Reddit reply in r/AcademicQuran: critical approach to the quranic mss and — May 26, 2024 | Ali Shukri Amin

It depends what you mean by a "critical understanding." There is no parallel textual criticism of the Qur’an in the same way that there is with the Bible. Both were and are seen by some as the inerrant word of God. The major difference is that the Bible's claims to authorship and historicity is much more in dispute than the Qur'an.

Most serious students of the Qur'an, inside academia or in the madrasah, agree that the vast majority of the Qur’an as we know it today originated with Muhammad. Furthermore, unlike early Christianity, there is a huge indigenous critical tradition within Islamic scholarship around the Qur'an.

While all the early Muslims agreed on the inerrant nature of the Quran and its origination with Muhammad, they vehemently disagreed on what the Quran is, what constitutes the Quran, and whether it originates solely from Allah in a miraculous fashion.

It's very difficult to claim that the Rasm (non-vowelized, non-dotted) source of the Quranic text did not originate with Muhammad. I don't know of any serious academic who has argued that. As a result, there's no need for textual criticism.

The best you can do in terms of critique would probably be in the recensions (Qira'at) and grammar (Nahw). In that regard, little has been written of value in the Western tradition.

Some early sources to look at:

I'rab al-Qur'an by al-Nah'has (grammatical analysis, comparison, and reading of a wide variety of very early scholarly disagreements)

Kitab al-Masahif by ibn Abi Dawud (narrations on little known variant readings of the Quran, including from the sahabah that were not codified in the Qira'at)

Zamakhshari's tafsir gives the Mu'tazili approach to Quranic declension/grammar

Tabari's tafsir has some very interesting commentary vis-a-vis grammstical choices and the Qira'at.

Of course Abu Bakr b. Mujahid's work essentially codified the seven Qira'at but it has a lot of academic value regarding the modality and logic behind the decisions.

It would also be worthwhile to do some manuscript study in the shaadh Qira'at that survive like Hassan al-Basri or al-Shafi'is.