One of the claims made by upholders of Hadith is how is one to determine the proper recitation of Sura 30 verse 2 without the use of Hadith. The argument states that if we don’t utilize Hadith, then we will not know if it is ghulibat / غُلبت, which would mean that the Romans were “defeated”, or if it is ghalabat / غَلبت which would mean that the Romans were the ones doing the defeating.
Recitations
The Hafs recitation has always been the most widely used recitation of the Quran, which is used in some 95% of the world. It is also the one that corresponds to the vast majority of Quranic manuscripts we have to date. After Hafs, there are the Warsh, Qaloon, and Duri recitations. While much of the differences in these recitations are with matters of dialect, there are some minor textual variations between the recitations, as well as differences in the verse numbers.
The Quran’s mathematical structure confirms that the Hafs recitation of the Quran is the correct recitation and the one that should be upheld. This would mean that the proper pronunciation would be ghulibat / غُلبت, which would mean that the Romans were “defeated”.
30:2 Certainly, the Romans will be defeated.
(٢) غُلِبَتِ الرُّومُ
Also, if we look at the other recitations of Warsh, Qaloon, and Douri, we see that these recitations do not deviate from this understanding.
This recitation is consistent across all the 28 varying recitations of the Quran. So, there was never a legitimate dispute regarding the recitation of this verse.