As-salam Alaykum.
Bismillah.
Ahruf and
Qira'at are
not the same thing. Many people use these terms interchangeably, but this is not a correct understanding. As
Ustadh Ayman bin Khaled said:
"There are many people who mistakenly think that the meaning of Quran was revealed on seven (ahruf) refers to the seven recitations [Qira'at] we have today. This [is a] misconception."
From my understanding, the
Ahruf refer to variations in the wording itself. For example, "come here" can be said in different ways, such as "get over here". Or an elevator might be called a lift. In Arabic, for example, "come here" can be said in many different ways:
halumma, aqbil, and
ta'aal...all different ways of saying the same thing. The Quran was revealed in seven different
Ahruf in order to make it easier for the various tribes to understand the Quran in their own dialects. Ibn al-Jawzi said:
As for the reason why it was revealed in Seven Ahruf, this was for sake of easiness and facilitation to this Ummah in order to honour them and as a sort of mercy...The Arabs in whose language the Qur’an was revealed had different tongues and dialects and it was too difficult for each of them to shift from one dialect to another or one Harf to another. Moreover, some may be unable to do this even with learning and training especially old men and women and those who never read a book as he (peace be upon him) has referred. If they were assigned with shifting away from their familiar tongues and dialects, it would be an impossible assignment. (Al-Jazari, An-Nashr 1/22-23)
As for the seven
Ahruf, then they do not all exist today, at least not in the form of seven distinct readings, which was abolished by
Caliph Uthman bin Affan. (There is debate amongst scholars on this issue...)
Shaykh Yasir Qadhi wrote a good book on the subject:
The Ahruf of The Qur’aan
The Qira’aat of the Qur’an
Fi Aman Allah.
As for
Qira'at, this refers to the ways of pronunciation as we have in existence even today.