worldly reward after their death?

Question

i know Quran variations is something that anti-Muslims use against us and thank Allah(swt) they fail and get the opposite results and prove the Quran eloquence for example like the image below

and this can be explained that in both variants for the people who fought & died alongside the prophets Allah(swt) loved them.

but i have a problem understanding in verse 148 when Allah(swt) says

So Allah gave them the reward of this world and the good reward of the Hereafter. And Allah loves the doers of good.

now this can be explained in the Hafs variants as Allah(swt) gave them victory but how about the Qalon & Warsh how they got their worldly reward after they were killed?

Answer 1

Well in both cases people died, as the verse describes a battle. And the verb qatala قاتَل -qira'a/reading of the scholars of al-Kufa and imam ibn 'Amir and imam abuJa'afar according to al-Qurtobi- doesn't exclude that somebody would die as it is in the case of qutila قُتِل. In the case of the qira'a of imam Nafi' (and all other scholars) many of them died, while others remained alive. In both cases those who die will get a reward in the hereafter and those who remain alive will get a reward in this life and in the hereafter.

In summary all people involved in this battle will get two kinds of reward or at least one of both rewards. In this verse the "wa وَ" must rather be understood as an "or" than an "and"!

Off topic:
Note that the differences in the readings in the verse (3:146) reach more than 5 if we only take a look on how

كأين

was read imam al-Qurtobi quoted for this four plus an additional fifth linguistically "correct/conform" different Arabic readings:

• كَأْيِن (ibn Mohayssin ابن محيصن)

• كأيِّن (Majority) however in the recitation some of the scholars like ibn 'Amr and in a report al-Kissa'iy made a pause at كَأَيْ.

• كَائِن (ibn Kathir ابن كثير)

• كَئِن (ibn Mohayssin)

• كَيْئِنْ

this could easily reach 10 or more options.

Answer 2

Not all of the believers got killed. The verse is talking about the survivors, how they did not give up hope even after the martyrdom of their prophets and scholars, and they were eventually rewarded with victory .