Abu Bakr Shu'ba transmitted the reading of Asim al-Kufi, one of the seven canonical readers, recorded here with Kufa as its reading centre, matching Asim's own. Shu'ba's transmission stands beside that of Hafs as the two riwayat carrying Asim's reading forward, the two chains descending from a single Kufan reader whose reading is otherwise most familiar today through Hafs's line, the transmission printed in the standard modern edition used across most of the Muslim world.
Shu'ba's transmission renders the hamza in full, does not apply the greater assimilation, and applies imala in only a small number of words, differing here from Hafs's line, which is recorded as applying imala in a single instance only. It lengthens both detached and connected vowel junctures to four or five counts, leaves the closing mim of plural pronouns silent, and observes no light pause, where Hafs's transmission observes one at four specific places, one of the clearer points on which the two riwayat of Asim's reading diverge. The basmala is recited between suras, the takbir plays no part, and verse numbering follows the Kufan count.
Shu'ba's reading carries the standing of the seven and remains actively taught and studied, even where Hafs's transmission of the same underlying reading has become by far the more widely printed and recited of the two.