Provisions on Riwāyah and Ṭarīq of the Qirāʾāt in National Quranic Competition Regulations: A Comparative Analysis between Malaysia and Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines how the space for qirāʾāt, the room afforded to the plurality of transmitted readings, is regulated in the national Quranic competition rules of Malaysia and Indonesia. Although both states have long invested in qirāʾāt education, the documents governing these competitions have not been analysed as objects of study. Using a directed approach to qualitative content analysis of regulatory documents, the study compares two editions of the Malaysian regulations (2016 and 2024) and three editions of the Indonesian guidelines (2020, 2023 and 2025) across three fields, namely riwāyah, ṭarīq and assessment items. Both regimes narrowed that space, but through different mechanisms and at different levels. Malaysia’s changes operated within a single riwāyah, restricting the modes of mad and permitting the alternative ṭarīq only as an exception that requires prior notification. Indonesia’s changes operated across riwāyāt. Its qirāʾāt branch kept the same structure, yet in 2025 the reference to the ten readers was removed, the dedicated item measuring the distinguishing features of each riwāyah was dissolved and only partly absorbed into general items, and maqraʾ numbering was made to follow the state standard muṣḥaf. Of six competing explanations, adjudicability, the tendency of scored competitions to retain criteria that can be judged uniformly, fits the evidence best. The study concludes that the space for qirāʾāt is shaped by three overlapping layers, namely structure, canonical reference and measurement.