📘 What is the Qālūn ʿan Nāfiʿ Narration?

The Qurʾān has been preserved and transmitted through a number of authentic recitations, known as Qirāʾāt, each of which has reached us through a continuous chain of transmission (this is known as tawātur) from the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. In total, we have 10 Qirāʾāt, and one of the most distinguished of these is Qirāʾt Nāfi.

Imām Nāfiʿ al-Madanī (d. 169 AH) was one of the foremost authorities of Qurʾānic recitation in Madinah, whose mastery and precision earned him wide recognition among the scholars of his time. Among his many students, two became especially prominent in transmitting his recitation: Qālūn and Warsh.

Qālūn, whose full name was ʿĪsā ibn Mīnā (b. 120, d. 220 AH), was a close disciple of Imām Nāfiʿ. The well known scholar Ibn al-Jazarī noted that Nāfiʿ would listen to Qālūn recite thirty verses at a time and then say, “Qālūn”, meaning “excellent” or "perfect" in Roman. He once said: “I recited to Nāfiʿ his full recitation multiple times, and I documented it in my book.”. It is reported that when Qālūn was asked how many times he recited to Nāfiʿ, he replied: “More times than I can count. After completing my study, I continued to sit with him for another twenty years.”. Al-Dhahabī listed him among the fifth generation of Qurʾān scholars, and Ibn al-Jazarī included him among the prominent imams of Qirāʾāt. Through his meticulous preservation and teaching, the reading of Nāfiʿ reached the generations after him in an unbroken chain.

Today, the narration of Qālūn ʿan Nāfiʿ continues to be the dominant form of recitation in Libya and North Africa. Alongside other canonical narrations, it forms part of the rich diversity of Qurʾānic recitation that highlights both the precision and the universality of the Qurʾān’s transmission.