Ragam bacaan (qira’at) al-Qur’an sudah ada sejak diturunkan kepada Nabi Muhammad di Mekkah. Akan tetapi qira’at ini mulai dipergunakan saat nabi sudah berada di Madinah. Saat menyampaikan wahyu yang telah diterimanya, nabi selalu menggunakan bacaan yang sesuai dengan kemampuan para sahabat yang hadir pada saat itu. Sehingga kemampuan sahabat dalam membaca al-Qur’an juga bervariasi, tergantung berapa macam bacaan (qira’at) yang telah ia dapatkan dari Rasulullah. Akibatnya, ragam qira’at yang berkembang di setiap daerah mengalami perbedaan. Sesudah Rasulullah wafat, para sahabat semakin giat menyebarluaskan al-Qur’an dengan mendirikan madrasah-madrasah di sekitar tempat mereka bermukim. Sehingga, tidak mengherankan apabila setelah generasi sahabat, muncul para ahli qira’at di kalangan tabi’in. Variant reading of the Qur’an (qira’at) has existed since it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad in Mecca. But it’s began to be used when the prophet was live in Medina. When the Prophet Muhammad extend the revelation, he always use appropriate reading ability of the friends who were present at that time. So, they reading ability of Qur’an have also variation, depending on how wide reading (qira’at) which he had got from the prophet. As a consequence, the kinds of qira’at also different in each region. After the prophet died, the prophet followers more actively disseminate the Qur’an by establishing madrasah around where they live. Thus, it is not surprising that after generations of prophet followers, appear qira’ah expert in tabi’in group