red with anger, when he was told about the dispute over the reading. Some of these traditions have already been mentioned and others will be cited here.

٢. The abovementioned traditions include a statement to the effect that the Prophet said that the Muslim community will not be able to "read [the Quran] in one f:taif." This is a clear falsehood, which cannot conceivably be attributed to the Prophet, for we find that the community, after Uthman, in spite of its different races and lan‌ guages, was able to read the Quran in one way. Consequently, how could it be dif‌ ficult for it to agree on one way during the lifetime of the Prophet, when the commu‌
nity was made up of people who spoke pure Arabic?

٣. The dispute that compelled Uthman to confine the reading to one style also oc‌ curred during the Prophets lifetime, and the Prophet confirmed each reader in his reading, and ordered the Muslims to accept them all, informing them that this repre‌ sented the mercy of God on them. How, then, could it be permissible for Uthman and those after him to close the gate of divine mercy in spite of the Prophets order to allow people to read the Quran? How could it be permissible for Muslims tore‌ ject the Prophets opinion and accept Uthmans and endorse his action [in this re‌ gard]? Did they find him more merciful to the community than its Prophet? Or did they find him more aware of something about which the Prophet (God forbid!) was ignorant? Or did the revelation come down on Uthman to abrogate these f:tarfs?
In short, this opinion is so appalling that it does not deserve the effort of refuting
it, and this was the basic factor that caused later Sunni scholars to reject it. It is for this reason that some of them, such as Abu Jafar Mul)ammad b. Sadan al-Nal)awi and al-l:lafiJalal al-Din Suyuti, have resorted to the view that these reports [about the seven f:tmjS] belong to the category of ambiguous traditions, whose purport is unknown.٢٣ They say this despite the fact that, as the reader has seen, their purport is clear and no one who reflects on them can doubt that, because the majority of scholars have spoken of them and followed them.

The Seven Gates

In the second interpretation, the term "seven f:tarfs" is intended to mean the seven [heavenly] gates (at-abwab al-sab a) from which the Quran came down. These deal with verses about prohibition (jazr) and command (amr), what is lawful and unlaw‌ ful, what is clear and ambiguous, and parables.
This explanation has been argued on the basis of a tradition related by Yunus, whose chain of transmission goes back to Ibn Masud, who reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny). He [Ibn MasUd] said:

The first [heavenly] book came down from one gate and in one J;arf. The Quran came down from seven gates and in seven J;arfs, which deal with prohibition and command, what is lawful and unlawful, what is clear and ambiguous, and parables. Thus, allow what it makes lawful, proscribe what it makes unlawful, do what you have been com‌ manded, avoid what has been prohibited, be warned by its parables, act according to its clear verses, and believe in its ambiguous verses and say, "We believe therein; the whole is from our Lord" [Q. ٣:٧].٢٤