalun, who read with him, and then through Qalun's student al-Hulwani. Ibn al-Jazari set down Abu Ja‘far's reading in his poem al-Durra, which completes the Shatibiyya to make up the ten readings.

Abu Ja‘far makes a short pause (sakt) on each of the separate letters that open certain surahs (alif — lām — mīm), keeps the separated madd short, always extends the plural mim (‘alayhimū) and turns a silent hamza into a long vowel (yūminūna); he reads Maliki yawmi d-dīn without the long alif. His two transmitters differ only on a few words: according to the Durra, Ibn Wardan says yarḍahū lakum (39:7) and Ibn Jammaz yarḍah lakum.

Reciters who have recorded it include Yousef Bin Noah Ahmad, Ahmed Aissa El Masarawi and Mohammed Mustafa Al-Zayat.